evo
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- My Island, WA
Wondering what y’all do on your ‘spare’ time and how you manage time for hobbies?
I blew the dust off this one, mostly because my son expressed interest in learning. I think I’ve fallen back in love with it. I’ve never used a coal forge, and I’ve been packing this one around for the two decades since my father died. I’m not sure where or when he picked it up, but it was always just used as a spot to pile tools.
Back in my late teens to early twenties I built myself a gas forge. Managed to blow myself up only twice. Coal is always a challenge to find, and I’d turn my nose up whenever I smelled it. Now I learned about coke, which from my understanding is not for the beginners (kinda like how the akimbo isn’t for beginners). Supposedly it’s hard to light, hard to give it enough air, hard to keep it lit, and easy to burn up your steel from over heating. We only had a the overheating problem, so we did very well!
Since this is new to me (coal/coke) we have a lot of tools to make. We had just enough time to get some rebar hot, make a few fire tools for the forge, and a little poker for the wood cook stove in the house.
In time I want to make axes. My passion with smithing is and always has been functional items people take for granted. Not unlike a doorknob that gets polished from a century of use. Hundreds, thousands, or more of hands have touched the doorknob, polished it, and very few ever gave a though of the person who made it. Tools that can last generations like axes are what I’d like to make.
In the past 30 years this forge has never been lit, and crossed half the country and back.
So enough about me, what hobbies do y’all pick up? How do you balance work and hobby? My elbows are shot from tree work, smithing isn’t any kinder.
I blew the dust off this one, mostly because my son expressed interest in learning. I think I’ve fallen back in love with it. I’ve never used a coal forge, and I’ve been packing this one around for the two decades since my father died. I’m not sure where or when he picked it up, but it was always just used as a spot to pile tools.
Back in my late teens to early twenties I built myself a gas forge. Managed to blow myself up only twice. Coal is always a challenge to find, and I’d turn my nose up whenever I smelled it. Now I learned about coke, which from my understanding is not for the beginners (kinda like how the akimbo isn’t for beginners). Supposedly it’s hard to light, hard to give it enough air, hard to keep it lit, and easy to burn up your steel from over heating. We only had a the overheating problem, so we did very well!
Since this is new to me (coal/coke) we have a lot of tools to make. We had just enough time to get some rebar hot, make a few fire tools for the forge, and a little poker for the wood cook stove in the house.
In time I want to make axes. My passion with smithing is and always has been functional items people take for granted. Not unlike a doorknob that gets polished from a century of use. Hundreds, thousands, or more of hands have touched the doorknob, polished it, and very few ever gave a though of the person who made it. Tools that can last generations like axes are what I’d like to make.
In the past 30 years this forge has never been lit, and crossed half the country and back.
So enough about me, what hobbies do y’all pick up? How do you balance work and hobby? My elbows are shot from tree work, smithing isn’t any kinder.
in the past I've done MMA and I enjoyed that, particularly the grappling side of it and occasionally I make it out to ride UTVs through parts of the country I would normally never get the chance to visit. 
