Tried my hand at making ferric chloride tonight. Think it was kind of successful. 

Etched the blade a bit easier. After cleaning up and resanding. 

 

That is very cool, Das. Nicely done. 

Thanks John. The liquid isnt exciting but the etch is cool. Starts out about black and rough. Then scuff and sand to finish. 

A good looking pattern Das, I clicked on the picture and it shows up very nice.

On 1/10/2022 at 1:37 PM, George N. M. said:

D, is the nose a brass rivet

Copper ground wire, so essentially a rivet. Didn’t know that about Sweden. These are simple to make, although any others I do will be just normal mild steel from the scrap pile and not WI. 

Edited January 12, 20224 yr by Mod30
Remove excessive quotes.

Thanks John. The liquid isnt exciting but the etch is cool. Starts out about black and rough. Then scuff and sand to finish. 

Thanks IronDragon. It is al in the cable.

On 1/10/2022 at 1:34 AM, George N. M. said:

What is the sphere?

It was a yard sale find I think it's Marble

Nice looking blade Das.  I like the darkened handle look with that cable.  It looks like the wood grain pattern complements the cable pattern very nicely.  I have some old 1-1/2" cable from a drilling rig that I will have worked with in the past, but I'm definitely going to copy your style at some point.

Thanks Ben. 

Sounds like good sized cable to use. Just keep it tight and fluxed. You know it is getting good when it starts tinging under the hammer rather than a dull thud.  

George, I ain’t gonna lie, I’d really like to move someplace a bit milder. I’m not sure where though. I’ve lived in mountains (Appalachia), swamps, desert, coastal… I’m even willing to deal with a colder winter so long as it’s a drier winter than we experience down here. I’ve done summers and winters in West Virginia, loved it. It’s funny when it’s 80 degrees out and the locals say “it’s a shame you’re visiting during a heat wave!” I just laugh, 80 degrees doesn’t even make me break a sweat. 

On 1/10/2022 at 1:57 PM, ThomasPowers said:

D Harris; ever  know of a bull rider named Mark Larue from Cedarville AR?   Kinfolk of mine but he may be from a different era.

I was never a pro, so I knew no one outside the small group I catted around with in high school before I went in the Army. This was in the Donnie Gay era. There was a place in Sterling, Oklahoma that had a buck-out once a week. That is were we did most of our riding. Give the guy 10 bucks or so and he would put you on a bull. I rode in a few open events, but never covered any of the bulls I drew. The closest I ever got was in Cache, Oklahoma. 
 

One of my nephews though is a pro. He does bareback and saddle bronc.  He was raised in Hobbs and went to school on a rodeo scholarship in Wyoming.  I didn’t even know there was such.  He lives in Wyoming still with his wife.  This is him.

https://www.prorodeo.com/bio/contestant/zachariah-phillips/60149

 

 

Mark was once showing off a tack room full of saddles at his place to a visitor and casually mentioned that he hadn't bought any of them...

They have a place near my 13 acres of family land in AR.   I always figured I could damage myself enough smithing and not needing four legged help any....

When i was stationed in Texas my gunner was from Oklahoma. He talked me into coming with him to the family ranch to ride a bull. It is provably lucky for me that my pass was denied and i did not get to do it. 

Can't they court marshal you if you hurt yourself doing something stupid?   I personally think that bull riding is a sort of "chlorinating the gene pool" activity...I guess I shouldn't talk I once went trail riding on an old rodeo horse while wearing a chainmail shirt,  it didn't like the "jingling noise"; reminded it of too many  interaction with spurs with jingle bobs on them.  Luckily it was an OLD horse and the mail shirt actually helps keep you pressed down in your saddle.

 about as close to a forge as I have gotten to in month and a half. work very understaffed days off to tired or mother nature didn't allow. but excellent work everyone keep up my motivation.

New works.  Bedroom furniture and another chandelier.  I'll ship to Spokane.

think that's a first for me chandelier on an engine lif.

Thomas, when I was in it didn’t go to full court martial if you got hurt doing something stupid. You could still lose rank and pay, but if it didn’t cause you to miss a “movement” (like a training deployment or overseas deployment) you were more likely to just be put on restriction. 
 

I have to ask, why in the world were you trail riding in a chain mail shirt?

Best way to get used to wearing Mail is to wear Mail!   Horseback is a lot easier than hiking cross country in it, (not to mention getting caught in an electrified barbwire fence wearing it one time...)

It doesn't fit me any more; perhaps I should take some bolt cutters to it and retailor it to suit my "mature gravitas"---or just give it to the grandkids.

23 minutes ago, SHC said:

restriction. 

45 days restriction, 45 days extra duty, reduction in rank and half months pay x2… 

i mighta been there once or twice

On 1/11/2022 at 7:17 PM, JHCC said:

Do you have a picture of the drift? 

here sorry it took so long 

On 1/11/2022 at 7:48 PM, Daswulf said:

Off center punch? Not keeping the piece hot enough while working it? Not rotating it while tapering the round?

I know it was off centered just wanted to try it while the forge was running

 

Alexandre as usual excellent work

my father in his younger years was did a good amount of saddle bronc

M.J.Lampert

SHC & TW: Hmm, more than what an Article 15 can impose.  Sounds like Summary Court Martial stuff.  Someone made some poor choices.  At least not poor enough to affect discharge status or VA benefits.

BTW, if anyone needs some help in navigating the VA system PM me.  I have some expertise there.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

When I was in the Corps, I had Art. 15 (NJP) charges for "not making my bed in a military manner" no joke actual charge!

I think they expected me to roll over but I went and saw a JAG who told me it was my right to refuse NJP and demand a court martial.

I did and my Colonel ranted and raged and jumped up and down and called me a short haired hippy and then dismissed the charges.

I had a bad run for a year and my superiors tried to make me quit after I got caught smoking a doobie.  (it was Oahu in 1983 what can I say)

I stuck it out, kept my nose clean and was honorably discharged in '85 an E4. 

Fun stuff testing out the new shop. Did some forge welding practice, messed it up a bit, but it was good practice. I'm practicing forge welding edge steel for a wood chisel.

I also did heavy modification to my forge and replaced a 10cm tube by a 7.5cm pipe which is the exact same diameter as my forge blower outlet. I also made and installed a new air gate. All in al the performance is way better now.

I also finished up my first hammer! A straight peen of about 1 kg. It works well, but it lacks the punch of my main hammer which is 1.25 kg. But it is nice to finally have a straight peen for certain applications.

~Jobtiel

George, I pushed the limit, hard. Three NJPs, one for unauthorized absence (there was a girl involved, naturally). Got the 45/45/2, would have lost rank but had none to lose. 
Then I was mostly kept in theater except for a quick sojourn back to the states. I’d had a couple dust ups in Ireland, Spain and Croatia. They didn’t let me roam in Germany though. Those incidences were just kind of swept under the rug, got lectured and unofficial restriction. They kept me so busy in the states that I couldn’t get in trouble. Then back to the sandbox and an extension. Made E5. Then back to the states. Drinking and fighting. Made E3 again. Captain told me while he was breaking the chevrons off my insignia, “There’s garrison Marines, and there’s combat Marines. Most do both jobs well enough. At the end of the day, garrison Marines are all spit shine and creases, fresh shave twice a day, quote regulations by heart and look darn good on the parade deck and panic when they’re shot at. Combat Marines get promoted four times in theater and cause nothing but trouble for the garrison Marines”

I was demoted from sergeant to corporal and awarded three campaign medals on the same day. Go figure.