Don't take me long to look at a horse shoe!

PHPaul

PHPaul

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Making a doo-dad for the shop. One part I needed is a crank arm out of 1/4" round stock with a 90° bend in each end.

Marked out the spot, chucked it up in the vise and got the first end glowing with the torch and bent the 90 in it.

Very carefully flipped it over, aligned things so the bends would be in the same plane, and heated it up.

And promptly grabbed it by the hot end to make the other bend...

Not bad reaction time for an old fart tho, I let go of it fast enough that all I got was a shiny spot on the pad of my pointer finger.
 
And that unbelievable aroma of toasted skin:(
 
I know the feeling. Feels good when it stops hurting, huh.

Chuck
 
My first professional job was as an analytical chemist. One day I was ashing a sample in a platinum crucible in a muffle furnace. I pulled the glowing orange crucible out of the furnace with a pair of tongs when the crucible slipped out and was heading for the floor. Now those crucibles were around $400 in 1970's dollars. Reflexively, I reached down and flipped the crucible back onto the counter and saved the crucible. Fortunately for me, the crucible was upside down when I made contact with it so the only damage was a thin burn ring on my palm. It would have been much worse had the crucible been right side up.
 
On a less serious note, my ex wife was apprenticing with a local farrier. One night after work, we were downing a couple of beers and I said to the farrier, " I can bend a #2 shoe with my bare hands". The guy's eyes opened wide and he said "really"? I said, "of course, I have to heat it to a dull red first".
 
Another farrier story: A blacksmith was demonstrating making horseshoes at a local gathering. As he finished the shoes, he tossed them on a pile in front of spectators. Anyone who has forged iron knows the the most dangerous iron is black iron. Apparently an old timer didn't know that as he reached down and picked up one of the shoes for a closer inspection. Of course, he immediately dropped it. As the other spectators looked quizzically at him he said, "it doesn't take me long to inspect hot iron".
 
PHPaul said:
Not bad reaction time for an old fart tho, I let go of it fast enough that all I got was a shiny spot on the pad of my pointer finger.
Click to expand...
The reason I laughed is that in the early days of my trade (chef) we always used solid copper pans with brass handles.
I would diligently use at least 4 layers of cloth to remove the pan from the oven, carefully tuck the cloths back into my apron then use a bare hand to take the lid off.
It would make a slight hissing noise as it ironed the skin on the palm and fingers hard.
But I'm not telling what noise I made.
(Gordon Ramsey someone?)
The scary part is I did it way more times than once
 
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