Is this group still alive?

Yes, it's alive. Please don't tell the trolls.

bob prohaska

Traffic's light. I check in whenever I'm doing Usenet.

I see more traffic on TheForge mailing list than here. Too man people seem to think that Guurgle Gropes == Usenet and never find groups they'd use and like.

Don't give up. Or in Henry Stamper's words, "Never give a inch!"

I lurk here too.

So Pete, did you have any blacksmithing fun while you were away?

So do I

Well, not much blacksmithing lately, but we did host a Badger Blacksmiths meeting here a couple of weeks ago. I did a number of demos and showed my "Czech firepot" mounted in a forge table, but didn't fire it up (ran out of time). I am preparing to sell off my collection of trip hammers, so I got an old style 25 Mayer Bros hammer out of the barn, hooked it up to 3 phase power and demonstrated how to evaluate one. See the youtube video I took a little later on that subject:

I have been monkeying around with Arduino microcontrollers lately for my woodgas experiments and I also demonstrated testing and calibrating thermocouples:

Oh yeh, I finally finished the medieval metal chest that I have been working on since April of 2007. I ended up spending 443 hours on it. The whole story is here:

Actually, I guess I have pretty much integrated my blacksmithing into my other metalwork. I have forged parts for various other projects needed around the farmstead (thumb for the backhoe, for instance) and for neighbors. Public demonstrations of blacksmithing start at the end of July for us.

What about you all?

Pete Stanaitis

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