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What did you do in the shop today?


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Frosty, that sounds yummy. Need to post the recipe over at the Vulcan grill.

We always just lopped the head and tail off, gutted them and fried them skin on. I hated fish as a kid becuase you had to pick out the bones and if you missed one it would poke the back of your throat. 

I used to keep fish tanks. I had a really nice reef tank and a nice fresh water. I lost the salt tank when we moved but my fresh water tank i kept going. When i first got it i put this little Plecostomus, sucker fish, in it. About 6 years later i got divorced and had no where to put the tank so the x kept it. Well the fish kept growing and growing. After a couple years of her having the tank the fish finally went belly up. He had grown as big as he could in the tank. At least 12" long and provably weighed 3#. The x having only ever had goldfish, flushed him down the toilet. Needless to say that did not work out well. 

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My step dad had special wide jaw pliers for peeling the skin off of catfish. He'd nail them to a board or tree and peel em clean then get rid of the organs etc. I've never been a fan of the texture of catfish. Too smooth. I like flaky fish but I've eaten probably more than my fair share of catfish when I was growing up. 

Pnut

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Someone from New York where you have to check to see if an alligator is climbing up out of the toilet before sitting down? Or maybe Florida where you never know when a Python will want to check out your keister. 

I'll try to remember to write up how I bread things for Vucan's Grill. It's more of a technique than a recipe, sort of like stew or risotto. I basically dry rub or marinate what I'm breading and leave it be for an indeterminate length of time. Breading is potato chips though corn chips work too though I prefer plain potato chips. I stuff a couple large handfuls of chips in the food processor with a couple tbsp. of flour. This is the basic breading and contains a decent amount of salt so be careful it's easy to over salt with the dry rub or marinate. It's a good place to add your chosen seasoning too for another layer of flavor. 

For spice blends I go the easy route with Tone's or McCormic's usually, I experiment with others. Anyway, depending on how much of a spice load you like Deb and I like a rounded tbsp and a bit of McCormmic's Cajun or a scant to level tbsp. of Tone's. A taco seasoning spice blend is good eating on breaded fillets, I jazz it up with extra cumin, Deb and I like cumin and you can overdo it. If you like heat ground habanero or whatever will bring heat the game nicely. 

Anyway, I run the food processor till the chips are crumbs, the flour and spices will be evenly distributed. The flour allows you to bread the fillet without the: flour, egg wash, flour method, you can take it straight to the chip breading, the flour will make it stick. "dry" breading it like this works better for baking or broiling than it does frying.

Flour, egg wash, chip bread hangs on better when fried. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Haven't been at the forge for a while. but today I decided to start on the gate latch to go with the hinges I made.

Got the handle and thumb part made, then called it a day.  Still have to poke holes, and attach the "thumber", and then a little wire brushing, and mabe some tweaks here and there, then a nice finish.  Then on to the latch mechanism.

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Made some components for a welding cart:

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And some replacements for the missing knobs for the cover on my vertical bandsaw:

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And forged some steel knitting bowls that are currently sitting in a vinegar bath and are therefore not ready for their closeup. 

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You're too behind the times for me M.J. when I want to talk to fish I catch them on the net.

Alexandre: I love the screens and fire tools and the installations. Beautiful as I've grown to expect.

Is tile work as elaborate as the blue and white fireplace surround very common in Russia? I don't get around to stylish homes but I've never seen something like that. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Haven't seen a fireplace like that yet in the Netherlands, the style of the tiles is very Dutch indeed. "Delfts Blauw" it's called.

JHCC, What do you need the circles for on a welding cart? to hold gas bottles?

Bluerooster, how do you plan to attach the "thumber" to the front latch, have you left a thicker piece behind the finial, or do you attach it in some other way?

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Yes, the larger one on the left is the base for the propane tank, and the four smaller ones will hold the oxygen bottle(s). I’ve decided to start with a single bottle and add another later if just one is insufficient for my needs; I really don’t have the room for big bulk cylinders nor the means to transport them safely.

Jobtiel1, I gather that tiled stoves are not uncommon in central and eastern Europe, often covering rather elaborate flue configurations designed to capture and slowly release all the heat of combustion that would otherwise go up the chimney. 

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Now I'm paying better attention it's pretty obviously a stove. It sure makes our cast iron Jotul look dowdy. I use an oscillating fan to circulate warm air if the one powered by heat sitting on the stove doesn't do it. 

Chimaera: You're getting pretty good at mokume gane. Bringing out the pattern is a real trick. well done.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Nothing finished yet, but here is why we dress our struck tools. The piece missed me but i have had to dig a piece out of my flesh before. Notice it aint even mushroomed over very bad at all either. Even a little can chip off. So i spent a good bit yesterday dressing tools. Sorry the pic is a little blurry, phone kept wanting to focus on everything but the punch, but you can still see the chip out the side of it.

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14 hours ago, Frosty said:

You're too behind the times for me M.J. when I want to talk to fish I catch them on the net.

Frosty The Lucky.

frosty,

in Canada only the first nations can net fish and only in their tribal areas so no I'm not behind the time I'm on the right side of the law

12 hours ago, Chimaera said:

Both billets are 6 half dollars.

can one do it with quarters, also doesn't that count as destruction of legal tender?

M.J.Lampert

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I don't know what the law is in Canada, but the relevant United States federal law is 18 USC 331:

Quote

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or

Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 700; July 16, 1951, ch. 226, § 1, 65 Stat. 121; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

The key word here is fraudulently -- that is, with the intent to deceive for criminal purposes. In other words, it's perfectly legitimate to destroy or deface currency so long as you're not doing that with criminal intent. For example, if you add a mint mark to a coin to make it appear more rare and therefore more valuable to a collector, that could be a violation of this law. Using coins as raw material for something else that you are not then claiming to be legal tender is just fine.  

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Alexandr’s work blows me away every time. Incredible. 
 

This weekend I forged the hanger for the last dinner triangle I made. Haven’t blackened or put a finish on it yet. I tried to make a wood grain finish but I don’t think I have the right type of pein for what I wanted. I still like the look of it but boy does my scrolling technique need work haha. I didn’t expect the stock to bend under its own weight when hot so easily. Makes perfect sense with something long and thin like this but it caught me off guard the first couple times going from the forge to the anvil lol. And my self made touch mark is getting a little bitter. 
Also started this flower. Don’t know what kind of flower it is and not sure if I have the skills to turn it into anything yet but we’ll see. 
 

 

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25 minutes ago, M.J.Lampert said:

doesn't that count as destruction of legal tender?

8 minutes ago, JHCC said:

I don't know what the law is in Canada

Okay, did a little quick research, and it seems that the relevant law is the Currency Act, which states in part:

Quote

No person shall, except in accordance with a licence granted by the Minister, melt down, break up or use otherwise than as currency any coin that is current and legal tender in Canada.

However, US coins are NOT legal tender in Canada (officially, although US and Canadian coins are both in common use on the other side of the border from their respective intended zones of use), so Canadian mokume gane makers can presumably use US quarters with impunity.

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Went to the scrapyard; they closed early, I only got 29 pounds out; some strapping of a convenient size, a garden rake head, a very rusted file (fire?),  set of Sheffield England needle nose pliers and a left handed thread thimble skein in excellent shape---at least that's what the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalog calls it--a metal cover for the end of a wooden axle that a wooden wagon wheel would fit on.   The left handed nut came off with no penetrating oil needed.  Once started I unscrewed it by hand!  A bit more metal I thought I could use to round it out.

I passed two pickups full of scrap heading for the scrapyard on the way home.  It will be a week before I can check out what they dropped off!

At home I wire brushed the last two coat hooks after their vinegar soak, stamped my initials,  drilled the mounting holes and power wire brushed the flash rust off and applied BLO---weather cool and damp so they will cure slowly.  Looks like I'm ready for the final assembly as soon as they are ready.

Pat; most of the folks I know that want a bark texture use a cheap hammer with weld beads run across the face for "texture".  (Note preheat before welding!)

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18 hours ago, Frosty said:

Is tile work as elaborate as the blue and white fireplace surround very common in Russia?

There are very few such objects. This is an exception.

There are 4 houses on this homestead, and each of them has 4-5 fireplaces and stoves in this style. The customer loves manual work. I'll be there and take a photo.

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4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Pat; most of the folks I know that want a bark texture use a cheap hammer with weld beads run across the face for "texture". 

I have an old ball peen with grooves cut in the face with a thin abrasive cutoff disc. Works great. 

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Finished up four knitting bowls for a customer. Took a minute to modify a pair of (broken) needle-nose pliers into a pigtail twister. 

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