ornametalsmith

FWIW, the S7 that I have(1/2" round)....came with these instructions. Purchased via Jere at Valley Forge Thyssen S7 Heat Treatment: Hot forming - 2000-2050 F............furnace cool Annealing - 1500-1550 F ..............furnace cool.....225 Max. BHN Hardening - 1725-1750 F Sections under 2 1/2"- air cooled Sections OVER 2 1/2" - Oil quench Tempering - Temper immediately after quench Cold work tools -400-500 F- 54/57 Rc Hot work applications - 900-1000 F- 50-53 Rc Double tempering recommended Applications: pneumatic tools, hand and or blacksmith's chisels, snap dies, trimming tools, cold piercing punches, plastic moulding, shears.

I highly recommend M.Aspery's YouTube channel. And I can vouch for UMBA's DVD's.....I've got a nice colleciton of those. And if you get bored....I even have a few on youtube... http://www.youtube.com/user/ornametalsmith

That is a sweet piece, bravo. I thought the exact same thing, Sky. We NEED a play day.

I do put my touchmark on a LOT of my work......but only date the more "noteworthy" projects. And like Philip.....I also stamp wood and leather with my touchmarks.

fwiw, anytime I've wanted to anneal steel sheet.......I've gotten it to "red heat"(non magnetic or close enuf ) and then I've stuck the HOT sheet in a 5 gal. bucket of vermiculite or WARM DRY sand or ANYthing that will insulate and SLOW down the cooling process as much as possible. I've been surprised at how LONG it can take for a bucket of cut out HOT leaves to cool down. I've done this at the end of a day.....came in first thing in the morning and the leaves were "warm" to the touch.......and very SOFT. The main application for this was PREP for acanthus leaves and other repousse. I've also used "deep draw sheet" from a company called ARMCO. That material enabled me to do the leafwork without ANNEALING first. Just curious..............where do you get the "a steel called Allvit or Univit".

I don't think ABANA has an "official" YouTube page.

Here's a working link to the vid.GREAT video, IMO.

One of the best ways to protect the skin.......would be to make a sterling silver "liner", for the damascus band, so that the sterling is what is in contact with the skin. You could also use gold.........but would cost considerably more. jloose.com has examples of this approach. as for a protective coating over the damascus.......I use a product called "Protect a Clear" by Everbrite. that's my 2 centavos would love to see pix when your done.

FWIW, I've actually gotten the chance to work with some of the wrought iron from Chris Topp's operation. I had a client that wanted REAL wrought iron nails. I couldn't find any local wrought iron.........BUT the client had family in UK and ordered ONE 20' piece of 1/2" square stock. Sounds crazy but.........IF I remember correctly.......the iron was $175 and the shipping was also $175. Surprised me when she told me how much it cost..................$350 for 20' of 1/2" square. I'd guess that would equate to an "ARM AND A LEG"....... Gotta admit......it was a "treat" to forge and work with.

mine's about 1/2" wide.

Lil food for thought.............great thread btw. Jim Binnion is one of the only folks I know mixing these metals......and LOTS more. Here's a link to his site: http://www.xpmcorporation.com/ and specifically .....the metals he combines: http://www.xpmcorporation.com/XPM_Materials.html

I've built a few of these burners. One for a Pipe forge and the other for a "Beer Keg" foundry furnace. They are big burners. Work great,IMO.

Cold forging?..........still forging, IMO.

FF is a great process.......I use it a lot.....for sculptural elements. Copper, aluminum.....cold. And ferrous......hot.

dbl post :(

Thanks.......high praise comin from someone from Pinebarrens

Thanks......I appreciate ALL the great feedback. Keep that up I'll need new hats........ joshin of course .......bout the hats. anywhoooooooooo just thought I'd toss this out there. I FINALLY finished editing the stills/video clips into a YouTube video. Hope you all enjoy it. It's best viewed in 720p HD. This could be my best "quality" video...think I've finally got that part figured out, still have to work on the studder . FWIW, it's a MPEG4 Quicktime .mov. I've been searching for that "holy grail" since I started posting on YouTube.....so I thought I'd pass that along incase anyone else is trying to figure out the best way to SAVE vids for best quality on YouTube. I don't think I can embed a video here......but I'll try. NO GO.......some FORUM layouts enable that option. Ignore the text below........but it was worth a shot. <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o3UjV1BxErc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o3UjV1BxErc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

Rory, from start to finish......just fantastic. You've really produced something special there......KUDOS...... Your father has to be EXTREMELY proud. Wonderful "chip off the ol block". They say "the fruit don't fall far from the tree". i LOVE your website,btw. :D

thanks , Alec and Jed. Alec........that's better than I could have hoped for Even though I shot a bunch of still pix of the process and tooling.....and some HD video to edit and post for a "how to" video on YouTube........today I did a Streaming video demo of this on Stickam and recorded it to save in my video archive. In case anyone is curious.......here's a link to my channel. href='http://www.stickam.com/ornametalsmith[/' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://www.stickam.c...ametalsmith You'll find the pine cone video in the Video archive that is at the bottom left of the page. This site is something relatively new for me.....and I see a lot of potential for real time interaction and sharing for folks that do what we do. Maybe I could get some feedback.....let me know what you all think. I know right out of the chute.......that the image quality is limited to everyone's connection. And I'm still learning about the best way to get the best results. I'm only using an iMac with the built in iSight camera.......so I'm sure a higher quality camera would help.......but there is always the "bottleneck" in any system.......and at this time........it's STILL everyone's connection. That being said.......the simpilest things I can change is the lighting........I'll be adding better lighting......and an illuminated "lazy susan" would be great to have, to highlight whatever is the topic, for any late comers. The lighting in this vid is xxxx......sorry bout that I'd be interested in hearing opinions and feedback. Think it would be great if there could be regular demonstrations/sharing of process and techniques. If you have a webcam hooked up..........the MAIN viewing window can be shared, the moderator can put ANYONE in the main window......so that others could participate in the action. Kinda like "giving the floor" to whoever is speaking.

:blink: lol...........yeah sure...........maybe even BEFORE...cause I'll be CASTING that job anyway

I've been making some tooling to enable me to add Pine Cones to my "palette" of organic elements. Thought I'd share.....the process. FWIW, Steve Joslyn was an inspiration for this. First I got some real pine cones, disassembled one......to have parts for masters. With a few "petals(ovulate scales)" to use as a guide. I made 2 different sized "positive" masters that I could use to make the tooling. They made the 2 largest petals/depressions...and I then altered them to make the 2 smaller masters/depressions. see #1 photo Once I was satisfied with the basic shape of each petal....I heated them to non magnetic and quenched them in Gunter Quench, so they would be "hardened". And then I got a small piece of 3/4" plate....and heated it to bright red and beat the COLD HARD petals into the HEATED plate to create the negative petal shapes. This photo jumps ahead to the final stage....which shows 4 different sized petals. see #2 photo Then I proceeded to the "trial and error" stage to determine the correct size of material to forge into each negative to produce the forged petals with the least amount of "flashing/cleanup". This photo shows not only the variety of material and shapes......but some of the test petals. Some were WAY to thick and had to much flashing, which would just create more work to clean up. This step was essential in refining the finished petals. see #3 photo I found that 5/16" round stock was just about perfect for starting material. I'd heat about 1" of a rod and forge it into a "pie shaped" taper, that had more mass/thickness on the wide end to accomadate the largest part of the petal depression in the tooling. I've also shot some video of forging a few of these but will have to wait til the footage is edited to share. I will cut to the chase and show the first "test, pine cone"....... After welding up the forged petals to a tapered rod.....I found a bark textured, tapered "drop" in my scrap bucket and made a sample branch. see #4&5 photos

Watchin that hammer......got me ALL excited LOL.......I need a larger hammer to scale up my work. I've been doing a LOT of cold forging of non ferrous.....and after seeing that 750.........I may not be able to sleep tonight I've never seen a BIG hammer with fullering dies......but I image they are out there. Beautiful forgings, Michael.

Larry, not sure if you've seen the "Coleman" modifications to the Kinyon styled hammer. But .....it has similar results to the Phoenix. Very dynamic control. Could be exactly the info you need to build your hammer. http://chriscoleman.com/stuff/

Has to be one of the most entertaining Hammer stories I've ever read. The pix are great......what a beautiful hammer. Can't wait to see what forgings come outa that mutha. Thanks for sharing, Jesse and Larry.

John, your clock is stunning.........beautiful combo. Exquisitely executed. I like the lil cross too.