Navy ways- was Re: [TheForge] Re: Johnson Forge-Anvil-tongs for $65?

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> I just swapped off a 5" that was in perfect shape except that the
> screw threads were all mashed over.  Someone must have spent years
> tightening it with a sledge hammer or a chainfall.  Tightened okay but
> took twice the effort to release it.  Do you suppose the multiple
> coats of Navy grey paint should have been a clue? :-)
>
> - Mike

This summer, at Pennsic, I had found a project for my apprentice, basicly
splitting a bit of flat stock and shaping it into a trivet, theoretically
under my guidance, and I came into camp after my Chirurgeon shift, to
discover that they had decided to work on the piece. My roommate, Rob, (just
retired from the Navy) had decided to help. When I finally got my face
straight enough to ask them what they were doing, Rob informed me that he
had thought that it would help if he thinned and widened the piece a bit
(which it likely would have) so when I caught him, he was heating it to
slightly warmer than the ambient air temperature, putting it on the anvil,
and whonking away at it with a 5 lb sledge. Had I left him to it, I have no
doubt that it woulde have been steel foil by the time he was finished...
They don't seem to teach them to think in the Navy, but they sure do teach
them to spend a lot of energy looking busy....

Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....