Geoff Keyes

You can also add copper to a blade by warming it up (350-400 F, you don't want to change the temper too much) and scrubbing it with a brass or copper bristle brush. It give cool highlights. Geoff

I don't know about the air conversion. I like mechanical hammers, and this one was probably fine for doing whatever it was intended for. I'd bet that they sharpened mining tools with it, and maybe other light work. As an artifact, I would not change it very much, if at all. A motor mount (1 - 2 hp) and some sort of slack belt clutch and keep it simple and reversable. It strikes me as an example of industrial ingenuity, making do with what you have. I'd love to see it run, but I would not try too hard to make it into something it's not. Geoff

Sorry, Little Giant and Myers Brothers (mostly the same company) built Little Giant hammers. That arrangement of a coil spring in an "A" frame was a Little Giant thing Though others used it as well. Yours looks like it was based on the idea, but perhaps without a model to work from (there is no adjustment of the load on the spring, for instance). Yours appears to built from off the shelf parts (like the top bearings) rather than designed castings. I suspect that it was built on site by a smith who knew that hammers existed, but could not get the company to spring for a commercial tool. This is the one that I built in 2000, still running strong Geoff

Basically these. When you lift the top gravity drops the lock into position, lift up and push a lever and it folds down. The set we bought is rated at 500lbs, I think the end of the cabinet will fail first, though I reenforced everything pretty well. It worked a treat for dinner last night. Geoff

It looks like a home build to me, but a pretty well thought out one. The toggle is related to a LG, it probably was set up with a slack belt clutch off a jack shaft. The peddle linkage is missing, and if I were going to run it I would want to figure out some sort of brake, but most of it is there. It's probably 25 or 30 lbs, the anvil is pretty light for very much more. Cool build, do you have any history? Geoff

As far as I can tell, the wood is fine, though you might want to continue to discard the swollen area to be absolutely safe. " Is Mistletoe Poisonous? There has long been concern about the toxicity of mistletoe. There’s a long history detailing the side effects of mistletoe poisoning. But those poisonings involve European mistletoe, not American mistletoe. Studies have shown that few people have symptoms after eating the berries or leaves of American mistletoe, and no patients observed by these studies died. One study found a very small amount of patients had stomach upset after eating a few leaves. European mistletoe seems to be more toxic. While it has been used medicinally, highly concentrated doses can cause severe illness. Mistletoe Poisoning All parts of American mistletoe contain a toxic protein called phoratoxin. Most times, if someone ingests a small amount of American mistletoe, they won’t have any symptoms. Those that do have mistletoe poisoning symptoms usually have gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea and vomiting. "

This is a project we have been thinking about for a while. It's a swing up counter extension for parties and such. I had a big chunk of an oak countertop I had salvaged somewhere (I think I've moved it at least 3 times). We bought the hinges and wrapped the oak in Ipe, with mosaic pins over the top of the screws. It weighs a ton, but it gives us another 3 feet of counter, just in time for Friendsgiving on Saturday.

The last one I think is a WWII theater knife. The stacked plexi and brass handle is often seen in those knives made in the Pacific theater. The blade might be a cut down/broken/reworked bayonet. There is so little of it left that it's hard to tell. The larger blade with the fuller resembles a Kindjal, perhaps another one that got broken at some point. If you found it in Georgia (the country) that would make some sense. Just my .02

As I said on your previous design, the handle looks like it would create hot spots if used for any length of time. The tip is not good for much, IMHO, not pointy enough for any kind of penetration, even if it has an edge. If you squared the blade it would chop just as well. A rounded sharp tip would give it a bolo look, but since we don't really know what you want to use it for, it's hard to know if it would help. Blades are tools, built for certain purposes. If they don't do the job, they end up in a box, or in a ditch. check this, for instance, in the same visual area as yours. Or this, Or this Geoff

I use a pencil and paper. When I'm feeling sporty I use a ruler and set of french curves. Geoff

Interesting choice of steels. I'm a bit concerned about S5 in the mix, and you won't get much visible pattern, since they are all high chrome steels. 80crv2 is like 5160 in that it doesn't like to weld to itself. I'm guessing that S5 may have the same problem. I won't even get into the "traditional" argument.. Do you have a budget in mind? Geoff

I got this color with just a few minutes in strong tea and instant coffee. As you can see, it went from stark white to an aged brown. Geoff

One of my favorite stories from Lewis and Clark is the tale of the iron boat. Lewis (if memory serves) commissioned an iron boat frame for the expedition. The plan was to cover it in hides and dope the seams with pine pitch. They made a trial run in the East and it worked fine. The thing to remember is that they knew less about the environment of the West than modern man knows about the back side of the moon. When they got up toward the headwaters of the Missouri river, they decided it was time to deploy the iron boat. They camped for a couple of weeks, assembling the boat, hunting moose, tanning the hides, and collecting pine pitch. The last thing turned out to be a problem. There were lots of Fir trees, but no Pines to speak of, and none of them provided pine tar. They decided to try and make do with Fir resin. They got the boat all built and the hides on and doped up with Fir pitch. They launched the boat and it went about 100 yards and all of the seams failed and the iron boat sank like a rock. The frame is still in the river. No pine trees, who knew? Geoff

Laakh appears to be Lac, as in lacquer, the real bug based stuff. That makes sense, but more work than I want to go through for this piece. I have some old American pieces that are cemented into the handles (sliver and ivory) and when you heat it, it smells like pine and bees wax (and sometimes animal dung). Still holding strong after 100+ years Geoff

I found an old thread (Tai Goo is part of it, that's how old) about cutlers resin recipe's, but I'm wondering if there is any new info around. I have a piece of some sort of antelope horn (Springbok I think) that is mostly hollow. I'd like to fill it, but epoxy will be heavy and produce a fair bit of heat as it cures. What else could I use? I've considered bedding pellets, which are compressed sawdust. Break those down and combine with wax? For the area around the tang I would use epoxy, but for the rest, something a bit lighter to fill up the space is what I'm after. Thanks g