Whirly

G'day, I've always had a blade handy, close by or more often carried. It's a tool I can't seem to go without. For a lot of years now it's been in the form of a 'Leatherman' tool (best things since sliced bread) and is constantly used. My office (when I'm not stuck in the one with the computer in it) is the bush, so we're always needing to cut something. I carried a belt-knife as a kid and made my first one out of a ground down file. That came up pretty good, so had a go at a piece of power saw blade the old man found for me. I copied his Russell belt-knife and ground out the shape and then thinned the blade on a belt sander, before getting the marks out with wet-and-dry. Finished it with buffalo horn handles with brass pins, then made a form fit leather pouch for it. That was a pretty little unit and had it for a lot of years. Don't really know where it went, probably parted company during one of our moves Well, anyway, it wasn't forged and neither is the carving knife I made for my second eldest as a present. The fork and spoon are though, made from coil spring steel. The knife was cut from a bandsaw blade, a big one. The cut was across, not along the bandsaw blade. I got a couple of 4' pieces during a visit to southern WA, where the mill is. Which brings us to the dreaded RR spikes. My first go at blade forging is this one Then I read on here, how crap RR spike steel is for blades, and only good for letter openers, so I made some letter openers for my two youngest daughters and then the two older ones wanted one as well, so knocked up one each for them and one to send to an Uncle I know a lot of folk on here are sick of spikes, but I find something nice about creating a functional thing from an old spike

Yabby (Freshwater Crayfish) Again like the ‘Male Box’ this is fabricated and not forged, but I was pretty happy how it turned out. This I made for my eldest daughter, as an under-water theme lamp. The hollow log has a light in the bottom, shining up and the light reflects down from the ‘Lilly pads’. The Lilly pads and the Yabby are made from thin sheet metal, cut from an old sign and oxy welded together.

Thanks for the replies Fellas, appreciated. Mitch, thats why it's painted red (apart from the traditional red of mail boxes). I figured if it was grey or black, new pilots may abort their approach (SOP for bush airfields if animals are on or near the 'strip) Wolf, maybe I should use a brown mail bag and just drop it under his tail?? Niel, I agree about Normal. Mate, when I was a little tacker I lived, for a couple of years, just up the road from you at Chemainus and a couple of years before that, at Prince George. Always wanted to go back for a visit..... Thomas, may startle the tourists with the 'pillow, more than the pilot. Have had a few 'deliveries', (forwarded on a couple of post cards to Oma in Dusseldorf we found inside) Dave, it's near the wind-sock, so should be pretty safe Andrew, It's been there over a year now (doesn't look quite so shiny as in the photo) and no holes! I'm constantly amazed. It's been photographed a hellofa lot of times though. Mate I must say that your creations leave me gob-smacked. I am in awe of what you can do with scrap iron. You M'man truly are an artist!!

My coal rake/spoon/thingy was a sad affair, made from a bit of scrap thin strip, hammered into a rod, with a point at one end and a bend at the other. Ugly to look at, but totally functional, except it was too xxxx short and my fingers would more often than not get singed when piling up the coals. So, I took some 10mm square bar, a bit of 10mm round and some thin reo bar and decided to make another and practice making some twists at the same time. From the hook down; -A basket twist of nine rods (thin reo wrapped and welded around 10mm round) -below the basket is just a join between the round and square stock. I split the end of the square and tapered out each split piece and then formed a ‘T’ and welded the round, forming a + before wrapping the tapers around the join -under the join I had a go at a Pineapple or Diamond twist and; -beneath that is a reverse twist. -then I put in an un-even twist (hotter at one end than the other), -before doing a braid twist (out of reo bar and then welded in line) -and finally, above the spoon end, another Pineapple twist, but without cutting the lines into the stock. It’s a bit long, but was fun to do and I was really chuffed at how my first try at a basket twist turned out.

Our Mail Box (not forged, I know but it is metal and a sculpture of sorts) As mentioned in my intro, I live remote, and our mail arrives by aircraft, once a week and if we aren’t there to pick up incoming, or deliver outgoing mail, there needs to be a place to leave it. In the past, the mail box was a cut in half 44 gal drum (55 gal for you Yanks and 200 Litres for the young metric folk. I’m an in-betweener, they started teaching me imperial and then switched to metric), with the top fitting over the bottom half, painted white and ‘Mail’ written on the side. Pretty xxxx basic. I’d look at it and say to myself “Need to change that one of these days”, anyhow one of my blokes drove over it one day and forced the issue. So this is what I came up with...He’s built around a 44 gal drum on its side and to access the mail bag you lift his tail.....I was going to write ‘Male’ on the side instead of ‘Mail’.....(this is also a test run to see how posting pics goes)

Ratel, thanks for the good advice on hammer use, I post some pick as soon as I get a reply from Phil on stickin' photos to messages...

Drewy, thanks Mate. As mentioned, I'm a long way from anywhere, and the chance of me being able to attend a get-together are diddly squat. Not to say it'll always be that way and I hope to be able, in the future, to meet up with others of a like mind and sit in on some show and tell skill sessions

G'day to the rest of you Aussie metal belters, I'm in the Gulf country of the Northern Territory. Live in a pretty remote location called Nathan River and enjoy making stuff out of metal, wood, vines, rock, but mostly metal. Cheers, Whirly

Thanks for the welcome Fellas, good to be here. Woody, Cheers Mate, just as soon as I work out how to get the photos from Photobucket to show up in threads, I'll have a few bits to show you.. Sam, you're right, it's an awesome site and I've already learnt a heap, and that's before asking questions...Ya gotta luvit... Thanks Frosty, it's the experience of people who've been belting metal for awhile and are prepared to share their knowledge that make sites like this great...and if I can't find an answer somewhere, believe me, I'll be asking...

G’day All, I have been lurking and learning for a while now. This site is truly amazing! The amount of information, knowledge, skill and artistic ability shared on this forum just boggles the mind. There’re so many clever buggers out there....Great! I live and work in a remote place in the Northern Territory of Australia. The nearest town is 500 Km (310 Miles) away and the nearest city, Darwin is a bit over 800 Km (500 miles) by road. I’m not a trades-man (and I don’t pretend to be a, or use the name of, ‘Blacksmith’) but I’ve been building things and practicing skills for most of my working life. I’ve taught myself (through trial-and-error, books, and asking advice) to Oxy, Arc and Mig weld, which is a help when living remote. I like metal working. I have wanted to try ‘Smithing’ for some time and have tried doing a few bits and pieces in the past, with varying levels of success. I used Oxy to heat, but that’s slow and expensive for bigger material. I built myself a forge and bought a bag of coal and had a go, but wasn’t very happy with the results (wasn’t getting enough air) Of late, things have picked up. I’m now making my own charcoal and getting good results. We have a tree that is common in the NT and across the top of Aus, the “Ironwood” It’s well named, as it is up there with the hardest and heaviest of woods. It also makes great charcoal, with little ash. (Just go out and get some fallen dead stuff and cut to size with a chainsaw [chain will last about one tree before needing sharpening- it’s hard stuff!]) Melting iron in my (latest) forge is no problem....Well, actually that is a problem...I have to keep a close eye on the metal when I work it thin, or it’ll become a sparkling blob real quick. Anyhow, I’ll post some of my stuff in the appropriate locations and keep reading and learning and getting great ideas... Whirly PS. Apologies in advance to Randy, Clinton, macbruce, etc....there will be RR Spikes, however at this stage, no horse-shoes.....