What did you do in the shop today?

[Kexel Werkstatt]

Finished the "Pay it forward" and sell for cheap pile, while organizing the "never gonna get rid of it" section and christened the new Chili forge. 

[lary]

Scrolling down. looking at the pictures before the name and imedietly know its alexandr. Very distinguished style.

[Daswulf]

Got my welding wire in and made a few more gator teeth and got them tacked in. Man, these things got a lot of teeth. Never saw one in person thankfully. Guessing about 17 more teeth or so then I'll see about really welding them in.

Lol, speaking of clocks, Alexandr is on it. 

Not sure I'll get into a tick tock clock for this guy due to effort vs. Price but the pegleg tool holder might be in the budget. 

[BillyBones]

Do the eye holes go all the way through? I was thinking it would be cool if they do and if the fire kind of flares up in the back or something you would see kind of a flickering through the eyes. 

[Daswulf]

They don't but that would be really cool. 

[HondoWalker]

I got to hit the forge Monday. Beat out two knives. One was part of a commercial can opener handle. The other was some random steel piece. Looked like it may have been a hinge. They both seemed to harden. Got to use my new 2x72 belt grinder and saved myself a few hours on the old 4x32 sander. Having two horsepower makes a huge difference. I can just about stop my Harbor Freight sander motor with one hand. I can't stop my 72 inch. It'll break a hand first. 

Edited May 13, 2021 by HondoWalker

[Frosty]

Pictures Jono, if we don't see pictures it didn't happen!

How did your JABOD work for you, better, worse, about the same? Hmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Daswulf; now you have proven in the concept it's time to go for a Tyrannosaurus Rex with *big* teeth!

[Daswulf]

Just the huge skull would make for a very mean looking fire pit. 

I've wanted to do a dragon as either a mailbox (with the head and mouth being the mailbox) or atleast a mailbox holder (if USPS wouldn't allow a dragon head as a mailbox. 

[Paul TIKI]

got a couple of hours at the forge yesterday.  The ugly tongs now match and have holes in the bosses.  I don't have a punch large enough for the bolt I'm going to use but I guess I could just drill them out if need be.  Next time I'll be trying to draw out the reins, or at least shape them into something comfy.

[Chad J.]

Took the little tiny circuit breaker box out and put plugs on the wires going to the lights and one outlet box.   I'm going to install the 100 Amp box and hire sometime to make sure it's set up right so I can get service in the shop,  but in the mean time I have lights.

[alexandr]

19 hours ago, Bantou said:

how did you achieve such a perfect pyramid shape on the head?

I buy these rivets.  

Finally I finished the "legs" on the bar stools.  Hard work.

And start to make a table. The customer really liked it.

[Hefty]

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

Pictures Jono, if we don't see pictures it didn't happen!

Here's one of the re-shaped fire bowl from before I fired it up. I'll try to remember to get a pic of the split bar. It was literally a half hour session just to forge again!

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

How did your JABOD work for you, better, worse, about the same? Hmmm?

Much better! a more defined "one-brick-size" shape to the fire bowl, a slight downward angle to the tuyere and a had a little bit of a sparkler much faster than expected on my second heat. You can just see the tuyere...right at the bottom of the big crack... The bricks are partly to bank charcoal against and partly to stop the tuyere from breaking all the way out!

[Frosty]

Looks pretty believable JABOD you have there Jono.

If / when you rebuild it again I'd suggest moving the fire back a little farther from the edge. This will put more insulation between fire and wood box and lessen the leverage the tuyere pipe has on it so you won't need the brick to hold it down.

Next pic should have fire and steel making out in it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Chad J.]

I started this the other day and this is actually my second attempt at this design as the first tore at the handle and is now going to be 2 smaller knives and a razor.  This design has really challenged me and made me think about how v to get the metal to move to where I wanted.   I still cut the blank too big, gonna be some serious grinding later to keep my shape.  I was going for post-apocalyptic shape.  Right now it's about 26 inches long and I have work to do on the lower part of the blade and the tang.  I'm happy with how it's forced me to think about what I'm doing. 

 

[HojPoj]

Finally finished dish towel holder for my mother.  My parents recently moved away and accidentally left behind the wooden one I'd made for Mother's Day when I was ~10 (I'm 38 now).  This'll be mounted on the inside of the cabinet door beneath the kitchen sink like its predecessor was (which is why it's upside-down from the orientation one would expect).  The rod has to be as high as possible for convenience's sake.

[ThomasPowers]

It's a Friday so:   "Post Apocalypse"  you know I once had a conversation with S.M. Stirling about post apocalypse blacksmithing; pointing out that all the scenarios seemed based on a approximately 90% die off of the population and so people would be much more likely to scrounge items left behind than spend the time and effort making new ones by people not trained to work the HC alloys.  I'd rather spend my time working on food than replacing the wrist breaker I found on the wall of my next door neighbor's den.  Where the blacksmith would be needed is repair and duplication of old agricultural equipment, especially horse drawn stuff!

We had a younger friend (college age), who told us that in case of an apocalypse she would kidnap my wife and I and head for the mountains with our blacksmith and spinning supplies.  She even learned how to extract insulin from animals to keep me alive.  I didn't have the heart to tell ere that in a survival situation it was too much effort to keep me in insulin.  Like in "Lucifer's Hammer" I would "diminish and go into the west...."

[Chad J.]

Valid point on the die off and the need for farm tools.  I've probably read too many books or played too many games where weapons were needed.  Farming tools would be interesting to make, however I don't have the space to stack up plows and discs and I'd be hard pressed to find a buyer for scythes right now, though I am near some Amish communities. 

As far as post-apocalyptic times go,  I'm fairly well set up for skills learning the smithing,  but also carpentry,  brewing, distilling, welding, and basic mechanics.  I'd like to think I'd last a while.

[ThomasPowers]

My point is that weapons are more abundant to be found than "traditional farm implements"  I know folks locally that could equip a company!  Shoot I have 3 guidons in my den myself---Solingen, 1890's for the Argentina Army. Much better than anything I could make in a reasonable amount of time and I have a background in bladesmithing.

To get working farm implements is MUCH harder and to get trained horses, mules or oxen is harder still! (Not to mention people trained to work them!)

So look in the local pawn shops or little museums for edged weapons and spend your productive time working in your garden!

[BillyBones]

What i never really understood about "post apocalypses" was people thinking we will revert back to using spears and swords. Gunpowder is not hard to make, lead is easily cast, and any competent machinist can reverse engineer a gun. Of course at first there will not be the AR-15, most likely some sort of flint lock, but people are smart critters and it wont take long before we are back to some sort of resemblance to modern firearms. And about those machines to make the parts, they do not need electricity, machinery was used for years before electricity. I also do not believe that we will be that long without electricity. No it may not be the modern power grid but it will not be long before someone attaches a water wheel to a generator and voila electricity. Or maybe a couple zombies on a hamster wheel. 

Regardless i cant wait for the day i get to see the zombie ball roll down my street. (i hope some of yall watched "Z Nation" and got that)

[Chad J.]

Billy,  I was trying to figure out if I could use an alternator and a water wheel or windmill and get decent power.  I'm not an electrician, let alone an electrical engineer. 

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

Like in "Lucifer's Hammer" I would "diminish and go into the west...."

Isn't that Galadriel in "The Fellowship of the Ring"?

[ThomasPowers]

John; the Diabetic in LH makes the decision to die rather than divert the resources to keeping himself alive; so being Friday I mixed the two...

Black powder is easy until you run out of sulfur;  I have medieval descriptions of refining the potassium nitrate for local materials, but sulfur is a problem!  Also all the time spent making powder and guns is time not spent getting food.  I'd hope folks would get that figured out before the canned goods run out!

Actually I know few post apocalypse stores that go directly to blades, "Dies the Fire" is one; but that includes a mcguffin to make electricity and even hydraulic and pneumatic power to not work.

I live in a rural area heavily farmed; but a diet composed of 90% green chile  is bound to have other issues.  Back in Model T days you could run one on well head gas from certain oil wells.  Modern cars nope.

So lets say that Neo-Smallpox evolves and kills off 90% of the population; is there enough people left to do all the tasks necessary to even keep our current culture alive?

[Frosty]

Billy: Do you have a source of sulfur to make black powder? Charcoal and potassium nitrate are easily made but sulfur has to be mined. 

Have you read S. M. Stirling's, "Emberverse" Change times I think, series? The basic premise is a change in the natural laws and high energy density physics stops working. Gun powder is a slow fizz low density smoke maker. Matches are about tops of high energy chemistry and if you stuff a bunch in an old CO2 capsule to make a rocket it just makes a weak jet of smoke. A CO2 capsule will no longer shoot a BB. 

Hydraulics work in "Dies the Fire" / Emberverse.

Food, water and shelter, would be #1 priorities. Preventing them from being taken away from you would be right up there. Your weaponry, whatever it is needs to be protected too. Without a central authority and law enforcement you can trust, killing the people you raid is much easier than subduing them. 

Here's a simple problem, assuming raiders. How do you cook or keep yourself warm without broadcasting your presence and location?

I've been reading post apocalypse since I learned to read and I attribute that penchant for my desire to be able to do for myself in whatever situation I find myself. I was a field guy, often in bush Alaskan for 20 years. Losing an engine or similar is always an option. You're not likely to be stranded more than a few days, we take rescue VERY seriously and are as good as it gets about it. However every few years something causes a long term survival situation.

The most recent IIRC was about 10 months of heavy weather and snow at pretty high elevation. The weather kept helicopters out of the area and without being able to fly low and slow the fixed wing aircraft missed the wreckage in the snow. When the survivors were located they'd literally built a cabin and were nursing the injured survivor(s), they didn't have to eat the fatalities either. 

If you want a good historic example of superior survival read about Shackleton and "Endurance."

Anyway, I've always wanted to be one of those guys doing okay if not well, when rescuers found me. Knowledge and experience in blacksmithing would be handy but not as crucial as one might think. Knapping stone tools is an improvement on fire hardened and sharpened wooden points and blades. Am I going to forge the tools to remove leaf springs from a vehicle to forge a boar spear so I can hunt big game? Not when I can make a perfectly serviceable one from a knapped blade and lashing a cross bar in a branch shaft intersection. Heck, I'd make an atlatl and start with hardened, sharpened darts and leaves or grass for fletching. I could arm myself significantly in minutes with what I have in my pocket and fire harden the darts when I've made shelter for the night. 

Setting up a smithing kit after hunting and finding suitable field expedients is something for after you've secured your basic needs. Probably before your garden but it depends on the season society left your person.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

HojPoj, are you sure it was left by accident? 

 

As to the postapoc discussion. I always found it amusing they use gasoline powered cars instead of diesel. Diesel will last while gasoline goes stale, better fuel economy, and longer lasting engines. Plus you can run veggie oils or a blend of the two.  As to weapons....there are 300+ million firearms in the USA, not counting what the military has, and plenty of ammo to feed them.  Need electricity? Plenty of towable gen sets in rental yards. 

Sulphur is a byproduct of the refining industry as well. Farmers back home bought it by the tons for dusting the crops to kill mold.