Problem Solving

Hi, Built a forge about a year ago and then ill health and general life got in the way so didn't do anything with it. Anyway, having another bash so to speak but I am starting from a very low experience level so please be gentle. Here is one of my first items: I actually started this ages ago and found it rusting in the back of the garage. Originally I planned wood turned candle holders (I am a wood turner) but decided metal would be better. The arms were already assembled so I needed to work out how to attach the cups. Had the arms not been assembled I would have tapered arms and punched the dishes but this did not seem like an option at this stage.…

Hi Guys, I found this forged item in a farm shed. I have an idea what it is, but id just like to hear other peoples opinion's. Ive attached pics of all the various views. Its pretty old, and very well made. Note, the rams horn top swivens around. Love to hear your thoughts...

Hey all! So okay, I am trying to learn to make swords, since I can make knives pretty well at this point. So instead of forging my first sword like I normally do my knives, I decided to go ahead and try just a stock removal sword (yes I know it's cheating. I am not selling it or anything) and see how it went. Made a few jigs... ect. ect. My problem happened this evening when I tried drilling a couple holes for the tang to secure it very well. I am doing a full tang just to experiment because like I said, I am not selling it. Okay so back to the problem, my drill bits decided that it would be impossible to drill through this material. I have never had issues with …

I have searched this but didn't find any references, so would welcome your suggestions/ideas. Rose leaves have a fine serrated edge and I would like to achieve that on the very thin leaves of my roses. My method at the moment consists of clamping the hot leaf in the vice and chiseling in the small indentations, one side at a time. Works OK, but perhaps you guys have a way of making the serrations a little sharper, neater and more regular. Another method I tried was forging the leaves from 10mm threaded rod, pushing the metal so that the threads made the serrations. Some success but not really what I'm looking for. I thought of trying to make a special tool using the curve…

Hi All, I just made a smithin magician clone and want to make a die set for it that would let me slit stock so that I could then have a starting point for drifting some holes in it, or use it to set up for making a basket twist, for example.. I attach my crude sketch; the idea is to have the central "chisel" terminate in a 60 degree angle, but the "shank" is more or less straight.. it would accept stock as large as 1 x 1" though I do not foresee doing anything nearly that heavy. I can just make it and try it, but I figure someone has probably looked at this. thanks for any comments!

Hi all, this is probably very simple but im struggling to figure out how the forging of this old poker head was done! It started as a square bar... then smoothly shouldered down to meet a rounded section. Then finally forged into a nice round head. I can understand forging from square to round, but how to make the transition so nicely as shown? And how would the round section have been upset to get the mass required for the round head. Any advise would be much appreciated.

I'm trying to form a rectangular tenon to join two pieces of 5/16". The tenon is 3" long. I'm not sure how much to leave beyond the mating surface to form the tenon. My initial guess was 5/16" or one material thickness, but I dont know if there is any rule of thumb. I am going for a finished pyramidal shape once it is formed over. I am going to try a sample piece this weekend but thought I would see if anyone had any tips to pass along. Thanks Brian

I was looking at the "members projects" forum and found a link to a page showing a collection of corkscrews. From what I could see, there are basically 2 different types of worms that were used. The first being made from standard round stock, pointed and wrapped around a mandrel. The second is throwing me for a loop, I can't seem to figure out what the stock looked like before it was wrapped in a spiral. Here's a link to what I'm referring to. Were they cast, or am I just missing something that is fairly obvious? http://corkscrewsonline.com/corkscrew_guide_bearing_assisted_corkscrews.html

Let me start out by saying that this is not a long taper forged into a ring. What I'm attempting to do is forge a ring made from stock that is the same dimension throughout the length of the piece. For illustration's sake, let's call it 5/16" x 1 1/2". This drawing is a floor plan where the narrow section represents the 5/16, the wide section the 1 1/2. There is a 90 twist that slowly transitions from one end to the other. In other words, the 5/16 is standing vertically, and by the time it wraps around is laying on it's side at 0 degrees. I'm confused as to how to go about making this? Twist and then try and bend? Bend the easy way around and then try and twist? A combina…

Good morning! Last night i got some nearly free scrap and made some tongs... almost. when i tried to punch and drift the hole for the rivet, i got some VERY unpleasant ringing of the bar i was holding between my legs. how do you punch holes in hot material while you are alone?

Hi all, During repairs to an old shed after the recent storm damage, i found this interesting item sitting on a high shed wall. Pictures are attached Diameter is 3.5 inches Weight is 3LB There is a square hole through the middle. Must have been cast in this shape. Looks too neat to have been punched? Any suggestions would be good. Thank you.

Not BS content but figured there might be a lot of expertise here regarding this subject. For those of you who have fireplaces and use them with some regularity, how are they capped so rain entry is reduced and smoke draw still effective? We live in Central Texas so the fireplace doesn't get used like up north but our old house is drafty and a nice fire is welcome on cold evenings. That being said, our chimney stack goes straight up with no cap and is about 10x14 on the opening (house was built in 1972). The chimney has an understructure of fire brick and clay flue; all covered with natural stone for the veneer. It's never been capped and none of our occasiona…

Can anyone out there share their knowledge in how this decorative punch may have been forged? Pictures attached of the tool and the imprint it leaves on Steel Please give as much detail as you can, would love to hear from you. I would like to re re-crerate this old punch. Thanks in advance.

Hi all. This is my first post, I'm pretty new to blacksmithing, I've been at it about six months. I need to join this scroll to this backplate (mockup shown). I would like to do this without a visible weld. Typically in other work I see these riveted but I am unable to get a long enough rivet into the joint. I suppose I could open it up, slip the rivet in, and then reform the scroll, is that typical? I also thought of punching a hole in the backplate and rosette welding the scroll from behind. The scroll is 3/8 round and the backplate is 3/16 thick. Any other suggestions/examples? Thanks a lot, Steve

I have some oil well sucker rods and today, I threw loops on the ends of two pieces. The third one got bent in to a crank handle. No problems there, however, when I tried to taper the ends the metal started splitting a little bit. Turns out the rod is wrought. IIRC, wrought need to be worked at higher temps, right? I had it a a yellow heat.

Hi,guys. One of my clients gave me the picture. I've never seen this kind of ironwork. How to forge it? Thanks for help.

Hi all. I made these the other day to hopefully be a pair of bookends. At the time though, I didn't really think about how I would clean them up. As you can see from the picture, they're filthy. They've been sitting in my shop for the last few days after a couple of failed cleaning attempts. They aren't quite as bad as they look, for some reason my camera has accentuated all of the colours but they are pretty bad. What would be the best method for cleaning them, or any similarly difficult to clean pieces they might come out of my forge? Many thanks in advance.

I have found a man on craigslist who has sort of come to terms that he is a hoarder. When i asked how he had acquired all the stuff on his property, i got a "I just want to get this stuff sold and move on with my life. So, we found some hammers, files... and a beautiful post vice. Me and my dad dug through about 500# of stuff to get to it, and the second he saw it, he said $200.00 No less, BUT, "i'll give it for $150.00 because I like ya. We said no, then he thought a moment and said. "well, you are not obligated to buy it. We continued to scavenge, but every time we thought we found something useful (tools), He snatched it and said that he was going to sell tools in bulk…

I twisted some 3/4" bars, one way and then another direction. I took a wire wheel to it but it still has some deposits that a tough to remove. I tried a 120 grt flap disk but it's impossible to get deep into the twisted area. Is there a chemical or solution, say vinegar, that would remove this scale. I either have to press to hard with the wire wheel and it is to slow and I don't want to grind it off to a new shinny surface. post edited to replace the word slag with scale, the product he is trying to remove.

I have been trying to slit and drift for a morticed and tenoned piece as part of a spit project I am working on. However, I am finding that when I try to slit the piece, a chunk of 1/2" square, the slit is always very off-center and not very straight. What small piece of advice am I lacking?

Anyone with suggestions or precautions related to inlay of ironwork or brass in the surface of a concrete floor? Building a new home next summer and I thought something like that would be an interesting highlight.

We have recently installed a new big 500 KJ Counterblow hammer for manufacturing carbon steel flanges. We are in the process of designing a big insert holder to hold round 1000mm diameter inserts. Just wanted to know if anyone has experience of working on a big counterblow hammer for making flanges.

Greetings, gentlemen. I recently tried to do the stainless Damascus for the first time. In my blacksmithing master's shop (not having my own yet) we followed instructions by Ariel Salaverria to the letter (http://www.aescustomknives.com/docs/tutorial16.htm). On the first attempt, the container burned through after several minutes, hence the stacked steels were too cold to weld. We thought that perhaps the temperature was too high or there was too much WD40 inside. Hence, on the second attempt we put paper soaked in WD40 only on one end of the container and we poured out WD40 after squeezing it inside. We also started with slightly lower temperature. Result -…

I am trying to make this style of punch for making leather watch straps. I'm going to use 1/2" square stock as the punch base, drill, tap and solder to accept the five individual punches and allow for the punched divots to fall out. For the punches I have used 1/4" O1 drill rod, center drilled with a #36 drill, and tapered and sharpen the end on a lathe. I made a drift punch to drive into the end to do the shaping. This is not very reliable as it sometimes destroys the metal and tears at the taper. I harden after shaping the hole. Is there a better way? I was thinking of a drift punch that would drive all the way through, but maybe the hole will need to be a bit …

For my inside shop slack tub, I have a half whiskey barrel in good shape standing up right next to main walkway, but recently it started to leak and makes a mess where I walk around welding table NOT SAFE ! my floor is concert, It will not fully seal even though water has been in it for a long time The leak seams to be where the bottom & side come together I am thinking for painting either the inside or out side of it to fix leak ? --- Anyone have this problim ? or a better Idea on a fix ??? and yes on the look out for a Lg stainless steel replacement:rolleyes: down the road