JRigoni

I spent some time in Hofi's shop as well.  I'll dig thru my photos.

I still need to build a light box, but the green man is finally finished. Inspiration came from french ironwork of the 17th century. Iron and walnut. 100+ hours of work.

Thanks, yes I have the book.  The photos aren't great but it's a treasure trove of goodies.  Far more items in the book than the museum, but it doesn't show some of the bigger projects there.  I have a ton of photos from the collection, I should post it online somewhere.

Ring is attached, and the file work has begun.

Test fit of border.

Now for the ring.  I wanted a clean sphere on the end, so the initial work is on the lathe, turning the ball.  I built a sphere cutting tool earlier and used it for this purpose.  the arms are forged square, then octagonal.  I ended up reducing the thickness of this later.

Leaves are drawn and hammered in.

Pushing out, a face emerges..

Repousse is awesome, but very slow. 

The face begins.  Three raising cycles gives enough height for the face.

Any smith worth his salt needs to see the collection of ironwork in Rouen, France. The ironwork here at Musee Secq des Tournelles is held in an abandoned church and holds the finest collection of ironwork in the world.  After seeing the collection years ago, I was inspired to make this door knocker.  The backing plate and outer ring is lathe turned to look like wood moulding.  the face is made from 18 gauge sheet metal, using repousse.  I chose a popular image, the green man.  He has acanthus leaves and an acorn stuck in his beard.  The inner ring is forged and lathe turned.  Alfred Habermann made a door knocker for his journeyman status, so this is mine.

Thank you, I am using a No.5 fly press from Old World Anvils.  It is 5 tons at full strength.  If I had a little more cash at the time I would have gone with a 6 ton, but it works just fine.  It is no replacement for the power hammer, but it does what the hammer can't, and that is precision, one movement actions. 

Thanks, no the original was a good deal taller and had more of a taper along the top.  I shortened it and made the uprights parallel to the candle.  If it ever becomes unstable, the candle can be replaced.  The overall look is very similar to the original. 

Oh and no cover ups, just clean forging

This forum is the worst for picture organization.  I can't seem to list anything in the order they were taken.

I saw this candle holder in Denmark during my travels and had to try my hand at it.  The candle is 2"x17" and the top swivels to allow for changing out new candles.

I second Glenn.  You spent 4 years building it.  You should at least work under it and produce enough ironwork to pay for the build. 

I've been commissioned to make a pick head axe for a co-worker at the fire station.  I've looked at several pick head axes here and find them a little large in regards to the axe eye, almost 1" wide, and 2 1/2" in length.  My concern is since I will be using wood instead of fiberglass, the handle would become too wide/unwieldy at the top.  The shape on these is a stretched oval.  Has anyone tried a D shape or some other variety for a large felling axe?  I've forged drifts for hammers and smaller hatchets, but nothing this large yet.  He wants his axe a pound lighter than the ones here, so that would put it at 6lbs.  I am forging the axe from a solid piece of 4140.

I might make a youtube video of the process.  There are two bars that hold it down so the punch doesn't stick.  I cool the tool in oil.  I machined it from 4140 and there is no wear/warp so far.  I use a swage block and anvil to drift open.  The taper and ball depression are under the power hammer.

I'm not sure.  These took several weeks to build tooling and figure out the steps.  I bought more stock to see what i could produce in a day.

thanks everybody! I finished the rest today.  Overall I'm pretty happy how they turned out.

The tapering swage worked for these six, then failed.  Hopefully tomorrow I can have a better design for it to attach to the lower die.

Thanks everybody, the punch I machined from a piece of 4140.  The swage block I designed, had the forms waterjet cut and built the stand.  I thought about removing the corners, but forging them in saves on material and time.  I made the punch undersized so that after breaking down the corners it came out the right diameter.  I'm having issues with the spring swage build so I might forge the rest of the tapers to size.