Day 1
Once upon a time, Glib Emeritus A Leap at the Wheel described the process of attaching a handle to a hidden tang knife. I imitated his example and attached scales to a wider tanged letter opener, only to realize the tang was still too narrow for a grip and boxed it in. But one thing still bugged me. I wanted to make the metal part too.
My house is unsuitable for building a forge unless I undertake major renovations I can’t afford and which the city would doubtlessly meddle in. Besides, I knew just enough to know I didn’t know what I was doing. So I decided my best bet was to find a professional instructor and learn from them. I found a metalworking school in New England that primarily was a vocational school for welders but had programs in blacksmithing and bladesmithing as well. These latter two programs were just a series of classes that anyone willing to pay could enroll in provided there was space. Each student needed a forge, so there were only eight spots per class. I chose a winter session because fire is hot and a forge in summer would be brutal.
Being unsure of the skill level required to attend the actual bladesmithing class, I started with a basic blacksmithing course. Learning things like managing a coal forge, the ergonomics of swinging a hammer, and how to move metal all sounded like they would come in handy for the later class. Besides, I desperately needed a break from the day job where I had nothing to show for all my stress and effort.
So, taking all my hotel loyalty points from my various road trips, I booked a room and set off for Maine. I found waiting for me a place to move metal.
The Work Site
The instructor, despite being a semiprofessional blacksmith whose day job was running a school of metalwork and teaching blacksmithing courses, didn’t look the part. I thought he looked like a mix of Sam Waterston and Brent Spiner, not exactly the bulkiest of individuals. He swung the hammer southpaw, and moved metal like it was clay. The class structure was not complicated, he would demonstrate the process we were expected to duplicate, discussing any particulars, or caveats along the way, then we would go back to our stations and try it. Most of each eight hour day wast spent at the forges dealing with fire and steel. The students were practically a convention of deplorables ranging from homesteaders, to industrial mechanics, to custom furniture carpenters to, well, me. I was the only student with an office job, but they all understood why I would want to get away from that place and do something productive. Even without too many details.
Because they were easier to manage, on the first day we worked in propane forges. The big problem with the propane forges is that they have a very oxidizing atmosphere and where they didn’t leave heavy forge scale, there was red rust. The projects on day one were as basic as they came: J-hooks, an S-hook, nails, and a bottle opener. I failed to complete the S-Hook on day one because of one nagging problem that would plague me for several days – I have trouble setting tapers. To make a hook, we would set a taper, curl the end up tight to make the tip round, then bend the hook in the opposite direction of the curl. But when you’re slow to set the taper, the process bogs down. I was also awful at setting the shoulder to define the area to be flattened into a tab on the J-Hooks where a hole could be drilled to mount it on the wall.
Not a very auspicious start, but I had honestly rarely been called upon to even swing a hammer. Sometime on day two, the instructor did go over the ergonomics over how you’re supposed to swing at an anvil to minimize injury to yourself, and I eventually got the hang of it… around day four.
Working the nails taught me that my initial problem setting shoulders had a component that wasn’t the fault of my hammer swing. The edge of my anvil had a differential radius along its length. At the side opposite the horn, the corners were rather well defined and not quite sharp. The closer you got to the horn, the more rounded they became, until having a radius of about a quarter inch just before the base of the horn. Setting the shoulder on a broad radius edge makes for a very poor definition that makes it harder to lock it against the corner of the anvil for further strikes.
At the very least, by the end of day one, I had made a nail that was straight, properly tapered, and had a flat head.
Below that nail is the Sinister Smithing Glove. It belongs to the school, and I left it behind.
Of course, that wasn’t all I did, but by gosh, I had gotten something right! Of the other three I made that day, one was awful, one was meh, and one the instructor straightened. That was the big flaw in his instructional style. Sometimes in one on one discussion, he’d both show and tell you how to fix something, and leave you without the problem to fix yourself. Anyway, At the end of the first day, I had quite an assortment of steel bits and bobs, and was quite pleased with myself, despite how janky the arm on the bottle opener looked.
Note the rust.
Day 2
After the first day, the gas forges were removed. So the first thing we learned on day two was how to clean a coal forge, and then how to light it and get the coal going. Burning coal leaves behind two waste products in the fire pit – ash and clinker. Clinker is largely silica, and is of no use to us in the class. The ash isn’t mostly silica, and is also of no use to us in the class. So the first step was to separate out any coke and coal that was still burnable from these waste products. Then dump the waste into the ash can under the forge. Then we would have to light it.
Now, coal isn’t the most enthusiastic of fuels. It burns grudgingly at higher temperatures. To get it started we need an existing heat source. There are options, but because the ventilation system in the forge could carry off small woodland creatures (according to the instructor at least), we used charcoal. Getting the charcoal going with a butane torch until it produced embers along the edge, we’d give it air, then load the coke on top. It was important to not put the coal directly on the charcoal, because coke burns directly, while coal outgasses and converts to coke first. This process would suffocate the fire before it got started. With the coke burning from the charcoal heat, the raw coal would go on the back corner to start outgassing, and the coal gas itself would catch light. This merry fire would convert the raw coal into more coke that we could keep burning. It did require plenty of attention to the air flow, both from the forced air system and within the fuel itself. Coal in the process of turning into coke will clump together in big lumps that block airflow. You need to break these up on the regular.
It’s too hot to handle, too cold to fold.
We had a staging area for coal next to the fire pit where we could rake or shovel more on as needed, or move stuff out of the fire to cool down and/or go out as required. The forced air system controls were all by my knees as the fans were under the table. It may not look it, but the fire in the example image above is too cold for forging. The gates are closed on the forced air, so it’s just burning ambient atmosphere. Because of how reluctant coal is to burn, I never once saw a fire escape into the staging area. Besides, the outgassing of gray-green smoke before it catches light is obvious, so it’s easy to catch a problem before it spreads.
As for the projects on day two… I hated day two for much of it. We started with a warm-up which would be a staple of the remaining three days. That is, work on whatever project was at hand to get into the swing of things. I made another nail, and I finished the darn S-Hook from day 1. Observant Glibs might have noticed in the picture of Day 1’s work product some pieces had a twist in them that I hadn’t mentioned. Twisting was something I found to be relatively easy, though other members of the class struggled despite being better at the hammer work than I. In the S-Hook, I made a twist that changed direction. That proved a bit of a pain, so on other items I stuck with a unidirectional twist.
Well, the big project of day two was one that caused me so much consternation. It was a barbecuing implement known as a Texas Nose-Pick. Starting from twelve inch square stock, we were supposed to take half of it and draw it out into a twelve inch taper. The other half we were supposed to flatten, then set a shoulder and draw out part of that into a different taper, turn it into a loop for hanging the tool. Then we were to twist the flat into a handle, and finally put a few precise bends in the tip of the long taper to form the working end of the tool. This working end had a handedness, so the direction of the second bend was vital.
Until day four, I was not able to set a taper readily.
This means that to set the twelve inch taper, I was expending a lot of effort, much of it wasted because I was hammering past where the strikes would be effective. As my arm got tired, it got worse because that meant my strikes carried less force, and the range of temperature where they were moving metal was shrinking. And the thinner the metal grew, the faster it cooled, meaning I spent a lot of time wearing my arm out further futilely hitting a hammer on steel that wouldn’t move. I was downright angry by the time we broke for lunch because I felt my poor physical shape was the only culprit. This was only partly true. It was also my ignorance of how steel behaves at particular temperatures. My taper topped out at ten and three-quarters inches, a full inch and a quarter below target. But I had to move on. I was no happier flattening the other half, for the exact same problems with the taper.
But when I finally got the preforge done, I was more than ready to move on. A preforge is a shaping operation to set up the next operation. Steel is almost never already in a shape you want it to be in for the final forming. Anyway, the hook and the twist were operations I had no trouble with, having mastered them on day one. So after a lot of wasted energy, and some productive energy, I hung the thing on the coat hook.
It’s Grilling Time
The last few hours of day two were spent spreading metal to make leaves.
I utterly and completely failed at this.
I would not manage to spread metal to anything resembling a broad leaf shape until day four. I did manage to spread the handle of the janky bottle opener from day one into a fish tail which complemented the texturing I applied to the grip. Once I twisted it, I was convinced it looked like a skinny anglerfish. At least, that’s what I’m going with.
Day 3
We had a number of operations on the lesson plan for day three. We started with upsetting, which is the process of striking the end of a piece of metal to make it thicker and shorter. We did this to put enough mass in one spot to make a sphere on the end of the stock before bending it into a coat hook and putting a leaf design on the other end. I had to stop before I got to a sphere because the neck had started to crack and more work would just cause it to pop off. This was a very real possibility, as one of my failed leaf attempts did pop off when I was working on tapering the stem and flew halfway to the power hammer.
We didn’t get to use the power hammers. Big Blu was silent all week.
Once the coat hooks were forged, we moved on to door handles. The new procedure here was opposing shoulders. Humans have opposing shoulders, they sit on opposite sides of their body from each other. Setting this in steel can be tricky. I had more trouble with the taper behind the shoulder, and ended up burning off one of the ends of my door handle. I cut it off and curled up that end to leave me with a door handle that only attached at the top. Not complete success, but I made something of what I had.
We moved on to cutting and punching. We were tasked with splitting the end of a piece of flat stock into two branches that we were to do something decorative with, then punch two mounting holes below that and make another coat hook out of the bottom. This operation… was frustrating. It was easier if you could apply more force. Even at heat, a good, strong strike was required, and a good number of them. There was time left at the end of the day, so the instructor demonstrated a technique not normally in the beginner curriculum, drifting. It wasn’t that far off what we’d done, just punch a hole or slot into steel then widen it with a tapered tool.
I took a route that I expected to fail, grabbing smaller stock than the others were working on, punching a hole instead of a slot, and trying to drift that. My first hole was so off-center that I couldn’t drift it very far before it threatened to split the side of the stock. While I was staring at the piece in consternation, the instructor did ask the important question – “Does it have another end?” Since I’d only put one hole in the steel thusfar, I understood what he meant, turned it around and started over with the other end. This time, the hole was still off-center, but close enough that I could get the hole drifted large enough to fit on the tip of the anvil’s horn. Why is that good news? Because there I could selectively adjust the shape and thickness of the ring by only hammering on the steel where it was thicker. Drifting pushes in all directions, so the thin areas stretch more. Once I was on the horn, it moved where the hammer landed. Thus I was able to even out the ring, and turned it into a bottle opener with a lanyard hole in the handle.
I don’t need so many bottle openers.
I was starting to get the hang of it all, and I was hurting less after each day.
Day 4
Our last day of classes. We only had one technique left, and it was a doozy – Forge Welding. I was not alone among the students expecting this to be the hardest of the lot. It was, and it wasn’t.
Steel actually wants to stick to steel. The biggest problem is that when exposed to air, especially in heat, steel mixes with oxygen and you get either forge scale or rust. These are not very strong and will ruin the weld if they’re in it. Physically removing these will not guarantee you will be able to prevent more from forming. That requires an atmosphere in the forge perfectly neutral between reducing and oxidizing, and a hammer blow almost before it touches regular air again. Your time frame for that is so narrow that it takes someone with the skill and experience of our instructor to pull it off. No beginner could ever hope to do so.
Thankfully, most forge welding is done with the assistance of flux. The composition of flux varies by tradition and technological level, but the purpose is to chemically break down the oxides into a form that is driven out of the weld gap when the hammer strikes. We used borax. You had to apply it at orange heat so what the moisture in the product didn’t interfere with its adhesion to the surface of the steel. It would melt into a texture that visually resembled a glaze on the surface. Once in the forge, we had to bring it up to a bright yellow heat, just shy of burning.
Yes, you can burn steel in a coal forge. I kept calling that temperature ‘sparkling’ because you got a spray of bright yellow sparks raining off the metal like a sparkler. This is bad. You’ve ruined the material. It might just be the surface, or it might not, but you’ve also gotten it to a temperature where the crystal grains inside the steel grow too large and it gets brittle. There is no fixing that in the forge. It’s scrap metal fit only for the foundry. Cut it off and try again.
Anyway, for welding, if you flirt with burning but keep shy of it, you can pull it out and create the largest burn hazard in the class. You see, all that hot flux and oxide slurry within the gap between the pieces you want to weld has to get out of there. You drive it out with a hammer blow. When you do, you send yellow-hot slurry flying in all directions. So the protocol was to call out “Welding!” before that hammer blow. And I’ve been struck by the sparks flying out from two forges over when our industrial mechanic friend set one of his welds. Thankfully I’d grabbed a leather apron when the burn hazard was discussed, so I was unhurt.
You would then re-flux at orange and get it back in the fire before it cooled too much. Maintaining heat over time improved the weld, so letting it cool was only done when checking the weld. The key indicator is differential cooling. If the two sides changed color at the same time while cooling, the weld was good. If one darkened faster, the weld was bad.
We learned three different welds whose names escape me, but whose processes do not. You see, I was actually very good at forge welding. The reason was that it was all about process and managing temperature. You didn’t need heavy-handed hammer blows, in fact, you wanted lighter strikes on the first few rounds of forging. So my less stout arm was not a handicap at getting the technique down. And yes, we made chain. When the instructor said that chain was traditionally made in sets of three, I switched from a two-link chain as my goal to a three-link. The reason chain was made in links of three was simple – Apprentices would made individual links all day long, filling up barrels with unconnected links. The next guy up would then make links connecting pairs of those. These short chains would get passed up to the guys with more experience wrangling longer chain. And sooner or later you got to the finisher to linked all the sub-chains together.
While I probably only rate apprentice in skill, I still had a goal to have interlocked links of chain, so I made a length of three. Just to honor tradition.
And that was it. By lunchtime, we were done with the techniques. Afternoon on day four was free for whatever projects we wanted. Several of us made spoons. I had set out to do so since day two after one of my failed leaves ended up resembling a spoon more than a leaf. That one was the one that flew off while I was working. What I hadn’t mentioned was that it flew off on day four while I was working to turn the rest of the stock into a handle. Like with the second bottle opener, I ended up having to turn the stock around and spreading the other end to make the head of the spoon. The original neck was already heavily tapered, so I curled it into a decorative end.
Fine welds, and my apprentice piece.
So on day four, I made yet another bottle opener (the first forge welding project), a flat-head screwdriver (the second welding project), a length of chain, a spoon, and a doodle in steel I’m calling a snake.
So, in the end, I had a decent collection of ironmongery, and my smithing glove had turned quite dingy.
I’m not kidding about the smithing glove. On day one I blistered the palm of my hammer hand, so the instructor recommended finding either a batting glove or a golf glove, as these were designed for use with a closed fist and wouldn’t impede dexterity while protecting my hand from the friction. I also went and superglued the sore and covered it with a band-aid to prevent it getting worse even under the glove. Anyway, here’s the collection:
The Dexter Smithing Glove belongs to me.
In all, I rather enjoyed myself, once I got over the bouts of frustration at my tiredness when lifting the hammer felt darn near impossible. But still, I learned a great deal, made actual functional items, and most importantly of all, found out that I could actually make it through a week of hammering. To be honest, I think I swung a hammer more in those four days than in the rest of my life up to that point.
I am enrolled in the bladesmithing class later this month, and will have another update on the arts of moving steel after that.
We didn’t make pliers, but This was the instructor for my class. We did cover the skills required to actually do what’s in this video, and if I were ambitious, I could do it.
Oof I’m breaking out in a sweat just watching that.
They did edit out the reheats.
Comments like this are why you will always be a seconder. Firsting on your own article should be the ultimate boss move, and you instead end up embarrassing yourself.
Leave this stuff to the professionals, kid.
*furiously takes notes*
This is great UCS. Is this a local class? Through a community college?
Not local to me, not a community college.
These guys
Awesome article, UCS. Thanks for the detailed write up and pictures.
You’re welcome.
Very cool!
Many years ago, I wanted to get into blacksmithing. My great-grandfather was an immigrant blacksmith, and I believe he trained my grandfather as well. They branched out into vehicle and heavy mining machinery repair, eventually shifting into automotive repair and machining and body work by the 1920s. I remember the garage that they had built together still had the pulleys and shafts in the ceiling that would have been attached by wide leather belts to the power source–a steam engine in the back, or later, an electric motor.
My maternal grandfather also was an auto/machinery mechanic, so this kind of thing is really in my blood.
Over the years, I still haven’t built the blacksmithing forge (nor even taken so much as a class in it), but I have put together a small machine shop at home and continue metalworking in other forms.
Ventillation and non-flammable flooring are the two things I highly recommend for making a forge.
My father picked up an entire smithing setup at a storage auction when I was a kid. He messed around with it for years, and eventually got good enough to teach boy scouts the basics. He loved it, but as soon as my parents divorced he went deep into gunsmithing and never looked back.
I think my brother still has the anvil.
Nice article, and something Ive always wanted to learn. A friend-of-a-friend is a farrier, and with blacksmithery makes his own custom horse shoes.
“Now, coal isn’t the most enthusiastic of fuels. ”
Fun fact- the some of the largest municipal boilers used to make steam to generate your electricity are initially lit with layers of newspaper.
The instructor said they used to use newspaper, but the pieces would get drawn up into the vents. So they switched to charcoal.
*they used to use newspaper at the school, but…
Pulverized Coal (PC) or Fluid Bed (FBC) boilers are all fancy with natural gas ignition.
Old skool spreader-stokers or traveling grate units get lit with w/e is at hand. Newspaper, toilet paper, old pallets….
Even on some older PC boilers, they’d light the oil-fired ignitors (and sometimes the PC burner itself) with a giant Q-tip looking torch with a bunch of oil soaked rags on the end of a long pipe.
Going OT: we found put today we close on our house March 4.
It will be exactly 1 week short of 9 months on homelessness.
S/put/out/
Shot put?
Bully!
No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
The sad man
Behind the First
And my dreams
aren’t as empty
as my conscience seems…
to be
BEHIND THE FIRST
Bless your heart.
Dude, you took a couple of classes and made all that stuff? You’re about 40,000 years ahead of me technogically.
Except that I can code. And that won’t matter once diversity, equity, and social justice have forced us back into a new dark ages.
I’m sure you could make similar stuff if you took the class.
Well, I hope I can join your tribe in North America Pax Medieval.
Yeah, I’m gonna be completely useless when Dark Ages II: Non-Electric Boogaloo gets here.
Escape from New York Dark Ages II Whale Oil Rebirth.
landwhale oil?
John ain’t here, man.
Thanks UCS! I really enjoyed your write up and what a cool new hobby.
You’re welcome.
Now I need to find a spot to actually put together a forge.
“You’re gonna need a bigger house.”
But I’m only a year from paying off this one!
. . . okay . . .
“In a year, you’re gonna need a bigger house.”
Better?
Cool article, UCS. Looks like an expensive hobby, though.
Who am I kidding, all hobbies are expensive.
If you practice enough, you can make your own tongs and hammers. Fuel and metal costs… yeah that would add up fast.
Writing’s pretty cheap as hobbies go.
And iron dildos, amirite?
I wouldn’t know.
Anything is a dildo if you are brave enough, Steely Dan!
I mean, do I even need to say it?
I mean, I’m still going to say it. GAY.
Hope your tetanus shots are up to date.
‘murican made anvils ain’t cheap.
That was a recurring topic of discussion at the class.
No worries, he’s not making anything out of wood.
The Spousal Unit used to complain about how expensive my electronics and photography hobbies were. Then I said to her, “So you’d rather I restored old cars? Rode motorcycles? Bought antiques? Built experimental airplanes from scratch? Kept a 20-year-old mistress from the local University?”
Suddenly, my electronics hobby started looking downright frugal.
It doesn’t matter how frugal the hobby if the money isn’t there.
*looks at budget*
🙁
The money’s not the problem. The perception is the problem.
Recently the missus asked why I had so many guns. I asked her why she had some many pairs of shoes and handbags. The conversation was over.
Actually I don’t have many guns (left) but a lot of folks think any and all guns are interchangeable. I’ve given a number of guns away to kids/grandkids/friends
Glibs After Dark.
https://archive.md/bO4ga
#1’s ass could bring you to tears.
You didn’t even make a ‘buns of steel’ joke?
https://archive.md/sqZC5/390760786622431dd8322963815adbf65fd40c01.jpg
I saw one of the greatest asses of my life yesterday in the wild. Some nice tight workout pants.
I took Mom to her doctor appointment today. The doc walked in and all I could thing of was “Q would love this”. 44EEE? I don’t know, not a big boob fan. All I know was that it was hard to keep looking her in the face.
“Hey! My stethoscope is up here!”
“Yeah it is.” /end leering mode
picz plz
And we thought the BBC pidgin was bad?
https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1481012609121882112?t=SPVNAwf7pOaJumS7GqKWGA&s=19
So cool!
I think I may need to learn this.
That’s some heavy duty equipment. Your products look pretty darn good to me. I can see that blacksmiths had to be strong plus artistic and talented.
Now I think I may have to start a fund to take care of all those young Chinese girls that are making the tools and equipment for the big box stores. Someone has to think of their future after their bodies wear out from hammering all the heavy things.
Someone has to think of their future after their bodies wear out from hammering all the heavy things.
Insert HM’s leering pic here.
The CCP would just euthanizes those that age out of the factories and steal your donations to build concentration camps for Uyghurs and ghost cities.
LOL re: Stacy Abrams
Her partisan blather is familiar but that was a nice dig.
me-ooww
Awesome work UCS
Great stuff, UCS!
When did people get outside lives? Nothing here, 3 people on the Zoom.
I’m almost proud of you all.
There’s something very satisfying about making well-crafted objects by hand, whether they’re useful or solely (I won’t say “merely”) decorative, though I hasten to add that I’ve never attempted anything nearly as difficult and physically taxing as this process. I’m impressed by what you were able to accomplish starting from square one in just four days, and I’m looking forward to hearing about your further adventures. It’s inspiring me to…go back to knitting again./couch potato crafter
I’ve been eyeing my knitting and crochet needles again. If I retire to a colder climate, I’m going to need sweaters.
Never thought about doing this but I’m impressed with your dedication and what you managed to learn, UCS.
Looks really cool. I’m looking forward to the field trip I arranged in April for the Men’s Fellowship group to visit a local blacksmith shop.
Color me unsurprised.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nih-unearth-more-grant-violations-by-wuhan-lab-collaborator-ecohealth-alliance
The deuce, you say!
*fades in, fades out*
Mazzy Star fan?
You best never, ever, give me any shade for linking country guys. I had to look up what a Mazzy Star was. Considering this exists, I’m not even sure if I know you anymore.
*drunk*
I don’t like Tom Cotton but this was clever.
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/01/12/chuck-schumer-was-just-murdered-on-the-senate-floor-tom-cottons-speech-against-nuking-the-filibuster-was-as-good-as-it-gets-video/
That was a sick burn. Kuddos to Cotton.
Needz moar machining!
Really cool, UCS. I look forward to articles journaling your machining journey. Combining the two would be a total boss move.
That would definately require a workshop.
The only thing among these items that could be improved with my current machining skills would be squaring off the tip of the screwdriver to make it line up better with the screw.
Bar “reform” led by law schools. Guess what wasn’t sidestepped?
https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2022/01/oregon-supreme-court-approves-dropping-bar-exam-requirement-adding-options-for-new-lawyers.html
Thank you for your condolences the other day. You going back and re-posting those comments of mine was very nice. You’re a good dude.
MikeS, I’m glad to have met you years ago when you passed through the Twin Cities and we met up with Tundra and Pope Jimbo somewhere in Maple Grove.
I offer you my sincere and heart-felt condolences on the passing of your mother. She really is now in a better place than we are.
I hope we meet again. Virtual hugs in the meantime.
My belated condolences here as well. I lost my mom very, very slowly, so I can’t imagine how hard it would have been for the loss to be so sudden.
That seems dumb.
To become a licensed engineer you need to do what amounts to an internship for 4 years (after your degree) and then take a massive exam on top of it. Also be endorsed by 3 current professionals, demonstrated projects, etc… If you can’t pass the test you probably shouldn’t be licensed anyway. Lots of incompetent engineers out there, at leats in my experience. I’m sure law is no different.
Great article.
*Points to avatar*
I dont recall hearing about these attacks before – maybe Swiss posted about them re: Catalonia
https://twitter.com/josepalay/status/1480947545836765186?t=Z89LphERz1SRu1X_Vp4qsw&s=19
Wow. Good thing that could never happen over here. ?
Good morning, LCDR, ‘bodru, Stinky & Sean – and HS, if you’re still awake and around.
Good Morning GT. Planning on a low drama day?
I was 1 for 2 for getting docs rejected yesterday, so while i am happy, i am also frustrated.
I certainly hope so! Not much more I can do to prepare for this coming Tuesday, when I have to post the payroll with everyone’s raises AND quarterly/semiannual incentives – and do so pronto after the Monday MLK holiday.
I wish you a NON-frustrating drama-free day.
I don’t recall them now, might have been aware then but the various terrorist attacks tend to blend together with time.
“Small Island In Northern England Looking For Landlord To Run 300-Year-Old Pub… And Serve As ‘King’’”
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/small-island-northern-england-looking-landlord-run-300-year-old-pub-and-serve-king
Anybody here want to volunteer? It could be the beginning of Libertarianstan, I’d do it myself but I’m too surly to run a pub.
Looks like a perfect gig for lobot. I’d go there to pay homage if I were actually permitted to travel.
I nominate Swiss.
Go for the drinks, stick around for narrowed gazes.
Here’s more info: https://democracy.barrowbc.gov.uk/documents/s7281/future%20management%20arrangements%20piel%20island.pdf
UCS:
Thank you for a most excellent article. This is something i would love to try when i have the free time.
MikeS:
My condolences with your mom. That cant be easy, I am so sorry.
You’re welcome for the article.
The up-front costs can be daunting And there’s apparently a lot of chaff on the market in terms of gear you don’t want to be saddled with.
Good morning, to you, too, U! I’m sorry it took me so long to add my appreciation for the article (above)… but I’d been watching Forged in Fire. ?
After two more rounds of going head-to-head against Ben Abbott, the master remains undefeated on FiF, so you have your work cut out for you,
(That was phrased poorly. Two more rounds of contestants going head-to-head against Abbott, but none could beat him.)
I’m afraid everything up there is mild steel and isn’t hardenable.
So maybe after your next class. Will it likewise be four consecutive days?
It will be only three days.
While I’m confident I will be able to complete a small knife in three days with instruction, I doubt I’ll be able to complete a large one in three hours left to my own devices.
Hey UCS, if you dont mind, what was the name of the class?
This one was Beginning Blacksmithing.
sorry ‘beginner blacksmithing’.
I’m not awake yet
To bring an old topic (from yesterday) back up:
“There is a knife hanging over our heads, as there is for every parent of a kid under 5. The text alert will come, or the phone will ring with a call from school. An exposure. A symptom. Come get them. Come get them and stay home.”
I get where everyone is coming from, including Trashy who says it isn’t a problem to spend more time with your kids, however, it is a big disruption to your life to have no one to watch your kid for several days when your boss thinks you ought to be at work. The most annoying thing is, our daycare is now getting letters form the state saying even if kids test negative they can’t come back for a week, just due to potential exposure, not even any actual illness. That is what is crazy. I have no problem telling work to fuck itself if my son needs me, but when he’s not actually sick, and the state is sticking its nose into my business, which doesn’t actually affect anyone else and other people who are insane and so afraid of the sniffles… I think we’ve had 4 COVID ‘exposures’ at his daycare now, which is like a whole month of care I’m paying for and getting nothing. /rant
But yes, getting notifications at 2 AM (and actually reading/responding to them) and saying ‘woe is me’ because your kid can’t get vaxxed? Completely insane too.
I am with this guy at this point, my whole family is feeling left out (the Bee warning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfR7Qfhy_XI
Oof! Thanks for taking one for the team, UCS! Takes me back to my only semester of metalwork when I was 12/13. I dropped my newly forged cold chisel on the floor and it broke in half. Instructor says “Start over!” They never explained about oxidization and such. Retired welders and mechanics padding their pensions. I hated him but I hated everything except boobs back then. Good for you, branching out.
It is a poor instructor who does not explain the essential concepts.
Bored government school teachers. When you described splash it took me back aways. One guy got some slag in his shoe because wearing running shoes in shop class was proforma at the the time. He led us on a merry dance! Seriously though, they could have incorporated the physics and chemistry of it all and turned out more well rounded individuals. The kids in shop classes were expected to serve the rest of them at that teacher mill.
UCS – I made it through day 1 and a bit of day 2. Terrific stuff, I’ll no doubt finish it later today while sitting in the doctor’s waiting room. Thanks.
*thunbs up*
You really did leave that glove there, didn’t you?
The only glove I left behind was owned by the school to begin with.
I took the Dexter Smithing Glove with me, since I owned it.
Why Doctor? Hope all is well my pipe-smoking long hair!
Neurologist, keeping tabs on senior moments and such. Nothing serious, thanks.
#metoo
I wish that we still had that “Foxfire” series of books. Alas, lost in the great flood. They showed how to build a forge and how to make charcoal. If I knew then what I’ve learned now…
https://thehill.com/regulation/589434-fda-deregulates-french-dressing
uh….good?
For the protection of the people
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1481382427108929540
LOL, NO.
As seen in Teen Vogue?
We’ve become the civilization of pre-K. I don’t know what else to say.
It occurs to me that I HAVE worked with hot metal before, albeit briefly. Took a few rounds of a jewelry casting class at a local studio a few years ago, wherein you had to melt your silver right before shooting the molten metal into your mold using a centrifuge. Just one short step in the entire process, of course.
Sadly, it doesn’t look as if they’ve been offering that class since the COVIDiocy started. ?
We didn’t do casting because it requires more space per student for safety.
https://www.nj.com/bergen/2022/01/ex-starbucks-manager-says-she-was-fired-after-barista-spit-in-cops-drink-lawsuit-says.html
“A former manager for Starbucks says she was fired from her job at the store in Park Ridge after a barista she supervised was arrested for allegedly spitting in a police officer’s drink and her bosses blamed her for mishandling the incident.”
My local Starbucks. I think I will avoid it in the future.
I’m enjoying the assaults on Starbucks.
Woke…broke…etc.
I’m unsure of who to hate hate, anymore.
That’s double hate, by-the-by.