[that_sedate_guy]

Hello everyone!

I'm Brian from Nagercoil, Tamilnadu. I'm a 28 year old Engineer working at Bangalore in an Aerospace company and live with my wife at Hosur.
So evidently, I have a very "peaceful" 82 kilometre total daily commute. I do this with my 2021 WagonR automatic, my 2016 RE Bullet 350 and sometimes my dad's 2016 Scorpio.

I love driving to such an extent that being a pillion or a passenger makes me nauseous on drives. I hate short commutes and prefer longer, rural and relatively less populous drives, especially in hilly areas. I've driven quite a bit in the foothill ranges of Uttarakhand where I was posted for a year and till date, those drives remain some of the most memorable.

I can also safely say that I've tasted the rides of multiple types of vehicles and personally clocked some kilometres on some them. Here's a little list I got off the top of my head,

RE Bullet 350: 25000 kms
Mahindra Scorpio S4: 24000 kms
Suzuki WagonR: 13000 kms
Mahindra 2003 Jeep: 9000 kms
Renault Kwid: 4000 kms
Bajaj Pulsar 150: 4500 kms
Hyundai Venue: Around 1000 kms on a friend's car
Hyundai Creta: Around 500 kms on a friend's car
Suzuki Brezza: Around 500 kms on a friend's car

Other mentions include a Ford Fiesta, a Honda Jazz, a Honda Amaze, an XUV 500 and oh, a 1999 Hero Honda Street!

Driving interests aside, I'm a Pianist, a Guitarist, a Harmonicist, a beginner Violinist, a concert Bass vocalist, a leisure fitness instructor, hobby knifemaker and soon will be an online English instructor. That's all from me at the moment. Feeling good being here and getting to know you, friends. Until next time, bye!

[Aditya]

Hi Brian,

Welcome to Team-BHP. Good to have you on board.

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

So evidently, I have a very "peaceful" 82 kilometre total daily commute. I do this with my 2021 WagonR automatic, my 2016 RE Bullet 350 and sometimes my dad's 2016 Scorpio.

That's quite a distance for a daily commute. Hopefully a good portion of it is on the open road and not in a congested town.

I hate short commutes and prefer longer, rural and relatively less populous drives, especially in hilly areas.

Same with me. I would much rather drive in rural areas and hills with lesser traffic and less people around.

I've driven quite a bit in the foothill ranges of Uttarakhand where I was posted for a year and till date, those drives remain some of the most memorable.

Uttarakhand and Himachal have the knack of giving people their most memorable drives.

RE Bullet 350: 25000 kms
Mahindra Scorpio S4: 24000 kms
Suzuki WagonR: 13000 kms
Mahindra 2003 Jeep: 9000 kms
Renault Kwid: 4000 kms
Bajaj Pulsar 150: 4500 kms
Hyundai Venue: Around 1000 kms on a friend's car
Hyundai Creta: Around 500 kms on a friend's car
Suzuki Brezza: Around 500 kms on a friend's car

Other mentions include a Ford Fiesta, a Honda Jazz, a Honda Amaze, an XUV 500 and oh, a 1999 Hero Honda Street!

Quite a list. Out of these, I have driven a Ford Fiesta extensively - in fact, all over the country and a Honda Jazz quite a bit. Loved them both.

Driving interests aside, I'm a Pianist, a Guitarist, a Harmonicist, a beginner Violinist, a concert Bass vocalist, a leisure fitness instructor, hobby knifemaker and soon will be an online English instructor.

That's quite a lot of talent rolled into one person!

Looking forward to meaningful contributions from you.

See you on the forum.

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by Aditya

Hi Brian,

Welcome to Team-BHP. Good to have you on board.
That's quite a distance for a daily commute. Hopefully a good portion of it is on the open road and not in a congested town.

Hi Aditya, I'm glad to be here as well and I feel warmly welcome! And yes, thankfully 30 kms of it gets done in 30 minutes and it's the remaining 10 kms that takes one hour in eastern Bangalore. Still I'm not complaining much, haha.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Uttarakhand and Himachal have the knack of giving people their most memorable drives.

I missed the opportunity to travel to Himachal but yes, the Himalayan ranges with their sheer scale are quite something else.

Originally Posted by Aditya

Quite a list. Out of these, I have driven a Ford Fiesta extensively - in fact, all over the country and a Honda Jazz quite a bit. Loved them both.

I'm yet to start such extensive drives. All things going well, I might take the Scorpio out soon and have something to write and post pictures of!
Also, I took the liberty of viewing your garage and my gosh, sold or not, a picture of a Contessa in your profile is enough proof of a person with immaculate taste.

Originally Posted by Aditya

That's quite a lot of talent rolled into one person!

That's generous of you, thanks. I try my best not to sit idle or sit only at work and engage myself with multiple things.

[One]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

Driving interests aside, I'm a Pianist, a Guitarist, a Harmonicist, a beginner Violinist, a concert Bass vocalist, a leisure fitness instructor, hobby knifemaker and soon will be an online English instructor. That's all from me at the moment. Feeling good being here and getting to know you, friends. Until next time, bye!

Trust you, you really are sedate?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

hobby knifemaker

Inspired from Forged in Fire reruns on History TV in India? (Yeah, I know I couldn't resist that cliched one)

By the way you are into grinding/honing/polishing or also casting / forging?

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Inspired from Forged in Fire reruns on History TV in India? (Yeah, I know I couldn't resist that cliched one)

By the way you are into grinding/honing/polishing or also casting / forging?

I watched every single episode of that and then downloaded loads of fan favourite clips to watch on long flights, such was my craze with that show!

I don't cast or forge because the setup just was not feasible at home. I mostly make them by grinding spring tempered high alloy steels sourced from local mechanics without letting them cross tempering temperatures. Leaf springs are forever the best friends of tool makers after all.
However, I do polishes by hand (painstakingly slow but satisfying) and I make my own handles usually from teak, neem, silver oaks and such. I also did a couple of blades with black granite handles just for the fun of it. They turned out well but I ran through a couple of slabs before I got them to shape without shattering them (and my heart in the process)

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by One

Trust you, you really are sedate?

Just that I can't keep to myself and feel the itch to explore something new now and then. You'll often find me picking up a new language, leaving it halfway and start pursuing something like woodworking and then do that for a while and the loop goes on. Not so sedate there, I guess

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

I watched every single episode of that and then downloaded loads of fan favourite clips to watch on long flights, such was my craze with that show!

I don't cast or forge because the setup just was not feasible at home. I mostly make them by grinding spring tempered high alloy steels sourced from local mechanics without letting them cross tempering temperatures. Leaf springs are forever the best friends of tool makers after all.
However, I do polishes by hand (painstakingly slow but satisfying) and I make my own handles usually from teak, neem, silver oaks and such. I also did a couple of blades with black granite handles just for the fun of it. They turned out well but I ran through a couple of slabs before I got them to shape without shattering them (and my heart in the process)

Yeah leaf springs have already undergone the type of forging and metal grain work that is required for high tensile applications.
However, what about the hardness? You have inhouse means of heating / quenching, or not required usually?





By the way some photos would add "four moons"* to this thread!





* = chaar (four) chand (moon), an idiom in Hindi/Urdu https://www.rekhtadictionary.com/mea...haand-lagaanaa

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

Yeah leaf springs have already undergone the type of forging and metal grain work that is required for high tensile applications.
However, what about the hardness? You have inhouse means of heating / quenching, or not required usually?

The leaf springs I use are mostly from heavy vehicles. These typically use 5160 spring steel which retains almost 50HRC Max which is an okay amount of hardness for home use, I've found. Also, spring steel tends to air harden also so that brings down the mandatory quench requirement. Of course proper heating and oil quench would take it up to 62HRC which I can do but then it would require precise tempering, the equipment for which I simply did not want to spend on.
Also, in case of a messed up temper or a warp, I would need to requench which carries a risk of decarburisation. So all in all, spring steel as is, is a good enough choice for entry level hobby work.

Originally Posted by alpha1

By the way some photos would add "four moons"* to this thread!

Haha, that's a nice way of saying it. Also, photos of me or the shoddy grinding jobs I do?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

Haha, that's a nice way of saying it. Also, photos of me or the shoddy grinding jobs I do?

I would say both.
Though I have seen the norm in this forum to remove the face from photos in the posts. No idea why this tradition exists here.

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

I would say both.
Though I have seen the norm in this forum to remove the face from photos in the posts. No idea why this tradition exists here.

Your guy at Hogenakkal with the Missus and the mum behind



And then all the way North at Sikkim with Kanchenjunga in the backdrop



All decked up on protective gear and reflecting sunlight off a brush finished blade



Very disappointed with the middle row headroom in a 2018 model Fortuner. No really, being just 5'7" tall and not so bulky either, I was really ticked off at the appalling interior. Overhyped then, overpriced as well now



Hand filing pongame oiltree handles on two blades sent by my aunt after the plastic ones got broken



Nanak Matta, Uttarakhand



Spring steel blades with granite handles. I almost gave up making the thin granite scales from thick slabs after repeated cracking and shattering



Somewhere in Chikkmagalur



Dagger inspired from a Manga. 5160 spring steel ground to shape with a hidden tang two piece construction red granite handle



Oh, she's just posing. Doesn't ride but loves to be a backseat roadgazer



The dagger edge hand finished with 800 grit, reflecting the earphone cable without any intermediate waviness



Resting after a tiny 1.5 km trek up a hill near Krishnagiri, TN

[nova.19_exe]

Hey there bud! Welcome to Team-BHP, the one place for all things automotive!

A really nice garage you got there! Hoping to see a detailed write-up on that garage!

p.s : are you really sedate??

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by nova.19_exe

Hey there bud! Welcome to Team-BHP, the one place for all things automotive!

A really nice garage you got there! Hoping to see a detailed write-up on that garage!

Hi and many thanks! You guys are making me feel very comfortable and fitting right in!
Also, since you mentioned garage, how do I set it up in my profile? Or is the garage something that get set up automatically and is visible to others? I'm confused because I did the account setup but couldn't find any provision for feeding information to any section called garage.
On the other hand however, oh yes, I'm already preparing writeups for both my bullet and an ownership thread for my WagonR automatic.

Originally Posted by nova.19_exe

p.s : are you really sedate??

I'm getting a feeling that we've probably run into eachother in Bangalore somewhere and hence your question, haha! Just kidding. And yes, I'd like to call myself that because I like driving my vehicles below 100 kmph even on 500+ km highway runs

[nova.19_exe]

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

Hi and many thanks! You guys are making me feel very comfortable and fitting right in!
Also, since you mentioned garage, how do I set it up in my profile? Or is the garage something that get set up automatically and is visible to others? I'm confused because I did the account setup but couldn't find any provision for feeding information to any section called garage.
On the other hand however, oh yes, I'm already preparing writeups for both my bullet and an ownership thread for my WagonR automatic.

Garage is available for members after 25 posts, you can refer to it here!

Originally Posted by that_sedate_guy

I'm getting a feeling that we've probably run into eachother in Bangalore somewhere and hence your question, haha! Just kidding. And yes, I'd like to call myself that because I like driving my vehicles below 100 kmph even on 500+ km highway runs

Haha, yes does seem like it! But I really can't wait to meet you! Let's hope the community organises a meet real soon!

Cheers!

[that_sedate_guy]

Originally Posted by nova.19_exe

Garage is available for members after 25 posts

Haha, yes does seem like it! But I really can't wait to meet you! Let's hope the community organises a meet real soon!

Cheers!

Oh, cool. Thanks for the heads up on that.

And yes, we may be able to catch up soon in real