Quote from Slamfire

Yeah I get it - lots of metal... big ass hunk of it to work with...

I think the market is there though... there's loads and loads of new age survivalist hipsters who call themselves "Bushcrafters". What they don't get is it's illegal virtually everywhere to cut down a tree - unless it's your private property and general live on unincorporated land (you need a permit to cut down a tree on your own land almost everywhere). Most buy the gear and never use it, but hey, paying customers right ?

I use mine for yard work (lopping off shit) and chopping firewood into kindling as I like to sit outside in the cold months at Casa Del Slam with a nice fire. I like the light workout as well - I need all I can get.

The one thing that I was VERY surprised to learn when I started doing this is that even if the metal is white hot and throwing sparks from being overheated, you still need to swing as hard as you can just to move it a tiny little bit.

Quote from Slamfire

Dannes - ever considered getting into the axe game ? I've noticed that all axes manufactured in the USA are, well to put it accurately, are fucking pieces of shit. I have a hand forged one from Sweden - a Gransfors Bruk) - it's magnificent. There was a time when almost all axes in the US were really excellent, but now the only chance you have is estate sales some one made in the 60s. The shit the sell at Home Depot and the like are not only unsharpened, they are even not ground halfway. They are utterly useless for any task except using the back side as a hammer.

Yes, I am getting into axes. The problem is power. For example, I got myself some 1.5"x1.5" 4140.

I've got the hand tools to drift the eye on the axe. But if I do it by hand, it could take me 1 or 2 hours just to drive the initial punch and the drift through. THEN I can really start forging on the axe.

Even forging them out of premade ball peen hammer heads, it still takes me an hour or 2 to do the whole thing, where as for a knife I can do it in 20-30 minutes. Though there isn't nearly as much grinding on the axe heads.

So that's why I'm building the treadle hammer. It's a giant post suck into the ground that I can hang a spring and sledge hammer from. Add on a chain and a foot pedal, and I can stomp it and get a lot more power compared to doing it by hand. We'll see how it goes. It's fucking cold here so I'm going to wait a full week on the concrete to set.

Thank you so much!

I swear I'll get a picture of the second any day now. I've been stuck cutting, chopping, and moving probably ~6 cords of wood. And I've got 3 more trees to cut down and process, too.

But I did get a thing up for a treadle hammer:

SpringsKnives on Instagram: "With an outdoor forge, my heavy hammer options are limited. So I'm building a treadle hammer."

2 Likes, 0 Comments - SpringsKnives (@springsknives) on Instagram: "With an outdoor forge, my heavy hammer options are limited. So I'm building a treadle…

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Quote from Escapegoat

We all know that this thread is just another case of inbred bumpkins arguing that their votes should count more than the votes of normal people.

They should. That's what made this country the greatest on the planet.

As more and more time goes on, I've been convinced that Democracy **IS** the worst form of government.

Quote from mrfish

Again, of all the possible explanations, why even involve a creator? You've never seen a creator or anything created, why is it your go-to next choice? Because you associate life with will? You'd have to be outside of life to see will as anything but a biological product. Your thought experiment should be from outside of the system, not within it.

I've seen many creators. We are all made in his image, right?

Quote from storch

So nothing supernatural exists?

We are therefore the product of chemistry, energy and cobbled together to function on this planet?

God made the world. But most of the world saw the consequences of certain behavior, and chose to do the opposite where good things DON'T happen.

So we are lucky that our fathers were smart.

Quote from storch

The product of blind chance? Are we engineered? A little of both?

Not chance. Intelligent design. Not by god, but by our forefathers. They were smart enough to see what worked in the world and design a future where we had more of that.

astromech After doing quite a bit of research, the only people I see setting up bottle jack presses use compressed air to speed things up. The bottle jacks aren't fast enough without the air assist to be useful.

So what I did do was get a kit to assemble a Treadle Hammer. Basically a foot stomp swings a sledge hammer with a spring on top. I've got to build the stand, but I've got to figure out if I want to wheel it over my anvil, or build it's own anvil.

Past that, there's a custom kitchen knife out the door to a famous floridian. I'll get better pictures when it stops raining.

Quote from Holden

So as a fellow engineer, you are probably familiar with an if-then statement.

You apparently never took an economics class.

Creating more trained engineers doesn't create more engineering jobs. Nor does it make anything else better. We'd be trading Fine Arts majors flipping burgers for Engineering majors flipping burgers.

Quote from Holden

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

I doubt 1 billion students (out of 300 million Americans) would choose engineering over the other options.

I am just saying if we are going to have the loan program, let’s get our money’s worth and not have a bunch of “Furry critters” PhDs.

One path is subsidized. The other paths do not. Which path will the student choose?

One path gets free government money. The other paths aren't funded by the government. Which path will Colleges expand?

Being an Engineer myself, I'm fully aware of what STEM stands for. Our current problem isn't government intervention in liberal arts degrees. It's government intervention IN ALL DEGREES.

Quote from Holden

If we are going to do anything about the fed student loan program, it should be limited to STEM degrees.

And to qualify, those programs should be limited to classes that are actually science and technology core classes.

And then we'd have a billion engineers running around without the slightest clue.

Pull all federal funding of colleges, of loans, and of guarantees. For everything.

Quote from Holden

Not in greenbacks… when the defense department hands over the funds for another dozen F-35, they don’t handover a duffel bag full of bills, they give the Lockheed rep a chit and the chit authorizes somebody to electronically say “we have the money”

Don’t you remember what George Bailey asked of his customers during a run on the Building and Loan?

that’s the cash supply in a nutshell.

Yes, in greenbacks. But not in greenbacks in circulation. Banks trade in Million Dollar Bills. But you can't get one. They are ONLY used for bank to bank debts. If you "heisted" the bank to bank transfer, you wouldn't be able to buy a coke with your ~50 one-million-dollars bills.

The bills exist. They are real and printed up. They aren't digital. They are traded. But they are trying to change this.

Quote from Heroprotagonist

Most modern currencies are a stable store of value for only a few decades at a time before they get re-invented one way or another. The dollar is no exception to this, even prior to 1913.

What do you mean? Can you give an example?

Quote from Holden

About 90% of dollars are digital now.

As far as I am aware, they are not. Most transactions are handled "digitally", but at the end of the week they still even up with real bills. I.E. Chase owes Ameribank $200 million, so chase sends over the money.

At this point any doctor recommending an mRNA vaccine should have their license revoked, and be criminally charged.

Quote from mrfish

“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.”

― Edgar Allan Poe

I actually like sleep, I just have a weird cycle. I don't like the sun too much. I want to, but the brightness irritates me. Rainy days are fine. I have more energy at night. I get up reasonably early to work either way, I'm just more tired than I should be.

I can take pain, fatigue, infection, heart break, sickness and torture. What I can't take is lack of sleep.

I love sleep. Nothingness followed by waking up and feeling good in the morning. It doesn't get better than that.

Quote from Slamfire

Severe Yankeeism is incurable (and insufferable). People from NYC, Boston and Philly are pretty hopeless.

Ha, get fucked! You're just jealous that you don't have the balls to chuck batteries at Santa Claus, too.

I found that the brake lines on my Mercedes built Dodge have different nut / flare styles at different ends of EACH brake line.

Not a single jury in the world could convict me for what I'd do to that engineer.

Quote from Bronk

And the mechanics still would have hung an engineer if give the opportunity,

If I'm ever at a party, and someone casually says that they were an engineer for my Truck...

That person is taking an involuntary flight out the nearest window.