Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Pig tail toasting fork


Recommended Posts

This is one of a pair I made as a wedding gift. The couple are into hiking, camping and toasting wienies, marshmallows, etc. over a camp fire.

At Deb's suggestion I made the pig tails so they'll hold a taper so the happy couple can eat their toasted wienies by candle light.

Well, packing a solid steel toasting fork is not only heavy but kind of long so I came up with this idea for a student to make as a project a few years ago. The idea is to whittle a short taper on the end of a stick and screw the fork onto it. They're quite solid and a lot harder to get off than put on. Chinese finger trap effect.

304 Stainless, cable twist, phosphoric acid electrolysis (electro polish) to remove the scale and the final shine was SS power brushed, 10" long overall.

The cable twist on the other one goes the other way, otherwise no difference.

Frosty

15141.attach

15142.attach

15143.attach

Edited by Frosty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys.

I started with 1/2" rd. and flattened the sides slightly to fuller for the cable twist. The first time I did it I did what I do for plain steel where the twist is going to transition into something else. I twist past where it's going to end on the finished piece, then on steel I just forge it really hot at the transition and all sign of the twist disappears in the untwisted section. Unfortunately SS doesn't like it when I do that and the first one broke about the time I had enough drawn down for the pigtail.

The next time I isolated the twist by forging flat spots, one for the vise (tine end) and another for the wrench at the spot I was starting the pigtail draw.

I like the idea of making the pigtail fit a taper too. Deb deserves all the credit for that one. She's a genius. :D

Unfortunately I had to send my welder/generator back to the shop. The counter guy didn't bother to mention to the mechanic the 220v outlet wasn't working. Worse than that it ran for maybe half an hour after getting it home and the engine won't start. Good thing he'd put a tune up on it so any damage to the engine is on their dime.

So, the forks were all hand forged and a mother bear. Once I get the hammer running and make some tooling I think these things are salable. Unfortunately if I have to hand forge them I'd have to charge at least $100 to break even. I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much time I have in these things. So I won't! ;)

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stainless steel? Oooh la la, tres fancy! Seriously, they're very nice.

I made a batch of wooden handled marshmallow forks a few months ago. By the time I got the forks done, the wood de-barked, sanded, stained and finished and got them assembled I realized I had way too many hours into them to sell them at a decent price.

So I give them away. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't mind the time going into a gift or just to learn something new. These were a fun project in fact.

I do think they'd sell if I can get the time down to something reasonable. The first one took more than a day, the third one took about 5 hrs not counting the time in the acid bath. I can do one by hand from mild steel in about 1 1/2 hrs. probably faster now I have more practice.

I think if I can design some decent power hammer tooling I can get them down to under an hour and into the maybe profitable range.

I wanted to use SS so they wouldn't have to worry about cleaning and oiling them properly. Maybe they will use these for many years rather than leaving rusty crusty iron versions home.

Fun fun fun.

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Frosty, beautiful work! very inspired! I want to work with stainless more, just don't lie the time it takes to finish/polish. Could you tell me a bit more of of phosphoric acid electrolysis?

I assume it is like regular electrolysis only with the cathode of steel, the anode is the work piece and phosphoric acid as the bath, with 12 v DC. But as with anything there has got to be more to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Frosty
If you think that you want to make them as a sales item after you get your hammer running you can come by here some time with some stock I am sure we can put together a system that would be considerably under an hour of forgeing. How long it would take to finish them I have no idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Descaling was pretty straight forward. I immersed the piece in a 50% phosphoric acid solution (pink Naval Jelly is 30%) and attached the + clip of my battery charger to the part and the - clip to a scrap piece of SS from the project. It took between 30-45 mins to descale the parts. Some of the harder to reach spots took a second dip after vigorous wire brushing.

Rinse in clean water, then neutralize with baking soda water and water rinse again.

The container needs to be heavy nylon because the process produces a lot of heat, enough to melt light plastic and you don't really want to use glass for spill safety sake.

I also did this all in a heavy duty poly plastic cargo sled for a spill containment. My neutralizer bath was in another heavy poly to keep the acid and base separated. Accidentally mixing the two directly can get violent.

The final finish was done with a SS brush in a side grinder and SS brush in my Dremel for the inside of the pig trail and bottoms of the fullered grooves in the cable twist.

Other acids will work to descale too so long as there is no chlorine involved HCL won't work, citrus cleaners for instance including lemon juice. Vinegar will probably do too. It'll need the DC current regardless.

Use all appropriate acid handling safety gear and techniques. If you don't know what these are do NOT mess with acids or strong bases.

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Frosty
If you think that you want to make them as a sales item after you get your hammer running you can come by here some time with some stock I am sure we can put together a system that would be considerably under an hour of forgeing. How long it would take to finish them I have no idea.


Thanks Mark. As soon as I get the hammer going and stop just whacking the snot out of stuff I was going to get together with you and see about tooling.

I have a couple ideas already and was going to bounce them off you for the voice of experience.

See you Saturday?

Frosty
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't even have a good idea about what to demo. Since I sliced my finger last week I haven't been able to do much for prep. Maybe I'll just load the forge, anvil, vise and some stock and see what happens. I don't think I'll be doing anything heavy.

See you Saturday.

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm intrigued by the acid idea. Sometimes I use muratic acid to get into corners etc, but electrolysis sounds a lot easier and more thorough. I have enough projects for now, but maybe next year I'll give it a shot. I remember in high school physics we electroplated metal with a similar process - only with an electrolyte instead of acid! I wonder if a fully descaled piece could be plated with brass or something. Not for everyday stuff, but more artistic pieces. I just came into about 20 feet of 1/2" round brass rod too. Dag nabbit! You got me thinkin' now! I'm too easily distracted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Junksmith, not to poke you , but isn't electrolyte hydrochoric acid and water (distilled water) or do you use a different solution for electroplating? I keep thinking I want to get into etching and stuff, I just have no good place to store or dispose of acid....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Plating is a whole different thing even if the mechanics are similar. Disposal of the hazmat residue is a MAJOR concern not to mention being able to breath safely in your neighborhood.

Do NOT use hydrochloric to descale or passivate Stainless, it can make things WAY worse all round.

I have a little scrap left over from the forks and while I'm loading for the Demo tomorrow I'll see how vinegar works. I've been told virtually any acid not containing chlorine will work including cool aid.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Junksmith, not to poke you , but isn't electrolyte hydrochoric acid and water (distilled water) or do you use a different solution for electroplating? I keep thinking I want to get into etching and stuff, I just have no good place to store or dispose of acid....


I wish I knew for sure. That's the problem with remembering high school physics. It was 20 years ago and I wasn't taking notes:o

I get inspired by these ideas sometimes and just start spitting out more ideas. Once I settle down and start thinking things out I usually find that whatever I was thinking of was either unworkable or way too much trouble! Still, I do get some good ideas that way now and again so I keep it up. Any way you slice it, the poke was well deserved:D Edited by Junksmith
clarification
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that last bit Frosty. I was wondering about the vinegar route. I would just make a bunch and put 'em in a gallon or two of vinegar, and let them sit for a week. The run 'em on a wire wheel. I did that on mild and it came out looking like stainless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My pleasure Paul. Baking soda will work on mild steel scale if you're going the electrolysis route.

Soaking in vinegar works fine as well, even better yet if you quench in vinegar, sometimes the scale just jumps off.

Cleaning up the SS was an experience.

Frosty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Frosty, very nice forks and an exelant idea! Have you considered finishing with sand paper to highlight the high spts and leaving the valleys dark. I did that to some stainless implements I made over 25 years ago and they still look good today, at least in my veiw.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...