I was burnt by scale, have you ever been

[hibjib10987]

Has any one else ever been burned by flying scale. Today I was doing a hot cut with a hot cut hammer and and my anvil is on the ground so i had to stand over it and a peiece of scale fly up and hit bellow my lip and burned the xxxx out of me second degree burns. I always wear my safty glass but i was wondering if any one else has been burned by scale.

[John Martin]

Oh yeah, I have three scars from it on my tong hand. One is like a pit in my hand. Oh well, I'm used to it. :)

[Houaha]

what is a scale? is it like the sparks when u hit the metal? or is it a small chunk of the hot metal?

[keykeeper]

Burned? From Scale? While Forging? Never.

Wait until you get a nice piece down into your shoe, while not wearing socks. I'm not a dancer, but was that time!:D

[Dutchmancreek]

I was just going to be at the forge for a minute so I was wearing a pair of topsiders with no socks. I still have a scar on the top of my foot. I nearly broke my leg getting my foot in the slack tub.

Steve

[John Martin]

Dancing can be quite entertaining at your expense. Scale is the little pieces of metal that flake off while forging. Oh up your t-shirt into your arm-pit, that one hurt a lot and was quite the dance... if that's what you wanna call it. WEAR GLASSES.

[Finnr]

Always tighten your belt while forging too. Don't ask how I know!
Finnr

[Donnie]

Burns?.....In some of the most private of places. :)

[Bentiron1946]

When I first started doing this unique thing with hot metal I would on occasion leave it a bit to long in the fire. Well one night I was a little PO'ed for having pulled out a sparkler if you know what I mean. There were four of us standing around the anvil when I hit it a good hard blow. We all had burned holes in our jeans,shirt tails, shorts and hide. Last time I did that!:D

[Dave Hammer]

Is this your first week forging?

[Johnnie C.]

Get use to it. Your pounding on red hot metal. I have scars on my feet (wear slip on boot they are easy to kick off), stomac, arms, and below the belt. I always thougt that was part of blacksmithing. Just consider them as battle scars.

[highlander]

i wear a welding glove on my left hand(tong hand) because i prefer to work with short tongs and they tend to heat up faster than the longer ones. ive had large pieces of scale go in the top of the glove many many many times. just ask moya034... he can hear me holler from across the yard every time.

after forging, i usually spend 5 minutes or so picking out the scale that has burned into the skin on my hands and forearms

Edited August 29, 2008 by highlander
additional thoughts

[Rob Browne]

Probably every time you fire up you will have a scale burn of one type or another. Part of the game, just suit up for it but your hands really cop it.

[ironrosefarms]

Scale is like your boss at work... it will burn you under the collar and leave a mess where you are trying to work.

James

[philip in china]

I think we all get toughened to heat and burns so after a while we don't notice them. Chefs are similar.

[Dan W]

Have scars on my stomach. I think scale burns are a fact of life for blacksmiths.

[ThomasPowers]

Scale is NOT METAL! Scale is iron oxide and forms when hot steel is exposed to the oxygen in the air. If you are getting too much/too heavy(thick) of it you need to look at your forging practices.

If you are using a propane forge tweak the atmosphere---many propane forges need the air/fuel balance adjusted after they come up to heat---something that may users skip and so they get reputations for heavy scaling.

If you are using a solid fuel forge check to see if you can get by with less air---electric blowers are often the culprit as they constantly push air in and many people run them too high.

You can also wirebrush your pieces regularly when you take them out of the fire to reduce scale; but if you are just starting out you will probably be too slow to be able to do this and be able to hammer in the same heat.

As I sit here I can count 6-8 scale pops on my hands and it's been several weeks since I've had the forge lit. Most of the time they don't cause trouble but when they land in the web between my fingers they let me know their presence.

I'm a no gloves smith as I found that while I have fewer burn incidents wearing gloves the ones I had were MUCH WORSE!

Smithing in sandals is an ouch too as the feet have much more sensitive skin on top of them. Long pants with the cuffs outside of the shoes are really suggested.

Keeping a good high quality burn creme on hand, (like in the shop fridge!), can help if you are prone to having problems.

Edited August 29, 2008 by ThomasPowers

[chyancarrek]

It's happened so often, I just don't pay attention to them anymore.

[1860cooper]

Yeah, I was thinking "who hasn't been burned by scale?". It's quite common. The beauty of it is it doesn't usually bounce off, it burns in. My instinctive flick of my are usually doesn't shake it. I had to get used to a brushing off reaction instead.

[Hoary]

hehehe I count on gettting burned everytime I fire up, I think the worst I had was when I was was trying to pick up some metal that was baking in the fire with pliers (before I had bought/ made my tongs) it so happened that when I was about to clench the pliers to get a good grip on the metal a piece of my charcoal popped and shot a piece that got caught between the handle of the pliers and my thumb and index finger. It happened so fast I didn't have time to react to the sting until both my thumb and index had a nice little bubble. Good thing I had lavendar oil near by for quick relief. :-p so there's my bone headed burn story.

[Marc]

Shorts and sandals make an ouchy time at the forge. I get them all the time on my hands and arms. Pinching a hotty in the crook of my thumb is especially distracting. Almost makes me stop hammering. A couple chest and stomach burns. A few times on my face. But never on my ears. Nope, not the ears.

[Hoary]

so if you would catch one on the ear wouldn't it make it sound and feel painful at the same time.... ok that was a bad one...

[Mike BR]

When I forge pipe, I normally stuff a rag in the end to stop the chimney effect. But when the piece is short, I'll sometimes weld on a piece of bar as a handle. The first time I did that, I let my hand get below the pipe, and all the scale that had been collecting inside poured out at once. Now I flare the end of the bar and bend it 90 degrees, so it covers the end of the pipe when I weld it on.

[ThomasPowers]

Mike;
Rasptle snacks are real bad about pouring out scale when you have U'd and O'd their body---lots of surface area on a rasp. I hold them vertically and tap them on the anvil near where my scale collection can sits. You can guess how I learned that one...

Back in OH I could work up enough sweat that scale usually didn't do much at all; out here in NM it's dry enough that it does stick.

[matt87]

Scale burns are bad, but much more easily avoided than charcoal flea burns. I remember one session using particularly bad charcoal left me with most of the backs of both hands covered in red and white welts and tiny blisters.