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It followed me home

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Other members need to be shielded from these antics...therefore, this thread should be sealed.

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Well its 1:20 a.m. over here so I am off to bed, can't wait for my head to hit the pillow...I am bushed. I will leave you lot to continue to needle each other. See you inner morning.

Alan

3 hours ago, Farmall said:

We have spun this bearing talk too far.......

Don't worry: we have other subjects in the rotation.

7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Don't forget the universal truths!

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single blacksmith in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of more anvils.

Not that i am tired of  the bearing this has taken!

I went by HF and bicked up one of there $10.00 welder aprons.

That should stop me burning through my T shirts.

Mel

12 hours ago, JHCC said:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single blacksmith in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of more anvils.

Talk sense! I think that is an extremely prejudiced view.

I don't have much of a fortune and I only have (counting) 3 for hand hitting on...five for power hammer hitting on and half a dozen advertising ones from Bill Gichner's Iron Age antiques.

And anyway, her fans are called Janeites and not Austenites...however hard that is for you to accept.

Alan

11 hours ago, Melw45 said:

Not that i am tired of  the bearing this has taken!

I went by HF and bicked up one of there $10.00 welder aprons.

That should stop me burning through my T shirts.

Unusually, I was wearing one of those chrome leather welding aprons today. I was gas cutting 48no. Ø30mm (Ø1.25") holes through 16no. 20mm (3/4") plates for the railway sculpture I am making.

I went through various phases of wearing aprons for forging. The main reason I stopped wearing them regularly was that the chrome leather held the dirt and I started getting skin irritation on my forearms. Fine for power hammer work with your shirt sleeves rolled down...not so good for when hand forging in a Tee shirt. :( Maybe you should buy some saddle soap to keep it clean.

Alan

 

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single blacksmith in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of more anvils.

Uh, no I don't think that's how the adage goes John. It's a universal truth that, "The single blacksmith in possession of a good fortune started with a great fortune."

Frosty The Lucky.

1 hour ago, Alan Evans said:

And anyway, her fans are called Janeites and not Austenites...however hard that is for you to accept.

So long as they're not Janissaries.

I had to look that one up. I then remembered seeing a documentary about the period and the relatively enlightened setting up of Hospitals which were funded by the caravanserai which shared the premises (there is a clue for public health care!). The Empire's administration was largely carried out by the ex-Christians because the Sultan reckoned converts were more trustworthy. The documentary was about the amazing architect Mimar Sinan (also a Janissary) who organised the building of over 300 major projects for the Empire starting that part of his career at age 50.

But you probably knew that.

Alan

17 hours ago, Alan Evans said:

Maybe you should buy some saddle soap to keep it clean.

It is a split leather and i dont think saddle soap will work on it.

At $10.00 if it starts bothering me i will replace it.

Mel

11 minutes ago, Melw45 said:

It is a split leather and i dont think saddle soap will work on it.

At $10.00 if it starts bothering me i will replace it.

Mel

The best one I have seen was owned/used by Alan Knight, the blacksmith I trained with. It was from horse hide. Very smooth so it shed the dirt. He had something of a belly and over the years his apron took on his convex shape!

Sadly I never found a source of supply for horse hide.

Alan

Just now, ThomasPowers said:

Alan; it comes from Horses!

Yes, but they're all in hiding!

It takes horse apeel.

Frosty The Lucky.

And that's the skinny on that!

I thought it rather cheval-rous.

Neigh, neigh and thrice neigh, I don't believe any of you.

Your just telling tall tails.

Alan

 

So what's your mane complaint now Alan?

Frosty The Lucky.

I X my horsey neighbors and all their horse hides are still being used on the hoof. 

Come to think of it, where does a horse hide?

Mustang on to my sanity here. And before any of you ask, I don't believe in Sanity Clause.

I know it is not much use to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted it.

...but...

When I said I could not find a source of supply of horse hide I did not mean I didn't know where they came from...trouble is all the ones I knew of already had an occupant.

In order to rein in your irreverent (and irrelevant) horsey talk and curb your enthusiasm I will relate a serious horsey experience which should stall the proceedings a bit.

(...ooh got four in that line!)

One of my major public appearances was as a pall bearer for one of the most famous horse riders ever. Pat Smythe was an Olympic show jumper in the fifties and sixties. She was our local hero, she happened to give a home to an orphaned young man who became a blacksmith who in turn gave me a holiday job at age 16.

Coincidently we are taking him out to lunch on his 75 birthday next week. So I trust you will all wish him a happy birthday.

He is the only current holder of a gold medal from Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths. How about that?

Off to hit the hay now...

Alan

 

 

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