[Bordermarch] Forge Workshop

[Lathrop, Dave]

Quo Tou et Bordermarch,

Was it Henny Penny , Chicken Little, or the Little Red Hen who believed that the sky was falling?

The forge building workshop recently turned out another butter-bean gas forge!
This particular forge was destined to go home with Lord Ricciardo Leonzo de Nicolosi.
Lord Ricciardo's new forge began as a humble Freon can. He had to massage the can with some power tools
and elbow grease to make it want to become a forge.
He also learned the fine art of bending thick metal with nothing more than a big hammer and a cheater bar.
The bent metal was used as the forge's support stand.
He constructed his venture burner from plumbing supplies and now only needs to get his gas regulator and valves to
complete the forge.

The two day workshop concluded with some hot work at the smithy.
Lord Ricciardo let the 52100 ball bearing raceways he previously cut up soak in the forge for about an hour or so.
52100 metal is very hard to work even when its red hot!
Lord Ricciardo managed to straighten out the 52100 with a big hammer, but the process of turning it into a knife or
tool was definitely going to take a bigger hammer.
He also hammered out several really nice scrolled hooks that can be used for camping or hanging meat in the smokehouse.
He gave up hammering on a big fat hardened steel bolt due to time constraints. He has plans to turn the bolt into a portable shower!

I managed to make a nail.

The next date for the forge building/blacksmithing workshop will be announced soon. We will make some forges and also work on
making some blacksmith tongs as well as some more nails.

HE Santiago