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I Forge Iron

forged and whitesmithed spatula


Ed Steinkirchner

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Excuse the less than fantastic picture quality, my camera isn't working at the moment so i took the pics from my phone
I had made a fully forged spatula a while back from scraps and that made me want to take it a step further and go all out on another!
That's how this one came about
The handle started out as a piece of 1/4 x 3/4 mild steel and the blade was a scrap of old lawnmower blade i think, forged out thin on the power hammer.
Its about 19" overall and the whole front face is filed bright and the necking has a bit of filework for an accent. There's also some accent lines across the handle but i don't know if the pictures make it visible or not.
was really a pleasure to do something bright and shiny for a change!

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That looks great! Really nice overall.Did you use some sort of forming swage to make that little triangular transition from the round to the wider, flatter sections of the handle?

 

Very consistant file work on the round section in the middle of the handle.

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That looks great! Really nice overall.Did you use some sort of forming swage to make that little triangular transition from the round to the wider, flatter sections of the handle?
 
Very consistant file work on the round section in the middle of the handle.


Actually The transition was formed by angling the metal over the rounded edge of the anvil an setting it down kind of like a shoulder

Its actually pretty good practice for learning some good hammer control and anvil edge usage. (That being said. though I've done maybe ten of this kind of transition and this is the first one that came out so perfectly! )

I imagine you could do the same thing with a set hammer though probably
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Actually The transition was formed by angling the metal over the rounded edge of the anvil an setting it down kind of like a shoulder

Its actually pretty good practice for learning some good hammer control and anvil edge usage. (That being said. though I've done maybe ten of this kind of transition and this is the first one that came out so perfectly! )

 

Great technique that I'll do my best to recall when next at the anvil. Made a few marshmallow forks and that transition from flat handle to round shaft is always a weak point, this adds just a bit of metal.   Thank you,  Just realized its on the backside of the spatula handle.

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Yes that'd be a good place for this type of transition, it leaves just a tiny bit of extra metal to a place that really needs it.
the only issue (if you can call it an issue that is) is that its one-sided, that is it leaves a front and a back side, or a presentation face and a back face. that's one of the reasons i left the back as forged.

one thing i learned about whitesmithing on this project is that you need to leave it a tad thicker than you think you need too to allow for filing, like a knife. And an added benefit of having a "good" and "bad" side is that when there was a bit of a deep mark in the good face, it could be flipped and hammered colf from the back in that spot to bring it up and make the whole surface a bit more even

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