[Sca-cooks] Re: [spca-wascaerfrig] Age of Iron- what fun ;-)

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> On Tuesday, September 2, 2003, at 08:29 PM, Phlip wrote:
> > At 10 PM, all the electricity went out. Unbeknownst to any of us, the
> > local
> > power company had chosen that evening for a planned power outage.
> A "planned" power outage? I've never heard of such a thing. Must be a
> rural or a northern thing.

I hadn't heard of one either, but apparently this one was scheduled so that
they could do something with equipment. I do rather wonder, though, about
the sense of shutting down all power that early on a weekend night. It would
seem to me that midnight on a weekday would make more sense, but what do I
know?

> > We had a marvelous time. Since we were near the "green coal area", and
> > I had
> Green coal is a soft coal with a lot of impurities?

Usually, yes. In this case, however, it was a polite phrase, referring to
open forges, for new and wanna-be smiths to smack some steel around. As I
mentioned on SPCA List, I hadn't heard the term before, although it made
sense in context.

> > planned to be there, and consequently had chosen my equipment to help
> > show
> > how you could get set up inexpensively,
> Was this because it was green coal? Or just that there was coal readily
> available, so you thought folks in the area might want to take
> advantage of that and get set up?

Trying to give the beginners a start on their new addiction ;-)

> > we discussed how you could set up
> > with a brake drum forge and a RR track anvil, and Aaron showed off his
> > forge, made of a defunct gas grill.
> Oh? Could you give me some more details on using a defunct gas grill as
> a forge? I've seen info on using a brake drum (it's in the Florilegium
> :-) ) but I happen to have a non-working gas grill sitting on my patio
> that I forgot to put out on the last large item garbage pickup day.

Well, I'll let you take a look at my forge at Pennsic. Basicly, all you need
for a forge is a place to burn coal/charcoal (firepot), some way to push air
at it (blower or bellows), and something to hold the entire thing together,
that won't burn. A defunct gas grill is as good a container for a firepot as
anything else, with a bit of modification.

> > (I was mostly piddling around- it was pretty cold and wet, and I'm
> > not a smith and a cook because I dislike heat- think Trimaris could
> > use a
> > smithing demo, in, say, July?) (Trimaris is the Kingdom in Florida,
> > for my
> > non-SCA friends.)
> How about Atenveldt (specifically Phoenix) in July?

Sounds good. It's cold and wet this weekend, too. Much more of this, and
I'll be growing mold where I usually get a tan.

> > We had a beautiful set up by a couple of guys doing an historical
> > reproduction of a Viking forge. They aren't SCA (yet ;-), but their
> > set up
> > was positively inspiring ;-) I WILL have a set up like that soon, from
> > paired single lung bellows, to "sand pit" forge, to stake anvils.
> Paired so when one is "inhaling" the other is "exhaling"? I assume you
> need two different people, one on each bellows? In addition to the
> smith(s)?

No, the single lung bellows are usually pretty small, and paired and joined
so that one person works the bellows and the other heats and works the
metal. And, you don't want either one inhaling the hot air- or do you know
what happens to wood and leather heated to 1500 degrees fahrenheit or so?
;-)

This type of bellows was used for a very long time, and there are variations
using hollow pipes and pig bladders and the like- all you need is something
to push the air. (Wonder if it might be worthwhile to hire a politician?
Preheated air, even... ;-)

It wasn't until the very end of period that the double lung bellows were
invented, and according to Master Wilelm, the blacksmiths got the concept
from the goldsmiths. Basicly the change was very simple and minor- the
double lung bellows were set up as two single lungers, stacked, instead of
side by side. Later, of course, once the propeller principle was developed,
you got blowers like my squirrel cage blower.

> > Pulled up to pay at the the tollbooth at the Massachusetts Turnpike,
> > and got
> > rear-ended by a semi....sigh. Another set of lights- makes my
> > 5th....told me
> > roommate, Rob, to get me two sets- figure I might as well have a
> > spare, the
> > way I'm going through threm....
> We're just glad you weren't hurt. I assume the trucker (or truck
> company) is paying for this?

Yeah, I just had him give me the cost of the tail lights. They're fairly
cheap, and easy to replace- they'd better be, the way I'm going through
them.

> > Phlip, NOT frigid, by choice....
> What a difference one little comma makes... :-)
> Stefan

Now Stefan, we don't want to tell the story of the higher priced spread,
now, do we?

Phlip

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....