Borntoolate

that's awesome!   And I could do that!   I have just a little skill but I don't know what to do with it.   I am looking for some sort of creative outlet.   This makes me think.   Awesome!!!!!  

Then there is that pesky day day job that pays all the bills and takes so much time!  grrr.

Umm?  Did I say awesome?   Yeah ok I guess I did.

It is so simple yet combined it is ...   awesome.

I try to monitor whether I am clenching my teeth or not.   If I am it is likely that I am gripping to hard as well.    It's hard for me to grip hard without clenching my teeth.   It is also hard for me to grip hard with unclenched teeth.   So if my mouth/bite is neutral or relaxed so will be my grip. 

So if I can relax my mouth then I will relax my grip.  The two go hand in hand... or is it hand in mouth?    

I actually try to maintain both in a relaxed way but somehow it is easier to monitor my mouth.   That makes no sense I know.   

My job can be a bit stressful so I try to watch this (teeth clench) in general.

too bad there are no pics left.   I think this was my very first post.   BTW my hand crank Champ 400 is still working.   It is also still a little noisy but not as much as it was.    I put a little gear oil in everytime I use it.

maybe combine this with Gems and Pearls thread

Awwwwa...

I was hoping for more robot rules.  

I guess that is a bit off topic... but fun tho...   

Errr, I mean shop rules...

59 minutes ago, JHCC said:

My first woodworking teacher had four rules:

1. You have to follow all the rules all the time.

2. You have to break all the rules at least once, unless doing so will cause injury to yourself or someone else.

3. If something makes sense and it works, it's a rule.

4. If a rule stops making sense or stops working, it's no longer a rule.

rules one and two will cause all the robots to explode or become immobilized.   Pitty.  

Righty  

Horn to right and hardy just by the horn.

Hand crack with left but usually rock of my feet or otherwise make it a mostly fully body crank not an arm thing.  

This leaves my right hand which has a higher dexterity to use tongs when needed.

Thus I guess I swap tongs to the left when I use them.    I must since I hammer with my right.  Never really noticed.  

Forge is directly behind anvil so I just pivot and there I am.

I mostly only swap hammer hands when I am working out the hole on a bottle opener on the horn.   Often nearly kneeling facing it.  Often getting hot scale on me between thumb and index finger!   I gotta work on that technigue.  

Otherwise all this right left rules and such I don't pay much attention to.  I think anything can work....  mostly

Slack tub to the left BTW...   IF it matters?  

20 hours ago, Black Frog said:

It's cake, fully wire brush and oil blacken, then scrub with abrasive cloth of grit and duration to your liking.  

ok.  That gets the black in the depressions.   Then I assume you come back with heat on the bare metal spots and run colors to desired color?   Awesome.  Easy ehh.

On 3/30/2016 at 10:20 PM, Black Frog said:

Playing with flat stock today... Flat stock is quick and easy to crank out openers.  

How do you do the surface finish?  I like it

 

Score!

Don't know much about the brand.    But condition looks awesome for the price.  There are much worse for sale online

Hardy hole looks on the small side.   Before you make a bunch of tools for that you might wanna enlarge it.   Which might be a real pain.   If you stick with this you will eventually want a larger anvil...   probably.   BUt this is a good size for portable as well...  Or use it for a while then sell it.

Score!

A couple thoughts.  

If you have a steel supply yard buy from them.   The box stores will charge you twice as much for 1/4 the volume of steel.  Or something ridiculous along those lines.

I would have at least a water quench handy.   It's good for a quick hand rinse and if the steel gets a little warm to hold by hand you can submerge the hot end in there without making an oily mess and then keep on forging without tongs.  Oil is messy and not needed for a lot of stuff.   For knifes it may be necessary but I am not an expert there.

Get some books or vids from the library.  Watch plenty vids on you tube.   There are links to them around here.

I am not a big guy.   5' 7" and I like my 3.5# hammer for most work.   A lighter hammer seems like too much work,    Heavier seems to heavy... too me.   Let the hammer do the work.  I did a lot of work with a store bought 3# cross pein.  At first it was a little heavy until someone told me to lossen up my grip and stop gritting my teeth.   That was good advice!!!!

Start.

A couple thoughts.  

If you have a steel supply yard buy from them.   The box stores will charge you twice as much for 1/4 the volume of steel.  Or something ridiculous along those lines.

I would have at least a water quench handy.   It's good for a quick hand rinse and if the steel gets a little warm to hold by hand you can submerge the hot end in there without making an oily mess and then keep on forging without tongs.  Oil is messy and not needed for a lot of stuff.   For knifes it may be necessary but I am not an expert there.

Get some books or vids from the library.  Watch plenty vids on you tube.   There are links to them around here.

I am not a big guy.   5' 7" and I like my 3.5# hammer for most work.   A lighter hammer seems like too much work,    Heavier seems to heavy... too me.   Let the hammer do the work.  I did a lot of work with a store bought 3# cross pein.  At first it was a little heavy until someone told me to lossen up my grip and stop gritting my teeth.   That was good advice!!!!

Start.

14 hours ago, gote said:

The fleur de lys always has a collar so I would make one this way - not by cutting. It is so much easier to do one in three pieces tackweld them together and put on the collar.

Google fleur de lys and look at the pictures there is any number of variants to be inspired of.

that is exactly what I did.   As for welding up the hole...   This has long since been given as a wedding gift.   The new owners say it grows on them.  You also have to understand that this is New Orleans Saints country so the Fleur De lys has a different appreciation here than some of the rest of the country!

well. here is how it turned out.  I don't really like the hole I added...

A pic of a "striking" anvil with a portable hole set up would be good.  

Not sure when I'll get back to this.  In refinery turnaround so long days, every day, for a while longer....

9 hours ago, clinton said:

My striking anvil

Clinton.  This anvil looks a little sad and neglected.    Like it needs a good beating?   Wow.   I just realized how politically incorrect someone could take that.  Awesome!   

23 hours ago, Frosty said:

I'd build a stand to hold it on edge at a level where when stood shortest dimension up it's at your comfortable general forging height. The additional 1.75" height when rotated 1/4 turn will be better for fine or finish work. You'll need to take a grinder and sanding disks to shine up the torched edges and do a little radiusing and it'll be an outstanding anvil.

Now you're thinking about rotating it in the stand consider the shapes you can grind in different faces for different jobs. If you're dead set on a hardy hole I'd build a portable hole they have a LOT more utility than the ones in anvils.

If you have the facilities to machine it in a pretty cool bell or is it a whistle would be a dovetail. A dovetail would allow very solid attachment of special bottom tooling a hardy being a super basic one. There have been videos of a knife maker in England I believe who used an anvil with dovetailed tooling.

It wouldn't only have to be bottom tooling like swages but you could make spring dies, guided punches and all kinds of cool tools.

The last thing I'd do is lay it flat and loose that beautiful depth of rebound.

Frosty The Lucky.

machining is pretty much nil other than hand tools or something in a drill press etc.   I have a plasma cutter but not for anything this thick.   MOstly used it to cut plate for various jobs.  

I don't need any more anvils and I have a decent swageblock that I use sometimes.   I am lacking a lot of top tools and ultimately the bottom tools as well other than what I might use on the swage.   Basically I have cultivated a couple friends who "Claim" to be interested in hitting some hot metal and making stuff.   And of course they wanna make axes and bigger stuff!!!     So this is just kind of the first step into the human power hammer forging.   I have done a little bit on my 275# Ridgid anvil but I get a little nervous with that. Plus the height is not optimum on that.

What the heck is a portable hole?   I can probably research that but what comes to mind is the old road runner cartoons with the ACME portable hole....

Tell me more about the "beautiful depth of rebound"?

8 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Yes, my reading comprehension is good enough to recognize that. I curbed my semantic alter ego by NOT pointing out what an anvil is. An anvil is STRUCK. If it isn't struck it is NOT an anvil. "Striking anvil" is a redundant phrase. Should I ask you to explain how you can do any "forging" on an anvil without striking?

Laying a beautiful piece of steel like that on the flat and wasting all that depth of rebound makes a whole lot of sense. Don't you think?

Frosty The Lucky.

I like the beautiful piece of metal comment Frosty.   That is what I thought when I saw it laying in the driveway at my brothers house in Iowa last spring.   I said what are going to do with that?  He said what do YOU wanna do with it?   I said striking anvil.   He said take it.   NOt because he knew what I meant but mostly because I at least had a plan.   I don't think he had any plan.   

So if all anvils are "striking anvils" then I would also guess that all anvils are "forging anvils" so let me clarify.     I wanna build an anvil that various folks can come to my house and use a sledgehammer (10#-12# or so) to swing real hard at without wrecking my stuff.   Realizing that some will be more accurate than others and I don't wanna wreck my 275# anvil that I use for personal striking and forging.

I have acquired a hunk of steel and was planning to make a striking anvil from it.   Short of putting legs on it and a hardy hole are there any other thoughts?  Most striking anvils are longer than they are wide.  Well the ones I have seen are.... I suspect I could cut this and make two small ones but I have no need of that.   Is there an issue with this being nearly square?   I am thinking the added area may be useful for something...     Any dos or don'ts about where to put the 1.0"  hardy?    I am good with any thoughts or ideas whatsoever!

On 3/7/2016 at 5:24 AM, John McPherson said:

Make a small square block of thick steel with a stem to fit in your hardy hole. Grind or chisel in the pattern that you want. You may want several of these in various patterns.

 

Something just wants to make me say that this is a Nice tool!    I am not a leaf guy but this could help make me one!

my hands have not changed.   Other than I tend to get heat scale bits that fall up my hand an inch or so between my thumb and index fingers.   This makes tiny little burn scars.   You always have to decide whether stop working, brush them off or just let them burn out.   Most are small enough to let them burn out, at least for the work I do.   I have a day job so forging is just a hobby. 

On 2/17/2016 at 1:07 PM, Frank Turley said:

About keeping the devil out of your shop. Don't leave your hand hammer on the anvil overnight. Some smiths tap the anvil once or twice before leaving the shop for the day. St. Dunstan grabbed the devil by the nose with red hot tongs. That worked for him, but it might not for everyone.

uh oh... mine lives on the anvil....   always....

I just watched the TJoe video that KRS above suggested.  I hope me typing TJoe is not offensive to TechnicusJoe.   Been a fan of his for some time.  Looks like he's not 16 any more!!   When I first got my first coal forge I had many of the same questions that this post discusses.  I think Tjoe answers many but you need to listen close for many hints.   It's a lengthy video but it also does not skip over all sorts of steps like so many videos do.   I like that he shows how long it can take to heat things up.  Great vid!  Awesome and thank you TechnicusJoe!   

Like I said above.  I did not see much "stirring" going on.

Tjoe is like TRex.   in my mind....    

the french version might not be so flattering tho...

On January 23, 2016 at 1:07 AM, brother terry said:

I really need to know what I'm seeing in my fire when I'm heating steel. How do I Know what"s coke or a clinker? I stir up the fire to get things hot and find what looks like bubblegum. It's white hot and sticky. If I put my steel in it to get it to welding....

Not sure wat u mean to "stir up the fire".   Not sure u wanna stir.  Depends on wat u mean by stir.  

Joel, what is the big challenge you are facing?  Drawing to scale only or does this translate to final product challenges.   I saw your examples but struggled to really understand what was really troubling.   As a thought.  Draw "not to scale" a conceptual design.   Re-draw, play with it, discard, etc.    I started doing some woodworking several years back.   My design process looked kinda like this:

1.  Conceptual Sketch (numerous, varied, restarting over many times).   Often these were vary crude and numerous on a single piece of paper in order to easily look over the various ideas.    Look at other designs.   Google some pics maybe.   Looks for anything similar in concept or function to draw from around you or in daily life.

2.  While doing #1 also list out basic requirements (can't let burglar get hand through opening to pad lock... your example).   As the basic requirements multiplied the concept had to change or iterate.     I like this part.  List all functional or aesthetic (or whatever) requirements you want the final product to deliver. 

3.  Once the concept, not to scale, matched all basic requirements (conceptually), then and only then did the final dimensioned drawings need to be made.  The drawings did not need to be to scale.   But the dimensions had to work.  And with wood, as well as blacksmithing, depending on complexity, joinery and sequencing are a big factor.

As too burglar hands, make a design that doesn't let any hands through.  Make that basic requirement force a creative solution that adds asthetic value as well as the functional basic requirement.

I also have a rule on the wall of my woodshop/smithy.  It has to be able to get out of the door and/or into the door of wherever it needed to go.

Man u could cook burgers in seconds!   I wonder if you only used coke whether it would actually taste good...???   Talk about a quick searing of a steak!  at 2000+F

I like my hand crank blower.   You can get whatever amount of air needed from zero to max.    And it becomes part of the tempo of forging.    I kinda rock back and forth on the crank, it's not just an arm thing.  No wasted fuel when you are hammering or whatever...  

I can forge if the power is off too.    

Ids the pic on the low setting or high setting?