dief

In my shop I have a couple of anvils, a flypress, 110lb air hammer, mig welder, plasma cutter, drill press, vices, and a mess of hand tools. Most of my projects involve a good deal of "heatin & beatin" so I consider myself to be a blacksmith. I use whatever techniques/tools that will achieve the look I and my clients want. Sometimes than means a rivet and other times it means mig weld and hammer/grind to make the weld disappear. Mostly, my clients want a "one of a kind" piece of art. Whether it is a $20 hook or a $10,000 gate I strive to give them that. I love what I do and I make darn good money. Life just doesn't get any better.

Four pieces of #3 or #4 rebar twisted together make a great looking "rope".

I got my Rat Hole 250lb in 2005. It is a great anvil that is also very pleasing to the eye.

Japan Brown from Sculpt Nouveau give a beautiful brown. Spray it on, let dry, coat with Permalac. or Brush with muriatic (pool) acid and then spray with hyrogen peroxide (from the first aid section of any store). Rinse when you get the desired color, let dry and then coat with Permalac. I like leaving some scale on the work. It will not stain as much resulting in brown with some light black areas. A very organic look.

I held a mini-demo on etching designs into metal awhile back. Want to see if there is interest in another one.

Sounds like you need to raise your prices and/or be more selective in the jobs you take. If done properly part time smithing can be quite lucrative.

Made this bell for my mom. She uses it to get my dad's attention - he has hearing issues. The bell is 3.5 inches across the base and make from 1/8 plate. I used a 1in ball bearing for the jingle ball.

I use Permalac Laquer for both indoor and outdoor projects. The stuff is super tuff. You can also add solvent dyes to add color.

Spend about 10-15 seconds every few minutes and focus on your breathing. This techniques works when things sometimes get desperate when I rock climb and it should work for forging too.

I've done several with wizard heads and folks really like them.

I see the same "chicken wing" thing in rock climbers - especially when they get tired. Keep your elbows in and keep breathing. Works for climbing and balcksmithing and who knows what else.

I do mostly high end gates, railings and other misc stuff. Business is better then ever. I'm booked for the next three months and still have a list of folks who want to get on the schedule. I've found that the folks with real money - and not the credit card borrowed stuff - are spending about the same as before. Fornuately I live near a ton of folks with tons of money. Dief - Desert Rat Forge

Find out if you can subsitute a "T" handle instead of a loop. If so, this would simplify/speed up the construction. Look to see if you can find some thick wall tubing that matches the size of the key. If you started with longer wings then needed it would be easier to mount the tube and two wings in a jig. Weld the wings on and then cut off the excess.

When I do demos for kids I tell them the three best things about backsmithing are: 1) You get to play with fire 2) You get to hit things with a hammer 3) It makes big black boogers!