Michael

Great interview Frosty. Your description of the T burner was probably the most clear description of a naturally aspirated propane burner I've ever heard. Made perfect sense. You should transcribe that description verbatim when you blueprint the T burner.

Mr. Roeder, yes, please elaborate on the details of the show, Myself and a whole bunch of amateur smiths, and some of our metalworking adjacent buddies, have been hashing out what happens on Forged in Fire for months now. The show is not really instructional, but compared to a lot of reality TV out there, its pretty good. People with skills, who respect each others work, and compete based on those skills in admittedly contrived circumstances? That's a far cry from a lot of reality shows, where the most dysfunctional personality rises to the top. I get the exciting TV bit, slow mo swords through meat and sand bags (I want an 'it will kill' t shirt), but personally, I'd rather see smiths forging Suffolk latches or hinges, maybe with everyone using the same kit of hammers, tongs and punches.

I found the Reil burner to be a breeze to put together, based on a careful reading of Ron's instructions. There's a couple of different paths thru his documentation that all lead back to the same place. Worked first try, very little adjustment to do and still going strong 2 years later.

Yeah, striking anvil is what I would make.

Those look great! Beautiful freeform work.

I bolted this vise stand together a few years back. Big cast iron sheave, a cafe table base and some plate for a table. Then the table filled up and stuff started dropping off the edges. Lived with it for a long while. Recovering from a bad wrist strain, forgot I wasn't twenty years old, and couldn't forge for a bit. Decided to do something about that table. 36 inches of angle iron, a couple of notches for bending, fired up the propane forge for some bends. A few more bolts and the table has a lip! Should have used inch and a quarter or inch and a half angle instead of one inch. Didn't take the 1/4 plate table into account.

John B, I like your eye and nose punches, have to make some like that. Nice work.

Got a little forge time yesterday after the kid's 11th grade registration. Ongoing hook project: the lovely wife has a collection of cast iron and brass trivets, all different and most requiring custom hooks to hang properly on the wall. Flower theme to go with the sunny yellow kitchen. Upper left is for a cast iron trivet with a tiny hang hole, upper right for a trivet I forged a while back, stands well out from the wall. Lots of requests from dog owners for leash hooks that don't feature a dog's butt (go figure). My first attempt at a Lyle Wynn style bulldog. Copied the pics from the gallery, perused to put in the correct order and then numbered and printed out to make a tutorial I could bring out to the smithy. Fun, have to practice it a bit more to get the nose right and make a little punch to make the nostrils and mouth shape. Looks just like my dog.

Make nails. I start every forging session with a couple-three nails, works your point and taper forging skills. 100+ nails later I can sort of get the heads centered. From there J or Drive hooks, then S hooks (know anyone with hanging plants?) That should get you going until you figure out what "you" want to make. Fireplace pokers are the usual progression from there, unless you are into knives. Whole different slippery slope for the budding knifemakers.

That screwdriver handle is called a Perfect Handle. There were patents back in the day but after a while a lot of manufacturers made them that way. Some of the Old Tool Galoots will redo the handle slabs with exotic scraps of wood. The really rare ones are the Perfect Handle Philips head screwdrivers. Should have bought them new in the 80's when I had the chance. You'll occasionally see hammers, wrenches and hatchets with Pefect handles. One guy I knew, an expert welder, used to make all sorts of Perfect handle tools that were never handled like that originally.

I managed to score several rolls of Kaowool for cheap when a local paint-your-own ceramics place went out of business. 5 rolls of 2 inch thick, 3 foot long for $2 a pop! Not sure what the next gas forge will look like, but I've got the insulation.

Turned in the jig in the vise, much more consistent that way. Once you get the weld the pin acts as a drift to size the barrel correctly. Interesting that the small hinges need the weld to keep them from levering open, but big gate hinges (like yours) can just be rolled and butted and they'll hold.

Lit the gas forge last Saturday afternoon while the wife and daughters were getting their nails done. Made a couple of sturdy hooks for a co workers' beloved cast iron cookware. He needed substantial hangers for what I think are Lodge frypans. Also heat treated a half a dozen spring steel chisels, quenched and tempered in used fryer oil. Sunday being Father's Day, my chores were delegated to the loving family and I got to light the coal forge. Helpful that it was a windy day to carry the smoke away. Started out handling a new wire brush, a little tall but it bears down well. Then practiced some hinge welds, a local chapter of a period furniture group asked me to demo some hardware this Saturday. Made a little jig last week to roll the barrel in the vise, bent a section of 1/4 by 2 inch bar and rounded the square end to match the 1/4 inch pins I'm using. Pins are a bit large for this hinge but it's what was at hand. Cut a stack of hinge blanks (under the jig at right side of the photo), next a bent, unwelded blank. The welds in thin stock are very instructive, its very easy to see the surface get liquidy, the frying bacon look that I've read about, in this 1/16 inch strapping, rusty decorative barrel hoops. The barrels are decorative, not the hoops. Once I get this demo done I need to practice some welding in thicker stock. tried some more dragon head shaping with the new chisels.

Springs for punches, axles for hammers and fullers. Sharpening steels, for carving knives, also make great punches.

Looking forward to seeing how these turn out with the etch.(I have some of Bill's tire wrought, haven't found the right project yet) Jig to get the bends all the same or will you be bending in the vise?

Nobody, you seem to know Monterey quite well, Better than me actually! We were on the beach "across from the paddle boats" or so I directed the guests before heading there myself. I'll check with the bride, but aside from the cake plate my responsibilities mostly consisted of writing checks and not asking too many questions. ;-)

I had no idea about his holiday, where smiths open up their shops to the public, but Bill K (madwing) convinced me to drive down to Russell's shop in Watsonville for the day. Got there early and help Russell scroll the ends of some 10 foot bars for a gate project, and by the time Bill and Dovid arrived, the 100 lb propane tank was plumbed in and the Anyang 88 was warmed up. We got a few members of the public, drawn by Dovid's giant anvil signs planted out on the road, but mostly is was us four. Russell showed off his specialty, stainless mesh layered with copper wire trimmings and bronze, heated with a torch and driven into a die with a power hammer. Bill, with his tendency to start gift projects under tight deadlines, made a copper and steel candle holder. and me, with a dozen feet of 1/2 inch coil spring, cut, straightened and shaped a handful of chisels for shaping hot steel into dragons and trolls. The I got to play with the Anyang and drew out a handle from a piece of 1/4 by 4 inch plate to start a bolster plate. Never have I seen 4 guys working out of both sides of a little freon tank forge so smoothly, no knocking projects around or crowding. 3 anvils, 2 brought by Bill and Dovid, helped. Dovid made nails you could hold railroad track down with before forgetting which end of the bar was which. He spent the second half of the day melting ice in his hammer hand! Great time was had by all, and much thanks to Russell for letting a bunch of yahoos mess with his shop.

Here's the beast, took 3 of us to carry it out, with a 4th guy running blocker for all the crowds looking at their cell phones. Once we got moving there was some INERTIA in our forward progress. a few years ago I got some help carrying a 60lb vise out of that flea market, that was a feather compared to this thing. That's an oversized, Costco style shopping cart by the way.

castellated head nuts are usually held in place with a cotter pin thru a hole in the bolt prevent vibration ratting the whole thing loose. Sounds like a critical component.

I've made some big gate hinges, rolled barrels and lagged pintels, but never little hinges like this. Thin stock, from fake barrel hoops, took a couple tries to get the first bend straight, rolling the barrel was interesting, as the stock would cool quickely. I only checked my Peter Ross notes (saw him demo the jigs once) after I was done, the image on the bottom is the simple jig to roll the barrel. But the welds! They were the lesson learned. I've tried getting thicker stock up to proper heat for welding more times than I can count, and my welding is sort of hit or miss. This time, I set up the fire (windy enough to burn coal yesterday) the way I'd seen another smith set it up, more like an amphitheater than a cave. An open topped depression in the fire and was able to watch the fluxed leaves of the hinge get right up to almost sparkly heat and then weld them. A bit incomplete, but grinding the edge shows mostly no line. Much easier to judge the temp in this thin stock than I would have thought. Need to make more with the jig, and finish my bolster plate so I can punch the holes instead of drilling them.

Yes, we want to see your smithy!

Well drawn! Very clear and concise. Do you have any other step by step drawings you'd like to share? Nice shamrock too, I know a few Irishmen I'll be making these for next March.

Nicely done. Was it designed to fit that specific sized candle? I'm picturing progressively shorter versions to use as a candle that tall burns down

Don't grind it!