yves

I'll be back there shortly : http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/2013/01/getting-back-to-anvil-to-hammer.html

This will be one fiery furnace... warming up lovely dutch hearts.

The lettering for the name of his favourite horse.

Very happy that you have shown this fine woork. I have been wondering about framing double french doors. I do not wonder anymore. Thanks.

John B, Thanks for the comment. I must admit you are right. But, not being overwhelmed with work, I accepted to forge 2 for a client. I think it is a case where (1) the clients would rather be impressed and impress others than be confortable... and (2) my being comfortable with the money... In fact, you are so right that I will forge pokers with pineapple twist and put them on the blog and explain the difference between the two twists.

A cube twist for a poker : http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/2013/01/i-had-to-make-another-fire-poker.html

I would like to say something original. Icant find anything, all originality being in your design. And if I read you well, time spent on design is also time spent forging. Thank you for the idea. It is original, elegant, simple, simply beutiful.

Sorry for the deception. That fleur de lis is not my work. It's an image I bought when I had to have business cards made. The next printing will have my work on it.

My grand daughter and I offer our best wishes for 2013 to you all at IFI from which we learn so much. Thank you. http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/2012/12/for-new-year.html

I think you are right. Guys who know will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that stability is dependent on three points of collaring for a scroll. However the stout collars you have used will not permit the scrolls to wiggle free. Well, not next week at any rate... I like your design.

Here, traditionaly, blacksmiths used sand and a leather mitten. Of course I tried it. A sand box (no cats in the smithy) and you rub. It works. After a while...

Why did you make a strike line die? Why not 2 punches and mark both sides in one operation? What do I not understand?

I'm in love with the two I have. I even talk to them...

moblacksmith0530, Glad to have something to share after having taken so much and still taking from IFI.

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday I replied to Beth in her thread “School gate panel” with a link to a page in my blog. She said it might be of interest if I posted it here. In this page, I show how I went from drawing in very small scale to forging and installing a grille in a home. Originaly, I made this page as a tool to show clients the work involved in making their dream come through and why they have to pay what they do. There, I show the method I used to forge this grille. It also shows how I was inspired by Fritz Kühn and the Greene brothers. If you are a beginner and have a larger project in mind or are being approached for your first important commission, it might help you. It worked for me. Here is the link : http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/p/forging-dream.html

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater's steel and ironwork was painted red. So I thought about that and wanted to try it for a tool I use to hang lanterns outside. You are right Beth, the woman in my life resisted shall I say to the point where the tool turned black.

Beth, First, of course, compliments on your work. Compliments also on your new year's resolutions. As I read youre post, I was working on one. I did not know where to put it here in IFI, in what forum. I originaly wrote this post as part of my weekly contributions to a blog I started in order to show that I exist as a blacksmith. I am happy with it with more than 1200 hits on the blog (the french one, I only recently started the english one I refer to here below) since I started in october. I thought it could also be of interest here at IFI. I wrote that post to have something to show clients that the prices I ask are justified by a lot of work. It could then be posted in the business forum at IFI. I also thought it could help a beginner to plan his first complex design. It would then belong in the general blacksmithing forum. You helped me decide. I'll post it right here (obviously) to try and show you that planning our forgings is fun. I want to encourage you in youre resolutions. Planning is fun and full of rewards. It took me less than an hour to install the grille and I was alone. It fit. Here : http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/p/forging-dream.html And Joyeux Noël.

Speechless!

125 km east of Montreal. If you are around here, drop by. My coordinates are on my WEB site, yvescouture.com.

This pic was taken this summer. The grandson is working the blower. I had the pic made up as an anniversary card. When school started, he put this pic in a report he had to make about the summer vacation as an illustration of what he had done. One of his classmates asked : "You played with fire?" "Yep!" he answered, glowing in the admiration. Frosty, youre right, nothing beats playing with fire. I got him a nice little anvil for the next time he becomes the apprentice sorcerer. Of course, he will be dressed up. Here is "his" anvil.

It is a great pleasure to look at such fine work.

Sorry I did not reply earlier. I thought this thread was dead. I use a fuller in the guillotine and mark the bend heavily. The mark is used as part of the design. It also permits to bend the stock precisely at that point. You can see the results of this procedure here on IFI in Hofi's BP (a little more than half way down the article) : http://www.iforgeiro...-holder-01-r227 And here are the effects of the same procedure on a grill (a dragon fly) I am presently forging : As you can see, the stock must be bent at a precise point.

Thanks. I spend my time researching what blacksmiths design and have designed. It's time to realy explore Sonn's book, Early American Wrought Iron.

I would add stressed which was my case (a lot of work and difficult deadlines) to being tired and in a hurry and would also add that one ought to stop working. These conditions, stress, etc., will take your concentration away. I had worked all morning and with very deliberate precision as you rightly call it. It was a matter of an instant, a flash in time, one distracted moment and "slash"!