Found Dreaming

You'll have to remember they like a perfectly fitted handle, not too big, not too small,...Just right. With good indexing so blade doesn't roll. They seem to put a lot of credit to the handle, but it is about the whole knife.

very true, I didnt realize how much a handle made a difference till I made the hammer handle for the one hammer I have, after that, all hammers seem to have sucky handles and I just want to modify all of the ones I have to make them more comfortable, lol.

Wow Frank, they look wonderful

I worked on something anvil-like today. It's solid and I won't be doing anything huge on it. I might grind a flat on one side of the pin...if it will grind. ow I need to find my little furnace and get it set up as a forge. I might even forge weld some half dollars together to make some more Mokume Gane. I had too much copper in the last batch.

That wont be going anywhere, or at least I hope not, lol. If your looking for an anvil, I have plenty of pieces of RR track that I can just toss on the shaper for you to flatten the top off, and you might be able to stick that pin in the lathe to face it off or on the shaper to flatten the face of it off.

I heard that the best ones to make that with is quarters because of the composition of it and the thickness of them rather than fiddling with 50 cent pieces.

I made the first batch with quarters but I put a piece of copper in between each one so I had almost all copper with a few lines of nickel. The half dollars would probably be too much copper too. More expensive too.

I picked this pin up somewhere ?? I like it because it's compact. My Brother-in-law has some rail. For some reason my workbench and vise are buried in the back of the garage, I'll have to pull it out to the front so I can use it.

oh, ok, I have plenty of track and figured I'd offer since your semi local, or at least local compared to the rest of the guys on here, lol. Most people I see making that stuff just fuses the coins together without adding anything because the copper and everything is already in the coins evidently.

Some stuff I just finished up. I made a monkey wrench because I was needing one for a twisting wrench but couldnt find one. I just forged it out of some 3/8" round bar that I cut threads on with a die, a 3/8" heavy nut, and two railroad spikes for the jaws. I just did an upset square corner on the one spike and bent the pointy end up so it was flush, bent the pointy end of the other spike to be flush like I make my clamps, then stuck it all on the shaper to get it really flat and square, then a little bit with the drill press and it was ready to go together.
I also made this as a bit of a gag item, and to use up the last bit of coal/coke that was in the forge since I needed to empty it to clean it out, but it's a back scratcher with a bottle opener built into the other end of it, lol. I called it the ultimate tool, lol.

I like your wrench and you'll use the backscratcher as a pry bar sometime.

You have a power hacksaw don't you? There's a guy here in town that has one for $100, it doesn't have a motor and it's old and all cast iron.

yea, I have one and it's still going as strong as ever, lol. That old power hacksaw gets more use than alot of my other machines do in the shop really, lol.

The backscratcher is in the camper, so it wont get used as a prybar, and I dont think it would be strong enough to pry something up anyhow, lol. I got tired of my back itching and not being able to get it, so I made that, lol. Now I should be good to go