Dogsoldat

Nice Butterfly, I think you nailed the shape and feel of it. Glad you found some inspiration from my work

Try this again, first time disappeared... fold your stock back and forth on itself. Glue the loose ends together by your preferred method. Fold it all open like a Fredericks cross. Flatten and tweak to your satisfaction.

how about making a block for your hardy that supports the shape of your stock same as in the Mark Aspery book. I have seen a video of a piece of 3-4" round notched to fit the stock for initial punching and then the guy has 2 parallel pieces of round stock on a plate to support the length of the head while drifting larger. In his video he's making ballpeen hammers

Well the gates in place. The girls and Grandma posing with the gate.

in the books section? there is a 1910 ? edition of a blacksmith book some where inside is all the steps to make the swivel. seen it in the farm blacksmith book as well I'd have to go digging to find proper titles. download an old blacksmithing manual or two and you'll be surprised at what you'll find

Gote, not sure whether or not there is a lot of talent, at least for me. Mostly just a bunch of small pieces bodged together till it all looks right. More a matter of persistence.

Jealous wife... but anyways Think I have things where they are all good. Paint wasn't playing as nice as I had wanted, but things are as close as they are going to get for now. Wanted a light dusting of silver on the dragonfly wings fading to the back edges but the silver ended up being an all or nothing paint. Mostly a matter of getting it over to Moms and mounted. Been a busy weekend. Sent a Friends wife off yesterday in the morning. Short but sweet service. Then hustle back and huddled under tents in the rain for a wedding. Had a strut to change in the minivan this morning so just enough time to get the last of the paint on before the clouds settled in again.

Don't know Frosty, I think your one of the guys that's worth listening to. Anyways, think I'm done with it. Have a bunch of wire wheeling to do and brush on a bunch of paint. Just had to play with the yellow and orange to see if the effect I was after was going to work out. Think its pretty close. Push plate for the inside and a basket twist handle on the outside. Thinking that the SMITH will be in orange as well. The rest of the gate black. May paint the leaves if the green seems compatible. Would be the same green as the vise and stand. It will just be the simple strap hinges on the post for now. May upgrade that later.

Maybe I should have read a little closer the first time... but the wings as the straps was what I pictured when you mentioned dragonfly hinges. Cool ideas to say the least Frosty.

Boy that turned out nice. Don't think that knot half way down will weaken it any but it might be a blister point. Might be a little to nice to use, maybe you'd better sent it out this way to hang on the wall and look pretty

Maybe when Mom switches properties with us I can start on the fence WIP Almost leaning towards strap hinges right now. Have lots of post to work with and might tie in better with the rest of the fence ( lazy and not wanting to move fence posts)

Was contemplating a snail or maybe a small bird and a rolled up copper wire birds nest. I'll have to see. Wife figured stick an owl in someplace. Was thinking of basket twist on each side for handles. Might go with a push plate on the push side and a twist on the outside. Spring loaded to close. Not sure how ambitious I'm going to get with hinges. I know I should do something a little fancier than just standard heavy hinges. Anyways this is where it will be going .

Dragonfly nearly done, bulrushes all in place. A few extra leaves added. The 'H' is going to be cut out and redone right. It's realy starting to bug me. A few adjustments on the one basket twist to match the other and sort out how they are going to be attached then onto clean up and paint.

Weld a few leaves on the tree, forge out another bullrush leaf or two, a dragonfly some sort of handle and sort out some hinges. Pretty happy with the bottom left hand corner so far. Guess I better get back out there and keep moving forward.

I'm not seeing many advantages forging with a titanium hammer. To get a comparable weight volume goes up. From what I have read here Ti tongs would be nice to play with though.

Now that could be cool.

Yeppers, it is a nice colour. Bought more than I needed when I built a frame for my large grindstone.

Pretty sure we'll have a few more soon. Have an old Cat 200 buncher in need of undercarriage and a track loader might be coming due soon. I can set them to the side for you Daswulf.

Thanks for the progression pics. Always nice to see how others break things down

A sleepless night and a super hot day kind of robbed me of my mojo. Managed to get all the leaves I had made on and more or less bent into place. Forged another seven leaves to fill in a few spots that are short on foliage. Just one big hole down in the lower left hand corner that needs a bunch of TLC.

LeeValley has those scissors. cheap, but cut very good.

Finally used the old sprocket along with a piece of logging truck frame. Needed an outside grinding station. Already putting it to good use holding the gate.

Turned out nice. Keeps drawing the eye round and round.

Can't find some canvas and give it a wash in borax to make bag bellows? may loose a little efficiency to air loss but rather minor. Nothing says the bag bellows MUST be leather...

I like it a LOT! The fuller down the handle just makes for a little icing on a beautiful tool.