Frosty- probably neither. Probably just something to amuse me for a bit, if it breaks, it breaks. As a wall hanger I wouldn’t even care about hardening. You’re right, I do know that it will break, so it can probably harden a bit. We’ll see.

Someone was asking about my cone mandrel(s); The cast iron old time blacksmith one is 48" tall and 12" in diameter. The steel  nose cone from a ballistic missile is 28" tall and 10" in diameter.

Mail call! Old school safety glasses. 

Nice! I'm in the market for some round frames too; I was recently gifted a pair of dark round lenses, I want to get some frames like yours to keep at the torch station. 

Also, mail call! 

 

I would've thought you smile a little John. I know getting good stuff in the mail makes ME happy.

Frosty The Lucky.

I AM smiling!

Proof of a cool cat. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I’ve visited a few antique shops/salvage yards this week, and came out with a decent few things... including a jack that I want to restore. The jack is a Drednaut No. 27 twin lift screw jack. I can turn the knob by hand and lift the jack all the way out (it telescopes), but I want to take it apart and restore it. I’ll probably start with an Evaporust soak. 

Owen, start with degreasing before Evaporust. Evaporust doesn't work well through oils and grease. Also a quick wire wheel helps remove some outer rust and will make your Evaporust last longer. 

Got word yesterday that Kim Thomas was getting rid of some extra materials from his smithing library. A quick text message, a couple hours of driving, and voilà! A bunch of books (some of which I have already, so I’ll be passing those on as well); back issues of “Anvil”, “Blacksmith’s Journal”, “The Anvil’s Ring”, “The Hammer’s Blow”, and “Ornamental Metal Projects”; a couple of exhibition catalogs; and some other assorted bits and bobs. 

 

Also stopped at the flea market and got a little oiling can and a small tap wrench for a buck each.

 

 

found a small bit of coil spring by the side of the road in Boston. I keep my eyes peeled when walking to work and sometimes find useful bits like this.

The roads around Boston have been very good to me, although explaining the coil springs and the motorcycle chain to the TSA at Logan was ... interesting. 

Around pittsburgh and the rest of southwestern PA you can sometimes find full or half axles with the potholes we have lol. No lie.

Das, last time I was driving through PA, I found the roads were actually about 10% potholes. Made for interesting driving. I also found that the number of disabled vehicles on the side of the highways was much higher than I'm accustomed to seeing.

This followed me home from... my home. The man we bought this place from had done some smithing through his life. He gave me a pair of flat bit tongs he made and a pry bar he made from a buggy axle when he was in high school in the 60s. He was a "collector" of things and I can assure you, he most certainly was! There's been a lot of just junk and trash to clean up, but we have found lots of usable hand tools, t posts, fence, etc. He gave me a big machinists vise and an old post drill. I have found lots of metal for the resource pile. Sucker rod, horseshoes, leaf spring, and some differing sizes in square, round, and flat bar and all kinds of goodies I can use. Anyway, I had a pile I had started for cleanup. I had found some files and screwdrivers in it already. But I was walking past it after feeding the goats this morning and these tongs were just laying there. How did I not see those before?!. Y'all reckon I can save them or are they too far gone?

Should be salvagable: just knock off the rust on the outside, heat in the forge until glowing, and work the jaws back and forth to free them up. Use them as-is or modify as needed.

from the local building material salvage place. I'm guessed the ring was a part of an anchor chain or maybe some dockside hardware (wearing a buddy's anchor forging project T shirt might have been an influence), but thinking on it a bit, I think its from  some lifting or rigging gear.  Might be a useful shape in the smithy, might just end up as a tarp holdown weight.

Thanks JHCC. That's what I was hoping is I could put them to use. It's a heavy pair for sure. Like my old champion flat bit. 

Michael, nice find. Definitely usable in the shop I think. Use it for dishing 

That ring will be great as a form for sinking bowls and other hollow shapes. If it’s weldable, weld on a stem that fits your hardy hole or can be clamped in a vise. If not, I suppose you could drill and tap it to bolt something on.

Can we get a side view?

I have a couple rings from a ring and pintle tow hitch and one like that with the tab.

  With the big angle grinder I cut off the part sticking up to make a dishing form without that projection in the way.  (Being associated with armourers you can't have too many dishing forms or ball stakes!)

 

It occurs to me that a professional gossip columnist is someone who has a stake in dishing.

I prefer a steak on dishes

You must like really big steaks, how many dishes per steak? 

I think I'll PM John so we can talk about you and your big steaks. PM is as close as he and I can come to a fence.

Frosty The Lucky.

To be honest, I'd probably just chew on the cow while it's in the pasture still.  Not saying that I like my steak rare but last time I took it off the grill it mooed.

That is a Lunette eye for a trailer hitch. $84 new on the big river site. It gets bolted into the channel on the trailer tongue, making it adjustable for height.