Sukellos

I finally broke out the camera. Here's the pattern with an example of the finished product. The blossoms are about 2.5 to 3 inches diam.

DALE: Do NOT give up! About 10 years ago I got LYME'S disease. The medico's botched it completely and I spent the next 9 years crippled up BAD, I mean fetal position in the corner whimpering bad! I gave away a bunch of my tools as I figured, and was told by the medical folks, that my next stop was a wheelchair. THEY WERE WRONG! My dear wife refused to give up on me and found me the right person with the right treatment. Now I'm back as good as any 55 yr old has a right to be and working nearly every day at the forge. I'll share what I learned from my experience. You're not down until you quit trying to get up. Cut back, but don't cut out. I bought a small forge and continued to do small projects. My tongs and hammers look like they were made for elves. Now I find myself building a bigger forge and tooling up again. Take small steps. The human body can and will repair itself if you take it slow. If possible, try to wean off of the medications, they sometimes hamper more than they help. (H***, they had me on OXYCONTIN!) My prayers are with you. Don't worry, they'll follow the curvature of the earth.

Mine's nothing fancy. I'm just a hobbyist. I have a ramada which is just a roof on poles, sand for a floor. My anvil and vise are on lengths of railroad tie sunk into the ground.

Or an adze?

The blossoms are about 3" dia. and 2" high. The parts they're attached to are made from 2" EMT. I sanded off the galvanization, heated the ends and bent them inward with light taps until I could fit a fender washer in the hole. The washer has a 3/8" hole in the middle. The rose "stem" goes through that and is tack welded inside. All welds are made with a wire feed (no gas) and sanded smooth. This morning I welded the tops back onto the bedposts and sanded them smooth.

I've been working, as I get time, on a headboard for my granddaughter's bed. Her name is Rose. Here are the two capitals that will go on the bedposts. I haven't put any kind of a finish on them yet as I haven't decided how I'm going to finish them. I may end up hand painting each blossom and all of the vines.

I've used small scorps as well as crooked knives to carve bowls and spoons. Both are pulled toward the carver, much to the shock and distress of those who were taught NEVER to cut toward yourself. Aren't rules with the words ALWAYS and NEVER, fun? Make sure the tool is good and sharp, take a block of wood and whittle away anything that doesn't look like a bowl or a spoon.

Looks beautiful A.W.! I spent the weekend on something more practical than beautiful. A friend of mine restores vintage automobiles and he complained that his "slap spoon" a tool used to push dents out of sheet metal, was too light to work on the 16 ga. or thicker sheet metal found in vintage cars. Using his store-bought tool as a model, I took a piece of jeep leaf spring and forged him one that's about 3x as heavy.

Are we talking commercially made or home-made?

Just got this one from Eric DABLACKSMITH in Apache Junction. It's hooked to a length of railroad tie sunk about 2 ft into the ground. There's a 1/2" plate with the appropriate hole for the foot buried under the sand. If it looks low to you lads, I'm built low to the ground too.

Victorian clothing can be had from the Wild West Emporium and other such places online. I doubt that WWE will float it across the pond for you, but just GOOGLE victorian clothing and you'll find lots of places that cater to hysterica...oops, historical re-enactors. I have clothes from that era. I also have an outfit just like the one Zapata is wearing in my avatar photo. I'd swim over in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

Dang, Jeremy. That's so pretty I think I'd be afraid to use it for fear of scratching it. That is, unless you're like an old Idaho farmer a friend of mine used to work for. The ol' boy went into town and bought a brand new pickup. He drove it into the yard, got out, grabbed a hammer and banged a dent into the door with it. Then he said " Well, now I don't hafta worry about the first scratch!" and went in the house.

I will be making a headboard for one of my granddaughters that will feature fairies, butterflys, dragonflys and the like. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks Tim! For me, a big part of the fun of forging is being able to make a tool that does just what you want instead of buying one that "might work" for what you need done.

This past Christmas, my wife's nephew and I were trying to avoid shopping with the women-folk so we slipped away to a local museum of technology. In one of the salons that dealt with metal and magnetism I met a girl that worked there as a guide. When I told her that I forge iron she was fascinated. She said she was an art major in college and hoped to someday work as a metal sculptor. I'd put her age at about 18 or 19. This was in the city of Cuernavaca in the Mexican state of Morelos, about 100 km south of Mexico City. Maybe she'll come on our site someday although I never bothered to ask if she speaks any English. The point is, they're out there and they're not all just young guys that want to learn how to make knives and swords. I hope more log onto IFI. The fresh perspectives, I'm sure, would be welcome.

Dimensions?

I tried it the t'other way 'round and had no more success. I welded the angle iron to form a diamond-shaped tube but it didn't grip the way I wanted. So, I picked one jaw to be the "upper" jaw and forged it out to a long tail and bent it at right angles to the lower angle-iron jaw. Then I cut a slot through the perpendicular of the angle right where the upper jaw crossed it. Now they work great for small diameter rods. I use a lot of them making floral work and parts for muzzle loading firearms. They're ugly... but so am I.

Thanks guys! I'm going to say that they're old ones. I'll look up the specs and, this'll be a first, I'll have a clue what I'm whaling on.

Reincarnation - by Wallace McRae A cowpoke asked his friend. His pal replied, "It happens when Yer life has reached its end. They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck, And clean yer fingernails, And lay you in a padded box Away from life's travails." "The box and you goes in a hole, That's been dug into the ground. Reincarnation starts in when Yore planted 'neath a mound. Them clods melt down, just like yer box, And you who is inside. And then yore just beginnin' on Yer transformation ride." "In a while, the grass'll grow Upon yer rendered mound. Till some day on yer moldered grave A lonely flower is found. And say a hoss should wander by And graze upon this flower That once wuz you, but now's become Yer vegetative bower." "The posy that the hoss done ate Up, with his other feed, Makes bone, and fat, and muscle Essential to the steed, But some is left that he can't use And so it passes through, And finally lays upon the ground This thing, that once wuz you." "Then say, by chance, I wanders by And sees this upon the ground, And I ponders, and I wonders at, This object that I found. I thinks of reincarnation, Of life and death, and such, And come away concludin': 'Slim, You ain't changed, all that much.'" "What does Reincarnation mean?"

Grant: Since you are obviously knowledgeable about various alloys. A friend gave me a bunch of "digger links" . These are 5/8" dia. rods that come from the digging part of a potato harvester. (Yeah, he's from Idaho!) They seem to be tough and will harden quite hard in water. They make nice chisels, punches and the like. I have a bending dog that I use that is just a length of the rod with the link end left as it comes from the factory. Can you speculate on the alloy?

Last week after the rain let up, I paid a visit to Eric DABLACKSMITH in Apache Junction. Shown below is what followed me home from his shop. Don't panic, I did pay him for it! I've done too many years without one and this one's a beauty. It needed only minimal readjusting to the spring and the wedge and up she went.

I bet my wife would be glade to oblige!

Pie Iesu domine, donat eis requiem. Do I have to hit myself on the head with a board?

NICE! How'd you get the ant and the scorpion to hold still while you modelled them in iron?

This may sound like I'm illuminating the obvious, and PLEASE don't read this as sarcasm, but.... Just how NEW to this are you? One of the most common mistakes of beginners is to try to work round metal "in the round" when reducing stock down to size. Reducing stock "in the square" and then rounding at the last is so obvious to most iron forgers that, I think, we tend to forget that nobody is born knowing this stuff. Just a wild shot. Judging from the quality of the leaf I'm probably wayyy off here.