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It followed me home


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On 9/19/2020 at 11:51 AM, JHCC said:

A few barn sale finds.

Oh, and in the "It did NOT follow me home" department, someone at one of those barn sales (not me, alas) went home with this anvil and a 6" Prentiss No. 22 vise for $700. The deals are still out there, folks!

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My wife texted me pictures from a garage sale. There were some older hammers, mostly claw, but I noticed what appears to be a punch or drift that I wanted badly. It's a little mushroomed on top and bottom, but I can clean that up. She also bought a lovely pickaxe for $5; beautiful steel, very little rust. The handle is in great condition too. The sledge is less pretty; when she brought it up to the seller she yelled to her husband, "Someone bought the sledgehammer!" "Really?!" he shouted back. It's rusted, the handle is shivered, and there's a chunk of the head missing. The sign on the handle reads "A real man used this tool." But it was almost free; I'll burn the handle and see if I can salvage the head. 

Lastly, the stump! A neighbor down the road chatted with my wife and I while we were out walking. I brought up the forge like I do, and mentioned I still needed a solid stump. He was about to take down his green ash, said he'd have the guys leave a stump for me. I thanked him and we kept walking. A month later he and his wife showed up at our front door (they did their research) and told me the stump was ready. I made it over a week later, thinking I'd heft it into my trunk. Nope. It was about 2'x2' and wet ash. I could barely roll it. I had car problems and couldn't even access my trunk for a bit, but my brother-in-law and I finally made it over there on Saturday. We brought a sledge, a splitting maul, and a hatchet. We tried lifting it once--NO--and then started taking the sides off. The wood was so hard we couldn't even get the maul to set. The neighbor jumped right in, apparently deciding that he was on the team after having met me twice and my brother-in-law not at all, and set to work. He brought out his chainsaw to make a little divot for the maul, found his old splitting wedge, and was generally amazing. He charged me nothing. We even got a three-man hammer ring going like I've only seen on Little House on the Prairie and some of Alec's old tool class videos. It was an absolute blast. 

When we were done, the stump was forty pounds lighter, almost square, and small enough to sit in my trunk with the hatch open. We helped the neighbor with a couple yard things, being large young men, and headed home. I'd say it still weighs at least 150 pounds. I need to knock of the corners just a bit, flatten the top, and get some linseed oil in there. But it's going to be a beauty. 

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Not much at the scrapyard Saturday morning; they are still not buying and so only "donations" come in. I expect a lot of folks are sitting on their stuff until they can get some $$ for it.  They are talking about moving the pile towards the back as the donations have been building up in front near the gate. (I refuse to drive in the yard---too tire treacherous!)  That will probably turn up some buried treasures.

I did take out about 5 pieces of real wrought iron; wagon wheel hub bands and a bit of wagon hardware that is strap WI. Still selling at 20 UScents a pound. 

John, I was reading about the Hall process of Al refining and saw that he was at Oberlin; is there a Hall Hall there?

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No, but there is a Hall Auditorium. When Charles Martin Hall died unmarried and childless, he left the bulk of his estate to Oberlin, thus providing the core of our endowment.

Funny story that's NOT in the official college records. One of the memorials to Hall on campus is a statue of him made from -- no surprises -- aluminum. Because of its light weight, this was frequently stolen and used in campus pranks. The very last of these was planned for the opening ceremonies of Hall Auditorium, when my friend Andy (Class of '56) and some of his buddies stole the Hall statue, painted it in garish colors, and carried it up the staircases and catwalks to the trapdoor to the auditorium roof. The plan was to have it perched in the center of the facade, gazing down on the festivities below. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) they had mismeasured the trapdoor, and it was 1/4" too small to fit the base of the statue through. While they were struggling with this unexpected challenge, campus security found them out and foiled their plans. Andy and his friends somehow managed to escape expulsion, and the statue was bolted down to a base made of solid granite.

In other news, yet even more mail!

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A little trivia for the gang.

Long hair was a trait that was slowly bred into sheep, and goats.  (think of angora goats for example.)

The more modern breeds have to have their fleece sheared, when harvested. 

Older breeds shed their wool. That produced short hair.

But there was an advantage, to the older breeds.

Wool hairs are naturally sealed at the outer ends of the hair.  

Shed hair have the bottom end sealed too.

That makes their hair/wool capable of holding the heat better. It also makes their fleece more water resistant, as they do not soak up water.

Early garments have this feature.

But pulling out shedding hair,  (called "rooing" ) was/is labor intensive, slow. and somewhat wasteful. the alternative way to harvest the shed fleece was to collect it from the bushes, and ground over a period of several weeks.

Regards,

SLAG.

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Older breeds (such as the feral Soay sheep of St. Kilda) often have long outer coat and a softer inner coat, the latter of which is what is shed in the spring. One observes the same phenomenon with dogs, especially northern breeds like the Samoyed and Husky

59 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

The great thing about using such fibers is that they don't show pet hair when being worn! 

We'd need yarn spun from pitbull hair, which rarely exceeds 1/2" staple length. 

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Why does hair that is sheared once a year grow longer than hair that is shed once a year? Letting it go more than a year stresses the animal and results in week places in the wool.

The dual coated fleeces have "guard hairs" the coarser outer hair. You would prefer not to have too many of them in with the inner soft coat!

John; would your wife  be willing to do a pit bull hair shirt for you?

Just saw a CL ad for sucker rod in these parts:

Rods are 25 feet long
3/4- $8.50
7/8- $10.50
1"- $12.50

Not a bad price for medium carbon stock and you get the joints to play around with too!

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6 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Why does hair that is sheared once a year grow longer than hair that is shed once a year?

Not the same hair: single-coat fleeces come from sheep that are selectively bred to have softer hair that grows more or less continuously. When the sheep go feral, they themselves can get covered in overgrown wool, but their descendants revert to having dual-coats within a few generations (unlike feral hogs, which return to wild-boar-like characteristics very soon after escaping captivity). Since single-coat is a recessive gene, the Soay on St. Kilda occasionally come out as single-color and single-coat.

13 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

John; would your wife  be willing to do a pit bull hair shirt for you?

If she did, I would be mortified.

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The phenomenon of outer guard hairs and inner, finer hair is common amongst mammals, particularly those evolved for cold climates.  Mountain goats have it.  I have collected shed inner wool during the summer for my late wife to spin.  I have a sample of Siberian mammoth hair of about 20,000 years ago which has both guard hairs and fine, inner hairs.  Many animals shed the inner coat in the spring and regrow it during the summer.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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18 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

sucker rod

Over the weekend my In-Laws visited and had many steel gifts for me when they arrived.  I have never seen it before the other day, but I believe based on what I have read here that this is sucker rod. None of the rods my FIL gave me have the joints attached, so that's the only reason I hope to confirm it as sucker rod. They traveled up here from South-Western KY. I do not know of any oil fields there, but my FIL used to work for the natural gas company in town. 

Anyway, he had to cut them down to fit in the truck bed but they look as if they would have been the standard 25'. They are 5/8" in diameter. Think it is sucker rod? Also, are there any precautions I can take to avoid the H2S I have seen discussed? Sounds pretty scary. 

Thanks, Red.

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Sprinkle a little water on a crusty dirty looking section and take a QUICK SNIFF. If it smells like rotten eggs step back and upwind. If not, do the next smell test while heating it up.  Same general rules, quick sniff and walk away if yes.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Red,

Those do look like sucker rods, but IMO they came out of a windmill based on their general appearance. Rods from oil and gas service look more disheveled - or they would not be on the surface. 
If you prefer more information than you ever wanted on H2S and it’s properties feel free to send me a message. 

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I had a trip up to rural Norfolk, UK at the weekend to pick up an early birthday present from my wife. She scored me this swage block. Also ended up with about 20lb of wrought iron for free and a post anvil for a treadle hammer project. 

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I was looking to build a stand for it, and found this picture of a tilt stand. But can’t find plans or further pics. Is anyone familiar with this design, please?

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Nice swage block, you're wife is a SWEET SCORE! 

A memory from my dim past recalls a swage stand something like that though I don't think that is the one. I gave an easy tilt swage block stand considerable thought for mine but went with something easier.

My swage block stand is made from 4 guard rail posts, gleaned from when we were switching over to galvanized I beam posts. I cut them into 6 pieces of two lengths and screwed them together in a sort of chair shape. The lower step holds the block on edge at the right height to work and when laid flat on the top step is also at a good working height.

I use a spud bar to lift it from the bottom to the top level or turn it on edge by prying from a through hole on one side so it rolls when I lift it. It's pretty darned secure, didn't fall off in the last 7.2 quake we had or the smaller good hard shaker we had a couple years earlier. 

Pic below, I looked but couldn't find one with it on edge.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Good, simple design, Frosty. I suppose that if you want to put it edge-up, you rotate the desired edge away from you and then tip it up?

3 hours ago, Neal the smith said:

found this picture of a tilt stand.

Cool idea, but I worry if it might have too many moving parts.

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