What do you work on when you can not forge?

[Glenn]

When there are fire bans, it is just too hot, or other reasons you can not build a fire and forge, what do you do instead to stay sane?

The temperature has gone above my threshold, so I work early of the mornings, or late afternoons to avoid the heat of the day.  The AC in the house and modeling clay has added several pages to the note book of ideas.  Searching and researching the site has helped but we need more ideas.

What do you do to stay busy when you can not work at the forge?

[Jobtiel1]

I've only been forging for about a year, so whenever it is too hot out, I look at tutorials on the next things I want to make. I also research where I can get steel for reasonable prices, and what the different European annotations mean for the steel grade. I also have books from the library on the way that I plan to research for some inspiration. All on historical iron art and items.

I also do some woodworking sometimes. For example I leave wood chisel and axe handles to work on on days I can't forge. Or I do some leather working, just other crafts that don't involve forging. Even though I do need forged items to complete the projects.

If I don't feel like any of that I just play some videogames or read a book .

~Jobtiel

[pnut]

That's when I break out the hand files and do all the tedious filing I've been ignoring for ages. I'm all caught up now. 

Pnut

[Rojo Pedro]

Copper.

Chasing, repousse and braided wire bracelets.  That sort of thing. I still use my plumbers torch to anneal however. There can be a lot of hammer work. Next best thing to forging. 

[BsnNFrnt]

Product testing. One the axes is an old store bought the rest are not. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I work in the heat every day anyways but when don’t feel like forging then mostly researching, or designing my next project, or hunting for more tools and materials 

[Purple Bullet]

Yeah, it's been hot. I thought that getting a induction forge would help. It does, greatly, but when your cooling water starts at over 80 deg F, you hit limits pretty quick. I may be back to using coal real soon though. Hurricane Ida's NW quadrant is due to hit here in a few hours. I might be without electricity for a few weeks. I have a whole house generator, and a generator that could run my small welders and angle grinders, but nothing that would run my belt grinder, LG 50#, or induction forge.  Not that I'm likely to have time for anything but clean up and repairs for a while, that is if I haven't joined the ultimate praise and worship team . In any case, I might be offline for while.

[BillyBones]

Take care Purple, i saw LaPlace was under water just a bit ago on the news. Hope you and yours pull through. 

Does sit in the shade and drink beer count? No, seriously i do the same as P-nut. Break out the files or work on grinding, drill needed holes, etc. Either that or do shop repairs, put tools away i have neglected, that sort of stuff. I am not one for sitting inside for very long. And there is always something to do in a shop even if it just cleaning and taking out trash. 

 

[pnut]

The dog days are also a good time to re coat anything that needs it in BLO so it can bake in the sun. 

I'm keeping my eye out for some copper to give chasing, raising, and repousse a go. 

Pnut

[Ted Ewert]

I used to play golf, but it was too easy and cheap compared to blacksmithing. 

Owning a house pretty much eats up the rest of my spare time besides work. There's also my son's house, the mother-in-law's house, all the cars...

If you're handy, friends and family will always have work lined up for you. 

[Frosty]

When it's unbearably hot around here, say 70 or . . . ABOVE! I find frequent naps are a good way to break up the down time.

Otherwise I just do stuff around the house or yard, walk dogs, empty litter boxes, feed the beasts, cook, clean, etc. Call someone to repair the last thing I fixed. You know the usual.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Pretty much anything that doesn't call for firing up the forge. Work on machinery (I really do need to figure out what's wrong with the gear reducer on the bandsaw), put away all the tools that inexplicably leaped from their storage racks, organize the nuts and bolts, or (as today) do some cold-work.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

What ever my wife tells me to do, I'm not a very good self starter.

[ThomasPowers]

If it's too hot to forge; it's too hot to be in the shop!   

So there's reading:  "The Knight and the Blast Furnace"  900+ pages on the metallurgy of European armour can eat up an hour or two; or there is always IFI...

Working on indoor projects, (like mounting the oak board for the coathooks you forged).

Planning on what you will be bringing to the next demo. *Saturday* and higher in the mountains so COOLER!

Taking a sickle  to the weeds on the driveway to the shop---in the early morning the neighbor's trees shade them!

And when all else fails---firing up the 1 soft firebrick forge and FORGING!

[Purple Bullet]

Ida was as bad a hurricane as I've ever been in, and I've been through some doozies. (Remind me to tell you about riding out a hurricane offshore on a pipe spool barge.) The house is ok, only losing some gutters and a couple of trees, and the only damage to the shop was to the Lexan panels on the top floor and the bar catch of my double doors. I use a 2X4 to bar the doors closed and used 2X4s for the catch on the inside. Before the edge of the eye wall hit I noticed the doors were open. Between bands I ran out and tried to close them and block them closed, but when I closed them and put my shoulder to them while trying to brace them, a gust hit with enough force to open the doors and throw my 215 pounds back about three feet. I decided at that point to call it a night.

A lot of stuff got wet, including my new Hobart Air Force plasma cutter. I think the lathe, and induction forge will be ok and I think the welding machines escaped, but my man cave with the leather recliner, TV and computer and reloading gear all got soaked. I know I should have spent the day drying and checking out stuff, but instead I spent it connected to a chain saw and nursing neighbors' generators back to life. 

Odd thing that we still don't have reliable cell service, but my AT&T fiber optic came back earlier today. Internet used to be the last thing restored. Entergy says it could be several weeks to get power. Hope it is sooner as I really want to make my first trip to Quad State. I've got Billy's boudin in the freezer.

[Goods]

Very glad to hear you are well! My wife is from Morgan City and has yet to hear from all of her old friends down there. Equipment can be replaced and helping others comes first…

David

[ThomasPowers]

Might ask some of the companies that made the soaked tools what they would advise on drying them out.

[BillyBones]

.

Glad ya rode that out fairly unscathed. I have a friend in Hammond i have not heard from yet. 

[Frosty]

I've been keeping watch and am very glad to hear there's so little loss of life. I'm sure the count will rise but not too far. Destroyed property is sad but it's just stuff, it's people and to a lesser degree kept animals that count. 

All my friends in harms way this time are folks I know on the internet, most right here. 

Be careful, be safe, do good.

 Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Lots of charcoal fixin's once it dries out.

[Purple Bullet]

Appreciate the thoughts and well-wishes. Not sure what you mean by  "charcoal fixins". I cook iron with coal and electricity. No one trusts me with steak. Besides, our nat. gas generator is keeping everything well friz. It even runs the central air, but we keep it up around 78 deg F. My 94 year old mother in law likes that just fine.

Just dropped off my "shop generator" and a full 10 gallon bottle of propane to run it to my neighbor. His brand new natural gas generator seized up after only running 12 hours. Gasoline lines at the few open filling stations are up to a mile long and there is a $20 per car limit - cash only.

Did a pet rescue for another neighbor who bugged out and left her dog in the house. I'm a terrible burglar, but after removing the frame of the weather door, the molding on the door frame I used my sawsall to go through the deadbolt ( I had a good blade - emphasis on "had"), The dog didn't appreciate it. He didn't even want to come out. He still had food. Made sure he had water and left that little ingrate where he was. 

[LeeJustice]

Well Fido can leave her some reminders as to why you don't leave your dog locked inside for long times.

[ThomasPowers]

Folks make their own smithing charcoal from scrap wood; both "on the tree" and as used lumber.  Both sorts should be fairly common down there for a while.

Can you add in a few more strays so their dog won't be lonesome?

[Purple Bullet]

Aaaah! The light dawns. There is surely enough raw material. Just one oak that toppled down the street would make all the charcoal I could use. The root ball comes up to the second story of the house. We lost a lot of magnificent old live oaks. Those things are a bear to split, though. I'm kinda glad I never turned my woodsplitter into a press.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I always wondered why a crane is not used to upright some of the big trees that simply tip over when the ground is soaked. I realize they are heavy, but there are big cranes too.

Glad to hear you came through it OK.  WD-40 is your friend right now. This is exactly why Water Displacement Formula #40 was invented.  Hose down the electronics and any other items to keep corrosion and rust at bay.