Random off-topic thread

[Mcracker]

Nathan, those air balloon festival pics are beautiful!

 

[MajorD]

Great pics Nathan!! Balloon festivals are great events. You have inspired me to find one this summer. You really had some great pics.

Mcracker Great pic! Spending time with the kids, in Michigan's U.P. hits home to me. Where about in the U.P. was that pic taken?

 

[Mcracker]

Just outside Marquette

 

[MajorD]

Cool. I live down state but I have family in Iron Mountain and Channing. I hunt near Felch/Hardwood in Dickinson county.

 

[Mcracker]

Honorary Yooper! I started in south haven then moved up here as a boy.

 

[MajorD]

Honorary Yooper! I started in south haven then moved up here as a boy.

"Honorary Yooper" ... Thanks! They all call me a troll. Non Michigan people won't get that.

 

[Mcracker]

Lol, feels good to live on top of the bridge 😂
Eating pastys.

 

[VANCE]

The upper peninsula
Upper

 

[Mcracker]

U (yoo) P (per)

 

[Mcracker]

Believe it or not it's in the new dictionaries and on Wikipedia. Yooper.

 

[hasco]

Great pics Dave, Nathan and Mathew.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[MajorD]

My wife and I are traveling in August to South Carolina to visit her mom. We are bringing our travel trailer and camping for 4 nights in Pigeon Forge Tn for our 1 year anniversary. (Wow time flies!)

We want to do some scenic site seeing while we are there. Does anybody have any knowledge of the area there? Any recommendations? Our area focus will be Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Cherokee and the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.


Dave

 

[RRaconteur]

Dave, I attended college in that area and my wife grew up not too far away. Send me a pm with the kind of things you have in mind and I'll steer you from there.


Michael

 

[Rick Lowe]

Might give some thought to taking a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Mt. Pisgah and have lunch at the Pisgah Inn. Great scenic drive and good eats at the Inn. From there it's a short drive to Sliding Rock and some cooling off in the mountain water and then to Shining Rock Falls. Pretty easy drive from Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. Could wander a little farther and check out some of Asheville's micro breweries, Biltmore House and their winery. Finish the day at 12 Bones Ribs or one of many top notch eateries in town.

 

[swonut]

We did a vacation at Pigeon Forge and GSMNP a year or so ago. Enjoyed the rafting in the Pigeon River. Tubing with Smoky Mountain River Rat; Townsend, TN 37882 Lots of antique stores to browse. Probably worth a trip to that huge knife store in the area.

If hiking is your thing, then there is some awesome GSMNP Smokies day hikes. Cades Cove was kind of cool also. We went to some show one night at one of the theaters and generally the family/kids liked it. Smokey Mountain Opry if memory serves me.

 

[MajorD]

Dave, I attended college in that area and my wife grew up not too far away. Send me a pm with the kind of things you have in mind and I'll steer you from there.


Michael

Thanks Michael

Unfortunately I can't pm you. I'll try an email a bit later today or tomorrow.

Might give some thought to taking a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Mt. Pisgah and have lunch at the Pisgah Inn. Great scenic drive and good eats at the Inn. From there it's a short drive to Sliding Rock and some cooling off in the mountain water and then to Shining Rock Falls. Pretty easy drive from Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. Could wander a little farther and check out some of Asheville's micro breweries, Biltmore House and their winery. Finish the day at 12 Bones Ribs or one of many top notch eateries in town.

Thank you Rick. That is great information!! That is exactly the types of things we are looking for. Thank You!

We did a vacation at Pigeon Forge and GSMNP a year or so ago. Enjoyed the rafting in the Pigeon River. Tubing with Smoky Mountain River Rat; Townsend, TN 37882 Lots of antique stores to browse. Probably worth a trip to that huge knife store in the area.

If hiking is your thing, then there is some awesome GSMNP Smokies day hikes. Cades Cove was kind of cool also. We went to some show one night at one of the theaters and generally the family/kids liked it. Smokey Mountain Opry if memory serves me.

Thank You Blaine. My wife mentioned that she had heard about "Cades Cove". We'll have to check that out more. I also completely forgot about SMKW. It's worth a stop in for something to do.

 

[RRaconteur]

Thanks Michael

Unfortunately I can't pm you. I'll try an email a bit later today or tomorrow.

Oops! My membership lapsed. Fixed now.


Michael

 

[thurin]

Yesterday I had a chance to make my first knife. A friend of mine hosted a knife build party and 5 of us got to use his workshop to turn some 1080 bar stock into a knife. I had a blast and have a new appreciation for what goes into making these tools.

Here's some progression pics of my blade:

1080 bar with a pattern traced on.



I decided to make it a little more unique. Shaping via a Porta-band and file work (a lot of stinking file work) done. Part of my modification to the original pattern (the back finger cutout) was due to an over aggressive band saw cut:


Working on the initial grind:


Out of quench:



Cleaned up and finished the grind:



Here's a short vid of the backyard heat treat and quench. Hardwood lump charcoal fanned with a box fan. Heated to orange and non-magnetic and then quenched in oil. Tempered in an oven.

[video=youtube;Gd5yG6hxn5g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd5yG6hxn5g[/video]

Lots of mistakes were made and I learned a lot. But it was a fun time. Hoping to be able to pick up some tools to do more.

 

[hasco]

That is super cool Nathan! Looks like a great time. Is that a scandivex that you put on there? The knife looks great. What kind of handles are you going to put on it?




I had a fun project weekend too. I got to take a forging class through the local community college. It was at the instructor Vern's house. I learned a lot and it was a good time. I have a knife I have been working on too and I brought it with me, thinking I might try to harden it there. We were so busy doing other stuff that I decided not to and just focus on what we were learning. We used coal forges with hand cranked blowers. The hand cranked blowers are amazingly efficient. The first day was difficult, but by Sunday, I was feeling more comfortable on the anvil.



Here is the forge I worked on the first day.

On day two, I used this forge. It was fun building the fire and keeping it stoked all day.

Here is Vern using the champion hand blower.

A small portion of Vern's never ending shop. It is jaw dropping to see all of the tools he has.

Here are the tools I made in the two days. We were mostly just practicing different techniques without much of an end goal. I didn't get a chance to finish the handles on the tongs because I ran out of time. They are a bit heavy, but serviceable. If I can find an anvil for a reasonable price, I might try to set up a forge in my backyard sometime. Bending steel is definitely fun to do.

 

[thurin]

Wow Tod. Great work! That sounds like a really fun weekend. Setting up your own backyard forge sounds like a cool idea. I'm wishing I had 1% of Vern's workshop.