Michael

thanks, I think I'll practice with some pipe first to get the skills down.

Yeah, what I do is forge the petal section so that the end is wider than the beginning. That makes the outside petals longer. Then, after rolling, I just hold the end of the flower with my pipe tongs and it's pretty easy to neck the bottom of the flower.

Hey, after 10 roses I just figured this one out. Making the outer petals wider than the inner ones. I've been doing a faggot weld on the end of my rose rod to give me that width. How do you get that nice rounded shape at the bottom of the outer petals?

Hey Thomas can you give us a BP on that Dragon Business card holder?
Michael-Frightening the neighbors since the year four.

Covered patio, next to my woodworking shop in the yard. About 20 feet behind the house. There's a power outlet for the blower, covered on 3 sides but the 40 yr old corregated metal is rusted and leaks. 8 inch flue pipe running up thru the roofing. Burning charcoal.

Half the time I'm at the scrap yard in the VW Bug, so I bend the 10 and 20' stock (1/4 inch square and round, maybe up to 3/8ths) so it'll fit in the back, if I'm shopping for thicker half inch stuff and its long, I bring the handled cold cut and a sledge and snap it off at about 4 feet, it leans in the corner behind the forge, the bent stuff gets hung by nails from the patio cover framing near the forge. Mostly I work with 1/2 inch and under.

the one I made was 3/8 plate on the bottom and 1 inch angle iron to hold the dies. Should have used thicker angle, reinforced the small stuff with bar stock mig welded in place.

Still trying to figure the best shape for the dies. I used a spring fuller most of the time, was thinking of making round and square dies to use in the guilotine. what shapes get used the most in the work of others?

Been looking on Craigslist trying to find a cheap enough arc welder to help the smithing thing along a bit. Just found one on wednesday night, a Miller Thunderbolt 225V, looks to be about 1974 or 75 vintage. Came with 20 foot cables, rolling stand and a helmet, $50 for the whole thing. Now I just need to get 220 out to the patio, or figure out how to get away with welding in the kitchen close to the outlet for the electric stove.

Finished an Art Welding class last year and stick welding really spoke to me. As soon as its up and running I have visions of a forge table I can weld my brake drum forge into and a nice big stand for the post vise. I'm sure some more welding project will come to mind.

Michael-frightening the neighbors since the year four.

I'm talking about what I think are farriers hoof nippers. I see them with smithing tools all the time. I've used them to lever nails out of boards, half the ebay auctions for tongs are nippers. I even bought a cheap pair at the flea a couple of weeks ago. The price was right and the handles had a nice springy feel to them. My hope, despite looking suspiciously cast, is the heat and bend the jaws for holding RR spikes.

"get to the question" (screams voice in head) Is there a blacksmithing use for these things that I've been missing? I could maybe see cutting off thin stock, nothing over 3/8ths and orange hot at that. Or are they strictly a farriers tool that gets lumped in with other blacksmith stuff?

Thanks

Michael, glad to have IFI back

thanks, the results of waiting two years before attempting to make tongs, it only took me a year and a half to attempt my first drive hook.

Last weekend I got some unexpected forging time and made my first set of tongs, small bolt tongs to hold the quarter inch round and square I've been using for hooks, roses and leaves. My arm gave out before I could get the reins properly drawn out or fit the rivet just right, but they came out better than I expected. Also did the spring fuller in mile steel, next one in thicker material I think.

Michael

The painting is by Paul Detlefsen, a google image search on him will turn up a few of his paintings. One of them hung in my grandparents living room for years. Lots of reproductions out there. Ebay always has a few. These were mass produced in the 40's and 50's I think. I've got a smaller one on a souvenier block of wood and a larger version on canvas, in need of a frame.

I've put cement board behind the forge on the wooden wall, could use a bigger hearth than the brake drum forge provides, and need to anchor leg on the post vise, but it works. Currently trying to finish a bellows so I can move to the side of the patio that Doesn't leak when it rains.

Reveling in that infrequent joy, a day where my office closes but school is still open, I did a little forging over the holiday weekend.

These heart hooks have been on my project list for a while, but I had to get my forge welding technique down before I could make them work. The welds are serviceable, but far from perfect.

Got out to the smithy (patio) after a leisurely breakfast, lit the charcoal in the BBQ chimney about 10:40 and I had a forge fire up and running by 11 AM. Did the welds, then pointed the other ends and turned them around 180 degrees to make the hearts. At that point, it was time to get ready for the GIT's 2nd grade holiday party. Got cleaned up (they don't often see Dads at these things, much less smoky dirty Dads), celebrated with the GIT and got back home by 2:30. Then firing up the gas forge, (large pipe, insulation and a MAPP gas torch) which takes all of 3 minutes to get up to heat, and finished hot cutting, scrolling and bending the hooks. Just what I wanted the gas forge for, to get to work quickly, though it doesn't get as hot as the charcoal forge, and is limited in the size of the work you can do.

Then on Xmas day, with an hour to kill I made the hook in the middle, also in the gas forge, Got to try out the new twisting wrench, an old Coe's (my first old tool) with a handle welded onto the end, nice even twists with that.

Best,

Michael-Richmond CA

I took a class at the local adult school, Art Welding. 9-noon on saturday's for 8 weeks. Lots of discussion about mobiles, yard art and negative space. and while I did stickweld together some scrap that kind of looks like a frog, what I really made was tools for smithing. A mini forge, guillotine fuller, bending fork and twisting wrench. Instructor was happy to see what I can turn out in the forge and had no problem with me making tools for that purpose. Got to try Stick (my favorite) TIG, MIG, Flux core and OA welding, also had some fun with the OA cutting rig. Great fun, and the teacher gonna email me when the plasma cutter is set up.

Michael, SF Bay Area

iForge Step-by-step Blacksmith Projects Demo #166, but moved up to the third on the list is the information about Jim PawPaw Wilson with commenatary.

When I burned all the zinc off the plumbing fixtures to build my forge, I half filled the BBQ chimney with the Kingsford Briquets, put the pipe fittings in, filled up the rest of the chimney with the briquets, then stood the chimney in a far corner of the yard on a windy day and lit it. took about half an hour and I kept my eye on it from a distance. I live in a windy stretch off the SF Bay so it wasn't a problem, let everything cool down for a couple of hours and hose off the white oxide and I was done.

First Photo is the little gas forge I've been building in welding class. I had such fun with the little firebrick forge (2nd Photo), I wanted something a little bigger, but with the MAPP torch functionality. 6 inch ID pipe, stick welded to 1/8 inch plate in the back (sloppy, but functional). Then cut off the angle iron with a gas hatchet (love that term) and while the OA torch was lit, punched the hole for the MAPP gas head to go in, enlarged with a drill bit in the post drill. the angle iron front foot was MIG welded on, and I hope the placement will hold some firebrick forge doors in place. Now I'm just waiting on the Kaowool to come to line the thing and light it up. Hope is to be able to light the forge after work and get some smithing done before it gets too late to hammer in my residential neighborhood. I'm figuring with one inch insulation I'll have a 4 inch wide chamber, about 10 inches deep. too small for making holdfasts, but fine for hooks and forks and pinch dogs. Still have the brake drum forge for bigger stuff, but it takes a good half hour to get it up lit and up to heat and another half hour to shut er down.

Michael-frightening the neighbors since the year Four.

my working "anvil" from Thanksgiving '04 thru this past August was a 75 lb chunk of I beam from the scrap yard. I ground a notch in one wing for bending, drilled a half inch hole in the other wing (each about an inch thick) for punching, and c-clamped a heavy jackhammer bit to the web to act as a horn, and did most of my early work on that.
No rebound to speak of and you had to keep the hammer blows over the central web to keep the ring down, but it got me started and didn't discourage enough to make me quit.
replaced with a 104 lb PW, but I'm sure I'll find some use for that much steel.

Michael

I now have a 104 pound Peter Wright that I picked up a few weeks ago. Local Ebay auction so no shipping charge. What a difference the bounceback makes after using an section of I beam.

I've always known them to be called Holdfasts. Roy Underhill of the woodwright's shop uses them. The cast versions from tool stores are junk. A holdfast was my first blacksmithing project and I've done a few more with newbie smithing friends, mostly hand tool using neaderthals, a group in which I proudly include myself.

http://www.wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/details.php?image_id=2525

Crude but effective.

IIRC there's a smith in Alaska, Koontz I think, who makes a set, a small and large, with the brass brushed leaf end on it, for $80 or $90 for the set.

Michael

I still don't have a real anvil, but I use a 75 lb piece of I Beam, a good inch think in the web, a little loud if you are out on the wings, so I try and keep the hammering over the center part. 10 lbs of jack hammer bit C clamped to the side as a horn of sorts, another 30 lb block of steel, 3x3x12 inches rests on one of the lower wings.

I keep looking for a real anvil but no luck just yet.

Michael

When I did mine, I improvised a piece of chain and a sash weight, lay the chain across the anvil, anchored on one side and the sash weight hanging down the other, with the gnome under the chain. Holds it well enough for eye punching and mustache cutting.



Michael-Scaring the neighbors since 2004

Currently I've been doing these little roses.




need to make a die to do the veins in one shot, rather than with a chisel.

Wife and daughter love them, and want me to do a while screen door full.

Michael

I use charcoal, neighbors within 30 feet on every side of the house, I can pass it off as a high powered grill. There's a neighbor who heats with wood and I can "hide" my smoke making under cover of his fireplace keeps the firemarshall off my back. I like coal, but restrict the use to the wintertime, when the wind is blowing off the bay and the neighbors windows are closed.

Michael-San Francisco

Here's mine, a 75 lb chunk of I beam from the scrap yard. Rings a lot when you hit out on the wings, but very solid over the center web. Have to figure out a better horn though. That Jackhammer bit c-clamped to the side doesn't work that well






Michael-Scaring the neighbors since Thanksgiving 2004