January 28, 20251 yr Mail call! First package: another addition to the library. Second package: some new blacksmithing-themed T-shirts.
February 1, 20251 yr Yet another mail call! Three cam dies for the Hossfeld, which I bought on eBay and discuss in detail here:
February 4, 20251 yr I need to get a better mailman! You get some really good looking stuff John, it almost makes me wish I had the money and free space I did when I was single. Frosty The Lucky.
February 6, 20251 yr Will do, Frosty. Also, more mail: (The astute observer will have noted that I’ve been getting a lot of things in the mail lately, mostly books. This is the natural consequence of having picked up a few commissions and therefore having more ducats than usual to invest in tooling and the library.)
February 6, 20251 yr Ah, buckets of ducats is nice, I remember those days and have the library to prove it. In boxes in the basement. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.
February 7, 20251 yr Peening hammer and a screwdriver. Very happy about the screwdriver, I've only seen them on the internet. Scrap yard find.
February 7, 20251 yr The paid version does (NB: a one-time fee, not a subscription). I discuss the app in THIS THREAD.
February 7, 20251 yr I read that some time ago, that's why I knew you had one. I should have looked again before I asked.
February 8, 20251 yr Yet another mail call! First, another addition to the library: Of which Lola seems to approve. Also, a bag of some new shop rags that I wanted to try out. These are recycled “hucks”, used cotton surgical towels that have been cleaned and sterilized. I’ve been having trouble lately with lint from my regular rags getting into the finish on the yarn bowls. These are apparently extremely low lint, so that shouldn’t be a problem anymore. We shall see.
February 8, 20251 yr I'll be interested to know how the hucks work, I just finished making new hand rails for the stairs and could've used some low or no lint rags. Is "hucks" what surgical towels are called or just the used / recycled ones? Frosty The Lucky.
February 8, 20251 yr I believe that that is the name of the towels themselves. After use, I would assume that the hospital personnel would simply call them “trash“. here is the video from which I first found out about these: Another package arrived today, this one from England:
February 11, 20251 yr Another eBay purchase: a no. 20B5 center pin for the Hossfeld bender, for bending 1/2”, 5/8”, and 1” eyes.
February 12, 20251 yr I spotted this book in an antique mall in Maine last June and almost immediately regretted not buying it then. I’m back Down East for the first time since, and not only was it still there, but it was on sale! I also stopped in a used bookstore, and the moment I walked in, spotted a copy of Practical Blacksmithing cheek by jowl with a copy of McRaven’s The Blacksmith’s Craft. Unfortunately, I already owned the first, and the second was priced about twice what I would have been willing to pay. Ah, well.
February 13, 20251 yr I used to buy lots of scrap steel at Kleins as well as selling them some. I certainly would have bought that book if I had come across it. What town was the antigue mall in?
February 13, 20251 yr Brunswick; the Cabot Antiques Mall. There were a couple of booths with some old tools for sale, but since they were charging an “antique premium” for pieces they clearly expected to be used for decoration, I gave those a pass.
February 14, 20251 yr Mail call, from Canada this time: a guillotine from Cloverdale Forge. Looking forward to giving it a try.
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