Shop Talk, Funny Expressions, Language | Sorta Like Blacksmithing | Forum

If we didn't call it 'sand in your eye' I would never know what happened to me. "Honey, do you see anything in my eye, it feels like....Oh, yeah. Never mind."

It's hard to tell what's funny sometimes, 'upsetting' is a good one; I've been using it for 20 years and forgot how funny it sounds to other people. 'Fuller' was hard to explain to my girlfriend since it actually makes things thinner.

In Indiana I've heard channel locks called a "Kentucky Ratchet", in Kentucky we call it a "Tennessee ratchet" and when I was in Memphis it was an "Arkansas Ratchet". I'm guessing you NorthWest guys go in the other direction and call it a "Canadian Ratchet". To a canuck, by extension, it would become a "Newfie Ratchet". Just speculating on the last two. :smoke:

I know there have been some shop specific tool nicknames, but none are coming to mind right now. Probably bed time here in EST.

I don't know if it is accurate but I read somewhere that the expression, "I am tired" comes from when a blacksmith would have finished a wheel, thus when saying "I am tired" one is saying that they are finished and thus weary.

The Cocatoo analogy has an American counterpart, when refering to crappy welds my foreman used to say, ''looks like the birds flew by''
Round the end of the day at my shop and guys were dragging ass it was often heard; ''I've lost the will to do iron''...........

Crescent wrenches = knuckle scrapers.

When there was a new guy hired at a facility where I grew up, they would send him to another business to borrow the '12" raping tool' or the 'sky hook'. As the new guy was driving to the next business, we would call ahead and give them the head's up that this guy was coming in to pick up the tool. They would then say 'Oh, such and such just borrowed it yesterday' and send him on to the next business. This would go on for the rest of the day, or until the guy clued in to what was going on.

My parents own a lumberyard in a small town. When they are helping a customer fix leaky faucets, a lot of times the o-rings on the cartridge are the culprit. In order to slide a new o-ring on smoothly without catching and tearing, my dad would put a small dab of vaseline on the cartidge first. He would tell the customer to get a jar of 'veenerschleider' (vaseline).

I didn't know he was so German...

JNewman: I have a slick spot on my thumb from trying to lift some heavy metal last weekend 😉

When doing refrigeration work the fittings have to be extra tight compared to propane. So you tighten it as hard as you can and then "two turds more." When a carpenter misses a nail with a hammer, ask if they want a frying pan or if they are trying to "scare them in." What do you know to be a plumber? Water runs down hill, payday's Friday and don't put your fingers in your mouth. (My apologies to any plumbers out there.) Todd

My father was a builder, I, a kid, was about to drink out of a hose on a jobsite, he jerked it away and said "Don't ever drink out of a hose that a plumber has used"

True story

Built our house 40 years ago with the lead carpenders, moonlighting from work. We worked evenings, weekends for 3 months, one thing I learned from them was "Endo", meaning hit a piece of lumber on the end any size from 2 x 4 to 4 x 10, hammer or sledge.

Guess it could work, for blacksmithing.