ThomasPowers

Most of the Community Colleges I have knowledge of; had a jewelry making course or 5 that will teach one how to work with the precious metals and they generally have one that deals with casting. I would take the courses *or* talk with the Instructor(s) about having something made.

Back a-ways I planned out a solar forge based on an early Mother Earth News solar collector made from 1' mirror tiles and equipped with a sun tracking device they had the plans for too. Then after living in NM for a year I realized that the common high winds would destroy it, (as well as the hail storms, that first year they had SOFTBALL sized hail!) It was a lot of fun designing it though. Generally in the NM summer; we tell folks we put steel in the forge to cool it down!

Steel toe flip flops? I don't wear steel toes as I don't drop anything heavy enough to need them anymore; been decades since I dropped an anvil and even then I just got out of the way! Currently I wear German combat boots; bought 4 pair brand new, (still in box with tags), for US$3 a pair at a flea market near Fort Bliss TX about 9 years ago and am on pair #3 currently. If you want to use cloth spats you can soak them in a borax solution for fire proofing and it actually helps clean when you throw them in the wash. Wearing a glove on the hammer hand promotes tendonitis; so glad you were smart enough to not do so! I tend to use tongs when I need to hold hot items so generally no glove on the off hand either and this is with propane and coal and charcoal forges.

Recently I've had a small horned lizard AKA horny toad outside my shop and my wife reported a huge one in her raised bed garden today. Unfortunately my neighbors pet lizard---5 to 6' long, got loose and was in the alfalfa field when they mowed it for hay---definitely a "Thoracic Park" experience for the guy on the tractor! My horny toad: The front section of my neighbor's lizard:

When I started in the Oilpatch it was 7/12's or 24 on 24 off till a job was done. Then I might get a day off before the next one. I was single and learned to live that way. Bought an old phone company van, insulated it and built in a bed and would camp out on/near the site and so have some down time. I remember I was averaging one night a week in my apartment. Saved as much as I could and when the bust hit I was doing OK for a couple of years of "down time". Found a lot of smithing stuff in those small rural towns too.

The interior tools I forged for a turner were designed to use carbide metal lathe inserts for the cutting edge. Replaceable! He wanted a bunch of different curves; so when he showed up at my shop I heated a bar of steel and stick one end in the postvise and had him grab the other and bent it it suit. We did two at my shop and the next weekend he bought an anvil off me and started blacksmithing! (The Emperor was *pleased*!)

Ran out of high speed Data and there is so much hidden bloatware on the net these days that I couldn't effectively run at low speeds; everything times out before loading finishes; no matter that I don't buy ANYTHING advertised on the net, ever! So lets see how far I get this month!

There is a short story sequel to it as well: "Requiem".

Unfortunately, I was at an outside demo with no power. Does your press travel? I would think the easiest way would be to write a check...

It's amusing as transparent battery cases were the norm 60+ years ago. My Mother has told me many a time about the bank of glass case lead acid batteries that a windmill charged on their farm in rural OK that was used only to run the radio...they used kerosene lamps for light. I've also seen transparent 55 gallon drum lead acid batteries used, at least in the 1990's, for telephone central office back up power. AT&T Bell Labs did quite a bit of research on batteries for that purpose.

Bern Switzerland was my first guess, if I'm the Thomas you are looking for. I'm not very up on clockwork and how they are/were stamped so I don't think I would be the best resource on this. Sorry.

Always able to build a JABOD in a junked gas grill to have a "covered" forge to hide it from neighbors...or the spouse... And yes I'm in a steel wool relationship; my wife has been teaching spinning for over 50 years and I have been smithing for over 40 years (and in the SCA since the Fall of 1978.)

Being off the net meant I spent more time in the shop; mainly cleaning it and starting the massive reorganization needed to get my welder and powerhammers available. Hung a lot of old stuff on the walls to make more room---my hip doesn't like me climbing ladders! I rotated my primary hammer rack 90 deg, only 110 handled tools on it currently so a lot of taking them off it and replacing after the moving. Moved an old school welding table from outside the kitchen window into the shop.

Twar, looks like a drilling hammer used with a star drill to hand drill holes in stone or concrete.

"The Man Who Sold the Moon"

I've always called it a "ski jump" it's one of the tools I was planning to demo for the NMABA. Mine was made from a torch cut piece of 1.5"? plate I found at the scrapyard. It had both the gentle and more abrupt sides. I also picked up a copy of the book at a smith's estate sale; I have it right next to "Geschmiedetes Eisen" by Kuhn and "Damaszener Stahl" by Sachse. (Another German book I like is "Schöne alte Wirtshausschilder" by Leonhard.)

Riiiiiiight! My Father worked for NASA during the mid 1960's; We have a picture of the Apollo 11 liftoff signed by Werner von Braun saying "Thanks Tom, we couldn't have done it without you!" (When we toured the Johnson Space Center, we had security badges and Frank Borman was our guide.)

My favorite of the first type started out by the guy saying "I've never done this before; but this is how you do it!" Why folks want to show off their ignorance I've never understood---it's like those people posting videos of them committing felonies.

Better than the one where you have to act like you are on a Hollywood sound stage for videos to keep the "nobody's on the moon" conspiracy going!

Nah, they are planning to pay folks an "annual salary" and most people don't check how long a Mars year is! Besides which, on the moon you can plink at satellites and they will just blame it on orbital trash.

Well us pre-internet folk remember what we used to call "one book wonders". People who had read one book on a subject and then were an *expert*. Just like YT they couldn't judge how good the book they read was either.

It's good to see that the operational security on our moon bases is still in effect----OOPS!

I found their use of depletion gilding interesting.

Another visit but not much new; I did take out 3 more newish RR spikes, a claw hammer head and some small black pipe for chilies. They said that buying was running real slow due to a drop in price on the world market for scrap iron. Unfortunately they haven't dropped their selling price. Lots of RR rail there. 9# out. US$2 as I rounded up.

Well the norse also used rocks for anvils for coarse large forgings. (Of course they were using real wrought iron which is warm butter soft at proper forging temps!) An 150# Anvil was considered a good size for a commercial shop, (late 19th, early 20th centuries); Francis Whitaker---a big name smith, had a long professional career using a 165# anvil. However modern smiths suffer terribly from "Anvil Envy" and will want to do their hobby forging on anvils sized for large industrial shops that used teams of strikers. Unfortunately once you have AE about the only cure is a bad back; in chronic form; getting ever larger anvils will help the cravings for a while...I have two anvils over 400# but my 91# has more hours of use with my 165# shop anvil catching up...I did manage to recently sell off a 248# PW as I decided I didn't need a "middling sized anvil" I've done a bunch of work at Y1K demos with this 25# anvil: (on it's side) And you can make your own stake anvils: (These from RR spike sledges).