Sentinel Images

Back in the 80”s my older son was very interested in computers.  He talked me into buying two Apple II’s, one for him and one for me.  The local school system was making a bulk purchase so it was an opportunity to go in with them and get a discount price.  Of course, it was actually only good if you could use a computer or wanted to learn how.  I was a bit skeptical that personal computers offered anything for me but I was led along by his enthusiasm.

Keith was the one who could clearly see the future of a PC world while I couldn’t even figure out why anyone would need a database or a spreadsheet.  He tried to get me to understand bulletin boards but it was just beyond me.  He went on to get degrees in physics and computer science and I slowly got better and better with a word processor.

More than 30 years have passed and integrated circuits, operating systems with graphical interfaces, and portable laptop designs all worked out.  Even I have learned to use more than the word processing capability.

I remember a discussion in which Keith was trying to convince me to set up a system in which I could identify files by an icon instead of a text label.  I really couldn’t quite grasp that concept then but can see it clearly now and I do use it.  I use it in another context.

When I make a forming die and get it perfected, I forge an example of the finished piece and weld it to the die in a spot where it is easily visible. I call it the sentinel image.   I also write some information on the die with a presto pen correction marker but it is usually the iconic sentinel marker which is most helpful to me in locating the die I need.  In addition, I have taken to spray painting the sentinel image with a bright yellow paint so the form is accented and unmistakable.

It was only in the past few months that I made the mental connection between how I used the method in my studio and what Keith was trying to get me to understand three decades ago.

Knowing the Name

Quite a few years ago I was standing and visiting at the counter in a lumber yard office when a person came in and up to the counter and said, “I need a board.”  I could almost see the service manager struggling to not roll his eyes.  Since the potential customer didn’t seem to be familiar with lumber language, I’m pretty sure he was anticipating the extended dialog that would be necessary to figure out what they needed.

For some reason that scene has stuck in my mind and reminds me to try to learn the customary names for the objects I encounter.  Last week I was stumped in my effort to settle on the name for the Item I’ve attempted to roughly illustrate here.

I did a Google image search for some terms I thought might give me what I had in mind.  I tried, Rod Lock, Stop, Catch, Detent, Keeper, Tab, Key, Ear and a few others with no luck.  After that failure I drew a sketch and decided to ask anyone I encountered what they called this mechanical structure.  Every person I questioned immediately recognized it but couldn’t come up with a name.  Finally, and engineer called it a shaft tab lock.  I went back and did a search for that and still had no luck.

Finally, by searching “hydraulic door closer”, which I knew used that mechanical technology on some models, I found the image here. http://www.allaboutdoors.com/article_info.php?articles_id=141

The article described them as lugs.  In my own terminology I had always called them ear tabs since they stick out like ears.  I’m now thinking they are properly called lugs but the term isn’t widely known.  In my mind I’m going to call them ear tab lugs.

Using Dishing Dies

Recently, a couple of women, who have been regular customers, asked that I use a couple of earlier botanical designs and convert them to bowls.  It sounded like a reasonable idea with a few changes from my original designs.

First, I somewhat scaled up the size and increased the thickness gauge from 14 to 10 on one pattern and 12 on the other.  I arranged for six of each pattern to be water jet cut so I could do an experimental run.

The first step was heating in the coal fire and planish-texturing the surface with the power hammer.

The second step is adding any detail lines such as leaf veins to the face and the final hot forming step is adding volume with my large dishing die.  It is a tool which works well for me.

On one of his visits, Jim Friel, showed me how he made his and we built this one and tested it.  The hydraulic forging press came in handy to make the dishes from circles of heavy plate.  I haven’t tried to calculate the precise radius of the dies, but I imagine if it were possible to form a sphere with them it would make one about the size of a basketball.

As I looked at the picture of the die mounted in the power hammer and felt I should comment about the height.  I’m writing a post about making and using gate fullers and one point is that with a spare tire electro-mechanical hammer such as this one there is an upper limit to the height of a mounted tool so start-up ram movement is possible.  This dishing tool is tall but springy so it doesn’t choke the system as a solid die of the same height might.

Before long I’ll get a couple of the bowls finished and, if I remember, I’ll post a picture.

Closing the Store Front Gallery

Several years ago one of my wonderful clients made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  They owned a building on the main downtown street which they wanted to use as a storage facility.  To make the property fit in with the historic downtown atmosphere they had a carpenter make some attractive modifications of the storefront windows and asked me to display some of my ironwork.  I had Kan Fab use their water jet to cut a “Persimmon Forge” sign which was placed over the front door. We stocked the store windows with some display pieces and posters giving contact information so a shopper who wanted to inquire about purchasing a displayed item or commissioning a unique work could reach us.  I wrote a post about this on 11/8/2010.

At that time I was participating in a few art/craft shows and had some inventory accumulated.  This was a welcome opportunity for me to take some things out of my basement and put them where they might actually sell.  We sold some items, but then the “great recession” descended and the shopping traffic and store front sales slowed up a lot.

The building owner recently placed the property for sale and a few days ago contacted me with the good news that it did sell.  Betty and I went to the gallery on Saturday morning and removed the remains of our display.  While we were working one of the local store owners came over to visit and said that an antique store operation was going to move in.

From one point of view it is the end of an era.  There was a period where I welcomed getting as much publicity as possible with consideration to the expense involved.  Now, I am seeking more invisibility.  I am rather far behind in my work schedule for clients and I no longer actively seek commissions.

PrairiePastimes is the gallery where most of my non-commission work is sold and it it not far from, what I’ve called, the  Store Front Gallery.  For the last couple of years I’ve worked on a strategic plan in which I continue to produce ironwork products which I enjoy making and shrink my inventory and foot print.  At some point my children will face the task of disposing of all the things I accumulated.  Every day that liquidation day moves closer.  Every day I work a few minutes at trying to make that job easier.  Rather than being sad at the closing of the Store Front Gallery, I can look at it as one more step in that down-sizing process.

I am grateful to the benefactors for giving me the display opportunity and their interest in my work.  They are a bit younger than I am and are just now embarking on their retirement experience.  They are dynamic people and will energetically pursue what interests them.  I, too, left a demanding job for a new love, artist blacksmithing.  Some people see it as hard work, dangerous work, dirty work.  I don’t see it as work at all.  I love to do it.  You know the rest of the statement - “If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life.”  I have always regarded this as a statement of fact but I never thought it was an ancient one.  Check out Confucius.  http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/15321.Confucius

Udder Balm Hand Cleaner

Because I seem to spend a considerable portion of my life at the farm and ranch store I have long been acquainted with udder balm.  It is widely regarded in these parts as a great hand cream and can prevent a lot of winter misery.  It is advertised as “moisturizing cream.”  

I started using it as a moisturizing cream in the winter months to prevent or heal skin cracks on my hands.  As time went by I made it part of the winter routine to try and apply the cream a couple of times a day as I worked.  It didn’t take long to notice how effective it was is bonding to the black, whatever it is, that covers my hands and removing it when I wipe the excess cream off with a paper shop towel.  As far as I know, they don’t promote it as a hand cleaner, but it sure works well for me.

That reminded me of a fishing tip I got from a fellow who used to be a guide and hunted or fished or both almost every day of his life.  I was doing some cool weather river fishing for catfish and complaining to him about how nasty it was to use shad sides because of the odor lingering on my hands.  He said he always slathered his hands with hand cream before going to the river.  The cream coating prevented the odor of the shad sides from bonding to his skin.  After a good hand washing there was no hint of the odor.

I learned that trick form him twenty years ago.  So why did it take me so long to think it might work with nasty shop grime?

Here is Horseshoe Man saying, “Ain’t it a wonder!”

The Sharp Angle Bender

The first bender I acquired was an inexpensive “bench-top” bender from a discount tool dealer, probably Harbor Freight.  My recollection is that it cost $30 - $40.  When I was satisfied that the engineering worked, I placed it on a pedestal outside my garage anchored into the concrete driveway.

After my shop was built I moved it there and, for a while had it mounted in the forge room.  Then, I decided to make a larger version out of heavier stock with essentially the same design.  It was still all manual - no air/hydraulic assistance.  I moved the original bender to just outside the east door which is near my primary design work station.  I put in a concrete footing and placed the bender where I could just open the door and have it available.  I put Anti-Seize on the moving part areas for all-weather lubrication.

I wouldn’t say it gets frequent use but when it is used it is used frequently.  I have some small projects coming up which will require bending small stock at sharp angles.  I set the machine up to be dedicated to this task.  It only took a few minutes so I could have done it any time.  But, winter is coming and I’m glad I did it on a warm day near the peak of color with the seagulls migrating overhead.

Bending post in first hole of swing arm

Die post in second hole of fixed arm

Stock feed position

Cutting Drum Followup

This is a footnote to the story about adding the bar grating top to the cutting drum.  Actually it is a continuation of the story of the left over piece that became my new winter entrance tread and foot scraper.

When I went to the shop this morning it occurred to me that I was derelict in not posting a picture of what I had described in text in the previous post.

This was a rainy morning and I didn’t want to go to the trouble of going out and trying dress up the picture.  When I opened the door I was reminded that the leaves were falling and had partially covered the grate and there was a paper coffee filter on the top of the grate.  I snapped the picture and stayed out of the rain.

It seemed obligatory that I explain the coffee filter and the pile of coffee grounds.  As a child, I was frequently in the home of my Mother’s father.  He was an avid fisherman and on his small lattice-walled back porch he had a small earthworm habitat.  Every morning he dumped his coffee grounds into the earthworm container.  Whenever he wanted to go crappie fishing he had a ready supply of fat wigglers.

The coffee aroma of his porch is one of the most powerful and pleasantly nostalgic of my memories.  Much later I learned how important earthworms were in creating fertile soil.  http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Earthworms/Charles-Darwin-and-earthworms

Somewhere, along the line, someone told me that if I had an area where the soil was poor I should put my coffee grounds there.  The earthworms would come to the area and feed on them.  The robins would then come and feed on the earthworms.  The robins would excrete the processed earthworms along with their viable eggs and many more earthworms would emerge in the area.  And, on and on.

I haven’t gone to the trouble to get out a microscope and check all the  steps to the putative process, but where I have used this technique the soil has improved to the point where grass is growing well.  I hope this happens outside my east door under the bar grate.