Today's work. In celebration of the fact that I am now officially registered as a part time craftsman in the 'Manufacture of metal tools, subcategory 'knives, cutlery and hand tools', I decided to work on a couple of my own designs. I found it relaxing to work on just 3 razors. Gave me the time to be a bit more creative. And then in the late afternoon, I spent a couple of hours stick welding a steel frame for my new charcoal fire.No pics yet
Although, to call it 'welding' would be presumptuous. I'd call it frying. It was 20 years since my one and only stick welding lesson in the materials lab in college. First I needed a half hour to figure out that I was not using enough current for the thickness of my welding rods. So it stuck to the steel every single time. And then of course the first couple of welds were bad because I didn't file the surface clean. The next umpteen welds were solid but they looked like a piece of steel with a bad case of smallpox. And the final 3 welds were clean. I finally started to get some feeling for controlling the puddle.
As I said, no pics yet but I am happy with how it turned out. It's rock solid, and the drum which is going to contain the fire drops in place without any possibility for falling over or sliding out. I have to say that's the nice thing about welding. If the aesthetics don't matter, you can get stuff done real quick.
Anyway, here are the 3 razors I created and heat treated today.
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