01tundra

Great work! Very nice detail. I really hope to make the conference in May.

After experimenting some I've decided not to do an exact diamond, I could choke up on the fuller and get the diamond, but I kind of like this version better. I forged the point first, then fullered the neck. This is a trial run on scrap so I didn't take the time to finish it fully. Jim - Good advice on not to fuller too much. The first try I fullered first and went a little too thin, it ended getting really thin and twisting and turning into a big mess by the time I finished forging the point.

I do have a Yesteryear G2 guillotine tool that I was planning to use to fuller the bar down below the diamond.

That's ^ a really cool idea, thanks for posting it. I'd want to steer clear of zinc coated nuts due to possible fumes, but black steel would work great. I bet you could make great acorns using that method.

I'm getting ready to make a hearth fire wood rack and I'd like to finish the top of the vertical supports similar to an old tool set I bought years ago. I'll be using 3/4" square bar stock for the four vertical supports and would like to finish the tops with something close to the diamond shaped finial shown below. I'm going to have to do this by hand (no power hammer) and was looking for some input on how others would attempt this. My initial thought would be to fuller the tops of the bars about 1-1/2" from the top and then hold the bars on the edge of the anvil almost vertical at the fullered notch and form the lower and upper angled portion of the four sides. Not sure if I'm explaining that accurately enough to follow, I'll try to come up with a rough sketch shortly. The only other thing I could think of would be to fabricate a die to form them in? Thanks.

Nice work, I like it a lot.

Ah....I remember that day like it was yesterday, my first project was a drive hook.....that was way back in the winter of 2012 :D .

I typically forge the stem down some, make the leaf, and then go back and draw the stem out smaller to leave a little mass there during the leaf making process. Definitely don't forge cold, that's what usually breaks the stem off.

What was the benefit/purpose of the faces not being perpendicular to the handle?

Just got home from a friends house, he called me and asked if I wanted some free steel.....of course I said yes. No idea what I'll ever do with the larger stuff, most of it is parts off of fork lifts, but there was some nice smaller square stock too. The one really wide plate standing up is a single 3/4" thick fork that will make some great swinging targets. This is quickly becoming a sickness that I don't have the shop space to support..........

What a cool design, I love the wedge joints. Great job!

Probably, and the back being high is going to limit it as well. I just had that welder cart sitting around and was about to give it away, so it was a handy place to get the plate off my shop floor and be able to move it around by myself. I could zip the back off with the plasma cutter and replace the two front swivel casters with locking style and make it work decent.

I worked on sorting out all the dies yesterday and came up with a pretty decent bending jig I believe. It has dies from 1/2" to 10" and I do not believe I'm going to have to do any drilling on the plate. I'm sure I'll find a place over time where I'd like to have an additional pin option, but that shouldn't be a big deal to do with the right drill bit.

So far these are the only ones that I can make out the markings on.

Thanks Vaughn, I didn't even think about that.

Yeah I was out there for about an hour finding all different types of combinations of pins and dies that had a machine fit, but then got overwhelmed and just started throwing stuff in the carts. I could tell that some of it was meant to go together just by the fit. Tough part will be figuring out how to drill some of the holes in the plate larger.

I don't know if this was a score or not, I'm still in a little bit of shock from spending way more than I intended to at the scrap yard today. Went out there to look for a small piece of flat stock and came home with 800 lbs. of tool steel......... Turns out there was a full machine shop that just got scrapped a few days ago. A majority of the round and square stock is labeled with a grease pencil. Picked up a lot of 4130, 4150, 4340, 4620, A2 & A3. Then when I was about ready to leave I noticed a flat 25"x17"x1" tool plate with all types of removable pins and various sized blind and through holes, some threaded.......then I started noticing all the round dies I was standing in and the old light bulb clicked - bending jig! I've been wanting a bending jig but wasn't willing to pay $400+ for a pre-made one, I'm pretty sure I have enough pieces here to build what I need. Anyways, went out to spend $10 and four hours later I was paying out $200.......

Talked to the manufactuer. It's O1 tool steel with an induction hardened tip.

A guy in the office just brought this in and asked if I wanted it so I hit him with my standard reply instantly - "sure". First thing I thought is that maybe I've finally found the perfect piece to make my first knife from. No idea what the specs are, below is all I've been able to find so far. I'm going to try to call the company tomorrow and see if they have any additional info. The info below lists the point as "hardend tool steel", but the entire bar appears to be made from the same material. Anybody have an idea if this steel would be good for a knife?

Now I see what you mean. On my computer the pictures are right side up, but on my phone the last three are upside down. Weird, this is the first time I've had that happen. No idea why the pictures appear correct on my computer?

Thanks. The boss likes it, so that's a win on its own :D. **Correction to the original post (can't edit for some reason) - I started with a 16" long piece of 1/2" round stock, not 12" long as stated above.

I've been meaning to replace the cheap towel hook in our master bathroom for a couple years now. After finishing my work the other day I figured I'd try my hand at a new hook while the forge was still hot. I grabbed a piece of 1/2" x 12" round stock and started forging without any real plan. I kind of rushed through it because I was tired, but I'm still way happier with this new hook.

Because it sounds cool :D. I do it occasionally when swinging my 3.5 hammer for arm rest. If I do it with my lighter hammers it's just out of (bad) habit while I'm planning my next move. I try not to because I don't like striking my nice anvil surface with my nice hammer surface for no real good reason........

From what little I've found online, some say it's good for general forging, some say it's awful and belongs in the dumpster, a few say never use it for knives or hawks..... Found a little infomation searching here, but not a lot. I have a transfer case spud shaft from an old truck I used to have. The shaft is about 6" long, male splines on one end and female on the other. Probably 1-1/8" O.D. on the male end and 1-1/2" O.D. on the female end. My original plan was to make a tomahawk for myself by annealing and forge welding the female end flat, but after reading the mixed reviews it sounds like it may be better to leave it in the scrap bin. I talked to the manufacture and it started out around 0.2% carbon content and then was carbonized to around 0.8% with a Rockwell of about 60. I guess my quest for some good hawk steel will be continuing. I do have some 1018 from an axle shaft that may work OK, it's about 1-1/4" O.D. So is this 8620 worth attempting to make anything with?

Nice work Anvil. Do you have a picture of that spatula from the side, or any other pictures of it? Is it forge welded at the handle? It almost looks like one piece, but would've been serious chunk of steel.