Kids doing fun stuff

[Erroneous_Logic]

Very cool.

[KBCraig]

While learning to make Damascus patterns, he should try his hand at Mokume-Gane, too.

[Becky Thatcher]

It's funny, I'd never heard that term until a few weeks ago, now I've heard it a few times.  We've watched a few guys on youtube make it with quarters.  Pretty cool.

[KBCraig]

It's funny, I'd never heard that term until a few weeks ago, now I've heard it a few times.  We've watched a few guys on youtube make it with quarters.  Pretty cool.

Welding temps are much lower than with ferrous metals, plus there's the difference in how non-ferrous metals anneal, compared to ferrous.

To anneal ferrous metals, you heat above the first critical temperature and then cool very slowly. To anneal non-ferrous metals like copper, brass, silver, etc., you heat above the critical temperature and then quench in water for rapid cooling.

[Tom Sawyer]

It's funny, I'd never heard that term until a few weeks ago, now I've heard it a few times.  We've watched a few guys on youtube make it with quarters.  Pretty cool.

Welding temps are much lower than with ferrous metals, plus there's the difference in how non-ferrous metals anneal, compared to ferrous.

To anneal ferrous metals, you heat above the first critical temperature and then cool very slowly. To anneal non-ferrous metals like copper, brass, silver, etc., you heat above the critical temperature and then quench in water for rapid cooling.

We were watching video and I thought the kid was annealing wrong... It appears he was right and I was wrong. 

Alchemy I tells ya!

[KBCraig]

It's funny, I'd never heard that term until a few weeks ago, now I've heard it a few times.  We've watched a few guys on youtube make it with quarters.  Pretty cool.

Welding temps are much lower than with ferrous metals, plus there's the difference in how non-ferrous metals anneal, compared to ferrous.

To anneal ferrous metals, you heat above the first critical temperature and then cool very slowly. To anneal non-ferrous metals like copper, brass, silver, etc., you heat above the critical temperature and then quench in water for rapid cooling.

We were watching video and I thought the kid was annealing wrong... It appears he was right and I was wrong. 

Alchemy I tells ya!

People who reload rifle brass know to anneal the necks after every 2-3 loads. Just set the brass on a board over a bucket of water, use a torch to heat the neck, then dump it in the water.

[Russell Kanning]

when I heard "lawn mower" I pictured "turbo"

[Tom Sawyer]

Becky got a shot of the first firing of the forge.

Johnson Industries came through for the project again with a blower, I'm guessing came out of an old truck.

[Free libertarian]

While learning to make Damascus patterns, he should try his hand at Mokume-Gane, too.

Mokume-Gane??

For a minute you took me back to a memory of  me with a mouthful of peanut butter sandwich sticking to my upper palate saying,
"(s)moke 'em (a)gain" while I was gesticulating feverishly to Lloyd to hurry up and finish rolling the second joint. 

[KBCraig]

Becky got a shot of the first firing of the forge.

Johnson Industries came through for the project again with a blower, I'm guessing came out of an old truck.

I've used everything from 12V blowers to furnace blowers to hair dryers to the outlet of vacuum cleaners. And then I did finally acquire a proper hand-cranked blower, but sold it when we moved here. The first forge I ever made (when I was 11) was a hole in the ground with the inflatable raft foot pump as a bellows.

While you can buy nut-sized coal for home heating, it doesn't have the specs you want for blacksmithing. It wouldn't hurt for him to learn to make his own charcoal, either (the main difference in the two fuels is that coal will go out without an air supply, but charcoal keeps burning).

You'll hate me for this, but....

http://www.centaurforge.com/

[Tom Sawyer]

Becky got a shot of the first firing of the forge.

Johnson Industries came through for the project again with a blower, I'm guessing came out of an old truck.

I've used everything from 12V blowers to furnace blowers to hair dryers to the outlet of vacuum cleaners. And then I did finally acquire a proper hand-cranked blower, but sold it when we moved here. The first forge I ever made (when I was 11) was a hole in the ground with the inflatable raft foot pump as a bellows.

While you can buy nut-sized coal for home heating, it doesn't have the specs you want for blacksmithing. It wouldn't hurt for him to learn to make his own charcoal, either (the main difference in the two fuels is that coal will go out without an air supply, but charcoal keeps burning).

You'll hate me for this, but....

http://www.centaurforge.com/

Yeah, we are going to seek out some different coal. We had a bucket left from the furnace project that one of the Free Stater families gave us. Lauren made charcoal, and William and I are talking about that as well.

Cool that you had blacksmithing as a hobby. That looks like a good website, but so far we are getting by on the cheap. Everything except the pipe and fittings has been free. We saw a simple forge setup they wanted 1200 bucks for.

Kind of fun to figure some of these things out by just trying it. Instead.of "painting but numbers" and following someone else's plan.

It's good just to see him trying something new. With each of these things, I notice a change, a step forward in him becoming a man. It is something in the set of his shoulders, his confidence. Ever since he was just a little guy pretending to be a man, copying my mannerisms (heaven help him).

Just trying to help counter balance the computer gaming/virtual world that most kids only have theses days.

[Russell Kanning]

just good to see the kid has hope despite his role model hahahahah

that thing looks cool .... not too short for tall people

[Tom Sawyer]

[Jim Johnson]

  
That size coal makes a much better fire.

[Tom Sawyer]

 
That size coal makes a much better fire.

We had to import it from Winchestershire!