The Brave New World

To quote my last post:

"Once I have the tools to super-heat steel, the sky is the limit.  It will start with a simple annealing job...."

Well, turns out I DO have the tools to super-heat steel.  I'm not sure why it makes me giggle to think about the things I can do with a drill press, dremel tool, a piece of copper pipe, a BBQ grill, a small shop vac, and some duct tape...

For the record, I was the one holding the camera, and my sons were all in bed when this picture was taken. That is the hand of my dear silly wife.  I asked her to bring me some long tongs, and she comes back down with a kit of grilling tools (that didn't include a pair of tongs) and a bag of marshmallows.  Here I was trying to get some work done, and she's roasting marshmallows at my forge.  The INDIGNITY.

Yes, of course I ate one. So what.

It turned out that my little forge did a brilliant job.  It did not cost me a nickel; I had everything on hand, including the charcoal.  (No Brenda, that's NOT the grill you and Edgar gave me for Christmas last year.  The grill you bought me enabled me to "re-purpose" this one, which Joy got me for Christmas a few years back!)  With a little learning I was able to heat the piece of my old file to the critical temperature where it loses its magnetic properties and is workable, and it is now sitting in a safe place in the shop cooling down so it will be sufficiently annealed.

The camera didn't catch the color of the metal that well, but it was a pale yellow at the time this was taken.  I had to use my Knipex to handle things since this household apparently has a severe lack of sizable tongs.  All in all I got the job done, and now I can get this piece shaped up far more easily.  I'm excited now; I've got big plans for this little piece of steel.  With any luck, it will become the heart and soul of a custom block plane to help me with the woodworking.  That bit of metal has many siblings waiting for their turn in the forge as well.  I am eager now to give them their chance.

Oh yeah, one more good thing about having a forge: it gives me a way of disposing of this wretched pile of small wooden scraps I'm rapidly acquiring.  Who needs to buy charcoal when you can make your own?