ThomasPowers

I forged a self hilted Ti camp eating knife; worked fine for that and if it got forgotten in the trunk of the car I could boil it for a week with no issues! We're working on a Ti hammer just for fun... Ti eats abrasives; but look up how to anodize it for the colors.

Automatic mail carts have been around big business for decades. I would be wary about anything delivering food or medication that doesn't have a "chain of custody" associated with it...

Re Brass: there are MANY alloys of "brass" some work better than others! Just like you can hot forge some brass alloys and can't others. I'd suggest you contact a local University's Art Department and talk to a Professor about which ones you might try.

I found several copies for under US$10 online; are you that strapped for cash; or or you not in the USA and so have to deal with international shipping?

Have you seen the special wood carving chisels shown in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers?

Man Up and see a Doctor! Words to live by! I nearly died when I was 28, six weeks after my marriage and we were pretty sure our first was on it's way. After a bit of emergency surgery---15 minutes from diagnosis to going under and they bumped a planned cardiac surgery to put me on the table---my wife told me that if I ever ignored medical stuff again and died, she was going to KILL ME! (Married 38 years in August; so the threat has worked so far...)

Nope in a medieval setting that blower is centuries later. Early medieval was twined single action bellows and late medieval/renaissance you could get a double lunged bellows, (came in from the gold smiths). However getting a trained bellows thrall is *really* difficult and we often have to settle for the anachronism. When I do week long medieval demos' for major SCA events I generally bring both the twinned bellows and the hand crank and build the medieval forge up front and have the hand crank portable forge off to the side. Hand crank blower is more generally found in the US and after the ACW where there was a great flood of items "invented" to make use of the excess cast iron production. BTW; charcoal has been used for forge welding about 2000 years longer than coal has. It helps to use a forge designed for charcoal rather than use charcoal in a forge designed for coal! Lary; one quad-state I saw a "roping die" made by drilling two holes *close* together in the seam of two blocks. It incised the line and rounded the edges. A gentle twist and you had a good approximation for rope. The fellow had made a small round glass top table that looked like a steel lariat was the support.

I was just out TW's way and I can say that wringing out your shirt or sweatrag is a thing! We were moving my Grabdfather's container garden, (5 gallon buckets and half 55 gallon blue plastic barrels) over to my Aunt's house where he is staying for the duration. Not only was I dripping with sweat, my shirt was too. My younger cousin was complaining about getting old and we all turned to look at him as the youngest of us had a decade or more on him! I carry a flat or 40 water bottles in my truck; out here you can dehydrate fast!

I have J.E.Hurst "Melting Iron in the Cupola" and "Cupola Practice and Mixing Cast Iron" a Lindsay reprint.

I always look up and learn the basic blacksmithing vocabulary before an international trip just for fleamarkets!

I worked on a new grill for my cast iron grill. The old one was cast iron and had broken several places so I figured it was time to bite the bullet and make a mild steel (or A-36) one. Got the rim bent, 3/8" sq stock, rounded ends and straight sides---sort of. Lots of walking back and forth from where the grill is mounted and the forge; but finally was in a state to rivet the ends together and do a little final tweaking. All the cross pieces will have to wait till I get back from AR.

It sounds much more elegant in the original Klingon...

"I'm waiting for Involute Gear Cutter Doctor to come out." I think Godot will be along before then... I once plugged the pivot hole in the moving jaw of a 5" postvise by drilling it back round, counter sinking both sides and heat shrinking and riveting a plug in and then grinding the faces flat and redrilling to align the jaws that were quite a bit off in the vertical dimension. Did that a couple of decades ago and the vise is the one on loan to the University Fine Arts Metals Instructor so it get a lot of rough use---still working great!

IIRC Yellin kept a jar of Vaseline in his desk and applied it regularly.

I'm headed out to take my Mother to Arkansas to see Grandpa and assorted kinfolk. May not be on IFI much this next week or so---indeterminate trip. All Y'All play nice; "Don't make me stop this car and cut a switch!" (Quote from my Mother from almost 60 years ago...)

Cupola is for cast iron, magnetic sand is for bloomeries; which one are you thinking about? (Or to quote Big Trouble in Little China---"Marry them both!")

I fired up the forge this morning; but snuck a couple of pictures anyway: My variation. It uses a die spring (picked up from Jeff of PTree forge at Q-S), to hold the upper arm in position so you don't have to lift it each time you go to use it, and it doesn't take much energy from the hammer blow. Great for students who hit it at an angle as it just springs back straight with no damage. Besides chilis I like a swing arm fuller to make the change from a blade to a tang as it's aligned top and bottom. Mine: A couple of other smaller ones, one for use in a post vise and the other in a large hardy hole:

Better than a Mule!

Been a bunch of years; but there was a fellow complaining here that there weren't any blacksmiths near him to get help from. We talked him into attending an Affiliate meeting and he found out that the local affiliate's VP lived 1/2 a mile down the same road he lived on!

Table salt? What a relief; last time he wanted brains for his monster...

Thanks; now I want to visit; I never made it to northern Spain on my trips. Don't forget the pulpo gallego ! (With white wine of course...)

When bowling I usually use a dishing hammer and a metal dishing form to work hot. The bowling ball stakes are only for plannishing when cold.

Aches & Pains of old age just indicate that we actually *did* stuff when we were younger and survived it to get older!

Do you slam bowling balls into your hammer handles for years? If so have you sought treatment for it? I'm sure John could dig up the Latin term for that...

No the bottom is not welded, that would mess up the belly scutes anyway according to the State Herpetologist who examined one in detail... I'm working on a write up on making them; but... I tighten it up a bit more near the end and dress as necessary after making the S curves with the post vise. (Note when I first started making these I didn't have the swage and used the cutting step to trough the body with my crosspeen to start.)