Or baseballs!

 

Makes the finger prints too easy to recover....

Change the recipe a little: pine tar, turpentine and sulfuric acid and you have an outstanding wound treatment. 

Applied to hot iron and the excess wiped off makes a nice finish and more durable than using wax instead of pine tar / pitch.

Another prove use is preserving bugs and tiny bird parts.

It's good stuff.

Frosty The Lucky.

I tended to use the La Brea tar pits for specimen preservation....

Did you preserve anyone special? The tar pits are scary to think about. ONE false step and you're stuck, the more you try to get out the stucker you are. THEN the predators join you for an easy meal. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

And then *they* get stuck---sort of like a breeder reactor!

On 1/28/2021 at 10:23 AM, Frosty said:

They look like part of a steam punk sculpture to me. How many did you grab? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Hi! It’s been awhile since I’ve been on here. I got three from a random surplus store

A gift from my boss, whose husband broke one of her father’s axes. She thought I could use the steel, but I’ll probably just replace the handle. 

Then use the remainder of the handle for other handles.

Guessing that break was the product of over hitting and slamming the handle into the wood or whatever was being chopped? 

Looks like bad grain to me.

Oh. I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything, just asking, it looks like a piece of the handle who’s grain doesn’t go through to the head popped off. How would using it normally make that section pop off, even with bad grain? 

Yes it certainly could, you'd be amazed how much an: axe, pick, sledge, etc. handle flexes in use. 

An axe handle that breaks because of missed blows will be chewed up near the head, even if it was just one big HONKIN swing and miss. The far side will be splintered at least a little.

Nope, I vote bad grain. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Grain run out would be my guess. I've had the same problem with the first couple bows I made as a kid. 

Pnut

Oh ok. Sorry I just genuinely didn’t know. I worded that question badly, I wasn’t doubting you just trying to learn how that would break the handle like that. Thanks for the explanation!

I don't know exactly how the break happened, but the underlying problem is clearly grain runout. The grain is somewhat straighter towards the butt end, so I'll probably reuse that for a new handle on my flatter (once I re-drift the eye, anyway; it's a bit on the small side).

I've got some lovely straight-grained hickory that was part of a trade with TheWanderingLlama for my old Frankenvise; I'll probably use that for a new handle for the axe.

Top tools generally don't need as good of a handle as a hammer does.  I have a set where they used buggy wheel spokes for the handles---great grain; but not sized for the tool eyes.

I've made some very good handles from an old cannibalized walking wheel spokes.

My has taught  a Museum staff how to demonstrate spinning on their walking wheel;  I will not share your post with her as we do get to NW AR from time to time...

Yesterday I picked up an old horizontal bandsaw which I bought on facebook marketplace. It is a W.F. Wells model A-7 bandsaw that was made in 1970 according to the serial number. I paid 50$ for it which is a great deal! The man was also kind enough to throw in a little lincoln welder and a couple of stands.

3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I will not share your post with her

That's OK the wheel was beyond any repair and missing so many parts it couldn't be restored. If y'all stop by the house she can play with our working walking wheel that Debi spins on. or any other of the spinning wheels, like one of the last Ericson wheels made.

Someone on TouTube did a slow motion of an axe being used. I was shocked at how much the shaft flexes. Evidently it is really important to those using axes a lot. I thought I was finicky about shaft length, flex, and grip size and texture on my golf clubs, but my pickiness and tweaking is nothing compared to those using an axe all day. 

This is why rigid handles (be they pipe or solid rod) are so hard on the user: all the force that would otherwise be dissipated by that flexing goes straight back into the hands, wrists, and arms of the user.

Duncan,

You did well on the price.

I have an A7 made in '75. It has been a good saw for me, it sure beats a hacksaw and busted knuckles. I made a table that bolts to the lower blade guide to use mine as a vertical saw.

Enjoy.

I thought that it was a great price too. I was wondering if I would be able to make a table for it, and it's nice to know that you did it. do you have any advice on how to make the table?