Randy

I have the same brand vise. The spring just hooks on a tab with a hole in it up inside there. Here's one shot where you can see the stop block. Notice you're missing, unless you're not showing them, the other sets of vise jaws. There are pairs that hold 1/4" round stock through about 3/4" round stock. I had the 3 sets of jaws for about 10 years before I found the vise to go with them. You got a steal! I paid $300 for mine!

Gook! There used to be an old shop in town that had the old trough style slack tub and there was a rubber aligator in theirs. It scared the kids that came in after school.

Just got back from doing a weekend demo in Tucson. Great time! So i'm just catching up. blacksmithpete, nice try. Glad the photoshop was pretty crappy. :blink: It wouldn't have been my first shoe anyway. I have 3 shoes of special meaning to me in my smithy. One was from the first time I saw a smith at work. It was John Algood in Williamsburg, VA, I was about 2 years old and he stamped my name in it. The next one is one of the first ones I made. A miniature one that I was taught how to make in my first class. And the third one is the project that Frank Turley taught us. It's a horseshoe sandwich. Take 2 shoes straighten them up, fold one in half and put the other one in it and forge weld them together to make a new shoe. Precious memories. But they're on a shelf, not on the wall. If they were on the wall it would be the 1st thing anyone would see and I don't need to feed that fire any more. Oh, that blacksmith on Gunsmoke was Burt Reynolds.

Brian, not sure what you're asking. My comment was really that you need to know how to make a good scroll in order to make a good jig. You can't really buy someone elses' jig to work for the space and type of scroll that you need to make. My process is to draw the scroll full size on a piece of metal with chalk so I can change it until I get it right. Then I forge out the jig to fit the inside line of the scroll. I usually use material that is approximately 1-1/2 to twice the thickness of the actual scroll material. Once done the jig is welded to a piece of angle iron to fit in the vise or some other arrangement. You can see the one for this job in the hardie hole. I'm packing for my demo this weekend in Tucson so won't get a chance to answer again until Tuesday. Looking forward to seeing any of you there! Should be a lot of fun!

Peyton, et all, I've done the same thing over the years. (Educating the public) Even forged out big a fly with a 3-1/2" long body and put nikes on him so that he was my shoe-fly. Later I forged a big cow paddy for him to stand in. Then if they asked "the" question I could just point to him. Actually the thing that has helped for students and the public to understand forging the best is the blacksmiths' challenge in the back of my book. Ten pieces all from the same size and length material and nine of them forged into different items. That really shows what forging is and does. And that's why I wrote my book and teach classes and do demos around the globe. It educates more than our own kind, as those follks have families and kids, etc....and hopefully they'll tell others and so forth. Since the 1990's I have seen a change. It's been the kids. They come up and know more than the parents about smithing. Now it seems like it's taken a step back as now they all want to know if you can make a sword. Over 600,000 have seen my titanium sword video on Youtube, so the interest is there. Oh, well. I wonder if Joe Paterno will still be known as a great football coach or only associated with the scandal at Penn State. Seems people focus on the lesser of two things. I don't know. Oh, and the movies! That hasn't stopped today either. We won't mention the cheese blacksmith. And in that jousting movie the lady smith is working on their armour, (at least not a horseshoe), on an anvil that was higher than her head! All the research these people do for the movies but somehow they think they know what's right for a blacksmith?! and the band played on...

I just meant for you to use your last name and then whatever you do for your business name.

Likewise I don't object to having relatives that were really smiths, but how many times do we have to hear it? If it was true what they are saying there would have been millions of them. Hey, I got my start due to some great wagonsmiths, yea, I'm that old, so I have a great appreciation for all of the smiths before us and with us. I know my smithing history and the importance of the smith, I'm not the one that needs to be educated. But every time we make something from a shoe or a rr spike then that just keeps this problem in the forefront and it will never cease. B S Pete, I say, shouldn't that be upside down? :D (he's from Australia)

I forge welded the two together so no one would know. :P Thanks, but it wasn't my design. I had to copy an original. Looks like from the early 1900's. I had to make 94 of them.

I had a nice job to reproduce some s-scrolls for a fence in NYC. A fabricator was making the fence, but needed the forged scrolls. When I delivered them everyone kept asking how I was able to make them all the same. I just said that's what a smith does. Actually once I made up the scroll jigs to size and figured the length of material I needed the rest just moved along. There were two jigs, one for the end and another for the scroll. I've asked a number of smiths how they make scrolls and many have answered by using a scroll jig. So my next question is who made the scroll jig? If you can't make a good scroll in the first place it's hard to make a good jig.

Okay, here I go... I hate horseshoes! Anyone with me on this? Am I turning into Lewis Black? I guess it's connected to being associated with horse shoeing for so many years. From day one, "I'm a blacksmith." "Oh, do you shoe horses?" "No, just flies." Seemed like no matter what I was demonstrating, flowers, dragons' heads, hardware, you name it, someone always said, "look at him. He's making horseshoes!" I show people my portfolio or they see my work and it's, "wow, I didn't expect that! But do you shoe horses, too?" Aargh!!! What's the big deal about bending a "U" even if it is on the side of the material? Hey, I appreciate farriers tremendously. That takes a lot of education and skill. Plus you put your life out there every day. I know a lot of farriers and many have either have bad backs, knees kicked off, multitude of cuts, bites, etc. Not for me. So I have great respect for them. A lot of our smiths started that way, too. I know they just want to show you that they know something about what you're doing and maybe have some past connection with a blacksmith as they saw one once... I guess it's just educating the public. But after 40 years and the number of smiths today and the number of articles and shows and demos, come on! Maybe we need a new name instead of "blacksmith" so there's no confusion? Guess while I'm at it.... I hate rr spikes, too. Again, what's the big deal??? It's metal, so? Metal is available in bar lengths, too. And you can order exactly the type and size that we want. Maybe it's just me. I just don't see it. Well, maybe this will get some response?

Tom as far as a business name goes: "N.......Forge" , "N.......Hot Iron", "N.......Forging Studio", "N.......Artist in Forged Metals", using whatever your last name is. I doubt you'll move away from your name and it's the best way for someone to find you.

HF sells this one for $10.00. I was going to cut out a similar shape holder, but for $10 it's not worth the time and it includes a magnetic base.

Whatever you use don't forget about safety! Use a metal can only and with a metal lid and have oil-dry and a fire extinguisher handy.

I know what you mean. I've had several old spring tools snap on me in use. Probably used tool steel for the springs. I make all of my spring tools using mild steel and I have not had that problem. I did make one texturing tool with top and bottom textures with mild steel, but on the top half, about 3" or so back from the dies, I twisted the mild steel spring material to make bosses that I then riveted together to make a hinge. I like the way this works for this application. At least now any flattening of the power hammer is at the joint, not at the weld and the dies come down nice and flat. I tried to draw up what I mean.

I know, I sure get some odd jobs. Keeps it interesting. A few years back I had a lady contact me that does Pysanky. That's Ukranian egg decorating. She does beautiful work! Her house is full of all kinds and designs of eggs. As she is from the Ukrane many are historical designs and some are her creations. She needed an egg about 22" in circumference to use as a sign and possible for a lamp for her Pysanky museum. She had chosen several designs that she thought would work and we agreed on this historical based design. So now to figure how to create it. As it was also to be used as a lamp it needed an open design. Then how was I going to form this large an item and keep both sides the same shape. As I do most of my designing using AutoCad it made it relatively easy to come up with a form to hammer it into and a form to work it over to create the area that attached to the two halves. I designed what was required and had everything laser cut out. As they weren't forms that could be used for anything else the client paid for those up front. These forms were cut out of 3/8" thick steel plate. The egg designs were cut out of 3/16" steel plate. Then it was a matter of heating the egg design and hammering it into the open form. The sides were done opposite each other so not to interfere in the front appearance. They echoed each other. Then they were clamped to the external form. I had openings in this form design for the clamps. Then I drew diamonds between the two halves and welded them on to create the finished egg. The stand was modeled off of egg stands and was made of pipe and tubing. When she first came over to see the finished egg she wanted painted in the colors of her actual eggs. Once I saw it in white I thought that would make a better statement and after a couple of weeks pondering this she finally agreed. So another design, another problem of how to create solved and another happy client.

Beautiful! Nice lines and life to it. Great texture. For some reason I'm always drawn to edges. I'd take a file or belt sander to the leaf edges to round them off slightly and then re-forge them. I think a soft edge is more natural than a hard edge. Can't wait to see what you do with the next one.

Good advise, Dalton. I'd add in regards to education, yea, don't drop out,, you'll need all that you can get. Get some drafting classes. art and art history classes, vo-tech classes in welding and machining, business classes (how are you going to run a business if you don't know how?), and even maybe some language classes, say in German so you can go to Europe some day and learn over there, not only from the smiths, but also from the historic work that's there. On your own you need to learn the basics of forging. Read a bunch of books. There are a lot of good ones out there. Then take a beginners class. All of this will aid you on your journey. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks all. It means a lot to me that you like it. Even a little bit. There's always room for improvement. The tips are very helpful. Usually I do some studying first and get some pics like the one attached so I get some important details right. They do have some pretty stoudt legs. Maybe that will help me next time. I did a demo on making this style of a sculpture once and when I needed my template someone had it on the copying machine running copies of it. I don't mind giving out ideas and techniques but that was a bit too much. So now I don't do that demo any more. I like people to learn the process but then make it their own with their own design and ideas.

Here's a piece that I designed for a sculpture for a potential clients' back yard. It was supposed to have about a 42" wingspan and sit on a post. I didn't get the job. So last year I figured I'd build it anyway. Wingspan now is 8" and it's 10" high. I envisioned it as a hawk coming into its' nest on top of one of the peeks in the Rockies. I had so much time on the base that I redesigned it in a simpler version. I'm still working on refining the design, especially the mounting of the hawk to the scroll looks like crap to me. Always learning.

Seems like there are steadfast rules.... and there are exceptions to all of them.

Sam, Yes!!! Beth, in layered steel if you stamp something, like this skull and cross bones into it and then flatten it back to fill in the punch, or grind down you push the design into the pattern so that you would have skull and cross bones as part of the pattern. Maybe Sam will do an example for you. :D

]Do a google for Karl Blossfeldt . He did b&w photos of nature back in the 1920's. His books are reprinted with great pics!

Almost all of the old forged work they did what they could to take the hammer marks out. By using swages, top and bottom and by using flatters, mostly done with a striker. Yet they didn't go out of the way to cover up forge welds.

As before, very nicely done. Only thing that threw me was all of the old way of doing things and then using what looked like a laser machince to sign the handle. Beautiful tools!

Beth, I love what you did! You have a power hammer? Only thing I would like is a curve line right to the very end. Looks like you really had fun! You can still have texture and flowing lines. Just hit it harder to scroll it. Way to go!!!