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I Forge Iron

Randy

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Everything posted by Randy

  1. MattS, After silver soldering I have to let it soak in vinegar to remove the flux and discoloration, it is then wire wheeled, browned and then the highlights are polished. I then coat with clear laquer.
  2. I'm making punches of different shapes and pushing them into the die plate. So this one took a left hand and right hand knife, due to the curve and an anvil. The plate is larger than the buckles so where the hot bronze gets placed changes the buckle some.
  3. Here's my latest forged bronze belt buckle design. I make all of the tooling and dies and squish the hot bronze in my hydraulic forging press. I'm selling them at knife shows, and stores.
  4. Great job, Ric! Very enjoyable and educational!
  5. I know a lot of us in the forging world wear gloves when hot hammering. Here's some things to be aware of. I see a lot of newer smiths using welding gloves. I think you lose a lot of hand control with that type of glove because your hands can't move in them very well therefore you have less control of what you're doing and less of a good grip of the work piece. That could be dangerous. Kevlar gloves are one of the most dangerous gloves for forgers of hot metals. Their specifcations state that they are good up to 900 to 1300 degrees F. depending on the type you buy. Our forging is done from 1796 to 2426 degrees F. So maybe they're okay to hold the end of a warm bar, but isn't that what tongs are for? I tried them once. I was doing a forge weld and the hot flux came back and landed on the back of the glove and the glove melted into my skin! One of the worst burns I've ever had! You've seen those dots on the gloves that are supposed to create more grip? Well, those are plastic and melt at a low temperature. I've seen guys using them and the dots start to slide and goop across the top of the hot steel. They are a burn waiting to happen. When I started to learn how to forge weld I did one after another for one job after another. Only problem I had was getting burned from the hot flux and scale. So I started using the brown jersey gloves. These have worked good for me as they are light enough that I still have hand control of the hammer and tongs, they are 100% cotton so they don't melt and they are cheap. Some complain that they are slippery and don't have a good grip. True. So when I first buy them I throw them in the washing machine and wash them and then dry them in the clothes dryer. Now I have a good grip. One must be careful today as many of the manufacturers are adding synthetics, in other words plastic that melts with heat to them. So make sure they are 100% cotton. There is usually a tag inside of one glove that tells you this. Seems like Lowes and Home Depot have gone to the synthetic cotton gloves. The only place around here that I can get the 100% cotton ones is at Grainger's. Being an ABANA member that means we get a discount there. I just bought a dozen of them today for $5.16 plus tax. So $0.43 a pair! That's pretty hard to beat. They make good rags when they wear out, too. I hope you keep these tips in mind for what ever glove you wear while forging.
  6. Good move. Don't they have classes there, too? At least you should find someone local that can teach you what you're looking for within the group. Good luck!
  7. You can't beat Frank as a great instructor. If you're in Colorado did you check with the group out there, the Rocky Mountain Smiths, and what they do at the school in Carbondale?
  8. Ash and hickory are great woods for hammer handles as well as many of the other woods mentioned. I stay away from store bought as they often cut them out of a board and therefore cut across the grain leaving a break point. It's best to split your handles out of a chunk of wood and then draw knife and /or spoke shave it to size. Takes a little time but lasts a lot longer than most store bought handles. I'm still using a split handle that was made in 1998.
  9. ptree, is there still the balance problem with small units like we're using? Guess it should be stated to not mix the two types of fluid. Also do the fire resistant fluids have any issues, too? Thanks for your input.
  10. Ten Hammers that's another reason I like my bandsaw. The other one had to sit out in the middle of the floor. Now this one is against the wall at the end of my steel rack. It really opened up my shop. We all find what works for us. I should say that if I had any complaits about this saw it would be the on/off switch. Not a good design and ends up being a manual setup.
  11. When I first started I would show the client books like the CoSIRA Catalogue of Drawings, now available free on line, in order to get a meeting of the minds. It was a big help. I would do hand sketches from there. Now I start with sketches and then use AutoCAD for the final drawings. This has been helpful as the drawings are full scale so I can print them out actual size and use them for templates in the shop and also to get laser cutting done for parts.
  12. Good news, Mark. Looking forward to seeing you back on the circuit again! Take care.
  13. I had a large bandsaw for years. I think the blade was a 96". Worst part was cutting at an angle. Reach underneath, lose nut, bang on vise, reach underneath, tight nut, do a test cut and of course it was off so start all over again. I was turned onto a Grizzly rotating head band saw. The head moves instead of the vise. Once it's calabrated in it takes seconds to loosen the lock, turn the head and cut right on the money. It was only $600.00 including shipping. Paid for itself with the first mitred corners job I had. It's only a 52" blade and cuts through in half the time of my old saw. Oh, and I cut 2-1/2" wrought iron and mild steel with it often. Takes about 5 minutes with a well used blade. I love it!
  14. Safety can't be stressed enough when it comes to operating a hydraulic forging press. From cylinders, to fittings, to hoses, to operation. As far as hoses go, I highly recommend getting protective sleeves for all of your high pressure hoses. They run from around $3 per foot for the type that slide over to around $10 per foot for the kind that velcrow on over existing hoses. They are made in nylon, kevlar and other materials. Check with your local supplier/hydraulic shop so you can talk to someone to recommend what will work best in your situation. I attached mine with zip ties. What the sleeves do is protect the hoses from rubbing and brief contact with something hot. Due to this it helps the life of the hoses. Plus if a hose would develope a pin hole leak it will be contained in the sleeve and not spraying you or becoming a flame thrower. At that pressure they say that fine spray could cut off a finger, blind you or... Plus working with hot metal around gas or coal forges it wouldn't take much to ignite the spray. Well worth the minimal investment. Also worth looking into the non flamable hydraulic fluids.
  15. Thanks, Frank! It's not the fingers I'm worried about...
  16. My press is 60 tons. Keep in mind that means per square inch so if you squish a 3" square you can see how much power you've lost. There are times where I wish I had a bigger press. You can see it in operation on YouTube. Just do a search for "hydraulic forging press". I'm also doing some large acorns in some dies that I made. I'm going to a knife show in Easton, PA, this weekend with my pressed bronze belt buckles so we'll see how it goes there.
  17. Great pictures and good to see Bill again. It's been a lot of years. Thanks for sharing!
  18. I never put my fire out. I bank the sides with green coal, sprinkle with water, pack it down so air can't get through the sides and put a little air to it to make sure the center is burning. Then I shut off the air and that's it. This will very slowly burn and turn the sides into coke for the next days' fire. It not only saves coal but turns it into coke which is better to burn. Some times I have so much coke I put it in a separate bucket for future use, as in forge welding. This is the way I was taught from the old timers and I have been doing for almost forty years. Back then they told me the only shop fires were from the wood stoves and their dirty chimneys. Spreading the fire out has more chances of sparking than leaving it in the firebox where it belongs.
  19. The original piece was cut out of another manufactured picket. It was mild steel and not very square and the lines were on angles not at 90 degrees to the center. It took me a lot of work to true it up so I could use it for the pattern. It was easier to hold it on the flat than on the diagonal for pressing. I don't if there would be any difference in doing the parts that way or not. As it is I was doing all four corners in each press. On the diagonal the two outside corners might be harder to keep in line and to press the detail into them. Luckily the client will cut these apart and weld them together. I've been getting some good jobs like this from other smiths and fabricators and I am open to do more. I've done many feet of Yellin style forge welded chain for chandeliers and I also am in the process of doing acanthus and other scroll leaves for the same shop that get the posts.
  20. ...And I'm not referring to the written word. Just had a project to do to make the center post detail for pickets in another shops' fancy railing job where the client wanted everything made in the U.S.A.. I first had to make the tooling. This was done by pushing a finished piece into two pieces of 4140. The problem here was that the piece is not flat so I had to make bracing to push the piece parallel to the plates. Then I attached another plate to center the piece and to make it 90 degrees to the plate. Once the tooling was finished I had to then make up 20 pieces for them in 1-3/4" square mild steel. It took three heats per detail to squish it to the get the required detail and depth. Due to the size it was easier to do two details per bar. These will then be cut off and welded to 1" square stock. I've attached photos to show the tooling and my finished pieces. I sure love how my press works! It's a lot easier on me than the power hammer as it is an even push not the banging that a hammer does. It is important to clean the dies after each heat as a press will push any scale back into the work.
  21. Wow! I love what's happened with this thread! All good stuff. On the art end... many years ago we had an ABANA sponsored meeting at Penland about art in forged iron since we call ourselves artist-blacksmiths. We had a panel of distinguished artist/smiths and a good crowd of smiths participating. I don't think I've ever seen so many grown men and women crying as there. Why? Because when we talk of art we talk of something that's more personal than most anything else. Something emotional. It's a part of us. And different smiths deal with it in different ways no matter their skill level. I knew one smith that became quite famous but because people were buying his work only as an investment he stopped selling his work and litterally died as a starving artist. Shame. I've seen forged nails that were art to me just due to their proportions. Something about them were just beautiful. The one term that I can't stand is "non functional artwork". There is no such thing. It brings emotion in us. So I try to keep an eye open and see what attracts me to it. If I like it it is art to me. Personally I enjoy creating pieces that make people smile. Thanks for all of your input and I look forward to reading more!
  22. I've only made the standard bodkin not the fluted ones or the 4 fluted ones. I hope that terminology is correct. The variety of arrowheads is amazing. In chatting with some expert smiths in England that make them it was rare to use anything other than wrought iron (or mild steel) and the cup was very seldom welded. One way to look at it is they had to crank out hundreds of these items to be shot once so the fastest way was the way to go. If they wanted a cup for a 3/8" diameter shaft they started with 3/8" round stock, if a 1/2" shaft then they started with 1/2" stock. All I can add is that I made some tooling to make the job easier. This is a combination swage, cone and cutoff that fits in the hardie hole. Since I demo all over I never have the same size hardie hole twice therefore the angle iron pieces to fit what's required. The photo shows how it was constructed using forge welding. If you hear more about the four fluted arrow construction I'd love to learn about it.
  23. Just saw this on FaceBook, posted by the New England School of Metalwork: "We just heard that blacksmith and NESM Instructor Mark Aspery was in a motorcycle accident this past week and is injured but alive. We wish Mark a speedy recovery and hope to have him back soon!" Has anyone heard anything else. Our prayers go out for a speedy recovery!
  24. Sad news. Allan supported my book when it came out and did a lot for the smithing community. I hope Helen is okay and has a support system around her. Blessings.
  25. James Viste is at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, They have forging classes.
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