what did you get done today?

Lon Humphrey

Lon Humphrey

Joined
Nov 14, 2007
Messages
588
as a full time knife maker it seems that now more than ever i just cant get enough done, last week i had a student at the shop for about 3 days i was glad to help him learn and teach him the basics of forging and finishing....this week how ever it seems that my mo jo has went a we bit to the left....i got one stinking guard file worked and fit to the blade...so is it a local phenomenon or is it the the summer time thing where id really rather be fishing ?
 
Today was a wood spliting day at least one day a week all summer is always a wood splitting day.

If I am not working or doing something with kids and dogs it's either fishing or wood splitting

I burn over 13 cords a year and refuse to buy it . So I either buck it out of the woods or I get lucky and some tree service buddies dump pieces . but it is usually huge stuff they don't want to messs with.. Beggars can't be choosey so I have at it ..... It was 95 today and it was brutal.

That pile is over 25 feet deep & 7 to 8 feet tall and growing weekly:D


Makes me strong like Bull :D

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Some of this stuff is brutal thousand pound chunks

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Joe, that's just retarded. You're using a khuk to do the splitting, right?:D
 
Lorien said:
Joe, that's just retarded. You're using a khuk to do the splitting, right?:D
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Every piece:D

I also went to the gym this morning and did legs. I love to abuse myself

What is that old saying what does not kill ya ?????
 
I hear ya. I burn 4-6 cords a year.. I might have used 10 gallons of fuel oil last winter. I think I'm gonna wait the heat out and start when it gets in the 80's next week. This heat has been brutal!
 
fivefold said:
I hear ya. I burn 4-6 cords a year.. I might have used 10 gallons of fuel oil last winter. I think I'm gonna wait the heat out and start when it gets in the 80's next week. This heat has been brutal!
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you ain't kidding but when the heat drops I want to go fishing:D
 
WOW, 13 cord a year. Sounds like you need a smaller house or a better wood stove. I use 2 cord and thats all we heat with. I agree, cutting wood is darn good exercise but I don't need 13 cord of exercise. :D:D:D
I worked on an knife order today, but after noon its to ding dang hot with heat endexes of 110 for me. O to be young again. :D
I sure wish I had that pile of wood here, I could take it easy for 6 years.

Bill
 
I have been soaking up the A/C for the last couple days while I try to get over the poison ivy on the back of my neck and right arm, nasty.

I got in a hurry to beat the heat and clear out a fence line I have been neglecting for a couple years, didn't pay much attention to the foliage lurking in the grape vines (previous owner was a wine maker, grapes everywhere)

Price you pay for being in a hurry.
 
Bill I have a giant old Baker stove I even shovel coal on top the wood at night

It is in a garage basement and my house is mostly dstone and on the large size with 3 floors and once i get it rolling in late Oct it keeps going till spring.

I back a bush cart right uo to it and fuel it like a locomotive.

I hate to see the gas man come up the driveway
 
Okay, J, truthfully...just exactly how does one split a 1,000 lb chunk of tree trunk. No shenanigans cause I'm guillable.
 
on_the_edge said:
Okay, J, truthfully...just exactly how does one split a 1,000 lb chunk of tree trunk. No shenanigans cause I'm guillable.
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You take a large chain saw and slab it down to cuts about 16 inces or so wide

up intill about 3 years ago I used an axe a sledge and a maul

Now I use a 36 ton hydraulic log splitter

once you have it slabbed out you try to roll it to the plitter and then work your way like around a clock face kinda splitting as you go

It takes a long time and is back busting work but i have done worse

I still use an axe for small stuff but the big stuff gets the spliter stood up so you can roll a slab to it and hopefully drop it in place
 
Joe and Lon, I can attest to the fact that it was just as hot today in Illinois as it was in Ohio and PA.
(No more wood for me - I'm heating my shop with coal!)
Two years ago I posted up these first two pictures of a "special" quality and dimension of steel I picked up that was all made in 1984 - the good stuff!
This was part of "The Game", which was a group effort I designed with me, Lin Rhea and Roger Pinnock.
Anyway, I decided to finally get it all home here safe at Andersen Forge, so I cut up the 20 foot bars, loaded, drove back to my place and un-loaded about 1/2 of it.
I was whipped.
I'll get the next 1/2 this coming week.
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Okay, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking that even with a chain saw, the diameter on some of those pieces looked huge, making splitting by hand next too impossible. Of course, if you had a Battle Mistress...;) lol
 
Try it with an ADD brain and see how far you get Lon. :mad: ;)

This is a subject that hits way too close to home (it just sort of flattens the house actually ;) ).

The finer the detail the harder it is. Things like grunting through Joe's wood pile or a stack or iron at the gym is stuff I can plow through all day.... But try to sit down and finish sand a handle and it's like pulling teeth.
 
NickWheeler said:
Try it with an ADD brain and see how far you get Lon. :mad: ;)

This is a subject that hits way too close to home (it just sort of flattens the house actually ;) ).

The finer the detail the harder it is. Things like grunting through Joe's wood pile or a stack or iron at the gym is stuff I can plow through all day.... But try to sit down and finish sand a handle and it's like pulling teeth.[/QUOTE

I just had a flashback of The Graduate. Ouch!:D
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(Karl, that's a "grail" stack of steel, for sure.)

The past couple of days, I've been forging out several complex damascus billets. Its been 95 degrees outside the shop, with lovely seaside humidity. Inside,with the forge going, its been 105, and beating me like a rented mule.

This morning, I noticed the inside temps climbing past the 110 mark, and headed up; outside-102 degrees! That was it. Grabbed a shower, and spent the mid-day down at the Barnes & Noble, eating scones and drinking mocha. Didn't get home 'till 4 pm.

Just when I was considering the day lost to knife work, a thunderstorm rolled through and dropped the outside temp to a chilly 85 degrees. Got in a couple hours of forging in my cut-offs and sweaty tee-shirt, while left-over light rain drifted in through the shop doors.

Who says old folks don't have all the fun?

John
 
JParanee said:
Every piece:D

I also went to the gym this morning and did legs. I love to abuse myself

What is that old saying what does not kill ya ?????
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I think it goes, "what doesn't kill you just might give you a hernia!" in your case anyway :D
I take it you were carrying those 1 ton chunks on your back, right? :)

I'm up at 6AM and then off to work from 7:30 till 12:15 every morning and from 5PM till 6:45 every evening(weekends too). After lunch I sold a sebenza and a custom ranger, made about $150 profit :) Ran into town and picked up 2.5 dozen ears of the best corn I've ever tasted, picked fresh this morning of course! and a huge watermelon(a monstrous humungoid that is!!!).
Just chillaxin now with my bro's on BF :thumbup:
 
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