Hey! Are there blacksmiths in your story? I’m a hobbyist blacksmith and I’m here to help!
Blacksmithing is one of those things that a lot of people get wrong because they don’t realize it stuck around past the advent of the assembly line. Here’s a list of some common misconceptions I see and what to do instead!
Not all blacksmiths are gigantic terrifying muscly guys with beards and deep voices. I am 5'8, skinny as a twig, have the muscle mass of wet bread, and exist on Tumblr. Anybody who is strong enough to pick up a hammer and understands fire safety can be a blacksmith.
You can make more than just swords with blacksmithing. Though swords are undeniably practical, they’re not the only things that can be made. I’ve made candle holders, wall hooks, kebab skewers, fire pokers, and more. Look up things other people have made, it’s really amazing what can be done.
“Red-hot” is actually not that hot by blacksmith terms. when heated up, the metal goes from black, to red, to orange, to yellow, to white. (for temperature reference, I got a second degree burn from picking up a piece of metal on black heat) The ideal color to work with the metal is yellow. White is not ideal at all, because the metal starts sparking and gets all weird and lumpy when it cools. (At no point in this process does the metal get even close to melting. It gets soft enough to work with, but I have never once seen metal become a liquid.)
Blacksmithing takes fucking forever. Not even taking into account starting the forge, selecting and preparing metal, etc. etc. it takes me around an hour to make one (1) fancy skewer. The metals blacksmiths work with heat up and cool down incredibly fast. When the forge is going good, it only takes like 20 seconds to get your metal hot enough to work with, but it takes about the same time for it to cool down, sometimes even less.
As long as you are careful, it is actually stupidly easy to not get hurt while blacksmithing. When I picked up this hobby I was like “okay, cool! I’m gonna make stuff, and I’m gonna end up in the hospital at some point!” Thus far, the latter has yet to occur. I’ve been doing this for nearly a year. I have earned myself a new scar from the aforementioned second degree burn, and one singe mark on my jeans. I don’t even wear gloves half the time. Literally just eye protection, common sense, and fast reflexes and you’ll probably be fine. (Accidents still happen of course, but I have found adequate safety weirdly easy to achieve with this hobby)
A forge is not a fire. The forge is the thing blacksmiths put their metal in to heat it up. It starts as a small fire, usually with newspaper or something else that’s relatively small and burns easily, which we then put in the forge itself, which is sort of a fireplace-esque thing (there’s a lot of different types of forge, look into it and try to figure out what sort of forge would make the most sense for the context you’re writing about) and we cover it with coal, which then catches fire and heats up. The forge gets really hot, and sometimes really bright. Sometimes when I stare at the forge for too long it’s like staring into the sun. The forge is also not a waterfall of lava, Steven Universe. It doesn’t work like that, Steven Universe.
Welding and blacksmithing are not the same thing. They often go hand-in-hand, but you cannot connected two pieces of metal with traditional blacksmithing alone. There is something called forge welding, where you heat your metal, sprinkle borax (or the in-universe equivalent) on it to prevent the metal from oxidizing/being non-weldable, and hammer the pieces together very quickly. Forge welding also sends sparks flying everywhere, and if you’re working in a small space with other blacksmiths, you usually want to announce that you’re welding before you do, so that everyone in a five-foot radius can get out of that five-foot radius. You also cannot just stuck some random pebbles into the forge and get a decent piece of metal that you can actually make something with, Steven Universe. It doesn’t work like that, Steven Universe.
Anvils are really fucking heavy. Nothing else to add here.
Making jewelry is not a blacksmithing thing unless you want jewelry made of steel. And it will be very ugly if you try. Blacksmithing wasn’t invented to make small things.
If there’s anything here I didn’t mention, just ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Yknow, when you keep insisting that adults can’t enjoy fandom or play video games or what cartoons or whatever, it’s other young people that you’re hurting the most. Because the most you’ll do to adults is offend or annoy them with that nonsense, but when you plant that idea in a kid’s head, they grow older with the horrible dread looming over them that the things that bring them happiness and comfort have an expiration date. When I was a young adult, I was genuinely depressed about the thought of getting older because I thought I couldn’t keep enjoying all my hobbies, like I had to give up everything I enjoy once I reach [x] age.
And that is simply not true. It’s bullshit. But the harm is does to people is very real. Kids are so afraid of getting older, and one of the big fears is that their life will become painfully bland and boring once they hit adulthood, as if all adults do is work and pay taxes, possibly raise kids. No more fun, no whimsy, no playfulness, no joy.
Anyway, I’m 33 and I love video games and fanfiction and cartoons. If you tell me I’m too old for that stuff, I’ll roll my eyes and block you and go on with my day. But I will worry about the 17 year old who saw your post too and feels a sinking in their chest at the thought that they have to give up the stuff that makes them happy. THAT’S what bothers me.
Getting older in fandom mostly just means:
You’re better at recognizing fandom patterns and can avoid the toxic ones, leading to increased fandom enjoyment.
Now you have to zoom the text on AO3.
FYI, if you’re a person who wants larger text on AO3, you can zoom in or you can use a site skin (skins only work if you’re logged in though).
The easiest way is to scroll to the bottom of any page on AO3 and look at the left-hand side of the footer. Find Low Vision Default and tap on that, and you’re set.
If you don’t like the looks of Low Vision Default (or if you just want the text inside the fics to be larger but not the rest of the site), you can create your own very simple site skin:
Tap on your name at the top of the AO3 page
Select MyDashboard from the dropdown menu
Select Skins
Tap on Create Site Skin
Give your skin a unique name so that you can save it
Paste the CSS below into the big empty box
Tap the Submit button
On the next page, tap Use
CSS is as follows:
#workskin p { font-size: 24pt; }
Set whatever pt font you prefer to read with and enjoy.
(this CSS code can also be added into any other skin you might be using. Just copy/paste it in there)
my heart goes out to the people who feel like they will forever be the friend who walks on the grass. the people who believe they will never be part of the main group. the people who think they live in the background and can come out of the shade into the sun only when there’s room which there often is not. I am reaching out my hand and taking you with me away from people who don’t appreciate you and we will walk under the sun together with us both on the sidewalk
My favorite thing about loft house sugar cookies is that the people who like them are like “they cured me from my depression, they were there for me when no one else was. I owe them my life and my first born child” and then the people who don’t like them are like “they stole my shoes, slashed my tires, and burned my house to the ground. I want nothing more than for them to suffer a painful death”.
Total Cookie Protection works by creating a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit. Instead of allowing trackers to link up your behavior on multiple sites, they just get to see behavior on individual sites. Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser, that cookie is confined to the cookie jar assigned to only that website. No other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you — giving you freedom from invasive ads and reducing the amount of information companies gather about you.
This approach strikes the balance between eliminating the worst privacy properties of third-party cookies – in particular the ability to track you – and allowing those cookies to fulfill their less invasive use cases (e.g. to provide accurate analytics). With Total Cookie Protection in Firefox, people can enjoy better privacy and have the great browsing experience they’ve come to expect.
A varying assortment of wool and silk and cotton and even some leather, use coupon code
spring2020
for 50% off your full order, worked yesterday when I bought some stuff there; https://metrotextilesnyc.com/
I don’t know a lot about sewing, but I want to make or have my mom make some linen pants & shirts for when I’m watering, because it gets to 105 here and we have mosquitos so I need to be covered. What type of linen do I buy? Also, linen pajama shorts, yes/no?
(I’ve been wearing my renfaire pants which are a linen mix, I think. But the frikking mosquitos that hide in the tomatoes get my arms)
If you use Tumblr on a web browser, you might have noticed us testing a brand new navigation on your dashboard in the last month. Now, after some extensive tweaks, we’ve begun rolling out this new dashboard navigation to everyone using a web browser. Welcome to the new world. It’s very like the old world, just in a different layout.
Why are we doing this? We want it to be as easy as possible for everyone to understand and explore what’s happening on Tumblr—newbies and seasoned travelers alike.
Labels over icons: When adding something new to Tumblr in the past, we’d simply add a new icon to our navigation with little further explanation. Turns out no one likes to press a button when they don’t know what it does. So now, where there’s space, the navigation includes text labels. Since adding these, we’ve noticed more of you venturing to previously unexplored corners of Tumblr. Intrepid!
What’s already been fixed? Thanks to feedback from folks during the testing phase, we’ve been able to make some improvements right out of the gate. Those include returning settings subpages (Account, Dashboard, etc.) to the right of the settings page instead of having them in an expandable item in the navigation on the left; fixing some issues with messaging windows on smaller screens; and streamlining the Account section to make it easier to get to your blogs.
What’s next? We’re looking into making a collapsible version of this navigation and improving the use of screen space for those of you with enormous screens. We’re also working on improving access to your account and sideblogs.
That’s all for now, folks. For questions and suggestions, contact Support using the “Feedback” category. Please select the “Report a bug or crash” category on the support form for technical issues. And keep an eye out for more updates here on @changes.
LMAO THEY HAD TO DISABLE REPLIES
Literally everyone hated this shit the second it came out and they shielded themselves vy saying “well we may change it depending on user feedback :)” but they haven’t changed anything and just released it as-is.
Anyway get the Stylus browser extension (for firefox & chrome) and the old theme userstyle to get your dash back in order
Stuff that happens to be done by Zeldalina on DeviantART among other things. I post art sometimes, but generally reblog a lot of references and reblog other people's art when I get a chance.
