[TheForge] Re: Just had to pass this on; now Solid Platinum Anvil

[Mike Spencer]

mrscherm> This sounds like the beginning of a novel, it's 1940 and the
mrscherm> Philippines are aware of the Japanese threat...

crimsonkil> Yeah, but how do the vatican, DaVinci, ancient religions
crimsonkil> and CERN fit in?....a dan brown fan

No, no.  The platinum anvil story is just one part that Neal
Stephenson left out of Cryptonomicon/Baroque  Cycle because because he
didn't want to be criticized for writing a book that was too long. :-)

mrscherm> 65 years pass and Bruce Freeman, visiting from New Jersey
mrscherm> sees the anvil and has to have it...

Yes, but before that:

It's 1671.  Joshua Freeman, a London blacksmith's apprentice
press-ganged by the Royal Navy and later captured by the Spanish,
joins in a mutiny against a vile Spanish skipper. The mutineers sail
for Manila in the hope of seizing the Spanish galleon from Vera Cruz
rumored to have on board a priceless object of mysterious "white gold"
stolen from a temple in Nippon....

Oops.

ObSmithing:  

Just made a holdfast from roller chain hooked to the anvil stand,
passing over the anvil to piece of board (foot pedal).  Works great.
I suppose everybody else knew about that trick already?

- Mike

---
Few what see, many what strange.

   -- Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 1910 (As an example of Chinese syntax)

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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