pnut Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 I'm not skating like I used to that's for sure. I'm now the old guy doing grinds in the bowl. When I would stay in Edgewood Maryland for the summer when I was 10-14 there was an abandoned skatepark from the seventies that we skated everyday. I can relate to the injuries. I've had a couple motorcycle crashes and numerous skating injuries. At 46 I feel twice as old some days. I'll still be skating if all I can do is carve a bowl or skate down the street. I'd say my prime was in the mid nineties. Those days are long gone though. I'm just happy to be able to skate at all. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Nice man, keep on grindin'! Been a while since I've skated a bowl, for sure. I remember one day we just wandered around a few subdivisions looking for empty swimming pools like they did in the skate videos we would watch. Never found one lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 The only WI hammer I made weighed about a half a pound. It's just a tiny little thing, but it does get used. I forge welded ~3 WI RR spikes together to make it. The grain on the spikes was very coarse so I had to do a lot of refining during the process. Subsequently, I lost a surprising amount of material to scale. I made a thread about it somewhere.. "Tiny WI hammer" (or something like that). Not too exciting of a thread, but it's out there. It would be nice if I had a billet to start with rather than piecing one together. This one is either WI or CI, I didn't see any of the forks at the end of the sparks you get with cast, only the dull red trails you get from wrought. However, I did the spark test on a belt grinder and not a bench grinder like I usually do so I wouldn't say it was a definitive test. We will find out what it is soon enough I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Shed Forge Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Cool, I'll look into it. I have 1 spike that I suspect is WI as well. It's about twice the length of a RR spike and maybe 3/4" to 1" square. I cant decide what to do with it but chunking and welding it together like you did certainly crossed my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 I was wondering about the cast iron possibility too. (Just because it's more common to find random blocks of cast iron than wrought iron and they do spark fairly close---as does some of the high alloy steels, (HSS for instance). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 I made my last skate board in wood shop, Mahogany board and steel wheels from a air of old clamp on roller skates. About the time "Sidewalk Surfing," by Jan and Dean was on the charts. Got kicked out of parks, shopping malls, schools, about everywhere we rode them. A hand full of coarse sand skate board proofed the concrete but good though. I got a job and stopped before clay wheels. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 TP, my gut tells me it's cast for a few reasons: the surface finish, my house isn't that old, I agree it's odd to have a small 1.25" sq block of WI... However, my hope wills it to be wrought. Mostly because that would be very convenient and I love working with WI. I don't have much of it, so every piece is kept for special projects. I considered doing a test with the drill last night to look at the cuttings, but I did not. I probably will before I toss it in the forge. That should be more definitive than the spark test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Frosty, those were the same skateboards we had but we just used a piece of wood "about" the right size we scrounged out of the barn. I actually got a real skateboard for Christmas 1 year, it was bright yellow almost 1" thick and only about 3" wide. Them were the days of short shorts and knee high socks with stripes matching the shorts on top. Brings to mind the wide collared polyester shirts and bell bottoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 MENTAL BLEACH MENTAL BLEACH MENTAL BLEACH (It was a sad day when I gave on my paisley shirt from "I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet" on Carnaby street in London...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul TIKI Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 I was cursed by a wide collared yellow shirt and green polyester sort of bell bottoms for my very first job at a place called 'El Pollo Assado' in Albuquerque. I could have used that collar for hang gliding. I was afraid to walk out in the wind for fear of flying away. At 16 it was a hit to the ego, but at least I could wear my Swatch watch and mullet under the hair net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 2 hours ago, BillyBones said: I actually got a real skateboard for Christmas 1 year, it was bright yellow almost 1" thick and only about 3" wide. Them were the days of short shorts and knee high socks with stripes matching the shorts on top. My brother was given one of those for Christmas, but gave it to me a bit later on when he took up the unicycle. Neither of us ever learned to skateboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul TIKI Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 I never had a skateboard. I was into the BMX bike thing. Much later I got my kids BMX bikes and could show them a few things. When they got skateboards I tried to remember how to do an ollie and was reminded of why I never took to skateboards with several bruises and a jacked shoulder for a few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will-I-am Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Paul, a bmx guy used to frequent one of our skate spots in 80’s. He did beautiful G turns on his front wheel; I could do G turns on my skate and it was very satisfying. Did get into mountain biking, loved to launch off bumps. Pnut, I never had bowls just street and street ramps growing up. You are inspiring me to pull out that old board. Remember zorlac boards, skate tough or go home. Happy just trail running now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Just realized I received the notification from Blacksmith Supply that they got my money order for a copy of The Skills of a Blacksmith by Mark Aspery. Hopefully it finds it's way home soon. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I was into BMX much more than skateboards. I find it amazing that skateboarding became so popular with how hard it was to ride those skinny little boards back then. If i can find it i will post the pic i have of my dad from around '74. Paisley wide collared polyester shirt, reddish brown polyester pants, but the best part is his white guy fro. I find that the women of that era pulled it off much better than men. On one side was Farrah Fawcett on the other Meathead. Lamont may have been an exception, he could pimp that polyester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 BMX? HAH! I had to make my own "Stingray" bike: sissy bar, ape hangers and a banana seat. Buying one cost too much but I at least wanted to try to be cool. I skipped 5 speed bikes and went directly to 10 with racing handlebars. That was my commuter. By time 15 speeds came out I owned a 62 Vette and sold my bikes. It's a whole LOT easier to get dates with the cool girls with a Vette than a bike. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 5 hours ago, BillyBones said: I find it amazing that skateboarding became so popular It kind of blows me away too. For a different reason though. I remember having to fight people on a regular basis growing up for no other reason than I rode a skateboard and they didn't like it. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I was not the skateboard, it was because all the skaters liked U2. And yall had weird haircuts. We used to build our own bikes also. I remember going to garage sales and yard sales looking for old bikes. I got my first car when i was 13. A '70 Nova (it was not a classic at the time) Had a built small block, very loud exhaust, and jacked up in the back with fat tires. Between the time of getting the car and my license me and my dad tore her down and built her up. It was a pretty fast car and once i started driving and learned about girls, i to ditched the bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I learned to drive at 14 in a '53 Plymouth and the first car I bought was a '36 Chevrolet Tudor for $25. It had a broken rear axle and a replacement cost $50. Wish I still had that car, sold it to a guy who chopped & channeled it into a street rod. It was replaced with a '57 Plymouth Fury X Florida State Police car, man was it fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 I always had long hair and listened to either punk rock or the grateful dead, I know a strange mix. I grew up around a bunch people who were insecure and easily intimidated by anything different and the city I lived in you were either a nice kid or a hoodlum. If you weren't interested in sports you were eyed with suspicion from the start and we were not nice kids. The one thing they always overlooked was that a skateboard is a club with steel furniture. On the bright side It kept the kids who weren't serious about skating from doing it Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TWISTEDWILLOW Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 Here’s a hammer I found while cleaning out a shed. I think it might be a old plumb brand but I’m not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 Clean it up and add it to the rack. I've never met anyone with too many hammers. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 That’s very nice. Cool stamp, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 I'm beginning to wonder about that Pnut; with my neighbor watering the mud day after day for hours at a time. I've had to go and derust and BLO my hammers. 15 years here with never a rust problem and then they moved in...My main hammer rack has 105 handled tools on it; that's a lot of wire wheeling and oiling! (Then there are the armoring tool rack and the nonferrous tool rack...) Really will look spiffy when folks can finally visit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elmoleaf Posted March 14, 2021 Share Posted March 14, 2021 This early 20th C rebar followed me home a few years ago...finally cut off a manageable size piece from the larger mangled length. It’s about 7/8” across on the least dimension, but not really square. Do not have a specific project in mind for it yet. I don’t have a power tool for cutting, so this was sawn thru by hand with a hack saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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