It followed me home

[anvil]

Beautiful dog!. I too have a service dog. We have been together for 17 years. 

I had a similar experience with customs agents when I was in the navy, Viet Nam era.About mid cruise over Christmas We spent our 2 weeks liberty in Tokyo. The USO had a dance so I went. I met a lady who was an American college student whose parents worked in the car industry in Tokyo. She was a rather striking sailors dream,,,blond/blue etc. Her family "adopted" me and my best friend for our time ashore. We had very special and she and I "did" Tokyo in fine style. Well, their roots were Polish and a Polish Christmas tradition is to give a lump of coal. Its good luck. On Christmas morning there were our Christmas stocking hanging on the mantel with my lump of coal deep in the toe. Thats the very special and high vibe memory that that lump of coal represented to me, a future smith.

We headed to Pearl at the end of the cruise. This was a time when the government decided to really crack down on illegal drugs coming into the USA via returning personnel from Nam. Scuttlebut had it that we would be picking up a handful of agents who would search the ship,, every nook and cranny.  I was one of those chosen for a full search,, very complete, I must say. No doubt I was pretty PO'd at this. When they did my locker, they took all my Hong Kong tailor made clothes and tore off the wrappers and left them in a jumble on my bed. Then they found their big score! Picture these three gents dressed in immaculate whites from hat to shoes. Hmmm such a moment. They opened a box and found a huge black lump off,,  yup,, my coal. But they knew they had the goods hot in hand! By they time they all touched it, rubbed it, and gave it a taste test,,,      They had black smudges all over their faces and whites, from head to toe. They turned to me with a puzzled and rather disgusted look and asked,,, "what is this stuff?" I answered rather smugly whilst trying my best to not breaking out in a huge laugh,,," You should have asked me that first!". 

In case you are curious, do any of you know the difference between a faerie tale and a sea story? A faerie tale begins " once upon a time" and a sea story begins,,," This is no ____!"   Well, this is definitely a sea story,,,         

[Frosty]

We had to let Abby go IIRC 3 years ago, she just wore out so we showed her the last and hardest love there is. We held her as she went to sleep and till her great heart stopped. The last thing she herd was Deb and I telling her how much we love her and, "You're a good dog Abby." I get all misty eyed thinking about it.

She graced out lives for almost 18 years. She started out as a rescue we couldn't leave in the shelter, then Deb developed pretty severe fibromyalgia and Abby became her studded 4 paw drive walking cane, went through training and was a certified service dog with color ID to prove it. Then she showed a really strong talent for making people feel better, a born therapy dog. 

Another really touching thing she did regularly was redirect Deb and I to anybody in distress, and make them feel better. 

When I was in the hospital with the TBI injuries I could tell if Abby was there because I felt better. Didn't matter if I could see her I could feel her. She usually lay on a rug next to my bed where the nurses could work without trouble though all they ever had to do was ask her to move. 

Deb and I were just walking into Walmart one afternoon and Abby started towing us at an angle. Deb was still in a wheel chair and Abby loved towing her. Anyway, we followed her lead and a couple isles up was a wheel chair bound Vet suffering a bad PTSD reaction to the crowds. 

Doing her thing the crowds parted as Abby passed through, Deb and I in tow. She walked up to the poor fellow looked him in the eye and laid her head on his leg. In seconds he was stroking her head, relaxed and started talking to her. The better he felt the happier she got and the more awe struck the really concerned folk watching became.

We walked with the vet to his ride, talking to the two attendants with him. He was a resident in an extended care facility treating hit PTSD and they wanted to know if Deb and Abby would make a call. Between that and my hospital experience Abby became a privileged  guest every darned where. She taught preschoolers how to treat dogs. Soothed folks in hospice care, or recovering in the hospital. 

It almost became a full time job for Deb and Abby. 

Abby should've been the star of, "Touched By An Angel," she was one. She could fix anything but engine trouble. flat tire. 

I need to stop talking about her or I'll run on forever.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Anvil, I always enjoy seeing folk who think they going to find bad stuff get frustrated and disappointed when it turns out to be something innocuous.  I have heard stories of cavers coming back from Mexico with bags of spent calcium carbide from their headlamps (you son't leave it in the cave) being stopped at the border and when the agents find baggies of white powder they think they have hit the jackpot.  They usually hit disappointment when they are about to taste it and the cavers stop them then because spent carbide is toxic and you should not put it into your body.

I had a friend in Viet Nam who had been taking lomotil (an opiod derivative) for diarrhea which caused him to pee positive when he went to leave country.  He was confined to a barracks with all the druggies, many of whom were going through withdrawl, for 3 days until he peed clean.  He was not best pleased at this.

A few years ago Madelynn, my son, Tom, and I crossed from Minnesota to Canada.  Our car had Colorado (where MJ is legal) plates and Tom has long hair below his shoulders and a full beard.  The Canadians thought that they were going to nab them some MJ smugglers and we were "randomly" selected for  full vehicle search.  Obviously, they found nothing and their "you can proceed on your trip now" "Welcome to Canada" and "Have a nice day" were kind of strained.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[JHCC]

Interlibrary Loan is a wonderful thing.

[Frosty]

Ooooh!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Buzzkill]

21 hours ago, Frosty said:

I need to stop talking about her or I'll run on forever.

.Darn it, Frosty!

You can't do this to me at work.  I gotta fake being sick when I sniffle while reading that stuff.

[Frosty]

Should I tell more Abby stories Buzz? It'd serve you right for reading Iforge at work you know.  

Frosty The Lucky.

[Michael]

Wandering through my regular building materials recycler, checking the scrap metal bin for interesting shapes and I pull out this ratcheting 4 light hanging candelabra. Tagger puts a $2 sticker on it when I ask and into the truck it goes.

Clearly forged and forge welded where the candle arms meet the ratchet bar. Saw marks on all the ratchet teeth. Have to scrape all the wax out of the candle holders to figure out how they were put on. The little yoke that engages the ratchet is a forge weld.

Somebody put a lot of work into it, and since something similar is on my project list, I think I can get some insight about how it goes together and what to avoid.

[George N. M.]

You might do a spark test to see if it is made of mild steel or wrought iron.  While improbable, it is possible that it has some age on it if it is wrought iron.  I suspect that it is a modern reproduction in mild steel but anything is possible.

"By hammer and hand all arts o stand."

[Buzzkill]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

It'd serve you right for reading Iforge at work you know. 

Just don't tell my boss.  I'd hate to have to fire myself. 

 

[Frosty]

Oooh GOOD SCORE Michael! Things to avoid or copy? You'll need to make the missing piece of course, the long hook used to lift the trammel arm to raise and lower it. You don't want a chandelier hanging low enough to bump heads on, especially if it's using real candles.

Don't worry Buzz I'll keep it between us so long as the check clears.  

A couple of us new guys on a job were getting shown around by the boss and a favorite saying of his was, "Do X  and you'll be fired like a cheap chamber pot!" One of the other new guys asked, (once the boss was out of earshot,) "What's a chamber pot?"

Later we found out from the crews they altered the saying slightly to, "you'll be fired by the used chamber pot." 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

9 hours ago, Frosty said:

Should I tell more Abby stories

Yes, you could start a thread in Blacksmith pets. I would love to hear (read) more. Oakley is trained in being a support dog and he can tell when I'm having a bad day.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails.

[natkova]

Bought ball peen and this misterious hammer wich I don't know for what it's supposed to be used for 

[JHCC]

That’s a veneering hammer, used in woodworking. It’s not swung, but is used when gluing veneer (thinly sliced wood) onto a wooden core. The woodworker holds the hammer with both hands and draws it across the surface, pressing down to eliminate air bubbles and ensure good contact between the veneer and the core. 
 

[Gazz]

I'm thinking your hammer is a caulking hammer, something used in ship building or other trades to make a wooden structure watertight or at least leak resistant.  One end is narrow and wide and the other is struck to drive the caulk in between the planks.  And it looks like yours was made to be struck and not held.  The only image I found was this which is quite fanciful;

[anvil]

A dang Fine hammer. I'd bet it is a striking hammer, not a struck hammer.  

[JHCC]

Veneer hammers are neither swung nor struck, but act as a kind of metal-edged squeegee. Here's an image of another one that's almost identical to natkova's:

And another of one in use:

And another of a trio of veneer hammers, two of which (the wooden ones) are shopmade, very similar to (if somewhat more elegant than) the one I made when I had a veneering job to do in the art restoration studio:

 

And here's a video showing the process (I've jumped ahead to the point where the actual hammering starts; the woodworker has put glue on his substrate and on both sides of the veneer):

 

[natkova]

I tought to use it as sliting hammer or something like that.
Maybe it is to fragile to be hit on.

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I have to agree with JHCC, another clue is what looks like glue on the handle.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails.

[Scott NC]

On 8/6/2023 at 12:46 PM, anvil said:

Scuttlebut had it that we would be picking up a handful of agents who would search the ship,, every nook and cranny.

  I laugh because this happened on every Med Cruise I went on and it never occured.  Funny seeing people throw stuff over the side.  It was pretty prevalent.   Our last port was usually Morocco though.  The compartments always smelled strangely.

[anvil]

Lol, the funny thing was that the only big busts they actually got was a couple of officers with footlockers full of illegal booze!    A ship has Lots of places to hide stuff that are hard to find.  

[caotropheus]

A friend of mine offered me this big hunk of metal and I said "Nah, most probably that is cast iron. Thanks, I have no use for it..." And he said "No, it is steel, this as part of some boulder crushing machine..." and I said "give me a hammer, I would like to test it!" Well, I marred the hammer face after energetically and enthusiastically testing this chunk of steel !

Measurements are metric.

[Daswulf]

That would make a nice improvised anvil. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

It's hard to see, is the scale indicating 80kg? If so that is 176lbs and would be very useful indeed.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails.

[caotropheus]

Yes 80 kg of very nice steel. Someone tried to cut it with an angle grinder and very fast gave up. 

How would you guys use this chunk of steel?

Thanks