blacksmiths, I have a question...

[SourRoses]

I feel the need to respond although I dont have much useful to say

. I want a blacksmith hanging around my house! Or a carpenter! Or a glass-blower! So neat!
My mother and I had too much trouble just trying to devide our fish tanks with acrylic!

On the burns... I had a really nasty incident when I was 15, and at the hospital they first soaked my hand in... something... LOL... was it Saline solution? It was soooo goood! I didnt want them to take it away! Then they sent us home with a tiny tub of cream.. Silver something ( I keep remembering "S's).. Sulphur.. My memory really is that good!

We were still using that tub 7 years after the expiration date for any little burns.. you couldn't feel a thing after you put it on. So maybe you've got another handy friend who works in the ER? Or just ask your doctor for something to have lying around if you need it? All I can say is that if he does ever burn himself badly, ice and/or cold water are too painful, it would be better just to wrap it lightly and go to the ER. I dont know about the aloe for right after.. though I love the stuff, being non-sterile, it might cause infection? Note- what I just wrote pertains to big burns, not little ones..
But, yeah, no worries! Im sure he will get good at keeping safe, and signs would probably be very helpful in that!

Ductape! LOL ... When I was a flight attendant, they used "Speed tape" all the time on our little regional jets... Maitinence guy - "Changed that part out for ya guys. Didn't have the right (Doo da's - Im a girl, k?), but dont worry, we taped it!"... Then there was the time we took off on a short flight from Dulles... about 2 dozen Military guys and gals on the plane and hardly anyone else.. Im in my rear facing seat looking down the aisle as we leave the runway, and cracking sounds insue as a long piece ( about 6 rows worth) of white ceiling (plastic?) falls on the heads of guys sitting on the right side, still slightly attached. Of course I can't get up and neither can they, while we climb, so all down the rows the guys were holding it up off their heads! Soooo funny! Finally, I can get up, and I didnt know what on earth to do about it! But, a gal came up with a roll of duct tape and they set about fixing it! I dont think Ill ever get that image out of my head! Those guys fixing the interior of the plane while I stood there and watched. Anyways, we land, Captain comes back and I pointed out their handi-work.. He says "Looks good!" and we took off with our next set of passengers!

Note - If you are from the FAA... This never happens and I didn't talk about it.

Has your boy seen the Mythbusters episode with the duct-tape boat? Lifting the car? It was great!

Fire extinguisher is a grand idea! Another funny story wants to come out involving the above mentioned profession, but thats for another time. I would like to say, if your son doesen't know the proper way to use an extinguisher, most fire departments do offer little classes on the proper use and can help you select a kind that fits the need...like the presence of other flamables in the smithy? I was subjected to wayyy too many videos of normal people trying to extinguish fires and failing because their fire extinguishers ran out of contents.

 

[galanie]

Silver sulfadiazine is what the cream stuff is you're thinking of. As for aloe, I've slathered it on some pretty nasty burns and had them heal up nicely. But then I have a good sized patch of the plants and can just go get some any time I need. My daughter burned her bum pretty badly when she was two and we used fresh aloe on that right away and wow, it looked much better than I expected it would the next day. As for it not being sterile, it may not be, but that doesn't mean it carries anything that will infect you.

Let me make clear before you read the rest that I'm getting rather closer to 60, the daughter of WWII vets, so my point of view is understandably a bit different from that of most of you

What I've always wanted for my metalworking is a small gas welding rig. Not to weld with so much as to have a means to heat the metal if it wont' go into the forge easily, plus to cut metal with. The arc welders are wonderful for welding, but for all around metalwork, I want a set of tanks. Just never could justify the cost of getting them, darn it.

As for the fire extinguisher, I guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy. They are a good idea but my thinking is that if you've let it get to the point that a bucket of water won't put it out, you're just not paying attention. I know, I know, that's no excuse for being unsafe. I'm not saying you don't need a fire extinguisher! Just that I might not know exactly where the fire extinguisher full of toxic chemicals is right away, but there's always a bucket of water by the forge and the hose not so far away.

And gloves are a good idea, at least for the left hand that will be holding either the cool part of the metal (hopefully cool) or your tongs. That is the hand most likely to get burned and a glove won't hamper you much there. I have carpal tunnel in my left hand so I wear one tight fitting glove for both protection and support, since the stupid thing is weak and manages to get itself hurt easily (my tongs are vice grip pliers lol ). I never wore one in my younger days though I also didn't have a reason to grab up any hot metal in my bare hand.

 

[3goodeggs]

A friend brought my son a nice pair of gloves and a few tools yesterday.
We are still all recovering from being really sick, so Everything came to a halt.
He did get to go to a blacksmith's and we were in awe of his aloe plantation.

My mother had about 5lbs of that burn stuff, with the silver, but she threw it out. She was mad at everything that had to do with her cancer and cancer care...including us. She is still alive and kicking, but still is angry that she needed any help...plus, she likes suffering and the stuff worked...
I don't try to figure it out anymore.

I am going to put a pottery kick wheel on the far side of his shed until I get displaced, so there will be plenty of water. The fear would be tossing water on the blower. One day maybe we can find a hand crank blower, and there will be no fear of electrocution.

The idea of getting the fire department to give him a demonstration is very good. I think the scout troop could go with him too.

You all have great ideas.
I probably over plan and try, perhaps, too hard to prevent anything that I can see as preventable, but so far it has served us well. I see family and neighbors be so cavalier with their idea that 'nothing could possibly happen' to them, and yet, it usually does.
I am rather human, and no one ever issued me a cape so I know I am not super human.
'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and with inflation and hospital costs now, it is more like a 'ton of cure.'

Thanks for joining the thread squishy, and welcome to BYC!

 

[SourRoses]

Thank you

.

While were all talking about aloe... maybe you two could answer a question? We have a huge plant in the backyard that I just assumed was aloe when we moved in here, but I have since seen some pictures online that look less prickly. Ours is a massive lump of about 40-50 "plants", although I believe it is just one plant with runners, and each leaf has some scary thorns coming out the sides. At the moment there are about 10 flower spikes with pinkish flowers on them and I was hoping it would set seed.. but weeks later the flowers seem to still be growing. Does this sound like aloe? I could just stop being lazy and go look it up for myself.. but hey, I'm already here

 

[galanie]

Quote:
The aloe family has a lot of different looking plants in it. So some look pretty different from others. Be hard to tell what yours are without seeing a picture. This type of plant is actually propagated via the runners rather than seed, so I'd not worry about it setting any. They do bloom, and I have no idea the purpose of that but then I never was curious enough to look it up, except that I know they usually bloom when they've been pretty darn thirsty for a good while.

By 'huge' do you mean tall, or just spread out everywhere? Aloe do spread out a lot if they're happy, making baby plants that grow and make more baby plants and more and more till there's a pretty good sized patch. But I don't think any of them get over say, 12-18 inches tall (not including the flower spike). While they all have thorns along both sides of the leaves, I never saw one with "scary" thorns but like I said, there's a lot of different looking aloe and I haven't seen them all. Overall they're pretty smallish plants with thick, fat leaves. I think the widest leaves I've seen on one was around 3 inches at it's base. Mine only have 1 inch wide or smaller leaves.

In short, they do sound like aloe which have pinkish salmon flowers. And I did say they usually bloom after being thirsty a long time but they also bloom at other times. Mine just froze but I expect they'll be back. The patch is so thick with plants that I'm sure there's still some live ones down there. I've finally taken up my late mothers' philosophy on gardening: When asked how she managed to have a yard full of nice plants, she replied, "If it doesn't grow, I prune it with a shovel"

 

[3goodeggs]

You are in Florida too correct? It sounds like the ones I have. I get my clippers and cut off the tips and thorns, it is nasty to deal with, but works very well. The humming birds love it, so I keep a lot around, i just have to disarm the ones that we walk near.

 

[SourRoses]

Yep, Im in S FL

Sounds like a good plan.. Wish we had some Hummingbirds!

@ Galanie's mom!
Thanks for the info! I did mean spread out, not tall. But its not completely horizontal spreading. The whole mass of plants is a circle, and rounded.. With the highest plant (which is only about 14 inches in itself, as you said) being about 4 ft high, and plants cascading down to the ground on all sides... Now, I have no idea what is under there holding the whole thing up... A woody stem? Or many momma plants? My idea of "scary thorns" is probably not the same as your's

As to possible dryness.. Im not a bit surprised! Whoever planted it put it in the worst spot... its almost completely sand there and bordering on the neighbors... so it is too far to reach with my hose. I only watered it on rare occasion in the summer when a couple of the babies were turning brown and I felt up to lugging the water. So I have thought it might be a good thing to save at least some of the plant this year by picking the best of the babies and relocating them.. but I dont want to get stabbed LOL, and Im not sure how to do it correctly. At the moment the whole thing is lizard paradise!
Anyway... Sorry! I feel like I sidetracked this discussion! Back to metal-ie thingies! Someone gave me a machete as a Christmas present

... Of course it says "Made in China" on it.. but I figure theres no point in having it laying around and not sharpening it.... but I have no idea how one goes about that. I did try my moms kitchen knife sharpener on it

But it didn't work LOL
I wonder what I can find to chop up?

 

[SillyChicken]

Getting on my soap box.

SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY....... Did I mention SAFETY?

One thing you need to understand about fire, if it's oil based or electrical, Which can happen in a forge!! Water isn't going to put it out it could spread it! A basic ABC extingusher is still a good bet, you don't have to worry about having a bucket of water on hand when you need it... water could freeze, dry up, get knocked over, be forgotten. The extinguisher will always just be there and ready! It's something you both should know how to use regardless of how old you are or what era you grew up in!!

All you have to remember is this word: P A S S

Pull ....the pin
Aim ....the nozzle near the fire
Squeeze ....the handle
Sweep ....agent over the fire

You're working with a forge and hot steel and sparks flying!! ... a fire extinguisher should be the least intimidating thing out there! Ok, off my soap box!!

Gotta love ductape! I've held myself together manytimes with that stuff. If you put a small piece of duct tape sticky side to sticky side, between the cut and the tape, it won't stick to the wound.

Super glue also works great for glueing cuts etc .. I use it alot in winter when my fingers spitl

 

[PeepsInc]

I'm sorry I didn't read all of the posts. I just wanted to add, that ventilation is the most important thing to worry about. That coke & soft coal is very toxic to be breathing in. Most blacksmiths work under a shelter not in a building for that reason. You can make a dandy forge & bellow from a large trucks brake drum & a leaf blower.

 

[galanie]

Having been tasked with bringing a fifty year old federal building up to OSHA standard and educating it's employees on safety, I know P.A.S.S. quite well and the operation of a fire extinguisher. But I'm a big believer in making sure you never have to use one in the first place. In my view, safety doesn't start with a fire extinguisher. It starts with the practices that might end with the need for one.

Yes, water could freeze, be kicked over, etc. The trick here is, you place it so that it's not kicked over, and you don't fire up a forge with a bucket of ice nearby, and gosh, a whole bucket of water drying up does take an awful long time and a LOT of inattention. Be forgotten? Not in my shop! I pay attention to these things (among many others) to avoid having my actions culminate in the need for a fire truck and/or other emergency personnel.

And you know, a fire extinguisher can be kicked into a corner, allowed to expire, forgotten, etc. also for that matter. You don't just get one and put it somewhere and forget about it. You need to at least check them periodically or you might have a rather unpleasant moment someday with it. Ditto making sure access to it isn't obstructed. I've visited plenty of shops that had one but over the years things were stacked in front of it or access was otherwise blocked in some way, and it had long expired. Oh sure, they had one, and it was always there, but where "there" is matters as does it's date.

The best safety equipment a person has is not purchased in any store, it's located between one's ears.

Good ventilation - Absolutely! Those brake drum forges are neat. I ended up with the base of an old tank for mine. And blow dryers also make great fans for them. You can get a dial type dimmer switch for about $10 at the hardware store and have a variable speed leaf blower or whatever fan you like really easily.

Those are both great suggestions, SillyChicken and PeepsInc. I don't mean to poopoo the use of fire extinguishers, I'm simply trying to stress the need for caution - stop and think before acting, always! - so that the use of one isn't needed in the first place. Perhaps I haven't expressed that clearly. I'd really rather patter on about the fun of it than be such an old maid about warnings though