Acrylic and Steel: Irons in the Fire

My thumb has healed from its stabbing – oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about that. So I was finishing up Rocketpants’ knife…wait I didn’t tell you about that either. Sigh.

OK, so if you remember a few (many) months ago, I had some of the guys over and let them pound on some hot metal? Well, other opportunities haven’t presented themselves, and Rocketpants’ birthday was coming up, so I thought I would finish up the knife he started. It was a nice little thing, made from O1 tool steel I think – always hard to remember which scrap is what. So, I did a little hammering, quenching, tempering, grinding and polishing, and put the handle on, and then some more polishing, and some more polishing, and there were still a couple of little scratches in the mirror finish. So, more polishing, and it was about time for bed, and I was so proud of not stabbing myself during the whole polishing process…that I stabbed myself in the right thumb.

Now, this isn’t all that infrequent of an experience, so I can’t say that it was surprising. In fact, my wife, sitting 3 feet away working on the computer, didn’t even notice that I had stabbed myself. You’d be amazed how quickly you can apply direct pressure to a thumb, so, no big spurts of blood either. Unlike that time with the razor – Note to self - don’t ever show people how to shave with a straight razor after a couple glasses of wine.

Anyway, I got myself patched up. Finished up the polishing (with Kevlar gloves) a few days later, sharpened it some more, made a sheath, and gave it to Rocketpants AFTER winning the Twinkie Cup. So no one would accuse me of bribery.

Mind you, I have never eaten a twinkie (despite a picture that floated around facebook a while back), but won a very large margarita glass full of them. What!!?? You don’t know what the Twinkie Cup is?

Every year for the past 3, Rocketpants has put on a race at the Albuquerque Indoor Karting. This year, the theme was Mario Cart. Now, I don’t do the dressing up (because I am lame), and I am not the world’s greatest driver, but somehow I managed to be consistent enough between the two races to tie for 1^st, and then with my random powerup (again, a la Mario Kart), I edged out the other first place winner.

In other news, I tried forging the bronze chunk that I cast and it crumbled. I hit it when it was too hot, not that I knew it until it was too late. As it cooled, it became clear that it was forgeable at lower temps, but how was I to know. I guess I will have to melt it again later and try lost wax next.