Randy

I feel your grief and appreciation, too, Ted. Deloy was quite the mechanic, smith, folk artist and humorist. Anyone who saw his twisting machines cold twist 4" square stock knew he knew his stuff. When an engineer asked Deloy to see the plans for his machines he just tapped his forehead. "It's all in here." And it was! His traps were a calling card for him from his large one that required a trailer to move it to the little ones that he proudly produced in front of you and then gave you a numbered memento to be cherished forever. The trap by the door with the "complaint department" sign and the little bucket hanging off of it to catch the finger if it rang the buzzer mounted in the trap was true testament to his sense of humor. His forging was beautiful! A rams' head with little rams' heads on the ends of the horns. Acorns and oak leaves, a baroque railing sample are just a small rememberance of what I saw in his shop. I know I must be missing a lot more about Deloy as the afternoon spent in his shop seemed like I couldn't cram enough information and details in my head before we had to leave. It was a fun and special time! He will truely be missed.

True, but I'm not concerned about being lady like.

Huh? Of course it is still forging. You're heating and forming. Power hammer in hand instead of fixed position. Even repousee is forging, just more detail carved onto the front with chasing tools which can be done cold.

Her Mommy told her it's not lady like being a blacksmith, especially for a Southern belle. So she wears pearls when she hammers. Her story!

One clarification, repousee is first sinking from the back and then chasing the front, which is what the guy was doing eventhough power was used and without typical chasing tools. Due to the thickness of the material no pitch is required. :)

Wow! He has some incredible works! http://www.michaelbendele.com/ Thanks for showing us that, Thomas!

Yea, Glenn has been doing this for over 25 years. I even found a book on Power Repousee! Anybody have it?

Have you checked with your local association? www.illinoisblacksmith.org That should be a good start for you.

Great to hear from you, Jake. Been there, done that. But then your presence proved that someone does still do this! Hallelujah! What an impact that in itself makes on the world. Ah, but, yes, we still must pay bills. I at times wish that wasn't the case and I could just hammer willy nilly. But alas the word is out there and time and positive vibes will provide.

You need to have a fairly sharp edge on your anvil except for about 2-1/2" from your cutting table back. The sharp edges should have the sharpness knocked off or no more than 1/32" radius.On the near and far side you want about a 3/16" radius close to the cutting table. See drawing. This is because you use the edges for cutting sholders into your ironwork with either an edge blow or an half faced blow. Half face blow is shown. If you want a sharp sholder in your work you use your sharp edge of the anvil. If you need a radius or a fillet you use the radiused edges. You do need to have both.

That's a beauty! I've been trying to buy scrap parts of an old anchor or large anchor chain for the wrought iron. No luck!

Question #1 - Why is it that clinkers impair the process of forge welding? Air blockage? Heat sink? Other? Answer: Yes, air blockage. No air, no heat. Think of it this way, oxygen, air, is part of your fuel. Not so much heat sink. Other: dirt. Dirty fires are harder to weld in. Question #2 - What are the better methods of fire management to reduce clinkers (besides coal quality). Answer: When you get ready to weld stop your blower for a couple of minutes to let the fire die down. Then go in for your clinker. The clinker will drop to the bottom of the fire box and solidifies with surounding clinker so is easier to remove. It also darkens faster and darker than the fire so it's easier to see it to get it out of there. Once the clinker is out open up your trap door on the tuyere to let ash and clinker fines out so you don't blow it back into the fire. Then close the trap door, start your blower again and do your weld. Experiment with your coal. Some coals clinker worse when wet. If that's the case use less water to control the fire.

Pretty neat, Grant. Now I understand what you were saying. The hex has 3 rows, the diamond has 2. In my research I found several wooden pineapples from the colonial days, as it's a symbol of hospitality, and they were all done with diamonds. Probably because it's just an easier form to create and you still know it's a pineapple.

Oh, boy, now a challenge. The client loves the pineapples, but not the "silver" finish. Her place is "colonial" so wants it painted in "golds, greens and umbers". Guess I'll have to get some enamel paints in pints and paint a base coat, let dry, paint with darker top coat and then wipe off. Antique-ing? I'll have to do some dry brush work due to the deep recesses. I'll post photos when I get to that stage.

Thanks, everyone! Macbruce, if you're hitting in the center of the depression in the block it won't damage the edges. What do they call that? PLace of least resistance, blah, blah, blah. Grant, thanks! How do you know the center to have the left and right from? Doesn't it just go all the way around? Actually I based the diamond from looking at a lot of pictures of real pineapples and metal ones.

Just had to share this with you. It shows the passion that this art exudes in us: I had the pleasure of meeting Alex the other Summer when I was demonstrating in Carbondale, Colorado. A very talented and enthusiastic young man. I love this video!

And your jig only has to be half of the curve as it's a mirror image. Even for this size stock I've done some of the bending using top and bottom forks cold.

I have a job that is a restoration of an old gate that was originally made from a piece of fencing, make the hinges, spring catch and latch, plus they wanted a large pineapple on either side. The pineapples are about 18-1/2" high by 9" wide and forged out of 16 ga. sheet. It took about 50 minutes each to cold chisel the shapes out and belt sand and file the edges. Then figure out how to get the pineapple "bumps". I made a top punch out of mild steel that I then hardened to make it hold up longer. Mild is soft enough that tempering wasn't required. Then using my press I pushed the punch, with a piece of 16 ga. sheet in between to make the bottom die. I then made a spring out of mild steel to keep the punch lined up over the die and long enough of a spring that the pineapple would fit into it so I could reach all over the pineapple with the tooling. Using a rosebud on my oxy/acetylene torch I heated up small areas on a test piece and hammered the "bumps" to see how it all lined up. It worked well so then went about doing the same thing to the flat pineapples. Once that was completed I then heated up large sections and hammered it into a swage block until I had the shape I needed. BTW, the swage block depressions aren't only for making ladles. If you raise the piece while hammering the shape can be extended to produce what you want. In this case a 4-1/2" ladle depression was used to create the whole pineapple shape. It's a bit over 2" deep at the deepest place. I'm now making the mounting brackets that will be welded to the back of the pineapples and removing the scale for finishing. I like how it looks with the natural metal against the black gate and I've purchased a can of Diamond Clear which is made to keep the polished metal look. We'll see how it holds up. This job was a challenge to figure out, but once the tooling was made the rest of the process went pretty fast.

Thanks. Greg! I will check them out for my next order.

Way to go, Colleen! But I have some confusion. When I looked the book up here is the cover and the highlight: "Racial tension in a maximum security prison is brought to a boiling point when Vito, a Mafia hit man, falls in love with Jangles, a black prison queen. This places Gypsy, leader of the biker population, in a very precarious position. He must do something to stop a race war from happening." Colleen, were you in prison? nevermind...lol. Must be another "Queens of Iron" Now let's not get the wrong book! Looking forward to seeing it.

I just saw that Artisan Ideas has some new forging related books available. One interesting one to me is "To the Core: Alfred Bullermann Metal Designer" http://www.artisanideas.com/product.jhtm?id=1599&cid=13 Look at a couple of his whimsical pieces. I'd love to be able to do pieces like that!

Good job, Dave! The ends look like lambs tongues to me. Like on the end of a railing? A lot of people make these with links or rods that swing. I had clients complain about that so started making a solid mounting from the rack to the ceiling. You still have to mount it to the ceiling so I did twisted bars or decorated flat stock solid mounted from the rack and bolted into the ceiling. Some of them didn't have a beam lined up with the posts so I made a flat ceiling frame that attached to the beams and the rack mounted to that. Just another idea.

Kevin, sounds like a good deal. I'd ike to see it. Pictures? No problems with it getting hot. If anything just the opposite. Especially when first starting. If the oil is cold the machine is sluggish and can even stall out. Some times when I'm getting ready to use the press I'll just turn it on and let it idle to get the oil circulating so it starts warming up.

Ladies, only in the UK would someone make a comment about my name. Thanks! We had a good time at the Hereford BABA conference about it in '87. Your pieces are great! I like pieces with uneven twist and not all symetrical. That's putting life in your work! It's not perfect. Not machine made. I'm sure someone will love to buy any and all of those pieces. Anxious to see more!

It depends. What type of work do you want to do? First off though, I'd get a 5 h.p. motor. 3 is a bit weak. For the work I do, pretty much what I have. Minimum of 50 ton, H-frame. More travel than I have now to accept more tooling and bigger work. A larger opening, too, but not by much. I see where limit switches can be handy to set where the press stops every time. They're better than using blocks. Maybe stack my tank, motor and pump to take less floor space, but still on a separate cart. Not mounted to the press. The floor pedals are a great feature. I'd never use a hand lever. One thing I want to add to my press is quick disconnect couplings on the hoses. That way if I need to load the press and cart for a demo or class somewhere the hoses just come off. A must on all presses is to take in safety! Definitely get hose protector sleeves for your high pressure hoses! Then it's a matter of making all the tooling for whatever you want to make.