am I wasting my time

GSG Spaketh Thusly:

There's a lot more to blacksmithing than just beating iron.

-- Bill H. Member VRWC

Molon Labe!

[my "reply to" address is real]

Damn, next you'll be telling me that farriers aren't welcome here on account of their forging is limited to horseshoes.

Tom Stovall wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@wt.net:

In your case we'll make an exception. :-)

Hey, At least i got a response! Are we all a bit touchy this week? Try or for more informed sources on casting information. I think the group would agree that "blacksmithing" implies beating materials into shape with a hammer rather than pouring it into molds. Casting discussions are O.T. don't you think? Oh who cares, maybe we can get into animal husbandry next week.

Glen G.

Damn, that always was my problem.

Hey ! I'm the guy who collects beryllium and slices gas cylinders open. Call me a bloody foolish idiot if you like, but I'm not your mom.

All I mean is that melting metals is hard work. It's too hard to be wasting time getting it wrong. Learn something before you light up, then maybe you'll get to the useful aspects of it rather quicker.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

hey Big E, Soo, yer saying I am a foolish troll who doesn't know jack about the history and traditions of blacksmithing and iron manufacture? Man things can get out of hand quickly around here. For the record, my teacher/mentor was a farrier. I have been a working smith since 1971. I have shown my work nationally in galleries and museums. I also work in gold, silver, red metals, aluminum, wood and stone. I know how to refine and alloy non ferocious metals. I have made iron from black sand and charcoal. I can make a horseshoe from barbed wire and lap weld in my sleep. I just hate casting. Maybe we should kill this thread eh and get back to the shop talk.

Glen G.

I'm in favor of that. This is a friendly place and I want to keep it that way. Some of us forge, some weld, some hammer, some cast. We all like hot metal, some just like it hotter than others:-) We can all still be friends.

Think of it this way, blacksmiths work on hot metal and Its the machinist that work on cold metal:-) and some of them still have to hammer to fit:-)

go in peace and may the force be with you, Al

You appeared to be. My apologies if I am wrong.

I didn't say that.

Sometimes I over-react - my choice of words could have been more diplomatic - my apologies for that as well.

I've changed the subject

Why do you hate casting so much?

Are there any other jobs which the blacksmiths on here hate? Me personally, I detest digging holes for fence posts, and welding overhead. Oh, and hitting my thumb with the hammer

-- Big Egg Hack to size. Bash to fit. Weld to join. Grind to shape. Paint to cover. My name is not "news". If you reply to that address, I won't get it

Me too. Please see my other post.

I hope so. Any time I seem to be going off on one, please feel free to tell me to "STFkU"[1], as a friend would.

Hey! I resemble that remark.

-- Big Egg [1] [1] Shut the F*** up. Hack to size. Bash to fit. Weld to join. Grind to shape. Paint to cover. My name is not "news". If you reply to that address, I won't get it

snippage

I hate it when the flux sets my beard on fire. Really, which hand do you use to beat the flames out? The one with the red-hot workpiece, or the one with the four pound hammer?

Charly

I know how to refine and alloy non ferocious metals.

I've never heard of non ferocious metals ........they can all jump up and bite you if'n you ain't careful ... ;-)

LOL When I am on fire, the world stops spinning untill I'm put out!!

Both hands would be empty right now! Put out the floor after the face. I dont want to damage my hollywood good looks you know :) Les

GSG snipped-for-privacy@att.net

wrt least wandering

One of the deals is that when metalworking hit the high road in Western society, 1800, give or take, iron casting came of age: metal pounders needed metal founders. The older, nobler (of course) art of the forge got companioned with a new sibling, iron casting. Casters were sought out by those interested in "machining" metal (a new word, then), wood patterns were exchanged/loaned for lathes, drills, planers (millers came on scene a lot later). It got so that the 19th century became the age of cast iron. FM (there's nothing better to kill a thread than a purported history lesson)

Actually, I don't really hate casting. I just prefer a more direct method of working. I even have a secret desire to cast iron before i die. I went to an Iron Casting conference at the Johnson Atelier a year and a half ago. It was really quite fantastic. There are these groups of folks all over the country playing with small cupola furnaces. It's kind of like the revival of blacksmithing that took hold in the early

70's. Personally I saw more exciting shit happening at that conference than anything I have seen at an ABANA thing in the last 15 years or so. As a kid i worked in a commercial almn/brnz foundry and mostly what I remember is the stink of core sand and bronze fumes. Poring iron is a whole nother thing. At the conference people brought there own cupolas and gear. Size ranged from table top to 15' tall. There was a team from Japan making steel using the ancient Tatara method on a backyard scale. Some guy was demonstrating Thermite casting. Someone even brought a small Bessemer converter. Thats one Hell of a lightshow at night! Glad were all still friends. Check out the links below. Definitely some cool stuff. Glen G.

Here's some history, The first American iron foundry was the "Saugus Iron Works" it began operations in 1642! Forges and foundries were/are like brothers, separate, but each can benefit from the other. Of course I am biased towards the forging of metals as there is precious little that cannot be made by hammer and hand. The same I think can not be said for the for the foundry.

G.G.

Oh I don't know... beat me out a set of turbine blades that will withstand

1800 degrees and 50,000 rpm for two thousand hours of operation. The ones we use today are castings, lost wax method.

Charly DoT certificated Airframe,Powerplant, Electonics

Hey Charly, O.K. pour me a turbine 12 'diameter 3' thick for a hydro plant that would stay in one piece. I saw them forging these suckers at Bethlehem Steel (R.I.P.) in 1976 quite amazing. How about a shaft 30' long by 4'dia? Each process has it's place otherwise no one would bother.

GG