You know your a knifemaker when....

Matt Shade

Matt Shade

Joined
Nov 24, 1999
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Last night eatin dinner, someone asked me to bring something over to the table that was sitting on the stove. I picked the pan up with my bare hands and took it over to the table, then found myself standing there saying "move that hot pad over here, this is too hot to sit on the table"
They all just stared out me. "What the hell are you doing? Thats only been out of the oven for 15 minutes!"
Guess the burns/callouses are getting a little thick on the ol fingers :D


Anyone else have moments like this?
 
A friend of mine's family business is aluminium casting of all kinds. Father, the founder of the company, has been in this business for decades. Aluminium is cast just like other metals, in sand, sand that is "glued" together or in iron mold. Iron molds need to be pre-heated before casting anything into them, otherwise the casting is porous. They use propane/buthane torch to heat up the iron to "working temperaure". Just as too cold of a mold ruins the casting so does the mold that is too hot (casting will "stick" to it and won't come off nicely, regardless of graphite or paste used to form a thin separation layer inside the mold).

Anyway, another friend of mine was working at their company and some castings were ruined; the guy claimed the mold was too hot because of long hours working and needs to cool down a bit. That father mentioned above disagreed; he wouldn't admit it's too hot, he claimed it's too cold and to prove it he held his hand on it for a while (the other guy said his hand started to smold but i kinda doubt that). Long story short, people who deal with hot items all the time ar apparently far more resistant to heat and don't get burned that quickly either. OTOH their hands coudl serve as lowest grit sandpaper substitute too ...
 
I worked in a packing house for 8 years and used a hot high pressure water hose several hours per night. The cleanup hoses had various steel nozzles that transferred the heat to the hand while working. All we used for protection was a cotton glove. Actually, the glove was more for gripping the hose. You DON'T want that high pressure hose to get loose. It would beat you to a pulp, just like a loose firehose whipping. SInce then, added with hot steel work, I don't have the sensitivity to hot items in my hands, but I don't burn unless it is scalding or branding hot. "Hot? This ain't hot"! I touch steel to my forearm or wrist to check for actual temperature while grinding blades, if I am not dip cooling a lot.
 
You guys still have feeling in your hands? :eek:

Nearly 30 years as a Millwright/Fabricator/Machinist/Technician/Mechanic, my hands are like a hot pad, the skin gets think in response to the work we do, thus making one more tolerant to pain.
 
John, that wasn't by chance the Wilson plant in Monmouth, was it? I worked as night labor cleaning in that plant one night in 1971, higher than a kite. I only vaguely remember working but I was using a steam/water hose.....
 
At work( I am a goldsmith) I regularly will finish welding on a ring,take it out of the third hand with my fingers,and drop it in the pickling acid.When it sizzles and sends up a plume of steam,onlookers will say,"Gosh,doesn't that burn you?".I usually reply,"Heck it's only 300-400 degrees!"
 
A welder mechanic that I used to work with got a kick out of handing (with his bare hands) a piece that he had just welded and asked them to look at it. When they droped it and ran looking for the water can he would say "didn't take him long to look at that". :eek:

Joe Foster
 
yeah you get usedto heat don't ya? working the other night i splashed the boiling water we use for cooking pasta and heating vegetables all over my hand and the new cook said "wow that must have hurt" i just na its not bad you get usedto it. sometimes we like to play "bobbing for french fries" in the fryolator. of course we use our fingers and not our mouths. or the ever popular hot spatula fights. they leave nice burns. :eek:
 
When somone picked up something that was hotter than he though he put it down very quickly.But he would never admit it was hot. Instead he or somone else would say ' gee that got heavy fast' .
 
I think it is more a change of one´s perception than anything else, and it happens real fast. I noticed that happening with me (to my surprise!) shortly after I started to forge.
Still, what seems to scare people the most is when I cross my arms and they see they have almost no hair. :eek:
 
Michael J. Spangler said:
yeah you get used to heat don't ya? working the other night i splashed the boiling water we use for cooking pasta and heating vegetables all over my hand and the new cook said "wow that must have hurt" i just Na its not bad you get used to it. sometimes we like to play "bobbing for French fries" in the fryolator. of course we use our fingers and not our mouths. or the ever popular hot spatula fights. they leave nice burns. :eek:
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GrassHoppa, I have a game that I'll show you. It's called bobbing for HOT billet in the front of your pants. :eek: :eek:
 
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