Friday, July 31, 2015

Coal Trip 7/29/15


My friend Wayne and I exchanged email for about three months trying to work out a date to make a trip to the coal mine.  Fortunately it has been too hot to forge for a while so I haven’t been needing it to stay busy.  My bin probably didn’t have 50 pounds left in it when we set off for Oklahoma Wednesday morning.

Wayne and Dianne arrived here about 0830 with a trailer which could carry 2 1/2 tons.  I drove my Pickup which could carry a ton and picked up my friend Tom to ride along for interesting conversation and driving help.

We stopped in Coffeyville for lunch then proceeded to the mine.  Wayne had made arrangement for us to get a tour of the strip mine so we did that before loading.  When I made my first trip to the mine some years ago they were working a seam about eight miles north of the grinding/screening site where the scale house is located.  They have finished working there and it is reclaimed and back in grass. The site we got to see is a mile or so southwest of the pick-up site.

We followed the supervisor to the hole and walked around to spots where we could look down and watch the heavy machinery working.  The coal seam is 12”-18” thick and about 50 feet below the surface.  They use huge dozers to move away the overburden and create the sloping drive path down to the coal seam.  A thin cover is left over the seam until the actual coal removal process begins.

A mining shovel creates a high-wall and bites away at it and fills haul trucks which drive the overburden up to the surface and dump.  A high-dump coal loader scoops up the coal and fills the trucks which move the coal to the crusher site.  After the coal has been taken away the backfill process begins.

Removing the Overburden.  The coal seam is the flat area in the upper left corner.
Pushing overburden to backfill mined area.
Leveling the Top. 
Creating the high wall. 
Mining shovel loading the Haul Truck.
High Dump Coal Loader.
After the tour we drove back to the scale house and weighed in and drove to where the stoker coal was piled.  The operator of the high-dump loader was very patient and accommodating, as usual.  His bucket holds close to three tons and we only need to load a fraction of that.  He cannot see my pickup bed from the cab so it takes some guiding to get loaded without getting buried.  I take rakes, shovel and broom so I can fill every bit of the bed and clean up.  It takes the operator three lifts to complete our fill as we work to rearrange the coal between each drop.  It was hot and dry but not windy and the sprinkler trucks had been watering the roads so it was the cleanest trip I have experienced.

Filling my Tundra.

Filling Wayne's Trailer.

Tom drove us back to the scale and we weighed out at exactly 2000 pounds.  Earlier I told the scale operator that was the amount I needed.  She seemed amazed that it was precisely what I got - to the pound.  The price was $68.00. Add on about $55.00 for gas and that isn’t bad for a fuel budget. At my current forging rate that should cary me for a couple of years.

Google Earth View of the Crush Site.
Google Earth View of the Mine.

We drove back to Coffeyville and filled up with gas for the trip home and got some cold drinks.  The air-conditioning didn’t quite keep up on the home trip but otherwise it was a great day.    Home again at 1830.
Filling My Coal Bin.

I remain somewhat astonished and grateful for the friendly and patient attention we receive from every person I have encountered at the mine.  I feel sort of guilty for bothering them with our pitifully small purchases which cause them more trouble than their big customers.

This diagram does a pretty good job of illustrating the coal strip mining process. http://digital.library.okstate.edu/oas/oas_htm_files/v57/p173frames.html

Friday, July 17, 2015

No Misspent Youth

In my late teen years I became reasonably accomplished at playing pool and snooker.  One summer some of my parents friends were visiting and we got to talking about pool and Frank, who was just a little younger than my father said we ought to go to the hall and play a game.  I was looking forward to getting the best of an adult.  Didn’t happen.  Frank ran the table.  I was dumbfounded and he just said, “The joys of a misspent youth.”  It was the first time I recall hearing the expression.  He proceeded to tell me stories about mischief he got into during the depression years.




Today I was poking around the web looking for some design inspiration and came across Alec Steele’s blog.  Lots of nice blacksmithing images.  He took up the craft at age 11 and stayed with it and is now quite good.  I’ve never met him but I enjoyed visiting his website.  He has spent quite a bit of time with Brian Brazeal as his mentor.  It looks to me like he’s finding a lot of joy in the work and not misspending his youth.

I was surprised to see this dictionary gave a pool playing reference as their second example.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Brad Allen's Sculpture

Ten years ago I attended the CanIron V meeting in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.  We drove to Chicago and picked up our older son and enjoyed as many sights as we could work in along our way to Portland, Maine where we took The Cat ferry to Yarmouth and then drove the rest of the way to our bed and breakfast.   We stayed at the very comfortable King George Inn.

It was a wonderful trip and meeting.  Lots of great demonstrators and local places to visit.  Unfortunately we had to watch the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the TV news each evening.  The tail end of the storm even brought a little rain to our gathering.
What brought this back to my mind was finding the piece I got at the auction - a fine sculpture work b y Brad Allen.  It had become hidden by other things stacked in front of it in the studio.  This certainly was not the proper place for such a nice piece of blacksmith art.  I corrected that situation today and now it is displayed where I can see it every day.

I call it my Celtic cross.  I forget if Brad had titled it as such.

See some other examples of Brad’s sculptures here






Monday, July 13, 2015

Too Scary to Read

Today, I read a book review in our local paper and then went online to skim some others.  This sentence caught my attention. “Ford offers little hope that emerging technologies will eventually generate new forms of employment, in the way that blacksmiths yielded to autoworkers in the early 20th century.”  The book referred to is RISE OF THE ROBOTS, Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford.

I haven’t read it, but the subject is one which has troubled me for quite a few years.  Trying to find employment for an ever growing world population with all the complicating variables like, resources, culture and infrastructure is a lot more than I can wrap my mind around.

My first thought was to see if I could find a used copy of this book to read.  Then I had to admit that I really didn’t have the time now to do more reading.   Moreover, after going over a few reviews, I’m thinking it might just be too scary.




More on Creativity


I have been in a clean-up and throw out mood for a while now and the studio is slowly gaining more work space.  One of the primary strategies is to see how much physical clutter can be digitalized.  If I can photograph or scan what I really need to real I can get rid of the book, file, model, etc.

One of the things I cam across was a small paperback book. “A Technique for Producing Ideas, by James Webb Young, 1939.  It only took a few minutes to skim it again and I recalled how much I felt the author was describing the process I have adopted for many years.

In April 2014 I posted some thoughts about the creative process. Those were more focused on specific blacksmithing projects and Young’s work is broader in scope yet simply described.

I copied the following paragraphs outlining his 5 steps from this site

Step 1: Gather Raw Materials

Gather both specific and general raw materials.  In advertising, the specific materials are related to your products and your target audience, while the general materials are about life and events.  You need to know how your products impact your audience’s day-to-day lives.
Constantly browse and gather information.  “Part of it, you will see, is a current job and part of it is a life-long job.”  Train your minds to observe, then store it away.

Step 2: Digest Materials

Start putting different pieces of information together.  Bring 2-3 facts together and see how they fit.  “What you are seeking is the relationship: a synthesis where everything will come together in a neat combination like a jig-saw puzzle.”
This is also a stage at which you get mentally exhausted and feel lost and hopeless without clear insight.  That’s OK!  Don’t give up.  This stage is overcome when you have a preliminary idea of how you fit your puzzle together.

Step 3: Internalize Materials Unconsciously

Drop everything and put the problem out of your mind as completely as you can!  Let your subconscious mind work on it.
“You remember how Sherlock Holmes used to stop right in the middle of a case, and drag Watson off to a concert?”  Yes, Sherlock is working through step 3 and is very close to solving his case.

Step 4: The Eureka Moment

Out of nowhere the Idea will appear!  I experience this all the time.  When I am thinking about the flow of a presentation, I usually struggle with the opening.  I’ve struggled for days, then, Bingo, a great opening will mysteriously pop in my mind from nowhere.
When a lady asked Sir Isaac Newton how he came to discover the law of gravitation, he is said to have replied: “By constantly thinking about it.”

Step 5: Bring Ideas to Life

“The stage might be called the cold, gray dawn of the morning after.”

More detail can be found here



I was pleased to discover that everything I needed to remember about the little book was already available online so the book can go.  I’ll probably take it to the Prairie PastTimes gallery where we have set up a book nook in a back corner.  Visitors can have a seat and browse used books for sale. https://www.facebook.com/PrairiePastTimes

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Improving Die Mating


When using closed dies it is critical to keep the two halves in proper registration to produce a consistent forged object.  There is little tolerance for side-to-side or front-to-back migration.

One way to assure this indexing is to make the blank blocks from different size masses.  Usually this means making the bottom blank mass larger than the top blank mass so the top will sink into the bottom and create a obligatory fit.  An alternative is to weld a perimeter, sort of a corral, to force the registration.

The image “Improving the die mating” attempts to show how theoretically this could be accomplished.

The left image approximates the crudely assembled example shown in the Tiny Acorn Die post.  The second image shows how attaching the sacrificial connectors with an outward budge assures they will collapse without being trapped between the two die blocks.  The next figure shows that by narrowing the top block it will sink into the bottom block when collapsed and provide a secure front-to-back registration cavity.  The right figure shows that by further reducing the size of the top block the resulting indexing cavity captures the entire perimeter of the top block.



In the two right hand drawings the front edge of the top and bottom die halves are not aligned vertically.  After the pair is collapsed to form the object cavity, additional metal removal from the bottom block is required to create an in-feed channel for the billet stock.


Saturday, July 11, 2015

A Tiny Acorn Die


Shortly before the 4th of July weekend I was contacted by Fred who had visited the studio in the past.  He had a relative, Dave, from Minneapolis coming for a visit and was interested in learning a bit about blacksmithing.  We set up a date where we could spend the morning together working at the forge.

There really wasn’t time for a basic blacksmithing approach and they wanted to see how I did some things that may be somewhat different from other shops.  I spend a lot more time making and using dies that most smiths I know, so I set up this little project.

I found a tiny acorn on a porter bar which Scott had made some time back.  That would make the male [positive] form.

I picked two small mild steel scrap blocks and welded them with two more pieces of scrap flat bar to create the crude configuration seen in image 01.  To that I welded a porter bar for easy handling in the coal fire.

01 Holding two blanks in register

The plan was to get an even heat through both mild steel blocks, place them in the hydraulic forging press with the tiny acorn between them and smash the die blocks around the acorn form creating top and bottom half female die components as the sacrificial end flat bar connectors budged out and collapsed.

That worked perfectly and after cooling I cut away the sacrificial connectors to release the die halves.

02 Sacrificial connectors cut away.

I relieved the sharp edges of the cavities with a die grinder.


03 Sharp edges relieved.

         Next, I mated the  die cavities around the male positive and tack welded the blocks in register.


Tacked in register.

That allowed me to attach a simple flat bar loop spring to the dies and weld the bottom die to the saddle which fits the hydraulic press - figure 05.  The tacks are cut to release the positive form.  The opening is adjusted to receive, in this case, a 7/16” round rod.

Spring and saddle attached and tack welds released.

I tested the die and there was a slight backward translation shift of the top die so I used torch heat on the spring to move it slightly forward.

This die will be used as a preforming die to isolate the perfect mass needed to form perfect little acorn in another die made from tool steel and set up for use with the power hammer.  The multiple strikes of the power hammer planishes or coins the surface better resulting in a more detailed form.

We did a few other forging operations and Dave, who already had pretty good hammer control, was quickly able to get the hang of drawing out and using the edges of the anvil.  I think it was a useful morning for him whether he pursues it any further or not.


I’ll try to soon post some ideas about how, with more preparation time, made a somewhat better die pair.





Friday, July 10, 2015

Another Last Demo


In June 2011  I declared I wouldn’t be doing anymore demonstrations out side my shop.  I just didn’t feel up to all the loading and unloading and other work associate with off-site forging.  I parked the trailer in the wooded area north of the studio.  It went unattended until I was persuaded to do another demonstration on a weekend of celebration in the Cottonwood Falls, Kansas area where our artist cooperative gallery is located.  The River Suites event was to be on Friday night and the Symphony in the Flint Hills and the Folklife Festival on Saturday.  The Prairie PastTimes artists decided to put on and open house with some demonstrators.

The first order of business was to get the demo trailer out to pavement so I could inspect it and put everything in order.  Trees had grown up around the trailer and through the tongue so it required chainsaw work to free it.  The tires had sunk into the soil but we were able to pull it out and roll it to the street east of my shop.

I pulled off he rotting tarp and found a wood rat had made a huge nest under the forge pan and has stashed a good supply of Kentucky Coffee Tree seeds in it’s pantry.  Friends helped me pull everything out and sweep before treating the wood plank floor with water seal.  The tires were in bad shape and the wiring to the tail lights didn’t work.  Two new tires were mounted and the wiring was replaced.
I still knew I needed help on the day of the demonstration so I called on a friend, the amazing Scott Miller, who has helped me with so many things over recent years and along the way has become a very talented blacksmith although he has little time to devote to it.  He agreed to help and on the big day did most of the forging work so I mostly just stool around and talked with visitors.

I wanted to work on “light-duty” items as it could have been a very hot day and we did’t have shade over the work area.  Additionally, rain was forecast so we had to be prepared to do something indoors in that case.  I decided we would work on forging various animal heads.  I could show the steps with modeling clay while Scott did the forging.  In case of rain I could do the same thing indoors and there would be no forging.  Also, I packed  some Show and Tell items.


After a week of dodging rain, organizing, repairing and packing, the  demo day arrived.  I was up at 0330 and it was raining heavily.  Scott came at 0630 and the rain stopped.  We did the final loading and drove to the gallery.  It took about a hour to setup and we were ready to forge at 0900 as promised.  Then we learned that the weather forecast had been so unfavorable that some of the Folklife Festival demonstrators had backed out so it had been cancelled.  They were supposed to have a blacksmith working also.

During the morning hours there were fewer visitors than we had expected but the weather continued to improve.  In the afternoon it was clear and there were lots of visitors strolling up and down the two-block long brick-paved Main Street.  The symphony worked out well too.

Optimistically, that was actually my last demo, but, I suppose I should never say never.  


One of our artist members, Eric Dyck, is a talented photographer among other things.  He took a lot of photos during the activities and posted some of our blacksmithing on the web here. Scroll down to June 14th to see the images. https://www.facebook.com/PrairiePastTimes