hildenmw

My slack tub does a nice job. Insulation in my gas forge seems to be good bait.

Thing to remember. You are not a traveling museum. If it sales replace it. If an item does not sale in a few months or shows. Its a Christmas gift.
Marc

10% exspense is a good guide. When asked to demo . I use clay and a rr track anvil and make it interactive with customers. Get in free or discounted. Trial and error to find a good show. Fig out what sales look for new items to make listen to what people ask for. Talk to other vendors about shows. Some places are large draws but they come to look. Others are buying shows. I've found art walks to be good this year.
Marc

All of the above sugestions are good ones. Treble clef diner bells are good. small candle holders.my ave sale in the last year has been between 20 and 30 dol.. few wanting to spend over 50. at the show bur will call later for higher priced items. Necklaces I find a necklace display in a prominate place in my booth make a good attraction for some who may keep on walking.
Marc

check out anvilfire.com

Overall it looks good. I never attempted a hook like yours . but like other items , The first 100 are the rough ones.
Marc H.

Well it is official! I am the worlds most talented smith!

I have just successfully completed the ugliest hook ever forged by human hand. That takes some top-notch tallent!

Material: 1/2" square
Technique: S-hook with J-hooks forge welded on

I tacked the J-hooks onto the main hook with the mig welder just to hold them in place. I also waited to bend the S-hook shape until after the other two hooks were welded on!

This is just an all around bad design of hook in my opinion! It is too difficult to do any finish work on the hook, and the forge welds are insanely difficult to do without frying the parts! Tack welding was the way to go because I didn't have to worry about lining things up, ballancing, and then dropping the tongs to weld! Normal lap welding is a walk in the park compared to this!

I have no idea on time, as I did the hook in three different forging sessions! I've just had to work on it a little bit at a time because I've been busy with the construction and other things around here that have to be done as well.
Someone else please try this! If you want something to make you mad sometime......this is the perfect thing. LOL







I've got to stress test these welds to make sure that when my client sticks his "pot-o-beans" on to boil, they don't break off!

Thoughts???

Just like any activity your body needs to adjust to it. Forging by hand is hard work. But it is still work and smiths are prone to injury from the repetative movements. martial arts , Yoga. lifting. etc helps counteract the effects of pounding on a anvil.
Our bodies tend to adapt to the excercise at hand . We need to increase theload or time to get the same benefits from our work out as we progress.
Side note.I recently read the early gains we make in excercise. Are not from muscle developement but our bodies learning the new technique or skill and becoming more efficient..

Marc H

Find a copy of Yvon Chouinards "Climbing Ice" . Has several good photos of the axes that revolutionized ice climbing.
Marc.

very nice , you have vison

Openers are a good sale. People will buy to give as gifts also,
The working end is actually easier to make than it looks,
Trial and error .
I persanally test each one, Tough job.

I also have a package deal on a opener and bottle tree.

Buy a b tree and opener and have a party.!

Marc

Does the weld serve its purpose. Is it visually pleasing. Thats very good on your first try.

The only way to test a part that size with out destroying it would be to x-ray two different views of the joint.

Forge welding is kid of like squishing snowballs togather.

Work out a procedure that works for you and practice it
marc

Nice job

I never knew the proper name. I would do shows and ladies would ask if I made banana trees. I would say no. I make all kinds of leaves acorns and stuff. I'd seen banana trees in peoples yards . Never thought they were that attractive. I finally asked what they ment . duh. I make them now.

I also make a cookbook or plate stand. Ladies at shows would tilt them forward and look at the back leg. I thought. I asked what they were looking at. They were checking out my wifes old cookbook I used for display. They were collectors.

Marc
not sure Im smart enough for this.
12 years ago my motherinlaw explained what a sheppard hook was to me.

Thats great. I did 12 ,10 foot sections with full length twists last year. I got by with a couple pipe stands a vise and twisting wrench.. Half way through I invisioned something like that

hehehe! I make pretty good on my dinner bells as it is! Mine are different though, not just a triangle! I use 3/8" round instead of 1/2" and put a scroll on the bell. I think I'm going to start doing some large 15" ones out of 1/2" and sell them for a bit more.....maybe include a hook and string! The chimey sounding smaller ones get the women everytime but the 1/2" big boy will get the single men I suppose! LOL

Here are some more ideas! I got this change dish idea from another blacksmith but her's was copyrighted so I changed the shapeing of mine quite a bit. Mine isn't copyrighted and it is made from a 5 inch square of 1/8" plate!



Dave

I have a question on the Rose with the heart . nice work? Are thy the same piece.
what dia. odf the material.

Thanks Marc

The last event I did was on Mother's day so I took a venture and made my mother my first rose on site! Turned out well!



Paul Garret (artist in resident at John Campbell) showed me some square stock s-hooks he made. They were bent on the corner instead on the flat side of the square bar and then had a twist in the middle. I made 10 total in four sizes to take to this last event and couldn't keep up with the sales! I use 1/4 inch square and start with the following lengths:
Small: 8"
Medium: 12"
Large: 16"
X-Large: 20"

I sold 14 of them all weekend, mostly small and medium but I sold two each of the larger ones too. They are fun to make, are good demo pieces, and at least for me, successful!

Like I said before, I think it is good to have some larger pieces out just to show people what is possible and maybe get an order or direct sale that really puts you ahead in covering expenses and making the trip worth it.
I got a $500 custom firescreen order off of my display screen at this event! It is my first real big custom job so it is neat for me but even better, it really made the trip worth it. So keep that in mind when preparing your displays!
(I told mom she was going to have to sell a lot of soap to catch up with that one! LOL We kind of tease each other about who makes more!)
Dave

my hands are so mangled, I might just heat up my fingers in my forge and hammer them into normal looking fingers

I have seen them set up with a wheel that spins on the outside of the container, the ends are anchored to pillow blocks or some type of bearing, this leaves the inside open with no shaft in there

I am looking for suggections and advice.

I have a old 28 gal tank.
A couple of 1/2 hp. electric motors.

Drive? ; Attache pulleys to ends of tank or install a shaft through the center.
or run drve belt around the tank.

Thanks

Marc

Not sure how last link worked

Go to www.anvilfire.com

now that you mention mice and their nests, I've had a mouse build a nest, get this, inside the tuyere of my solid fuel forge. I went to crank up the heat the other day and I noticed my fan wouldn't turn. i reached in an turned it by mand a time or two and it started right up. then I saw there was still not very much air flow. I took the fan off and saw the pipe was full of little mouse nesting fluff. I've made sure I fire up that thing once a week now that I now it;s prime realestate for critters

Spiders brown recluse and black widows. Mice and milk snakes. Mice like to build nests with the door insulation of my gas fprge. I'm half decent throwing a chisel. Surprised myself and a couple of mice.

I am going to take the time to make some decent eye punches. What I have now's a bunch of miss matched bunch I have added to as needed over the years.

How would you do it?

I would like to fine tune the mouth punch. I've woked it to where the troll actually lookk like he may be sticking his tounge out and not trying to swallow a log.

Up till now I have made my eye punches from mild steel. 3/8 to 3/4 in round or square stock. I've used various ball bearrings , Struck the hot end with odd shapped punches on the hot end to effect a shape.
Heated the punch I working on in the forge and also just heated the ends with a oxy acety torch before working it.

I also have some 3/8" (approx) from a old hay rake. How would you heat treat this

I am also concidering going to heavier mild still 7/8 or so and taper. and make a couple of each to rotate in and out while I work . In roduction mode I usually work 5 RR spike wizards or horse heads at a time.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thank You
Marc

The person swinging the hammer makes all the differance. Pluss the time you spend swinging it. I 've found paying attention to the effect of both the hammer and anvil have on my piece helps.

Put it here because it's not about safety.

Had an interesting experience yesterday. As I've said, I never wear a glove on my hammer hand. Well, I spent some time grinding and had cotton gloves on and then had a few hours of hand hammering to do. I had left my gloves on and after awhile my hand was getting sore. Took my glove off and hammered for a couple more hours.

Seems with the glove on I was having to grip the hammer tighter causing the soreness. The frictional coefficient of a bare hand on wood is absolutely ideal. I could really feel the difference once I took the glove off. So I tried a few other kinds of gloves. Nothing gave me the relaxed feel of a bare hand. A rubber faced glove was pretty good, but I don't think that's a good idea forging and I didn't like it either.

Just an observation for your consideration.