Subject: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 20 May 13 - 07:34 PM Bertha and I have been together for decades... She has always been my reliable friend... About 20 years ago I thought I lost her but after a couple months she turned up... Sniff... Well, she went missing a couple weeks ago... I looked and looked but couldn't find her and thought to that time when I thought I lost her for good... I mean, I went over it over and over in my my mind but I was out on my tractor today and got off it and looked down and there she was covered in mud but otherwise okay... I love that 3 pound ball-peen hammer... I sho nuff do... Sniff... B;~) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 20 May 13 - 07:42 PM There, there, Bobert. I'm sure she forgives you. But you have to promise to clean her up good and not do it again. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 20 May 13 - 07:44 PM Yes, I have, Rap... She's kinda a mess right now... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Ebbie Date: 20 May 13 - 08:53 PM Treat her gently, Bobert- mind, no hitting things with her. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST Date: 20 May 13 - 09:12 PM A ball-peen for the crust and some lemon juice for the rust. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 20 May 13 - 09:14 PM Huh??? That's what she does, Eb... And she is good at it... She actually likes hitting stuff... Reminds me of a few women I have known... B;~) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 20 May 13 - 09:57 PM Ya know, Bobert, time I dropped my Great-Uncle's pocket watch in the Mississippi River when I was out fishing. As it sank I saw a big catfish (a mudcat, believe it or not!) swallow it and swim away. I was downright distraught. My Great-Uncle had carried that watch through the battle of Shiloh, the siege of Vicksburg, at the battle of Atlanta, with Sherman on his march to the sea, when he was mustered out, when he rode with Jesse and Frank, when he worked with Butch and gambled with Doc. It was the only thing of his I had and I treasured it and I wept salty tears. Twenty years later I was fishing in about the same place and I caught a huge catfish. When I cleaned it, you'll never guess what I found inside! That's right -- fish guts. It cooked up pretty good, though. Never did find the watch. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 21 May 13 - 02:02 AM beautifully said, Rap |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Desert Dancer Date: 21 May 13 - 02:07 AM How about a bit of brightly colored tape on the handle? |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Ebbie Date: 21 May 13 - 02:23 AM "That's right -- fish guts. It cooked up pretty good, though." Rap ewwwwwww |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 21 May 13 - 03:02 AM Yer lucky you found Bertha, Bobert. Fella down in Floriday says he was out messin' 'round on his ATV and spotted this itty bitty snake tail stickin' out of a bush. Says it was 'bout 3 feet long. Course he gave it a yank - - - and there was 'nother 15 feet of snake on t'other end of the piece he had a hold of. Says he rassled with it for a while, till it started tryin' to bite 'im and he decided to borry his bud's knife and make snake shish-ka-bob out of some little pieces. Florida Wildlife people say it's a state record for largest Burmese python captured in the state. (They're kind of a pest down there, 'bout as common as rats.) The guy donated the skeleton to the Wildlife crew, on condition that they give him back the skin. Says he's gonna dry it and tan it and make a hatband out of it, or somethin' like that. biggest Burmese python ever in Florida John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: gnu Date: 21 May 13 - 05:45 AM JiK... gosh! Good thing his buddy had a knife. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 21 May 13 - 08:23 AM Bertha likes to bust up snake heads, John... But pythons ain't bad snakes 'cause they ain't poisonous or nuthin'... Yeah, them Florideers got everyone all worked up about pythons so they had a big python hunt and after the hunt all those thousands of pythons that the Florideers said they would catch turned out to be about a dozen... Nevermind... Bust poisonous snake heads and leave the others alone... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 21 May 13 - 12:10 PM You think YOU have a Big Bertha? (I read about her in German class in 1958) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,Frank Date: 21 May 13 - 10:04 PM Bobert - more importantly - what type of tractor do you have? Mine is a 1953 Ferguson TEA 20. Just thought you would like to know. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 21 May 13 - 10:18 PM Don't hurt ANY snakes if you can help it. Even poisonous ones. They keep down rodent populations. However, having been much too up close and personal with a rattlesnake (which I let live, not having a choice in the matter), please note the condition above: "if you can help it." Just remember what my Grandma said: a snake won't really die until after the sun goes down. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 21 May 13 - 10:30 PM bobert, listen to Desert Dancer. Colored tape on the handle. I favor fluorscent pink duct tape, myself. It's especially helpful for garden tools. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST Date: 22 May 13 - 12:52 AM Don't hurt any rodent if ya can help it, Rap. You will be deprivin' a snake of its natural food supply. Kill too many rodents and snakes could die off! Ook! Ook! - Chongo p.s. Knew right away it was a Bobertz thread, cos he is snifflin' again...and over a lost hammer! Hard to believe, but that's Bobertz. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 22 May 13 - 08:51 AM My tractor is a Kubota L3650... Tough as nails... As fir snakes??? I like to leave 'um along but if I gotta bust one up then Bertha loves bustin' them up... BTW, no to colorful tape for this hammer... She don't like that girly stuff... B;~) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: kendall Date: 22 May 13 - 02:41 PM We have a resident garden snake that lives in the front porch foundation. I wouldn't think of killing it. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 May 13 - 03:15 PM Back to Bertha. I know how you feel, Bobert. I have a putty knife that I bought for 49 cents in 1978. We call it "the magic knife." It has just the right combination of thinness, strength and whippiness. One day the DH used it too hard and snapped off the front edge. Knowing my love for the magic knife, he smoothed the blade off for me, using his doubly Celtic (Irish plus Bohemian) metal-working skills. That's love. If Bertha's embarrassed by pink, orange will do. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 22 May 13 - 05:38 PM I have my late father's old garden rake from the early fifties. His dear old hands smoothed the handle with use. When I rake with it I imagine him doing the same. I'd hate to lose that rake! |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 22 May 13 - 08:09 PM 'bout the oldest and meanest tool I've got is what my daddy called his "Kentucky toothpick." It's actually an axle out of an old combine, somewhere around 1920 or before, about five and half feet long and a little over an inch and a quarter diameter. (I'm pretty sure daddy swiped it from his daddy, but grandpappy never complained.) It's still got some "spline teeth" you can sorta see on one end, but the other end is hammered down to a "wedge" that you can poke into any little crack you can find next somethin' that's gotta move. The first time I ever got to use it for somethin' serious was to inch a 23,000 pound punch press (on a couple or three inch and half pipe "rollers") about 30 feet into the shop after the haulers dumped it in front of the door. I keep it around just for thinkin' 'bout all the sh*t I could move with that sucker - - - - if I could still lift it. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 22 May 13 - 08:30 PM Danged, John... Now you have ruined my night... I have an axle I have left somewhere that came out of my ol' 1961 Bristol double-decker bus... Where, oh where, can she be... B;~( |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 22 May 13 - 08:49 PM When I was only a little bit old, I began getting "lifting aids" so I wouldn't have to lift heavy stuff. Now that I'm (only?) a little older, I find a need for things to help lift the lifting aids - and there aren't many of those around. I do actually have a second one of daddy's "toothpicks" but it never had a name. About a foot shorter but an inch and a half diameter, it was too heavy (and too fat to get into the cracks) to do much with even when I was a kid lumpin' 30 tons of steel a day. For a while I kept a couple of common "pry bars" that we'd bent the sh*t out of, just for conversation pieces, but I finally let my daughter take them to the scrap yard. An old (bent) crowbar may be worth a couple of bucks as scrap iron, I guess. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 22 May 13 - 08:57 PM I found my lump hammer (for the uninitiated, that's a sledge hammer small enough to swing one-handed) in the woods on my property when we bought it. I have no idea who it belonged to or why it was in the woods, but it's been mine for 20 years now and I ain't givin' it back. I call it "BFH", short for "Big Fuckin' Hammer". |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 22 May 13 - 09:05 PM I used to joke that there were only two tools you needed to fix anything: a hammer and big fuckin' hammer... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 22 May 13 - 09:45 PM Recently I had trouble with one of my revolvers. So I called Ruger, the maker. The guy who I talked to suggested some subtle gunsmithing. He said that the hammer might be binding to the frame. The way to fix this was to remove the cylinder, put the frame on a good flat surface, and whack it a couple times on both sides with a rubber mallet. THAT'S the kind of fix I can do! It didn't work and I had to send it back to the maker, but I tried. Big ol' rubber mallet like you use on 18-wheeler trucks. I also have a couple of hand-held sledges, a big ball-peener, and a splitting maul. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 23 May 13 - 11:10 AM Tools do accumulate, don't they? We have only 8 or 9 hammers, ranging from the tiny tack hammer which belonged to my husband's great=grandfather to Estwing rock hammers to the huge rubber mallet. Scissors are a different story. Recently a piano tuner asked me, "Do you own any scissors?" For a second, I stared at him as if he were mad. What a question! Is there any household outside of the Amazon rainforest which does not have scissors? But what do I know? Maybe in households where nobody sews and nobody cooks, there are no scissors. Later we did a mental survey and concluded that in our house there are 26 pairs of scissors. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 23 May 13 - 01:43 PM I only have a small ball-peen (never having even attempted to do any serious metal work)... however I have a few others... 27 if I count right, plus 3 that need handles. One is at least a 12 lb. sledge head (maybe 16) I have no idea where I got it, and I'm sure *I* would not be able to swing it in any controllable way. I use maybe 3 of the metal ones on occasion, but use the rubber, wood, rawhide and phenolic mallets in the shop all the time to snug (and remove) lathe chucks in a Morse taper. The shiny one with the two-tone striped head is all Lignumvitae which I made myself. Anyone crave a sledge head? (you pay postage) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 23 May 13 - 06:16 PM You must be a cut above the rest, leeneia! I find scissors disappear, I think they run away from home. I seem to lose them at an alarming rate, and need them for sewing, craftwork, gardening, cooking, hair-trimming, nail-clipping, yet "There they are, gone!" as my Irish mother used to say. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 23 May 13 - 07:04 PM Bill, polish that sledge head up and use it for an anvil for small work. A piece of well-used railroad rail is better, but the railroads get all annoyed if you cut out a section of rail and take it home. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 May 13 - 07:47 PM For the delicate hammer work nothin' beats an air hammer with a flat-faced (rivet) head on it. The problem is that all the hardware and machinery shops that can sell you the air compressor and the hammer only have heads (or bits, if you prefer) for cutting, ripping, punching and other "take-apart" stuff, with nothin' you can use just for teasing a crease around a corner or making something flat and smooth. Took me about three years to find one good one after I started looking pretty seriously - - at "The Yard" of course, where it was in the bottom of a box of "scrap" they were selling by the pound. Now if I had a couple of balls - - I mean a ball head and a mushroom head pair, I could make cups and saucers pretty nicely. Still looking for those ten years later. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 23 May 13 - 07:55 PM Durn, Rap...that there is a fine idea! I can even shape a wood mount for it to temporarily attach it to the workbench. (and I thought *I* was pretty good at 'thinking outside the box' and seeing odd uses for stuff...) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 23 May 13 - 07:59 PM You got one of Bertha's cousins, Bill... That hammer that is the 8th from the left with the duct tap on it is sho nuff mean mo-chine... Nice!!! B;~) |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 23 May 13 - 08:14 PM That's my reasonably light,short handled wood-splittin' hammer for getting me halves of small logs for turning. I have 2 loose axe heads and 2 real wedges for it to beat on. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Rapparee Date: 23 May 13 - 09:29 PM I want a star drill -- one of the old star bits, that is. One about 18 inches or so long (longer is okay) that I can use for drilling holes in rock and concrete. Once you got the hole made all you need do is tamp some giant powder into it, stick in a fuse, mud it up, light said fuse and walk quickly away. Or you can just use the bit to bust up rocks. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp Date: 23 May 13 - 09:33 PM Like you'll be doin' after my administration comes in after 2016 and imprisons the specists in the USA population. - Chongo |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 23 May 13 - 09:34 PM I got my grand daddie's, Rap... 18 inches and bores like a 1/2 hole... Time consuming but works... Actually, I gotta a lot of my grand daddie's tools... He was a stone mason in New York City... I have all his chisels... I gotta all his stuff... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 24 May 13 - 02:09 AM I want a star drill -- one of the old star bits Those are still available, pretty cheap, at Home Depot or Lowes, or even at Harbor Freight if you trust the Chinese steel - unless of course you're talkin' 2 inch holes. Biggest usually available are about an inch diameter. Having made quite a few holes with both kinds, my preference is for the "carbide blade" rotary bits in an impact drill, but of course there's times when you have to do without the electric assist. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 24 May 13 - 08:35 AM Hi, Eliza. "scissors disappear, I think they run away from home" So that's it! I've wondered for years why you can lay a pair of scissors on the sewing table, go off to cook dinner or sleep and find they are not on the sewing table when you come back. Right now my small manicure scissors and my curved embroidery scissors (expensive) are among the missing. Where can they be? They are too small and delicate to be absconded with by other family members for unauthorized purposes. Cue theme from 'Twilight Zone'.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 24 May 13 - 10:58 AM I used a star drill for part of the work to run cable for my internet into my downstairs 'office'. It's the kind of work one needs to do everyday..or not at all. |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 24 May 13 - 12:17 PM For those who don't do it every day, you can get star drills with a sliding handle on them. The handle has about a 4 to 6 inch diameter very heavy flange at the top, so that when you miss the drill with the hammer the flange helps slightly to protect you from breaking the hand you're holding the drill with. A few more general purpose masonry chisels etc can also be found with the same "protections." John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: GUEST,Eliza Date: 24 May 13 - 02:51 PM LOL leeneia. Maybe they all go to a Scissors' Reunion. I was going to say a Tools' Convention, but it sounds like a political Party Conference! |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 24 May 13 - 05:34 PM Heck with star drills... Roto-hammers rock... B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bill D Date: 24 May 13 - 07:05 PM Here are some of what John was referring to. star drills at top, rock drill with protective rubber flange at left..... and a few other odd cement/stone chisels. (smaller ones left out) Sheesh.... where DID I collect all this stuff I seldom use? |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: Bobert Date: 03 Oct 13 - 08:37 PM WTF??? Pig Latin, or what??? B~ |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: JohnInKansas Date: 03 Oct 13 - 08:59 PM The biggest of its kind still around is Big Brutus who is now "museum piece." His sister, Big Bertha, was a little bigger, but they took her apart some years ago. Either one could really bust a few rocks. John |
Subject: RE: BS: Bertha has come home... Sniff... From: MGM·Lion Date: 04 Oct 13 - 02:48 PM My mother's name was Bertha. B 1909, before WW1. She wasn't a hammer And she wasn't a gun She was just my much beloved Mum Just thought of that. Funny how the Muse will strike! ~M~ died 1967 btw |