tzonoqua

Lovely work, I second Blackbeard, the base is a bit 'sharp' - but for a first attempt is fantastic. Colleen

1. Artist Blacksmith 2. Mural Painting, backdrop painting. 3. Web Design/Graphic Design all of these somehow fit around my primary job as a Mother!

Thanks guys! Newbiesmith Dan- I think you as a beginner could attempt something like this- it is certainly full of basic techniques to master! there are tutorials in the blueprints about making leaves, twists, drawing down the metal, riveting. The tongs were a bit tricky as I said, I had not made tongs like that before, and I wasn't working from a pattern or blueprint, just figuring it out as I went. Every time it's the first time making something it is always a learning experience. I usually try to make two of them, first one is a practice piece to make mistakes on, second one usually turns out better. Colleen

Hello All, another fire companion set. Trivet design is copied with kind permission from Jeremy K. Was the first time I attempted tongs in this shape, can be used one handed, like scissors. Leaf "plates'' are to be fixed to wall to hang.

R Funk has hit it on the nail for me. When I started out here, I began by thinking, how much time it takes + materials etc, to give me an end price. There are lots of good formulas out there to begin to try to value your time and costs etc. which is good to have an idea of what your hourly and daily rate should be. When I am pricing up things like say Hooks or simple candlesticks, and other work like gates and handrails etc, I tend to use this pricing structure, and compare with other Blacksmith's work, just to make sure that I am NOT the cheapest out there. Then I went to see a specialist arts business advisor, who pointed out to me what he called ''Top down pricing'' rather than the former ''bottom up pricing'' As in - how much can you get away with charging for something, how much will the market bare. I do a lot of fine art sculpture, that just is impossible to price with a ''bottom up price''. There is the old saying that if you have to ask how much it is you can't afford it in the first place. I LOVE the handful of my customers that walk in and just WANT this or that item I have sitting there, or sometimes before I have finished pieces they have already sold, as I give these people the full treatment, they get a tour of the workshop and cups of tea. Perhaps it is a bit mercinary, but they don't even ask for a price, they just get their chequebook out. It doesn't mean I rip them off- it just means I can actually charge what I want to for my skills and my 'artistic vision', and they are very happy to pay. I wish I had more customers like this as they are the ones who buy the fine art sculptures- which is the why I got into blacksmithing in the first place. In a perfect world I would only do this kind of work, but these customers don't come into the shop every day, or even every month sometimes, so the other stuff is filler in between! The only problem is that too often I find myself busy with the ''filler'' and having not enough time for the fine art stuff...

swage block and cone mandrel...

Having acquired a gas forge about 7 months ago, after Blacksmithing for around 8 years only using coal/coke I would mostly have to agree with Mike Tanner on his points. I like the convenience of gas, turn on turn off, 10 min to working temp. It is very limited in its size, careful planning of work so that I make all components before assembly, after assembly then tweak with oxy/ac. whereas with coal you can stick the whole piece in generally however shapen/whatever size. I get lots of scale in my gas forge, have tried a few things, no success yet in reducing scale. To my mind, both gas and coal aren't good for environment, its all burning something. Coal does feel a bit more ''natural' to me tho. I am yet to try charcoal. Coal has advantage, you can make big fire, or very, very small fire if required/desired and you have much more control over the heating of a piece, control over the blower- I prefer hand turned. Whereas in my gas forge, its either all four engines:) (burners) go, or nothing. Boils down to jobs at hand and personal preference. I like the ritual and romanticism of making a fire. Having said that, I find myself using the gas forge more, because I tend to work in sporadic spurts of a few hours at at time out in the workshop, then back in the house, etc.

Thanks Covforge. The Horse head is life size too. This year for the Horse Trials here I may attempt the whole horse. Will have to transport it to the show in a horse box (trailer)! larrynjr & Pete, no worries. I personally am not worried with whether a kilt/skirt has a hem or not... and I happen to like those amerikilts/utilikilts... do think they are bit pricey tho... Anyone point me to the direction of Blueprints for guillotine/fuller tool? Thanks guys.:)

Jimbob- I like that idea of the Russian Rose, ok I take back what I said earlier about not working with sheet, It might work if I cut out with the plasma... then weld it to a bit of rod... hmmm will have to try one of those A-Man -I also like the idea of the guillotine tool... but I am a bit of a rubbish blacksmith when it comes to making my own tools. I make jigs for stuff all the time, but I get nervous at things with moving parts. May try that tho if I feel overly confident one day and have time to kill, will keep it in mind Thank you Alan B, India was full on... I was contacted recently by a journalist working for National Geographic who is doing an article on the Lohars, he wanted some background info etc, before he goes out there himself. Article coming some time this year, keep eyes peeled. Jmercier, I think you may have a bit of a kilt fetish. and Larrynjr, I hate to break it to you guys, but anything with a hem on it is no longer a kilt, and becomes a skirt. (or so I have been told by old time local who is a seventh generation Atholl Highlander, our Castle's private army) I am just finishing off another fire set, then I have a set of gates to do, then I can start experimenting.

Ok, I challenge thee to make thistles...

Something threee dimensional is what I am after... Relief work, in sheet etc just doesn't really come naturally to me not that I don't like it, I just tend to like to work with round/square stock. The idea of making a rounded bulb, I would tend to draw down areas rather than upsetting. Or maybe a combination of both, I just find that upsetting usually takes me a long time and I need something I can do in not so much time. I have in my minds eye a picture of what I want to do, I am sure I have seen forged thistles before somewhere, but I've image googled it and can't find anything. Ouch, I can't imagine wearing a kilt to smith in... Earlier today I dropped a piece that slid down my leg, I am glad I was wearing something on my legs! It has to be said, most men do look pretty fine in a kilt...

Hello, I have been toying with the idea of forging a thistle, as I am in Scotland and its the national emblem. It seems like a good idea for items for tourists in the summer. I make flowers that sell really well, and am trying to ''diversify'. I have thought of numerous ways- the most straightforward might be making a short squat pineapple twist for the body, and then chiselling detail to create the spiky top. I haven't tried it yet though. I was just wondering if anyone else has had any success, and if you could share your ideas with me? Thanks, Colleen

Cute little whale, Sam! It seems you are turning into a bit of a wildlife artist...

Thanks for info and suggestions, as far as I can tell, the flame from the (4) burners is a reducing flame, ie, yellow bits of flame at the ends, I would say a softer flame? (if that makes any sense, I am no expert obviously!) Thats what it looked like this morning when I was working, but I need to change the bottle when I go back out there, so I will see if that changes anything. Perhaps my problem is what Habu68 has suggested, I tend to but the metal under the burner, (impatience!) so I will try to put the metal out of the direct blast and see how that compares. I generally keep the doors shut as far as I can. Back door is always shut, unless I am doing a long piece that needs to go through. Front door, I keep open just enough to get the metal in and out. I get a little bit of 'dragons' breath coming out of the open door sometimes, if that means anything. Regards, Colleen

Hello, hope I don't offend by slight hijacking of this thread, but I too get excess scale, but its in my gas forge (Swan Mother). I phoned them up for advice and they sent me a new gas jet which I replaced, ( they also suggested I spend around

R Funk- Do you have a pic of this hammer? I am finding it hard to picture what you mean, or like rthibeau wondering if its a cross pein/straight pein on the same hammer? Sounds very useful anyway.

Love it! Does the tail fan out or is it more of a silouette? Its a bit hard to tell from the photo.

Hello, I have done some sitting down forging- actually, rather - squatting down forging!! (No chair) and it wasn't easy at first, especially when you are accustomed to standing. see pics on my website, www.colleendupon.com and go to the Research- Gaduliya Lohar page Its the traditional way of working for the Gaduliay Lohar- nomadic blacksmiths of india. I worked with them in 2003 as part of a scholarship I was awarded. I did find that after I got used to it, it was a more natural way of working- they showed me how to use my bare feet as well. It sounds a lot more dangerous than it actually is- they don't have power tools! no electricity, ( you can do a lot less damage with a file than a grinder) They sit squat down in the sand on a burlap bag, or other piece of natural cloth, and fold the ends of it to cover the feet when forging. The fire (a forge in the earth) is at arms length on either right or left so there is no heat loss from taking a couple of steps. If they do striking with a sledge, the striker will stand, but generally the one holding the metal still sits. I wouldn't say that there was much more danger to it squatting down, it makes you pretty agile to be in that position, and you can jump up pretty quickly if needs be, but all my time there, I never needed to. You can see from the photos that the major danger point is no eye protection, for them, or myself. It was circumstantial and poor planning on my part that I didn't have any. (I had travelled over numerous countries for six months before I reached India, and I naively assumed I would be able to get some out in the cities there- of course it just slipped my mind whilst viewing temples, interesting locals and trying to dodge rickshaws, camel carts, vintage 1950s cars, montrous decorated trucks and holy cows, so I ended up in the middle of the Great Thar Desert forging with no eyewear...(or shoes.. etc) when in rome they say. Sitting down forging was great in that environment, it wouldn't work in my workshop here.

Those look good, I bet they were appreciated!!

Thanks again everyone... Sorry for the delay in replying, have been caught up in last minute Christmas details- everything is almost sorted, now I just have to touch base with good old St. Nick regarding the children's stockings.... hmmm, Glenn, a Blueprint? I am one of these people who don't make plans, I generally work from a rough sketch and measure and cut as I go. With this fire basket I started out with a template of the floor area of the hearth, and then measured and cut to fit - first making a sort of frame, then ''filling it in''. I know that sometimes working this way has it's downfalls, and that I *should* actually make a planned drawing but I just never do for something like this... (I am also the kind of person who assembles flat packed furniture without reading the directions etc.) easily confused - perhaps I will write a wee bit on the broom tying info that I learned- I did actually search in this forum but didn't find anything so perhaps it would be useful for others too. watch this space... Aaron, Yes, I can justify the use of components, time is money etc, and I have children to feed- and my clients were happy with the work so in this case, good result all around. There is a whole debate about this issue I know so I won't go on!!! Right, off to wrap presents... Merry Christmas all Colleen

Thank you all. I had a hard time finding an appropriate broom to compliment this set. My customers definitely did not want your run of the mill poly-bristle brush, and picked out an image on the net of a woven corn (husk?) broom from the states. I like to keep things local but couldn't find anyone making something similar.. so I read up about ye olde craft of broom tying, which is apparently, a relatively dying art in these parts. I did my homework and prodded my local museum man who showed me some old heather brooms he had, which were works of art in themselves. And so I made it myself... Thanks also Apprenticeman... although I think 'firegirl' is someone else on this site! The basket is an example of simple yet effective! Its actually a departure from my normal style of work- (scrolls, sprials, assymetrical) and was almost more a piece of fabrication rather than forging, although all the spikes are forged. Anyway, great to have feedback. Colleen