Silverker

Phil- I guess I might have overheated the metal. I tried the file test, and it takes metal pretty easily. It isn't completely sharpened, just rough edged. I'll try a complete heat treat and temper. Thank y'all for your help. I just hope I build my skills enough to help others in the way that I'm being helped.

Forgive my newness to this. I used stock removal method on an edger blade for a quick project. I didn't anneal or normalize, just took the grinder to it. Would I need to re-harden this stock, or could I just go direct to tempering? Thank you in advance for your input.

I would like to know which one y'all think is better when fullering just one side, top or bottom? I'm not sure if it is just a matter of personal preference, or if there is actually a "rule" to go by. I'm sure that there are arguments for both, I would like to hear them. Thank you in advance for your input.

Thanks Grant. I was planing on a piece that fit the pritchel so it wouldn't roll.

Evfreek- The radii is probably less than it should be. My anvil is a second hand one that looked like it had seen better days, but the price was right for me. I'll try to make a fuller and try that. Don't tread on me- I have a bunch of spikes that my kids had collected along the tracks they recently updated, they had alot of fun "helping dad". The problem is I don't have any tongs to hold them to be able to heat. I'm just starting out with 2 forges, a blower, an anvil, and 5 hammers. Thank you all for your help and knowledge. I'll post my progress.

I tried making my first tongs, and miserably failed!! I'm getting stress cracks where the jaws turn to the rivet location. What might be causing this? Too cold? Too many heats? I've tried 3 different times with 2 different stocks and the same thing. Any help is greatly appreciated. As requested here is a pic of my 3 attempts.

Well second attempt tonight. Learned quite a bit, too. For starters, I thought about what Frosty said about not all things having to be useful, and decided to have a try at a leaf. They're not as easy as some might think!! Any input on doing these for a beginner would be greatly appreciated. While doing the leaves, I learned bigger is not always better and the difference between a 2#er and 3#er. I also learned that doing compound angles on round stock isn't that easy (for me at least). I found out why blacksmiths were given fingerprints, so they have something to burn off. I also learned that different types of forges each have advantages and disadvantages (I'm lucky enough to have 2 different ones: an oval one about 1.5' x 3' and a deep fire pit and a rivet forge). Also, if I rebuild the oval forge, I'll make a shallower fire pit. Thank you for all of your inspiring compliments and helpful comments. Here is the work from tonight, please feel free to give me pointers. The first one is a stock support and flux spoon (made me want a swage block..lol)The second is the 2 leaves I tried the smaller one being the first. Notice the small crack in the first one, what could be the reason for this?

Yea I have a blister to show to..lol, but figured that is just an "occupational" hazard. Fire popped and a piece landed between my hand and the stock. Didn't take long to let go, just long enough to slide the work over so it wouldn't go flying out.

Karn3- I'm kinda of in the same boat, but different reasons. Here we have a problem with burn bans (one just lifted after about 45 days) which means I can't always fire the old coal forge up. So I was thinking about a gas one as well, because we can use propane during the bans. Like you, I have also found enough information that I get kinda of confused on which way to go. Thanks for a post that will help me and probably others.

Thanks for everyone's input. Roger, I think that we're on the same page on what I was wanting to do. I'm with Frosty though, I would like to know more on how you did yours Bill.

Now that they lifted the burn ban, I was able to fire up the forge for the very first time. I didn't have a whole lot of time so I kinda of went for something I felt would be useful but quick. The holdfast was a piece of round stock I had, and the poker was a piece of square stock that had previously been hammered on the end. Here are a couple of pics.

Anyone have any ideas on doing scroll work using hollow tube? I was wanting to do a lamp holder routing the cord inside the scroll. Thank you in advance for your input.

Yea well with this **** burn ban, all I can do is think and wish. lol When your not sure what the "bout right" looks like you kinda of need something to go off of. I was just using tongs as an example because that was the first most common thing that came to mind.

Good point on the types, I was going to mainly deal with the dome to begin with. As far as the other, this more or less gives someone (like me) that place to start from to build their skill level. I would hate to make a set of tongs just to find out that my rivet wouldn't hold up then find out after many tries that I was making it way to small for it's purpose. Thank you for your input.