Borntoolate

Ok Chuck.   That is Cool!   Need to ponder.  Thanks!

To access each "finger" individually for tapering,simply heat the piece up and bend the other two down and out of your way.

:)

Yeah, I still find it annoying.   Call me eccentric...  or silly whatever.    I guess I am always thinking that most things can be forged clean with great access and sequence plus joinery and creativity is everything.   When the work gets in it's own way it feels like there should be a better way.   But I get you.   Been there done that.

Chuck?   No pic?  :)

We live off of pics on this site.

hot cut hardy tool. Though even a sharp corner on your anvil or other piece of metal can be a hot cut. Probably even a dull corner....

Stuff what you need...

nope not confusing.     I am thinking I might want to go thicker...   a little.   I do like the look of the collar.   Hmmm...  I can always add a collar to something that doesn't need it!  just for looks.  I also find it a little annoying at times to forge points and such on metal that is cut.    Access gets to be annoying and limiting.     Though the collar could also help cover up those areas that are the hardest to access with a cut....

Yeah, I am finicky.

I'm wanting to make a Fleur De Lis.  

Don't want one that is just cut out of sheet.  Some cutting ok though.  Preferable not cut "off" pieces.

Probably want to collar it together.

Looking for something that has some depth to it (thickness)

My forge welding still not to good so looking to avoid that but....

probably looking at something in the size range 6-8 inches tall.

Does anyone have any info on doing this.   What size stock to start with such that my lack of a power hammer doesn't turn this into major work.    Also, I could see some problems trying to get a single collar to hold three pieces together without some thought.

Ideas?

I did a Google search of IFI but did not find "plans".   Also searched youtube and several other sites but did not find what I was looking for.

There is kind of a hint at one way to do it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5QTpsSogKs

umm then there was this one.  Kind of incomplete but provides some ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AcnfOk2irA

Upper left here has and interesting approach for the top half.

http://yvesforge.blogspot.ca/2012/12/for-new-year.html

Perhaps there is an intersting application of a split cross or the split cross concept that would be cool?

I work at a refinery in the Pressure Equipment Integrity area.   Basically that means that we deal with Metalurgy selection, corrosion mechanisms and unfortunately failure analysis from time to time.   One aspect of failure analysis is to take a failed piece of metal and polish and etch it in order to look at the microstructure and grains/boundaries.    I'll see if I can get these pics in front of a couple of Materials and corrosion engineers to see what they have to say.   "Burnt" metal would certainly represent a failure.   

On the other hand it may be that just visually looking at burnt steel it becomes obvious that it is ruined and so maybe these guys have never seen the microstructure either.   We usually don't do much analysis on stuff that is clearly ruint.    Let me get back to the forum on this...   If I don't forget...   CRS....

I'm not really sure what you call this hybrid, but I'd like to try to forge one soon.  Any suggestions on what to use, or tips on how to do it.  The dimensions are approx 6" from hammer head to ax edge and about 7 1/2 from claw ends to handle.

wow. that looks useful.   Axe.  Nail puller.  Zombie killer.  Dissassembly tool.   pry bar...   etc....   I like it.   

Matchless had this one up for sale a while back. I had certainly never seen one before.

 

4in English leg vise with rare cast iron stand.jpg

Ooh!.   I gotta make one of those!   I got a leg vise sitting in the corner.   Now I know it's destiny!

You have to be self aware.   Self aware of your body.   And be monitoring this all the time.

Are you clenching your teeth.  If so you probably have your whole body clenched.   You can sense this by listening to your body.  it is easy to know if your teeth are clenched if you listen.   I find it is hard to clench your grip if the rest of your body is relaxed.   Hold and guide the hammer do not grip it.    It is a tool.  Let it DO the work.   Not you.

Shoot for swinging the hammer with the very least amount of energy on the part of your body.   You lift the hammer, hopefully from some rebound off the anvil and then you guide it's fall hopefully from somewhere at or above your shoulder or head.   Use more momentum not strength.  

Use rythym not strength and force.    

Have a plan of what metal you are going to move and how you are going to move it.  Or stop and think.  While letting the forge heat up you work.

Work hot.  Stop when the metal is cold.   Don't just keep hammering unless you are finishing.

My personal opinion is:  hit less often, precisely, methodically, with a heavier hammer (3 lb +).   When you hit, mean it.  Thus come from above.  No short tap tap taps at 6 or 8 inches.   Have a GOOD heat. Don't hurry. 

This pics are hard to see.   Too small.   Bigger woud be helpful if one of them is the example you are trying to match

...not a good picture but here is mine gathering dust.

Here is mine.   I don't use it much either.   would like to see some pics of folks using theirs.    Especially if there are some unigue uses.

for $100 bucks.   Heck just buy something.   Don't think on it over much.

I am very curious to see how this thread evolves.    I had the same dilemma when I was starting.  I still have some stuff that I bought that will probably last me forever.  

One other thing.  Don't buy squawt from the home depots or lowes.   Find a supplier.   The price difference is unreal!

I would suggest that you should spend most of your thought and time working to get employment and income or maybe better than that is a good advanced education.  The rest will come in time.

One thing to think about is square vs round.   Many folks will say that if you hand forge then you should touch your hammer on every bit of surface area on your project.    That suggests that if your finished product is square then perhaps you start with one size larger or so in round, work it to square or octagon etc.   Thus the finished product is completed touched by you and your hammer.   and vice versa.   I like the fully hand forged look.

Now if you want to save time then go the other way.   Buy what is closest to your finished product.

Buy thicker as opposed to thinner.   You can't easily make pieces thicker but you can always hammer thinner.  But keep the thicker sorta close otherwise you are just hammering excessively to draw out.   On the other hand this is good practice and good therapy.

One video I watched discouraged forge welding.   This is good advice for me since my forge welding is still a bit hit and miss.  The thinking was that every piece is made from a single piece of stock with no joints of any kind.   Ojne solid piece of metal, hand forged to final shape.   That approach appeals to me for many things. That means you have to start with stock that is as thick as the largest part of whatever you are making.  Or you have to be able to upset, weld, rivet, collar etc.  These latter joints though can be used to provide very nice asthetic value.

I use a swimming pool DE filter as my quench tank.   I keep it full of water and it is plastic.

Yeah, I would like to see the smithy as well!   Maybe some work in progress?

To be honest...   I don't know.   I always said that someday I would build my own forge.  I did not really even know what that was.  Then one day I started to research it and made a gas forge.   Found I needed an anvil and some metal to hit.   It just went from there.   Though, in the movie "Platoon" Tom Berenger pulls out a T-Handle knife and Cuts Charlie Sheen.    Somehow I told myself that I will make a T-Handle knife some day.  And so it happened.

I wanted to bring this post back up again.   We have new members that might benefit.   And, perhaps there are some new vids to place in this post for one stop shopping.   Pics are great but vids are the...  um bestest!  :D   I just rewatched my own original post and saw some new things.   Awesome!

I have been there done that.  The heat is where the  fire ball in your fire pot is white hot or thereabouts.    When I say fire ball I mean the hot coals in your fire where the real heat is inside your fire pot.   There is a ball that is hottest.   It can be red, or yellow or whatever.    Telling people they have to "manage their fire" is correct but not informative enough.    You have to create this fire ball and manage that, inside your fire.   This white hot ball is as big as your pot, coal pile and air flow can make it.   I have had the same struggles as you.   What I believe is we need to learn how to manage the fire which means we need to learn how to create and see this white hot fire ball within the forge pot and then we need to learn how to control the size and location of this white hot fire ball.   If your fire is only red then you will only see mild heat.

So now you have a hammer and some advice.   What's next on your plan?

So if you want to learn blacksmithuing then you are probably trying to start at page 10 without reading pages 1-9.

If you want to make knives then  you really  don't need to learn blacksmithing since you can make a knife with your existing lawnmower blade and a grinder/belt sander and a hacksaw.  

So figure out what you want to do then figure out where page one is and start there.  

I do not mean to be mean spirited by the way.   You built somthing, you used it, you tried something and then you asked some questions.  You are on the exciting road to learning.   I applaud you.

Wow.   you are in Baton Rouge and so am I.   IM me.   I see Dan (old and rusty has already Homeboyed yu?)

By the way I would learn blacksmithing regardless.     you may not "need" it to make a knife but unless you love grinding, sanding and cutting I would suggest you add it.   I am not a knife maker by the way.   You need to  think about how you will put a handle on your knife and how your tang will help?   Woodworking...?

What you welded on has ended up being a vibration dampener.    Remove it and let the bell hang free to ring (vibrate).   Then figure out how to let it hang free for your intended use.   To get a ring the bell must vibrate.   When you stiffened it AND added weight you dampened it AND changed the harmonics.  

The hardening part is probably not a huge deal???  Bells been around a long time probably most not hardened.   But a hardened bell...  hmmm.???

Remove the dampener and let us know.  

Think about it.   Think of bells you have seen.  Bells hang from loose chain or some other loose attachement.   They don't hang welded solid to sticks.   There is a reason for that.   ;o)

It doesn't matter anyway. I just re-read Brian's striking anvil thread and he uses mild steel incase of misses with heavy sledges, so I'm not going to harden it. Thanks anyway guys.

I was going to suggest the above but you got it. 

Perhaps now it is more about how you will get tooling in a hardy hole and how you will mount it on legs for solid support and striking...  height....