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I Forge Iron

Jon Smith

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Posts posted by Jon Smith

  1. Almost everyone else in the County disappeared into the woods on the first day of deer season (a National Holiday here locally) but I had the shop pretty much to myself and a few old timers who stopped by. I decided to do something to fit the season so I tried my hand at making a deer antler with the idea that I might be able to make one good enough to use as a door handle for the shop. I also tried my first spoon forge from a RR spike that might fit into the cook shack at deer camp.


    It's not a holiday everywhere...?
    Very nice work
  2. Since it's finally gotten below 90* around here and I'm not worried about passing out from heat exhaustion, I decided to knock together a sign hanger for my mother's 50th birthday this weekend. Just about got it finished.

    3/8" sq and round stock, 48" tall, 22" wide
    post-26226-0-25674700-1383169251_thumb.j

  3. I'll buy you a beer (or carbonated beverage of choice) if a contractor you don't know has set two steel posts a specific distance apart to plumb, the same elevation, and aligned along the same line perpendicular to the center of the driveway. What rust prevention measures were taken where the steel meets concrete or goes below grade? If structural steel or masonry looks shabby or fails in 10 years will it affect your reputation?

    A very careful site survey is a must.

    There are contractors that work to very tight standards out there, I hope you have found one, chances are they work for wealthy clients. Price your work accordingly. If the steel has been installed less than perfectly then you will need to make hinges that take that into account and probably fix someone else's short cuts, which will also be very expensive. Top quality ironwork takes a lot of time from design, forging, fabrication, finishing, to installation. All of those steps cost real money. Fixing or designing around someone else's medium quality work also costs money. In the high end world your reputation is more important than "getting it done".

    Your specific question is an engineering problem. Calculate center of mass of one leaf of the gate. Bring that info to an engineer along with column size, footing size and depth, soil type and compaction, and hinge elevations, and he will tell you that everything needs to be 3 times the size you thought it would be (grin).


    As an engineering student, always allow 5% margin of error extra.
    As someone who has had to work around others' mistakes, 3x might not be a bad idea....
  4. Twelve hours working in the shop? My friend, you are not from south Louisiana, that's for sure. I might get in an hour at dawn now and again, but by then I'm getting dizzy. Which is why I much prefer to work through the night.

    Very nice piece, btw. Not so sure about that twist though. Seems uncomfortable for long work

  5. Dancing Anvil Forge

    I work in a cramped shop with two four wheelers and a tractor that have to be moved out, so my HB is mounted on a way lighter stand than it should be so I can easily move it. Needless to say, when I get to wailing on a big piece of hot iron and ringing my anvil....well she starts to dance across the shop floor along with the beat.

  6. My buddy from diapers is scheduled to finally come back stateside from a year long tour of duty in South Korea in July, and I would love to build him a warfighter style knife with a mahogany (?) grip and blued furniture, which leads to my question.

    What method do y'all use to blue metal (probably mild steel, since I can't find wrought)? I have used Birchwood-Casey cold gun blue to restore a few firearms and sidearms, but I've never been completely satisfied, and I know I've seen some very well done guards around here before.

  7. Strongly suggest you read "The Complete Bladesmith" by Hrisoulas; your local public library should be able to ILL it for you if they do not have a copy. He covers a lot of sword building information in it. And let me assure you that several HUNDRED pages written by a master of the craft is actually better than a couple of posting written by who knows?


    Agreed, good bit of reading. And I *think* Doctor H is still lurking around here, so he might chime in
  8. Rich, if I remember correctly, the profile of the cleaver was milled and then the slab was "hardened" and then profiled and ground on a KMG/clone. That would solve the bevel issue--there was none at the time.

    Also, I have no intention of trying this, if only because I can't afford massive slabs of aluminum on a college budget. I have read the HT stickies and all the knife chats, as well as doing my own shop tests. My blades are 5160 and quenched in warm oil.

  9. I was watching a new show on Discocery last night, "Blade Brothers", which is a series featuring a custom knife shop (stock removal=sad face). One of the things I found intriguing was the maker's method of quenching the steel by sandwiching the piece straight out of the HT oven between two 1" thick slabs of aluminum to use as a heat sink. Any craftsmen around here ever try that? Thoughts on this method vs say oil or water quenching (based on the steel in use)?

  10. Fossilized ivory is legal, if you can get it. Unfossilized however, unless harvested before 1970--with paperwork to prove it--can only be legally obtained via one country in Africa (Rwanda?) or American Eskimos.... Not worth the trouble if you ask me. Being caught with poached ivory will see you put under the jail.

    Which is why I prefer wood.

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