anvil

I meant to add to the above, there is a wonderful example of forging a rectangular tenon in one of the cosira books. I believe the series is free to download on line. google is your friend.

sgreed, 1-1/2 the thickness is the rule of thumb for a structural rivit head. however for a custom shape, a test piece will answer your question

an anvils helper of any sort and a weight and hook to hold the hot iron in place. between the legs is an all purpose helper. its always there and rarely in the way. :)

John, great couple of posts. my only addition to forge welding a nut to a tenon would be to hacksaw thru one side of the nut thus the best of both worlds. I would without a doubt forgeweld a nut or wrap a collar to make this detail.

Alfred Haberman made one at the Ripley ABANA conference. I believe he started with 1/2" x1-1/2" stock. he made it about 4' Tall so he could use it standing up. :) Oh yea, he also drmonstrated how to use it, then, sampled "the wares".

I have made these before, with an added dimension. I did forget a few details. rogue runner reminded me. so here's a bit more. divide the stock, when flat, into quarters. center punch or light scribe. these are points of reference. add to tools a set of bending forks for 1-1/2". angle finder. angles are 22.5,45,67.5,90 edge bend 1st quarter using larger forks and fit to pattern, then twist. use angle finder to check for 22.5 at first reference point. the rest follows same procedure as my first post and should fall into place and shouldn't need any more edge bend. its been a while so w/o doing this to refresh my procedure, this should get it done.

a note to the above, when turning the scroll/circle, the twist is so gentle that those forks ought to work. when scrolling- there is another force added- a twist so as to maintain the constant twist in the stock. pretty cool have fun!

lets see if I understand your concept: 1: 5/16" x 1-1/2" x~ 56.5" . no crossectional changes. 2: even 90` full length twist. 3: turn to fit 18" id circle. question: where the ends meet, where does the vertical (1-1/2) meet the horizontal? inside or outside. 1: cut to length and perhaps do a cool transitional champher. 2: tools- forge, anvil, post vice, twisting wrench, scrolling forks, helper stands as needed,torch, ladle for water. take a nice 8" -12" comfortable yellow heat. clamp in post vice and twist w/ wrench. use torch to add heat where needed or use water to cool where needed. the purpose is to maintain a descending even heat whilst twisting where needed to achieve long even twist. 2od heat overlaps first for a comfortable working heat. repeat the above. the better your eye, the quicker and cleaner this will take and look :) 3: for my question above i'd u§e the same tools, but different setup. draw in chalk an 18" dia circle on your table. make a 6" or so pattern w/ handle to match a section of your chalk drawing out of 1/4" square helper stands as needed put 5/16" scroll fork in post vice and 5/16" scroll wrench in the approate hand turn scroll hot or cold, as your pleasure demands. match to pattern. overlap sections if done hot. check and double check against drawing on table. tweak as needed 'til done. duplicate 500 times. ;) all ya gots to do is heat it and beat it.

also use a rounding hammer when doing this weld. this will start your final curve at the vee whilst doing the weld. if not it is real hard, if not impossible, in many situations, to get the scrolling done at the vee w/o getting a flatspot. You just can't get your scrolling forks in there. transitions are always the most interesting details, and the hardest to pull off. for me when I figured this out my "branch" welds became more flowing with way less time involved.

of course the essential controller would be a mini hammer and anvil with a usb3 connector on the back of both with plug and play abilities for Win 8.1 pro. poof its done. 'course you mac guys are SOL 'cause win beats mac hands down for gaming. if you go graphics and use photoshop, then all bets are off. enjoy

something tells me that the relative difference in mass of a 125# noname and a 1000# anything else both securly attached to the earth, is a huge amount of decimal places to the right. the proper weight for your normal work is the one you are most comfortable with. the primary modifiers are experience and age. when your fav hammer quits moving what you are striking, follow that sage advice from that wise ole blacksmith: "get a bigger hammer" the above follows the KISS principal as close as possible. the above does not apply to power hammers, as do most of the references in this thread

your physics model is what will make or break your sim. mass of hammer;velocity of hammer;mass of iron;shape of iron [sq/round/rectangular]; length of heat [distance as well as time]; feedback to controller will differ as all the above change. for simplicity, you could just use a square hammer face which strikes vertically down. then add the angle of deflection of the hammer face relative to the plane of the anvil face.as it strikes the hot iron. these angles are infinite, but you could choose x# of angles as a sorta constant. the face of the anvil would be your primary reference plane. and this would be the basics. and we have not even began with the air mass/voluum wrt coal. the properties of coal as affected by the above are avalable, perhaps, from the engineer staff at a coal mine. another advisor for the team once you come up with a model of the above, adding tools should not be too difficult. I think when iron is at a particular temp, it has a certain plasticity. you must know this so you can figure out where the hot iron moves to. so add a metals engineer to your team. good luck

here's a quote from Mark, has this changed? " Hello to all, The ABANA national Curriculum is an education based (not qualification or assessment based) program. It is 9 levels, starting at the beginning and finishing (at least for now) at the grille project." '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

quenchcrack & Ed T give the correct answer.

lol sorry about that. Ivan, primary functionsapplied to iron are pretty limited, and not all you need to know. actually, forge welding at its simplist is simply drawing out at a higher temp than usual.

arftist, I pretty much agree with you but believe we are a bit more complex than your 4 operations. I add two more that must be mastered. punching holes and splitting. altho, I may get a huge argument here as punching could technically be considered a type of split. :) so I will concéd the point now. dang, gotta go. spilt my coffee again. ;) happy new year one and all name typo corrected here also

oops, guys. you should reread tho original post. he didn't ask whether or how to catagorize your skill level or ckmparison with others. the question was " When can one say, "I'm a blacksmith/ bladesmith"?" lol once I cleaned my coffee spill and got the best belly laugh in a long time under control, the answer has to be what notownkid said "you is when you say you is" and "know enough to hit the hot red thing with big hammer" the following Merged by mistake, from Arftist My first real job was as an apprentice to a blacksmith 30 years ago. I had met with him before I started highschool and took all the classes he recomended. (welding, metal shop, wood shop, drafting, mechanical drawing, mechanics) I then studied engineering graphics in college. While in college I worked as a draftsman for an Architect. I then studied welding at night school for two additional years, I then began decades of study at a blacksmith school under an acknowledged Master Blacksmith. Concurently I returned to college to study Comuter Assisted Machining (CAM) I further apprenticed in associated metal working trades; Machine Shop, Fabrication, Weld shops, Sheet metal, Plumber, Autobody I am presently employed at the shop of a well known Blacksmith as a welder (what I consider another aprenticeship, though in reality I am a journeyman). All the while I ran my own business metalworking. For my business I built many of my own metalworking machines; a powered roll former, a universal (hossfeld style) bender an upsetter (1/2" square capacity) a powerhammer (75#), a muller, a twister, and countless hand tools. Since I work blacksmithing I am a blacksmith. If it were my hobby, I would be a hobbyist blacksmith. In reality, there are only four treatments a blacksmith can make to iron; Drawing, upsetting, bending and twisting. When one has mastered these four treatments, one may consider one's self a blacksmith. No person with any humility however would prenouce one's self a Master Blacksmith. That title must be endowed by one's peers. I have only considered myself a blacksmith for about the last ten years or so. It took me 20 years to learn enough that I felt I had earned that title.

here's a couple that's not been mentioned. when doing a piece w repetitive parts like scrolls, I will play with them ob my table. meaning put them together in different ways. its amazing what else is there to be "seen" when doing this. rhen I take pucs and file them away for the future. often when I "make a mistake" I"see" its only a mistake in the context of the present piece, but will look pretty cool in another context. for me, learning to "see" became pretty real when I learned about negative space and how to"see" it. I was able to pull off pull off symmetry, flat spots litterally jumped out at me. the negative space itself became inspirational. one day whilst driving down the road I saw a sign of great beauty and uniqueness, a white on black form, I blinked and it became---speed limit 65--- sheesh, but true. as stated in an above post, the concept of "seeing" is very important.

I don't wear gloves. I am in the habit of checking any iron with the back of my hand. I feel gloves are too dangerous. by the time you feel the heat, its too late to remove them and not get burnt. if I'm not usong tongs, when I feel the heat, its time for a localized quench. I feel I'm more aware of my situation this way.

not my area but howabout nickel shimstock? I've played around with it and its readily avalable

and you have never used a flying anvil? you know, the kind that fly up and hit your stationsry hammer. I thought everybody hsd one of those!

mcbruce,,, turned ya into a danged ole blacksmith, it did...sheesh snorting lead for gosh sakes.

linseed,turps, and beeswax. great for buckles. as it wears, or is worn, it will develop a hightlighted edges etc and improve w/ time. for the brass brush, I brush it on hot first, then hot oil it. finally buff it w/ beeswax or pastewax cold. this final step adds subtle bright highlights. the brass is muted by the hot oil and are the "lowlights" the hot oil is the primary color. overall it has a deep darkrich burnished bronze look. try it on a sample and show your client.

also, maby add a new trick to your bag of-- perhaps do a slit and drift instead of a punched hole. which is truly just a combination of 3 basic moves...slit,upset,drift. most impt! pay attention to each blow. see what you are doing. if it looks good you will see why, if it looks bad you will see why. words from a great man "if the eye can't see it the hand can't make it" when you are where yer at its a great time to improve yer "seeing" don't Iive in the past be inspired by the future live in the now oh yea, there's always one mastersmith around guess who that is. ;)

its also a good time to consciously slow down, dont work at the speed you're mind tells you you "should" be able to work at, then pay attention to your "details", form, approach to the anvil,how your champherededges look, etc. you may be amazed at how many small things you will find that, before your layoff, were done automatically, and became a habit. work on correcting these. then instead of this time being a "negative", it becomes a very positive step in your development as a smith