Gerald Boggs

11 hours ago, Glenn said:

Sometimes people do not realize that represents 10 (ten) tomahawks in various stages of work. In order to get to tomahawk #10, you have to make #1 tomahawk 10 times, #2 tomahawk 9 times, etc. 

And that's not counting the ones that didn't make the grade :-)

Story board for the Tomahawk workshops at the ABANA Teaching Tent. As always, my target student is someone that has limited tooling, therefor, all steps can be done at the anvil and vice. The three semi-finished Tomahawks are to help give folks ideas on what they might do. I left them mostly in the raw, as that's about what folks will have the time to do in a four hour workshop.

11 hours ago, BeaverNZ said:

When I do it the press often using three pieces of flat bar I call it Joggling, Probably a term of british origin

That's the term I learned from Mark Aspery.   

On 4/10/2018 at 9:44 PM, Frosty said:

The Bounty mutiny was ruled in court to be Bligh's fault  because didn't keep proper discipline. 

Frosty The Lucky.

So let me understand:  An organization with a reputation for brutality, sided with Captain Bligh?

27 minutes ago, jlpservicesinc said:

The mod's keep a tight ship.

Captain Bligh would be proud.

5 hours ago, JustAnotherViking said:

Too many become complicit and expect a one time successful design to survive in a world market by doing the same thing over and over.

Yep, the first year I was on Etsy, I sold over 3000 RR spike bottle openers for $35 each.  When I started, I was the only one selling that flavor, now lots are and they're down to $15 each.  I won't go that low and moved on to making other items.

On 2/9/2018 at 10:07 PM, hans138 said:

I feel that this profession has been around for ages, and how many people have worked in the craft, and how many things have they made? its so old that I feel its very rare for anyone to come up with something that is 100% original. so if you make something you didn't come up w yourself at least give credit to where it is deserved 

The trouble with that, is I would have to put a disclaimer on everything I make. 

I don't take others design ideas, but then I also believe very few ideas I see on the internet are original.  I used to work of a guy, that after twenty years of making architectural ironwork, had a shelf full of binders with photographs of his work.  Less then 1% were ever posted on his web page.  I know a lot of smiths like that, they don't post more then a sample of what they've done.  What we see on the internet, is a very small fraction of the work that has been done.  Form, function, price, experience and the tools on hand will greatly dictate the end result.    And at the end of the day, smiths/artists working independently, will come up with remarkably similar ideas and designs

One thing I see that does mildly irritates me, is the credit I see some on this forum giving to someone for "original idea", for no other reason that this was the first place they saw it.  Facebook and Etsy posters are equally guilty.  I know one guy so upset, because people were "copying his work", he shut down his Etsy page, .  One of the items in question, was his copy (took inspiration from) of a 1000 year old piece at the museum of history in Stockholm.  He never acknowledged that he was copying someone else's work.  In his mind, because he was the first to put it on Etsy, then all others were copying him. 

46 minutes ago, JNewman said:

here in Ontario they have made it mandatory for sole proprietors in construction to have workmans compensation insurance. 

But can you collect workmans comp?, here in the states (at least Virginia) one can't as a sole proprietor.

Go to almost any steel suppler and they'll list best uses for each steel.

35 minutes ago, Harry Marinakis said:

The steel I have lying around my shop include 4140, O1, W1, A36, A2, rebar, and some truck coil springs, leaf springs, and axles. I can also get jack hammer bit

What do you do, that you got all the steel laying around?

On 4/1/2018 at 11:16 AM, MDDstudios said:

Do I need a license to sell at a craft show?

You don't to sell at craft shows, not at least at any of the states I've sold in, but you do need to file sales tax.  Ask your city or county office if you need a license, most will require it, but a few won't.  Mine's $35 a year.

Wow, you're in LA and running a unlicensed business.  Good luck, but don't cry when you go down.   

Not what you thought you would get with your question, but you are so far out on a limb with what you're doing.

You need a license, tax number, site approval (which you won't get for a blacksmith shop) and that's if you just stay solo.

Thanks

Been getting ready for the Teaching Tent at this year's conference.  I've settled on the flavor of tomahawk for the workshop.  I started with 10 inches of 1 1/4 by 1/4 and used a bit of high carbon for the performance edge.  Next step is time with the belt sander.  Once I have the story board made, I'll post photos of that.  For teaching I find I like (if practical) to have both a story board and step by step samples for folks to look and handle.  Nothing answers a question, like being able to pick up and look at the next step :-)

My normal time split is 50/50.  It actually works out pretty well.  I forge for a while and than take a long coffee break and do some of the non-forge work, then back into the forge for another round.

3 hours ago, JustAnotherViking said:

Sounds like your neighbour is just one of those people who will make a fuss and cause tension no matter what. If you've tried being polite with them, just ignore it and let them make their complaint.

We don't actually know that, we haven't even established how close to the neighbor the forge is.  And while he may think he's being quiet, to a person trying to read, watch the telly or just relax after work, the noise might make that impossible to do.  As for the smoke, just the fumes of burning coal can be an unpleasant odor.  A person eating supper (Tea) might find smelling coal fumes a less then pleasant experience.  Add to that, some people are physically unable to tolerate the fumes of burning coal.   So while the OP might be doing everything he can to be a good neighbor while still having a go at blacksmithing, his living space might make that impossible.

A question to be asked of the OP: How close to your neighbor is your anvil? As I recall, most British yards are quite narrow. If your yard is like the one's I remember, it would be difficult to be even 10 feet from the neighbor's windows.

On 3/1/2018 at 1:59 AM, swedefiddle said:

Why do Farriers forge the extra bump into their reins, near the hinge. Visual beauty? It doesn't make the reins stronger, it creates a weak area next to the rivet. I can't see why so many people would play "Follow the Leader". Just askin', not wanting a fight.

Neil

A well known farrier and tool maker starting doing that to give his tongs a unique and custom look.  His tongs didn't look like any other tongs and they looked cool,  instant market success.  Folks have been copying them since.

A lot of different methods work.  However, hours with the fire burning is a factor and how hot is that fire.   How many hours a month are you running the fire for forge welding?   

I use the British forge design with a water cooled tuyere, for no other reason then that is what I was taught.  I'm ten years on this tuyere and it's still going well. 

2 hours ago, the iron dwarf said:

You may end up paying a tariff both ways because if you add a tariff to goods from here we can do the same to yours, like recently an aircraft maker in the UK had a 300% tariff on sales in the us imposed, such things can work both ways or even mean places dont buy your goods

protectionism of one area can affect others that are unrelated

True, but since we have shipped most of our production overseas, how much do we really have left to ship? 

1 hour ago, Rashelle said:

I had made some beautiful S-7 chisels and punches, etc. once upon a time, then later realized they were harder than my poor hammers I made. Think I gave them away.

I have that problem with the S-2.  At some point, my heavy forging hammer is going to become my light forging hammer from the redressing :-)

Price, ease of working, ease of heat treating and will it do the job. These are all factors in how I decide which steel to use.

I have and still use 4140 as my primary punch and chisel material.

I use mild steel for all my tongs, light hammers, and top and bottom tooling. When I think it necessary, I case harden. (When I heard Kasinite was going out of business, I bought a case)

If I was making daily use forging hammers, I would use 4140 for no other reason, that I know smiths that use it for hammer making and I have it on hand.  I try to keep my life simple.

For cold work, I use W-1

Why 4140? For the reasons stated at the beginning, but price is a big reason. Currently I pay $17 per 12' length of 3/4”.  It's hard to find known steel at better prices.  I have started to use S-2 for my high use punches.  It was used as jackhammer bits and I acquired 50 bits.  Great stuff and a bonus, it's water quench.  4140, while normally a oil quench, will tolerate a water quench, so my heat treatments are similar.  W-1 for same reasons.

If you've met Mark Aspery or read his books, you might notice a similarity, it's not an coincidence. I learned most of my tool making/use knowledge from Mark.

Three of the six students were novice blacksmiths.   It took them longer and several tries, but at the end of the day, all were successful, Adrian is a very good teacher.   I personally have taught over a 100 beginners to weld and always teach welding without flux first.  I've had one and only one student not get the weld and that student tried once and quit.

And yet, there's the welded ball and twisted basket sans flux.  And done with very poor coal.

8 hours ago, bajajoaquin said:

I came across a video channel by Rowan Taylor lately, and he mentions that, with proper fire management, you really don't need flux at all for forge welding mild steel or wrought iron.

I have no idea who Rowan Taylor is, but British smiths have been forge welding (Fire welding) without flux for, well since the beginning, to them, it's not a big deal.  It was an Englishman I first worked for and learn welding from, and as such, all our welds where fluxless.  This summer, I took a workshop with Adrian Legge LWCB,FWCB, Dip.WCF and he had us do all our welds sans flux.  Here's the project we did.  For myself, most of the time, I have students do their first welds without flux, so they understand that flux is, as Judson posted, an aide, not a requirement.  Having said that, other then maintaining the skill, and as most of my work is production, I use flux for most of my welds.  My current best is 150 weld in a row successfully, which was during a railing job some years ago.