Yup, this is my 100th episode.  Bob Menard from the New England Blacksmiths just asked me the other day did you envision the 100th when you started?  The answer is NO Way! The reason I started this podcast 3 years ago was to help create a tighter knit blacksmith community around the world, to aid and encourage forging new connections by having casual conversations every week so we can learn a little something about our peers.  I thought I would talk about a few of the connections I’ve made over the past 3 years and about some of the connections that a few listeners have made by listening to the podcast.  Then I’ll jump right into another JayBurn Journal (an article written by Jay Burnham Kidwell) about different kinds of forging connections such as riveting, hot metal wrapping, mortise and tenon and such.   Summary: Hot Connections Forge Welding Arc Welding MIG Welding Tig Welding Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas welding Oxy/acetelyne, oxy/propane gas brazing and soldering Forge brazing Forge soldering Mortise and Tenon Hot Rivets   Cold Connections are: Copper rivets Collars and wraps Claydon Connections Tension connections Nuts and bolts Articulated connections Socket bearing connections   Collaring – to determine the length of the collar material: measure around the pieces to be collared plus 2 ½ times the thickness of the collar material.  This will be the cut length before beveling the ends.   Square Tenons – Upset the end of the bar a ½”, then do another upset just under the first upset, use a side set or spring fuller to establish the tenon and the shoulder. Then draw out the tenon, even up the shoulder edges with a monkey tool and check fir size and fit with the mortise.  The tenon should extend about 1 ½ times the diameter of the tenon through the mortise hole. Pass- through connections – using a slitting chisel and a swage block that is a little bigger than the pass through stock.   Stuart Hill’s connection using a square tube that is twice the thickness of the pieces to be joined.   Arno Muller’s corner connection – forge a square corner with an upset at the 90 degree bend and then forge out a tongue from the outside corner.  Repeat this with another piece of square stock and join the two tongues in an opposite fashion.   Oval Rivets by Mark Aspery – from his Volume III book titled, “Mastering the Fundamentals of Traditional Joinery” available at www.MarkAspery.com.