pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on thu 2 sep 04
Hi Mel,
Ooooooooooooo...
...easy-as-Pie...
Just package carefully, send it in to me, and I will
weld-braze the crack closed, with a little extra dab o'
braze on
it 'there', and send it back to you...forthwith...
More below...
----- Original Message -----
From: "mel jacobson"
> what a tragic moment.
> of course i did not do it.
> i was on sarah's wheel.
> i would not crack a bison tool.
Oh...it is not a tragic moment...!
These things can happen...no big deal...
Same with our Pots, we drop 'em, we clang 'em, someone else
drops 'em, someone else clangs 'em...you look at it one
day and you do not know who dropped it or clanged
it but there is a crack or a chip...something falls on
them in the sink or
something...an Irish Setter's Tail sweeps across a
table...a Racoon carries them out into the yard and gnaws on
'em in the Moon-Light ( the Tool's Handle I mean, not one's
Pots)...Life goes on...
> but, for phil:
>
> is is possible to fix a crack in
> my favorite bison tool?
Yes...just package c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y, send it in to me, and
I will braze-weld it, spiffy it up generally, re-oil and wax
the whole, and, send it on back. Usually poste-haste,
sometimes maybe not-quite-so poste-haste...but 'soon' enough
anyway...'while we're young'...
Please see your ( my? or 'the') Catalogue, (which is
supposed to be allways at-hand, hanging by a nail or other
next to one's Wheel and so on, yes? ) under the Paragraph
heading
of...
"Tools as have become subject to mis-hap"
...for more
details about the logic and proceedures for breakages...
Also, it is good to gently clean the Loop with say a
Tooth-Brush or something in Water, ( and not by absently
twisting the
loop heavily in an old 'towell' or oven-mitt or the
like while talking to someone...and certainly
not by hitting it against something to dislodge a glob or
clingy-bit of Clay. Which I know you of course know without
any mention, but as I sometimes find, others as have not
listened to me, or read their Catalogue, regard as
'unexpected news'...
Some Potters bad habits from years of junk
Tools...sometimes...scare me...!
It is good also, not only to visually inspect the area of
the
stem-ends of the Loop's legs, or to inspect the Loop
generally, but also to pay
attention to
how the Loop feels in use, as...if one leg has become
cracked somehow, the whole Loop is then going to be flexing
( ever so
slightly) from twist-bending at the
other intact leg, or twisting along it's curved length when
in use.
The torsional stresses of this can occasion a break
anywhere then, in the rest of the Loop, which may ruin the
whole if it breaks somewhere other than low on the
remaining leg...
To narrate a little of the over-view - The most salient
dimension of these Tools...is that they are
intentional, and are best enjoyed as having been made
intentionally, and are best enjoyed to be used
intentionally.
There is nothing incidental about them, from me, nor as I
expect from others in their use.
They are meant to be used Consciously, with an easy, open,
presence-of-mind, awareness
of what we
are doing. That is how they wish to serve...
Rather than, as
annonomous, transient, incidental habit-item one uses
thoughtlessly or without regard. In effect, they are
insturments...and, they are Cutting Tools...which you well
know...but just to fill in some, of an overview, for those
as may be new to it, since I am blathering on now and
all...in-the-groove as they say...
Too, they are intended for one to have a 'slow' Wheel speed
when Trimming, and not a fast Wheel speed as so many Potters
learned to have, or had adapted to with histories of dull,
incidental Tools as
would not
seem
to do anything otherwise...
The Tools are happiest in the broader range of Leather
Hard...and one must decide from experience how the wet or
dry ends of Leather Hard will differ in the sensitivity one
brings to the Trimming tasks.
One thing as I feel is worth repeating, is thet with all of
the Tools, the 'heel' or the back of the Loop should be
brough to touch the work first, then being the angle over
untill the edge begins to cut. One may trim Onion-skin
thinnesses if one understands the method.
Bringing the Tool into the work so that the cutting edge
immediatly is digging in or cutting, is a habit many
acquired with dull Tools as owuld not work otherwise, or
would not work veryt well at anyway. Old, bad habits such as
that should not be imposed or transfered to Tools as
'Cut'...lest one never learn how to use them, or, how to use
them well and with the versatility they allow.
Some of the Tools are intended to Trim 'dry' or bone-dry,
while others are not so intended...so it is good if one
aquaints themselves with which ones are, and which are not.
Some of them will trim low fire Bisque if one needs to, (ie
any of the 'Solid Tools, or of the Heavy-Duty Loops) while
others, even though they can, I prefer they not be so used
( ie any of the Standard Loops or 'miniature' Loops)...
Too, the ones as 'are not' intended for 'dry' Trimming, may
be so used, if one knows how ( ie
two finger tips on the Loop itself, where the powder slips
past the Loop between them, and, on a slow Wheel, and with
the Tool being introduced to the Work so that the heel, the
backside, touches first, and then the angle the Tool has to
the work is brought over untill it just begins to Cut...and
not so the cutting edge touches first, where there is a
danger it may grab and injure the Pot or injure or break the
Loop...)
> i know, hard as can be, takes a diamond
> to sharpen it.
That is best, yes...
And, is best with a hi-speed liquid-cooled Diamond Wheel,
such as I
employ,
ideally, rather than a hand held Diamond whetstone or
Diamond-file or the like...or,
lest one wear down a so calld 'Green
Wheel' to a nub, (as I once did in an evening) or just make
light dullish
sparks of a
Carborundum
Wheel's wearing-off grits, and unintentionally heat and
maybe
break
the Loop while at it,
and or make a poor rounded bevel anyway if any at all is
effected...
As or if or when one feels the Tool has become dulled, one
simply
packages it carefully, and returns it to me for
re-sharpening. Usually this is at soonest, some couple of
years of daily use for the most prolific production
Trimmers, and many
years to never, for all Trimmers else...
> but, can a crack be welded/fixed?
Yes, a craked leg is an easy-enough matter for me to
repair...as is a Loop which has broken off down low, at the
stem, but as
remains otherwise intact. I can weld the crack, or weld the
intact Loop
back on to the
stumps as-it-were...
A shattered Loop is a lost cause, and may not be repaired.
Or, the troubles to repair it, are not in my view, worth
the utility of the result.
One's Handles are to be regarded as having $5.00 of equity,
should a new Loop be required for them. For which, one
sends to me whatever is left, tells me if possible,
what-it-was, and I make a new Loop of the same kind and size
for the existing stem, or I make something different as the
owner may
please, and I spiffy up the Handle and so on
and send it back. For which, the difference between that and
a new Tool entire, would be the equity which the used Handle
enjoys.
> actually, talk to us about the metal
> in bison tools, what is it, how do you shape it,
> how do you weld it?
The material from which I make the Loops is a particular
kind of Tungsten
Carbide, which is a cintered powder, that, when heated high
enough, under enough pressure, in the appropriate
atmosphere, assumes a very hard, dense,
metallic-like
disposition.
It is not a metal in the usual sense of the term...but is a
blend of Metallic permutates, as oxides, carbides and other,
who each contribute to the properties of the final, very
dense, hard, metallic-looking
material.
Being very very hard, the material, especially when 'thin'
and in
an unsupported cantelever such as a "Loop", should be
thought of, and treated, about as if it were made of
'Glass'.
If used sensibly and deliberately in
Trimming, one may expect these Loops to Trim thousands
of Pots without becomeing annoyingly dull. At which time, if
one feels that some dullness had finally come about,
one packages the Tool carefully, sends it to me, and I
resharpen for a
modest fee, and generally spiffy it all up and so on, and
then mail it back to the owner...
The overwhelming majority of these Loops have never been
used enough to require re-sharpening.
And many of them, the Loops anyway, have
been at their tasks now for up to 13 years or so, maybe
more, I am not sure just now when I started making them. The
'Solid Tools' I started making about 17 years ago
now...eeeesh, time flies...
No one has ever
worn through one, nor worn through a 'corner' of the Loop's
apex of one.
I had elected to make these Tools of this material because I
felt it would retain a good edge for Trimming, and also,
because I sympathized with the un-wanted distractions of a
Potter having to be sharpening soft-metal Tools, and or
having to learn to do so properly or to suffer poor results
for their doing so, or for their having to be trying to
sharpen or tempered ones, as may have irregular hard spots
as a file just goes 'zeeeeee' on, when maybe they are not in
the mood to be at that task, and were rather in the mood to
be at their Trimming.
This way, they may be at their Trimming. And their Trimming
is also freed from those distracting tasks, so the energy
may go into Trimming things well, and not getting spent on
fussing with dull Tools and their upkeeps.
Also, it seemed to me that while Potters make so many
beautiful and endureing things, which are not mundane, it
seemed fitting for them to also have endureing Tools as were
not mundane.
Just as their Pots become someone's important and enjoyed
posession, to be used intelligently and with some
understanding, so to may a Potters Tools be for them a
valued and enjoyed posession, used with intelligence and
understanding...
Most of my experience had been with Wood Working Tools, and
all of them for me are little sweeties that are intentional,
well made, good looking and important...Tools one would tend
to take care of and maintain and have forever...and most of
them are old and Handmade, but even the old factory made
ones are good looking first rate efforts, as know what they
are about, and that compliment the Artison's needs...
I think there is only 'that' as a baseline...there is
'that', or less...
Anyway...there are some very prolific trimmers who have had
their
Standard Loops sharpened twice, in say something like five
years or six, at which point, the material
is enough thinner from the resharpenings, that it is really
time
for a new Loop to be made and fitted. These fellows trim
enormous quantities of Pots, and the two-at-most
resharpenings their Tools may get, represent many may
thousands
of Pots having been Trimmed...many Tuns of Work...
The percentage of catastophic breaks seems to run about two
percent of the Tools as are out there being used.
And
the per-centage of cracked legs as are sent in for me to
repair, seems to be about the same...both surpriseingly
small percentages it seems to me.
The number of Tools which I break or drop when making or
having made them, is a little higher than that...but not
much higher, maybe three per-cent...sometimes close to a
years worth
of that 'three percent' occurs in one day when I step on say
an extention cord's round hard-rubber 'end', and do a good
old
fashioned Art Carney kind of almost pratfall like it was a
ball bearing or something I'd stepped on, and thus
jostle a
whole tray of Tools so that some or most of them scatter to
the concrete floor, where-upon I may say something like,
"Oooops"...or "Oh no!" ...
...sigh...
Oh well...
Anyway...
In making the Tools, I weld or braze the Loops to their
Stems with Brass,
and also an additional little dab of a Silver alloy to flow
out and fill
in as needed...
The Loops are welded to the unthreaded end of a three-inch
threaded
Brass stem, which screws into a tapped-for-that-thread hole,
in the Wooden Handle. And of course I make all the Handles.
They are turned on a good looking, 'Ball Bearing' equipped,
Grease Cup
equipped, 1/3 Horse, belt-drive to cone Pullies, of
four-foot ways, Cast Iron and Cast Iron legs, 1932 or so
'Walker
Turner' Wood Lathe as was the first piece of Machinery I
obtained toward doing things...which I got in Texas in 1977
for $125.00 Cash
from an ad in the local, Grand Prairie paper...it is a
sweeite...
Turning them
usually with an old, unhandled, "Warrented - Cast
Steel...Charles Buck - Sheffield" Gouge, and some old stubby
Parting Tool and a stubby German pre-war Beech Handled 1/2
inch arc-nosed Scraper...
Thats the deal...
When I was getting ready for the 'nceceees' I found myself
progressively
bending farther over at the Lathe, oweing to how I was
standing on
about six or seven inches of compressed Lathe dusts and
shavings as
had been accrueing form turning all them Handles...funny...
I did some sweeping a few weeks back...got all that tidied
up...so I just stand on the floor now...no bending...
> your devoted servant.
> mel
Golly...
Thanks Mel...!
That was fun...
Phil
Bison
Las Vegas
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