Borntoolate

"Stick Forge" Last name is Stick. Made a crude and simple touch mark that is SF. The S Shaped the way the rock band KISS spells their name. The F follows suit.

Oh Jeez.... You must be pretty handy at the anvil.

Without doing any calcs or considering all the other details above my belief is that coal is way cheaper. I must admit that I made my own gasser from 14" pipe that is 24" long. I have about 4" of kaowool everywhere on the inside including the back. I have a firebrick covered opening that is about 5"x6". I have two burners that I made myself. So more than likely my gas forge is not very efficient. Achieving a welding heat is nearly impossible. It runs rich unless I use my air injection superchargers *small tubes that blow comressed air into the burner opening controlled with needle valves". I do use it for bigger pieces that I want to heat entirely.

Hey, has anyone done any new Scrolls and collars to add to this post? I'm just re-opening this one for visibility and to get it in front of anyone that may have missed it in the first place. Hopefully we'll get something new and sagely added on... :ph34r:

Hexagon Ball. Brian Brazeal http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=brian%20brazeal%20hexagon%20ball&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3etcuwh8L_g&ei=lp40T7zJIeru2gXC94yrAg&usg=AFQjCNFkBjTlRVgSwr37Q27GWDP9nO10vw

Since you have a bunch of numbered and in order stuff here is just some other ideas and thoughts to figure out how to slot in and where. - A source of scrap metal. - Decision on what fuel to use - Coal, Charcoal, or Gas Forge (Propane, NG...) - Decision to by or build you forge, tools, smithy etc. Depends on money and your ability to build your won stuff. - A welding machine if you plan to amke a lot of your own stuff - See above. - Willingness to be looked at funny when you talk about your hobby. - Willingness to learn from others and teach others. I started about 18 months ago with barely a clue and built a gas forge using propane. Then 12 months ago got introduced to a coal forge and was hooked. Built my brake drum forge and used it til about 6 months ago and have now a nice cast firepot and new larger forge.

All, I have been working on my hammer technigue a good bit and trying to practice moving the metal the way Brian teaches. I have a long way to go and so many things to learn but I was curious as to the following: Considering only the near and far side of the anvil which do you use the most? I can understand that it depends perhaps a lot on what you are doing and what you are making and what you are starting with. But in general where do you find yourself working the most... On the near or far side of the Anvil? Also say why? Near or Far? I for one feel the far side is my most often used spot. Why? Seems that there is a lot of drawing out needed quite often. the half hammer blows on the far side with the rounded hammer can make some serious headway in drawing out. With the right heat I can almost overdo the divets if I am not careful. It's amazing that with the right hit the metal can just blow out to the sides and make a serious divet to aide in drawing out. Drawing out is a pain regardless and this makes it so much faster. I must admit I have been working on several tongs that I need so there is a lot of drawing out the reins needed.

I am trying to make what I think is called box end tongs. I am trying to make the square end. THis would look like taking a square tube and cutting lengthwise to make 1/2 of a box. Or if I try to type the shape it looks like this I__I ... How do I make that shape? It seems the only way is to have the proper tooling just like for making collars. Well... probably not the "only" way... Does anyone have a different and ingenius way short of making the tooling? I do find more and more that making tools requres as much time or more than making whatever it is you are making. I need to be able to to this by myself.

Hit the "More reply options" to add a pic.

this is kinda morbid. Like looking at dead bodies or some horrible freak show looking at poorly repaired Frankenstein-esk anvils. That one where the horn just fell off was kinda funny though. There may be no hope for us.

Please don't put the velveeta smith there.... PLease!

I would not worry too much about "Straightening" coil spring too straight. Unless you have a plan for it just get it uncoiled and straight enough to be hammered into what you need later. The bending fork is you friend or light bending hammer strokes on the anvil. NO need for STRAIGHTness.

So trying to make meaning from all this... Sounds like there must have been a pocket of something that was released quickly... Air Flux. Water Old elbow joints I don't think that any of these are necessarily good for a forge weld... Though... I dunno Don't worry, be happy. :D

Ok, I think I had fluxed extra heavy so maybe it was just SPitting out. I thought Maybe I had discovered something secret with deep blacksmithing meaning. SO far it doesn't sound like it. Maybe it means too much flux?

I haven't done many forge welds only about 1/2 dozen. today I was attempting to re-weld a forge weld that had opened up when I was drifting a hole. Long story short I hammered everything back together, fluxed welded, and fluxed and welded a bit more for good measure... With two separate but 90 degree hammer blows I heard a "Snap" during this rewelding/repair process. (welds were for 4 square bars) There was flux/slag spray to the sides but it was a different and audible "snap" than any of the other forge welds I have done, which aren't many... The snap was kinda like a stick being broken. IT was just a different sound that I had not heard before. Can anyone say what this means?

It's completely amazing to me how they had to do things years ago. HUge chain and anchor making. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_LA_R4ifYk

I have two of these. One we made at a hammer workshop which is probably 2 lbs. I don't use it very much it's too light. Another one that Brian and I made which I believe is 4#. Prior to making the 4#er I was using a 3# cross peen from home depot. I still like that one but almost exclusively use the 4#. I find at this point that the 4# is as heavy as I want to use for general use. Which really isn't all that much considering this is a hobby and there's that whole full time job and so forth... I am stil not good with using it at all the angles possible especially on the flat side. I think that a 3.5# might have been the perfect size. But it's all good. It is really cool to be using a hammer that you made yourself (the two of us that is).

Many of us blacksmiths also do modern day welding. Well, as we all know weld prep usually takes much longer than the actual welding. And is critical to a good weld. I was grinding some plate to make a bevel for welding. It was slow as surface prep is but then I thought about "surface area and contact" as Brian is always preaching. So I went ahead and used my side grinder to push in (using the edge not the side of the grinder) some closely spaced divets in to the edge of the plate. This created a serated edge at the desired bevel angle. Then I came back and ground away all the high spots. So this is like drawing out. I found this put a bevel much faster. Try it. Blacksmithing concept applied to modern day work and productiveity. PLus. Weld prep sucks and anything to make it go faster is a good thing. Lemme know how it goes.

Hey, let's start a thread of good videos to share. Give a short description of the video and the link. All, I poke around on youtube for blacksmithing videos. I found this one a bit mesmerizing. There is no voice and the music gets annoying about 1/2 through but this is like a 12 minute crash course on making an ornate gate. Check it out... Assuming I know how to post a video link. It's German from the 30s and the guy has a hitler mustache but don't let that bother you. There is a lot of mortice and tenon joinery, interesting cuts and bends, a use of the vice that is so obvious but somehow I never thought of it. His delicate use of the hammer is also interesting. Lots of little tap tap blows while tweaking to finish. It's obvious this is not his first time at the anvil. http://www.youtube.c...e&v=PwgIjPEZzSE

Thomas, Great idea with the gas forge. Now I have another use for mine that mostly sits since I went to coal.

I also cleaned each end that was to be forge welded. I belted sanded off all mill scale to clean bright metal. I assume this should not be necessary or is this a best practice just like any other weld.

Sorry, sounds like your Screwdriver approach actually expands not squeezes. Fantastic

I have thought about how to tweak this and it seems hard to move any single bar.. much. you can move them relative to each other by squeezing... but to move just one it seems that you might move the whole thing. So this tweaking bit is a mental challenge to me. I admit I have not tried much at all. Then again what about expanding two bars instead of squeezing? On the flip side I think that the better you twist and untwist the less tweak is necessary. THough Lorelei says there is always some tweaking needed. Thanks Mark. Let's make this easy for everyone

I purchased Lorelei's book about 6 months ago or so. I finally felt like I had gained eough understanding of fire control, visual management of heat in the forge, the purpose and application of flux etc.... In order to try the "advanced" Basket Weave Handle project on page 147 of her book "The Back Yard Blacksmith". Hopefully I don't infringe on any sort of copywright stuff. I mention the book and the author only because that is what got me in a position to try this and also based on the book gave me enough info and pics to be successful. Thank You Lorelei. I didn't follow all directions to a tee tho because I am stubborn, hard headed and I have other info that I just try.... I wired together four 1/4 in diameter round bars by 6.5 inches long and I mig welded them with a tiny spot weld in the center of the square on the ends. I heated, fluxed with roach proof borax and forge welded them together (ends only). This was my first, successful, by myself, two forge welds. I think they both are good welds. I twisted the whole thing together and then untwisted them to get this. I have not tweaked this and it is not perfect but I like it! I would like to open this thread in order to encourgage others to try both the "elusive" forge weld as well as to help talk through the untwisting part of making this type of handle in order to make it uniform. Now I must admit that I cheated a bit because of the spot mig weld on the ends. The book says to wire it together. Not everyone has a welder and of course they did not have that back in the day. However, anyone that has a decent forge, that can provide sufficient heat, and can control that heat can make the forge welds. From there it is a matter of controlling the un-twisting for a nice handle. YOU CAN DO IT! I am willing to make some step by step pics if that is desired. I got positive feedback from some previous step by step pics on scrolls and collaring.

I used to have a stand made of oak. BUt it was to small in diameter. I was in the mood to change and we had just cut down a sycamore tree and I had a piece of the right diameter. I got the chainsaw out and started to carve and level. I used my router and a large box type guide and slide plate to level it nicely. I should have taken pics of that. It's actually some tooling to make wide wood slabs level. If anyone is interested I can post that. BUt anyway here is my current stand. Sycamore is probably not the wood of choice. When I made this the Sycamore was alive and had just been cut down a few days before. The wood has split in several places but I am hoping they are "mostly" surface cracks. u can't see the cracks in the pics but they are there. This is a 275# anvil just for reference. So far it is solids and I am happy with it. Here tiz...