Fire Hazard Shop Safety!

[mete]

You can buy things like Nomex clothing or just Nomex cloth for DIY.
I have said in the past that I don't approve of quenching into hot oil , the oil at near the flash point [marquenching ].

I recently came into a conversation about a house fire. A smoldering fire that didn't set off the alarm.The interior doors were closed .The owner smelled smoke sohe checked the rooms.The fire ate up the oxygen
but when he opened the door fresh oxygen suddenly ignited the whole room and in an extremely short time the house was gone !! Fire fighter training teaches this but the rest of us need to know !
I gave some examples of toxic materials burning or being mixed. Ammonia + bleach can kill ! Degreasers like trichlorethylene + open flame produce things like toxic phosphene gas.
Learn what you have and their dangers are !

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

on a cold winter day about 18-19 years ago when I was a noob I set myself on fricking fire by Sculpting a bunch of Ironwood handles and then grinding a blade of carbon steel Damascus.

I switched to a new 36G and started grinding the Damascus, I had my respirator on so my downward vision was obscured.

I smelled smoke?
I then saw that the pile of of ironwood at the base of my Coote grinder was smoldering but felt even more heat and that the heavy cotton jacket I was wearing was on fire in a fold by a button where the ironwood had collected was on fire.
The moral of the story is that if it can go wrong it will go go wrong.

Particularly when it comes to fire! I always have at least one and usually two fire extinguishers handy in my shop or ANYWHERE I am working and Fire is possibly from sharpening/grinding.

Did the same thing several years back - Grinding on a 26° day in an old down vest, Had the respirator on, and smelled smoke. Just ignored it, as I was really hogging hard on some blades, which always makes a sort of "burning" smell. As my chin started to get warm and the unmistakable smell of burning feathers hit my nose, it occurred to me to lift the mask and look down ... my vest was on fire. Luckily this was before I had the beard.

 

[John Andrews]

I always think about a shop fire and take all used oil and other chemical rags straight outside and burn them before I lock the shop. One of the things that will self ignite is a rag with boiled linseed oil on it, no spark needed.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

Did the same thing several years back - Grinding on a 26° day in an old down vest, Had the respirator on, and smelled smoke. Just ignored it, as I was really hogging hard on some blades, which always makes a sort of "burning" smell. As my chin started to get warm and the unmistakable smell of burning feathers hit my nose, it occurred to me to lift the mask and look down ... my vest was on fire. Luckily this was before I had the beard.

LOL
fortunatly you and I can laugh about these misadventures, i hear about at least one maker a year that had flame up or didn't clean out the vac can after grinding wood etc and sadly burned the place down.

Guys, Please be careful and think through each process as you go from one task to another to avoid fire whenever possible