Rashelle

Ok money sent. Please let me know if it worked or not.

That's funny three or four of my classes right now are actually forge welding miniature trade axes. Cool I like yours also.

Another thing that will effect sparking after hardening on strikers is regrind the face after hardening.

I would suggest taking some blacksmithing classes. Then looking into local blacksmithing groups, and other learning opportunities. People can and do still become professional blacksmith's. Even youth's, look at Alec Steele and others. Business management classes as well as art classes and welding would help also.

a 1.5"R x 4" Length of 4130 is almost 2 and a quarter lbs. A 4" length of the same material is 1.9 lbs. There are metal weight calculators on the internet. Just fill in the parameters. I use the one from the online metals store. Very useful when needing a finished weight and don't know what size stock to start with. Remember to factor in scale, grinding, plug if punched. I also have a weight calculator on my phone. When I've needed to match a historical piece I figure out the stock size then weigh the piece I'm matching then put the numbers into the calculator to find the stock dimensions. Remembering to account for wastage.

Something I occasionally use other then scroll tongs for holding inside the socket on spear heads resembles tongs that you would think were made to hold angle iron in the angle. Just two V's that fit inside each other. Near right angle V's. I had made some arrow head specific scroll tongs in the past also. With the scrolly bit being close to the size of shaft I was wanting the arrowhead to fit. Same thing could be done with pipe (to lessen the weight) welded onto the jaw of tongs. Forge the pipe end down to just under interior socket dimension. Don't know how well they'd work been to busy to try that idea out. LOL some of the business being making spear heads.

I've said it in the past Ausfire, you and Daswulf's welded creatures I really like.

Cool, watch dates for NWBA stuff and if I can get off you'll have a tour guide. Got Fort Vancouver down around here too.

LOL I can see the imagery in my head disaster and injury would be the names of the valkyries (or the harpies lol) following me around. Think I need a couple puppies and that'd be good names. I ran a Aristotle furnace and a Evenstadt hearth a few times since then. Will eventually do so again either at work or at home. It'd be good to do some more once the weather picks up a little. Or I find a good covered area, heehee.

I forgot a bunch of injuries such as the burns on the hands and arms from smithing, the rolled ankles, etc. Frosty thank you and you're welcome. That was a long time ago. Between the military Law Enforcement and civilian alarm response I put 11 years into the criminal justice system. In the end I have had a somewhat rough life, but many have had it much worse then me. Other then gaining weight from hormonal imbalance I'm in pretty good shape. I pointed out to my little brother and sister that even counting injuries I'm in much better shape then either of them and little sis is 10 years younger. Something I've noticed and pointed out not long ago to some people in person is we tend to forget that every person around us has their whole lifetime of experiences. I try to remind myself of that whenever possible. I'll be happy to meet you in person someday.

Cool I like spears.

The NWBA has monthly demonstrations followed by open forges in Longview. I personally teach youth blacksmithing in Portland. There are couple others now who will teach youth as part of their business. Best thing is join the NWBA and talk to the people there. Take a class preferably though for some hands on instructions.

Eek let me see if I can remember the some of the times ............Ok I got I'll start at the top and work my way down, this way I might get most of the oopsies .... At least three times bottles were busted over my head. A thrown boulder upside the head. Various nose breaks. The last time I broke it myself almost perfectly back to straight......... was having one of those days. First the 2x12 along the ceiling narrowly missed my head when it came down as I was getting stock off the wall ........ Not my first time things headed for my head so I sensed it and moved before it hit me. Then I was at the floor shear cutting a bit bigger then should of piece of steel, had a 6-7 foot bar to pull on so it was a stretch over my head and I saw movement out the window so naturally I turned my head and looked, that's when it broke loose and the steel wacked me between the eyes. Got two black eyes and when the swelling went away my nose was almost straight again........ not sure first time it was broken. Stick in the eye, pencil broke lead off in the eye, sport balls and fists in the eyes, bee sting in the eye (darn little bugger landed on my eye when it was open and I eventually had to blink), lime burns both eyes and inner eyelids goggles had air vents grrrrrrr. Ohhhh been hit with nunchuks and been in so many armed confrontations I couldn't count them or keep track of them didn't get hit much though, lol. Light fell while sleeping burning right arm hard scars for years as I slept through it till the burning me smell woke me up. Separated one shoulder, severely tore the tendons in both shoulders (what happens when you don't feel pain right and lift heavy things), Broke first two fingers on each hand within 5 minutes was using a sledge hammer to put in a puppy pen broke the first two then switched hands and broke the next two ..... rebroke almost daily took near a year before I could make a fist, currently have finger still swollen from my time on knife or death put my hand through one of the targets methinks. Machete to left hip dr told me I was suppose to of passed out a long time ago why was I standing after they debrided and stitched me up grr darn dr not suppose to tell people they are suppose to pass out. Sat down for a few while waiting for the ride home after that. My patrol car was sideswiped so one knee knocked over the radio bracket both thumbs were jammed into the steering wheel. Both knees hyper extended and severely sprained. Right knee should of had stitches from barbed wire still have scar ..... was being shot at ......... oh yeah left back another barbed wire cut when being shot at..... ack I apparently have forgotten how many times I been shot at now cause there are more. Left foot 90 lbs jack hammer, have scar and had stitches and was lucky didn't take my foot off. Ok there are many cuts scrapes bruises and more scars but this is quite long enough as is. Oh didn't want to forget the time the actuall 2x12x8 or 10 feet actually hit my head . had a hard hat on luckily.

Thank y'all. I really like working with bronze. I forgot how much of a pleasure it is. When I started a second one I realized I can figure out a cat head and plan on doing a leopard version. I'll do a panther head in steel first, then bronze with the spotted texturing. Need to work out the cat head process first though at leisure. Yeah wolf head war hammers are on my list Frosty. Have a mild steel axe with (don't remember if it's xl leaf spring or known 5160, sparked and acted like 5160 so will be treated as such, lol) bit to forge weld with a wolf head pommel to finish first. After a couple more bronze pieces. I normally use known steel for weapons but needed a large piece so think it came off a semi.

Thought I'd share some of what's been keeping me busy. This is a bronze axe forged by hand from 6" of 1"sq. 655 bronze with a wolf head pommel for an art show. So besides work keeping me busy at work I'm going back into work on days off doing stuff like this:

Every once in awhile I demo a portable coal forge outside. Heehee I get rather amused at thinking of supervising multiple instructors teaching way too many kids fire maintenance as well as the forging part during the Summer when we run multiple classes at once. That'd be scary. I'm envisioning a room full of kittens with, like a hundred mice tossed in then a few puppies and thousands of disturbed fire ants all at once. Spent almost the full work day reading the international fire code, made a good dent in it too. Plus updates. Bleh that can be rather dry. Researching other pertinent codes also. Seems like I end up doing this in spurts. Talk to the upper management then wait weeks then have to re- go thru it all again. Meanwhile everything so far has backed up what I said in the first place. On the plus side am waiting on another inspection...... Took notes on where to take notes.

Thank y'all. The forges won't go into the new building until after the certificate of occupancy. We'll be using them at the old building until then. The new building is having the propane lines and tank and the rest professionally installed. The hold up is the building inspector stating the forges and burners have to be UL certified. So I will be talking with the higher management about the suggestions for going over the inspectors head, etc. Thank you Steve, I'd read that thread in the past and had forgotten about it. I'll pop back on and let y'all know what worked (or didn't) when we get through this.

Thank you Mikey. That's what I thought in regards the UL listings. We had the fire dept. go through and they were happy.

Thank you Thomas. Looks like I'll be taking a medical scale to work tomorrow.

It's been awhile since I've posted in here. Things have been busy. As some of you know I'm the head blacksmith/bladesmith for an outdoor survival school. We have a new building being set up for the blacksmith shop. The new building has a different building inspector then the old building. The new buildings inspector isn't going to sign off till we have a couple issues settled with the old buildings building inspector. Which happens to be a new (rather then the original building inspector who signed off on us having a blacksmith shop set up where we do, in the first place.) Long story short ................... I've been told I need to have documentation showing how many BTU's the forges put out and UL listings for the forges and burners. Most of the forges are made by me to be easy maintenance: welded angle iron frame surrounding hard brick with 2" insboard inside lining, sacrificial brick floor, pop off top to just change out lining as needed. Looks good and fast maintenance for the school. Some forges have Frosty T burners others salvaged burners from former bought forges. So here is my quandry how does one get a UL listing for something one made, and what is the math for figuring out BTU's. Note I'm going to be asking just what code it is that we are having to comply with so we can understand what is is we are complying with. I'm also wondering if there are UL listings for burners and forges.

Another consideration I think is being forgotten is the realization that that 2.5kg billet is not going to be 2.5kg anymore once it's forged out.

Whatis wrong with cutting out sheet for part of it? You can do that with a cold chisel. You can also squish a piece of metal down into a roughly round shape punch a hole, texture it, hot cut petals, upset one end of some round stock, tenon it, drop you flower petals over it then pein the tenon and texture that for the stamen. If you think ahead you could even drop some leaves and some other flower parts in before putting the petals down. Sorry one of the problems with getting older is I lose words sometimes, can't think of the right ones.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh that reminds me when I was little and me and my little brother shared the upstairs ......... Heehee we had a grate in the floor we could look down and see what was going on in the front room as well as hear it. I had this huge rubber tarantula and fishing line. We were sent up stairs cause me mum had a tupperware party coming over. I was rather resentful and felt I should be allowed to stay down. It must of took us an hour of slowly squeezing the rubber parts a little at a time to fit that spider between the gratings...... Till eventually one of the ladies got up to speak, planting herself right dab and center under my web........ Ohhhhhhhh you should of heard the screams and the looks on their faces as I lowered that spider down towards her unsuspecting head, then the turn and the look up and the scream, and the face .............. It didn't last much past that. By the time our mum got upstairs, I was safely esconced in bed under the covers with the dog between me and the door. Oh I am staring at t little yellowish spider traversing my laptop as we speak. I enjoy the metal fabbed creatures, they inspire the imagination. Thank you for sharing it and reminding me of my youth.

Some of the youth can be surprisingly fast in their reactions to water. .................. Ohhhhhhhhhh was that amusing and worrying at the same time. Is this little fellow going to get sick ?????? Is that little feller gonna ............... Ohhhhhhhhh hold it he is, NOOOOOO stop, don't do that.............. too late the little guy dunked his head in there and was lapping it up cause he was hot............ Ohhhhhhhhhh rhino liner I forgot how effective that is. Thank you for reminding me. Ack darn galvanized steel buckets are worthless nowadays for holding liquids. Dumped can of spray in liner in them, pretty much grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Bed liner yyayyyyyyyyyy now I can (pun intended) go back to metal can's. Little monsters melt the plastic buckets when your back is turned.

Nobody, Welcome to the Pacific NorthWET. The NWBA conference should be good. Charles that means we are of near similar age.