DSW

I was going to ask what the going rate is for a teen age kid these days, but the cost to feed one probably will blow any savings over paid labor.

They look salvageable. We might have to open up the jaws a bit to deal with the head of the spike, but that's no big deal. I'll Pm you my address if you want to ship them. Depending on the postal service, I may not get them before I leave next Wednesday to see the folks for Christmas. If I get them before I leave, I'll try to turn them around as quick as I can, but no promises. Work comes 1st if I get called.

Home Depot/Lowes is usually the most expensive place to get steel. However in a pinch it may be an option. I have a great old time hardware store near me who sells steel by the foot. Prices are usually pretty good. I can often get a 20' length of steel from them for what 4' costs me at Depot. There are also a bunch of assorted metal suppliers and fab shops in my area. In some cases they aren't as cheap, but they do carry "specialty steels like 4140 or tool steels. Others like fab shops really don't want to deal with small purchases, but aren't as bad to deal with if you need "volume". By that I'm not necessarily talking about 100 pcs of something, but more like $100+ in material. Some of the fab shops will sell off shorts that they don't need from their scrap bin. However around here there are plenty of scrap guys hounding everyone they can find for "free" scrap they can sell. If you can show them that you are "legit" and don't pester them while they are working, they'll often sell to you. Bringing in a few "samples" and maybe handing out a bottle opener or two will help get you connected. Lastly are big steel suppliers. Some are better to work with than others. Again not showing up when they are at their busiest will help. Many times 1st thing in the morning they are getting stuff out the door to their customers, and last thing in the day they are loading up trucks for tomorrow. These aren't the greatest times to show up often.

GRRRR! I see we are still dealing with the disappearing post issue.... Pull them out of the trash and post up a pict. If you want, drop them in a USPS flat rate box and mail them to me. I'll weld on some more steel or some small angle iron and mail them back if you cover postage. Depending on size, they might fit in a flat rate legal envelope and be cheaper than a mid size box. Can't say without seeing them.

Here's the one I made. I simply welded on a length of 1" to match the other end. I've also found a large tap holder will work well for some things. Of course with the tap wrench you have to be able to slide in from an end. I think the old adjustable wrench cost me all of $2 and the tap wrench $3 at a flea market.

Pict?

there are other ways to decorate the spike as well. You can take a punch and make a series of dots in a pattern, or use a chisel to cut in a design just to name a few easy ones.

I'd clean off the scale and them maybe wire brush it with a brass brush while still hot. I think the brass look would compliment it well.

2 pieces of angle iron welded to the jaws will hold square stock. Issue with spikes is usauly reaching around the head. "bolt" tongs solve this issue by bending out around the head, though some spike tongs reach in from the side to grab items often referred to as gooseneck tongs. Simplest way to go, buy some. Blacksmith Supply, and Blacksmiths Depot both sell decent spike tongs. I think they run about $35 at Blacksmith Depot. On the cheap you can get a set of Kens Quick tongs in the bolt style and weld on angle iron or split the ends as they show online.

I really like that form. I'll add that to my list to try. I've been looking for a nice simple trivet project to use to work on basics. This seems easy enough. Any suggestions on what you used as a form or stock size? Looks like 1/2" square tapered with an upset corner 90 deg to the taper.

Keep the part you don't want to damage off the anvil. In the event that is not possible, think thru your order of operations. If You do A before B, will you mess up A working on B? If so, maybe you don't do all of A right away. You rough it out, then go on to the next step, and then come back later and dress up A. A lot of times things that seem complicated only are if you do them in a certain order. If you have the order right, things can be a lot easier. geometry of a slot punch is a bit more than just flattening the tip. You need to at least round the corners so the shape is an "oval" rather than a rectangle. It's a bit more complicated than that, but I don't have a good way to explain the grind right now.

Smaller, thinner things heat/burn faster than thicker stock. You have to watch what you are doing when you have thin and thick parts.Keep the tin part up if need be to keep it cooler, or quench occasionally the thinner end if you have to while heating the thick end. Distractions are usually what gets me. I put it back in the fire to heat, then suddenly I can't find the drift/punch I just had my hand on. A quick glance away and it's burning... GRRRR!

I've known my mechanic a long time, both personally and professionally. If I wanted coil springs I'm sure if I asked him, he'd save me any dead ones he changed out. he probably doesn't do many, so I might have a long wait. I also know a guy who does some scrapping. he rents space at a salvage yard, so I could probably get a used coil spring that way as well. Many yards here either don't want to sell to individuals as they process the scrap as soon as they get it, or they ask mint prices for used stock. The days where I could go to a yard and pull stuff off old vehicles dirt cheap are pretty much long gone in my area. I have used a commercial spring shop over in Trenton, but it's a haul to get there. Between the fuel to drive to see them and the tolls over the bridge on a Class 3 truck, it's probably cheaper for me to simply buy new stock than try to "save" money on used stuff.

In that one I think I upset it back to roughly main stock thickness, then did the step by flattening it half off the anvil, but it's been a bit since I made that one, so I might be wrong. At that point it's not really any different than working with 5/8" square stock. Those I usually just knock in the corners, fuller to define the head area of the opener and spread the area before punching and drifting. I'm sure I could make on by flattening the end 1st. From what I remember I simply wanted to start out with stock of similar size so I upset all the way back. I guess since I was going to twist it anyways, I could have pushed the point back some and left the edges knocked off, then fullered to define where I was going to flatten it down, then flattened the area.

Hey I have a friend who live between Chicago and Milwaukee roughly who has asked me if I know of any Blacksmithing groups in the area who might have Open Forge nights or some place where beginners could try their hand. I said I'd ask here knowing we should have at least some members in that area who could point them in the right direction with suggestions of members or organizations they could contact. Shes shown some interest in things I've forged and I'd like to point her towards some who can help bring her over to the Dark Side and get her started with some basic forging. She's already got an interest in artsy metal projects welding and I think smithing would really interest her.

I kind of just upset the point back into the main body some so I had a nice even thickness of material to start with. Then I punched and drifted it the same way I do all the rest of them and added the twist at the request of the buyer.

I don't do anything to mild steel. It's not going to harden appreciably and any temper I would give it most likely would be lost hot working. If I'm repurposing an existing chisel to say a slitter, I try and keep it cool while regrinding so I don't run colors and don't have to mess with heat treating it. I also religiously cool the chisel to prevent colors from running when using it. Take one hit, dip and cool. Take hit #2, hit and cool etc.

I thought the same thing at 1st, but the rivet sort of forms a head. It would be better if the head of the rivet was larger and domed though to show up better.

Very nice. Scale is a bit deceptive in the 1st two sets of picts.

If you go up to the top right corner and click on your name, 1st thing under "content" is "Profile". Click on that. Then at the top right there is a small pencil that says "edit", click on that and scroll down until you get to location and enter that there. Stuff in rivers and creeks can change from place to place. Some states claim anything embedded in rivers and lakes. That usually only gets pushed if you are trying to make money, say recovering old drowned logs etc, though pulling large quantities on iron/steel for scrap might fall under that as well. Occasional items probably won't be an issue. Note though that places like dams, bridges viaducts etc might be an issue because of security and terrorism. I used to dive under old railway trestles looking for things like old tools, watches, jewelry etc ( people loose them when jumping into the river) or they'd toss things like old bottles or plates from trains as they'd pass. However that isn't as easy as it once was and I know a couple of people who dive like that who have surfaced to see the cops waiting for them and getting questioned. Those guys have never been arrested, but they have been hassled and in a couple of cases they've been threatened by police with arrest. Apparently it's fine to jump off the bridge and swim, but diving with scuba gear gets frowned upon... Basically the cops simply don't want to get called out regularly to deal with this. I never thought of diving for wrought iron. I probably saw plenty of wrought iron pins in old RR telegraph poles sunk under those bridges. I've got a hand full of old glass insulators from the signal wires that were still attached to the poles when I found them underwater. I do have a few wrought brass spikes I've recovered from old wooden vessels sunk in the ocean off Jersey.

As far as stock, what do you have available? You'd seen ones made above out of 1/2" round rebar. I've used 1/2" or 5/8" round or square regularly. 1" or 3/4" x 1/4" flat works well ( I think the example above with my punch/drifts were 1" x 1/4") I've even made them of 1/2" x 3/ 16". I've seen twisted loop ones done with 1/4" or 3/16" round. I've made one from 1" thick rebar, but it took a lot of forging to get the top down to a usable size.

Most of my drifts and punches are mild steel. I have a few for thick stock like 1" that are a high heat working steel like S7 or H13. That's because in very thick stock, the stock itself will heat and soften my punch/drift because it's significantly thinner than the stock is. a 1/16" x 3/16" slot punch isn't going to last long in 1" square if made of mild steel. Mild steel is cheap and easily available. You can make and use them without any special heat treating and if they get screwed up, either make a new one or reforge what you have. As a beginner, I'd suggest using mild for now. As far as material, I've seen them done in all sorts of things. Mild is common, but Nick did one in pattern forged steel not long ago shown above. I've also seen them done in stainless and bronze. ( I have some scrap 1" x 1/4" scrap 304 stainless I want to play with at some point) Pretty much if you can forge it, you can make one out of that material. Stupid disappearing posts issue won't let me post up my whole post again no matter how I try. GRRRRR!

Tom Tongs, OCP tongs, Quick and dirty tongs, Ken's Quick tongs are all good possibilities. You might look at theG2 fullering tool or Versa Jig as other possible items of use.

I was getting $20 for simple ones at the Grange Fair. Of course the people were watching me forge them, so that probably added some value. Just about every one I'd forge when people were watching I'd sell to someone in the crowd. I tried to have one or two on the bench I'd done earlier as well in case someone didn't want to watch the whole thing, or in case there were two or three in the crowd who wanted one. RR spike ones or ones made from horse shoes, I could get up to $35 for. Depends on how intricate I made them and how much time I had into one. I could have probably sold more if I'd priced the simple ones at say $15. But then I'd have needed to have a ton of fives for change. Almost no one ever paid with fives and only occasionally paid with tens. Here's a pretty good one that also shows the drift he uses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2jSW-HE-GE

This isn't the one I was looking for but it's not a bad video. I usually prefer to work with a longer piece of bar stock than he does and only cut it at the end so I don't have to use tongs the whole time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC6JeBiVNs You can see several of my drifts in this thread. 1st one shown is a cheap punch I picked up at one of these cheesy import tool tents at the fair that sells stuff like HF. I needed something because I'd forgotten to grab the one I would have normally used. Tip is about 3/16" roughly. 2nd is just a tapered piece of 1/2" mild steel to open things up. Last is a small chunk of 1" that I tapered ( Originally it was a lathe project for putting a taper on a piece of stock) Steel is simply 1018 IIRC, so pretty much mild steel, but it would cut a bit nicer on the lathe. If I slit vs punch I've got a cheap cold chisel that I reground for hot work. If I get out in the shop this weekend, I'm half tempted to make an oval tapered drift from some 1" steel I have just to play a bit. I might try and push my hammer eye drift thru just to see how an oval shaped drift would work. http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/44532-improvised-anvil-horn/