Chinobi

Out-STANDING! Very cool video of an even cooler class! I really hope I can force things to align so I can participate in one in the future!

Forbidden test? Yes, cut off wheel in an angle grinder will work on a harbor freight ball peen, got one in my garage right now!

Could you forge (ok bend) in a loop like taking a bite while tying a knot at the location of each of those guide collars? At least it might work on the upper one, the lower might need to be a punched hole in the spur springing from the main shaft, and river of tennon or what have you to attach the two together. I suppose you could also forge a little loop or a separate tab with a hole in it that you can rivet to the main shaft as well. Plenty of mechanical joint options methinks great at designs both of you, excellent form and function!

I got to watch Tom Ferry weld up a stack of Damascus in a rather high tech propane forge with a thermocouple rigged to a solenoid that pulsed the feed and could keep the forge within a few degrees of what you set it at. I think I posted about it elsewhere, let me see if I can find it. Won't let me edit 3 minutes later, odd. Anyway here it is: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/40852-uniformity-at-low-temps/#comment-416838

Adams Forge is basically my home forge, I try to get out there as much as I can for the classes that interest me. At the very least it is worth taking the discovery day to get some basic technique instruction and meet some other smiths in person. I know several of the instructors there live in the LA area, but I don't know if they host students at their home shops. Interested to see if anything else surfaces north of LA as I live in Ventura and the teaching forge landscape is pretty bare between LA and north of SLO. Go to www.calsmith.org and join the California Blacksmith Association, it's a reasonable fee, the publications are interesting, and it will hook you up with all the CA goings on. Some great events coming up in a few months that are well worth attending! forgot to mention welcome aboard! Great to see another southern Californian on the boards hope to run into you at a class or event in the future. Good luck!

first project was a little letter opener in an introductory class, a couple months later I took a 5 day starter course taught by Mark Aspery, and boy did we make tools! They were all hand held tools like chisels and punches, but they are all tools. Used them to make wizard head bottle openers as a training project. Have taken various classes subsequently and have made my own scrolling tongs, bending forks, a hammer head, and uncountable more hand held chisels and punches. I still regularly use all of the tools I made in that first class, and most of the other tools as needed. You will find it difficult to NOT be making tools at some point it's usually easier to make something than to buy it, and you can dictate exactly the specs you need.

Matt, thank you for sharing your sketch and the progression! That's a very clean method and a great end result; I hope I can do it justice!

This. Do your learning curve a massive favor and make the trip, there are loads of talented smiths heading over there as we speak and there will be ample opportunity to absorb more knowledge than you can scribble or record in a limited time frame

Simple is usually the best approach, an air gate (or blast gate) would be the easiest way to throttle the flow from a fixed source like a hair dryer. Much easier than building en electrical device IMO. Still interesting, just not the path of least resistance

That's awesme James! Congrats and good on you for all the hard work to get even more products on the table! Your kydex work is also looking really tight I won't be at Blade but I'm looking forward to visiting your table again at the next show opportunity, though it's looking like I will likely be in Europe for Vegas in Agust this year :'( cant no wait to see more designs, maybe something more in the machete category? *nudge nudge*

This leaps out to me as perhaps the biggest problem. You want the cleanest, closest fit you can create for a good solder joint. If it was so contaminated that you could just pop it out afterwards you were going to have issues with that joint regardless. i won't claim to be a professional but I have melted my share of projects over the years and have a few suggestions based on your descriptions and some inference: quarter mokume and sterling do not need to be babied, you can use any temperature solder, if you have multiple joints to make then you need to consider the order of operations, but otherwise don't feel like you need to use a low temp because it's easier or safer. I find that lower temp solder (the 1100 degree one, not used the specialty stuff like staybright or other super low melts) tends to tarnish more readily than the higher temps like medium and hard, so if it's just one joint I usually go for hard. i prefer to add flux before I start heating, rather than waiting for the metal to come up in temperature while in full contact with atmosphere, borax and water have treated me well, I have some boric acid that is supposed to be amazing, but yet to test it. Stuff like handyflux (IIRC) is pretty good too, but hard to beat borax on a bang for buck basis. not knowing what plumbing solder you have access to I would be inclined to stick with jewelers silver solder, but if you look it up and there's nothing unpleasant in the alloy and the melting point is below that of sterling (they already use it on copper) then go nuts I like Frosty's recommendation to tin one side first and then sweat solder them together, much easier to get penetration than adding solder from the edge and trying to wick it in, not saying you can't do it that way, just easier. even heating is very important, if you melted your liner but the ring was undamaged (you didn't specify so assuming there) I can only assume you were focusing all your heat on the liner (or that it is extremely thin relative to the ring and you were not favoring the thicker material) and melted it out. it is very frustrating to watch that solder bead sit there on your joint all shiny and melted but refusing to penetrate. Could be a problem of cleanliness or joint fit, but when I get it the cause is usually heat management. Don't torch the solder itself on the way to the metals to be joined, that itty bitty chunck of solder will be at melting temp in seconds and your project is still (relatively) stone cold, so no joint. Instead try heating from the opposite side, you want the project to be hot enough to melt the solder, at that point it will wick in by capillary action because the interior is hot enough, rather than only the surface just beneath where you placed the solder. ok, too much thumbtype, I hope something in there makes sense and is useful to you and if you are able, get some pictures up! Much easier to see problems than type them, and it's cool to see the projects that people put together here! Good luck!

Happy trails mate! Glad to hear you are back underway! :)

Powered scotch bright pad?! Working the whole sheet before you cut it?! Witchcraft!!! Heresy! sounds like a solid procedure, automate and economize wherever possible. Remind me what your preferred cutting equipment is? Iv been using a jewelers saw (sloooow) or shears (much edge cleanup and flattening) but I have been eyeballing a portaband, so there is hope for the future!

Now that's a billet! Really nice work there, certainly justifies the effort in the prep phase! not to imply that i actually have a solid clue what the brass alloy I have in stock actually is, but isn't cartridge brass very stiff, bordering on brittle? If that's the case it might make that particular combination more difficult to forge than a softer alloy.

I'm not familiar with the location, so apply salt as necessary here they typically provide tools as much as they are able, but if you have a simple kit of tools you can bring along with you, you won't need to borrow anything or work with unfamiliar gear. Plus if tools are short relative to attendance and you BYO, then someone who is less well equipped can use the house gear instead. as for heavy gear, anvils, forges, and vises, you can try contacting the organizers and offering to bring them if needed. i did read that there will be a forging competition(s), and the theme/task will be revealed about a month in advance, so stay tuned cant help ya on the camping stuff though, sorry, were it me and it wasn't a space issue I would just bring the tarps anyway, and if they stay I the car then it's one less thing to take down and pack away afterwards! I'd call the venue/grounds and ask about the fire situation. please take lots of pictures of the demos and happenings, I'm going to have to live this vicariously through you guys!

inconel coinage!? O.o from what planet? GotMitUns: there is a LOT to read on the subject! Dont drown yourself in the reading material right off the bat. Get a basic handle on the science and process and then go give it a shot in person. That way you will have a greater understanding of what the writeups are talking about and will be able to ask more refined questions based on your experience. you might want to bump up to quarters or half dollars as well, more billet for your buck (shameless, i know) from the larger coinage, so you get more return for your effort. Next time one of you guys gets to try another cross, try giving it a 90 degree twist (only) that happens where the sawcut overlap exists. that way the exposed surface pattern will match on all four arms of the cross. without the twist you will have linear stripes on one pair and a really neat woodgrain on the other pair. Good luck and dont forget to post pics!

Nickel is really tough stuff, the copper/brass stack will move much easier under the hammer. the brass has a much lower melting point though, so you have to watch out for overheating. if you see the brass sweating out when you remove it from the fire give it a sec to resolidify before you whack it to avoid the supernova

looks nice and chunky and well built :) might want to look for a handle with a cross arm though, so you don't have to twist your wrist like you are working a pepper grinder to operate it, and you will get better torque to hold tighter. speaking of holding tighter, in the last pic it looks like the jaws meet up parallel and flat to each other when 100% closed, is that the case or a trick of the light? bench vises are built that way because the jaws are always parallel and open in a flat plane, post vise jaws open on an arc so when they are open enough to hold onto a piece of stock your jaw faces will now always be angled very slightly apart. seems most post vises are built so the jaw faces are parallel when it is open enough to hold a given popular size of stock (1/2" to an inch or so, but varies widely), and when closed they meet at the top but have a gap at the bottom. of course this is just my understanding of the beast from talking to and reading posts from those wiser than myself, so YMMV :)

better than rounding the whole horn (and losing all that mass, and making the already weak cast iron even smaller in cross section), keep one edge at the small radius, and make the other side a larger radius. you probably wont be working on the very top part of the horn anyway, as the best working surface is usually around 1 or 2 o-clock anyway. so the flat on top wont hurt you, and now you have two sets of differently sized curved dies rather than a matched pair.

boy that's gonna be a drive! cant offer you much in the way of shop time, but drop me a line if you are in town proper during the work week and ill meet you for lunch or buy you a beer or something :)

Hey Gang! Heres a heads up that program information and registration is now live for the upcoming CBA/NWBA Spring Conference/Western States Conference! I have gotten a few emails pertaining to registration in the last week or so but I haven't seen it posted up here, so im kinda going rogue and sharing the excitement :) Here is the website for the event http://www.westernstatesconference.com/ Registration can be chased down via the CBA website. Please make sure you are looking at the 2015 event info and not the archived/related 2014 info! http://www.calsmith.org/news/2015/01/28/western-states-online-registration-form/ Additional info can be had on the NWBA site http://blacksmith.org/events/forging-on-the-faultline/ Event dates are April 23-26, 2015 it will be held at the San Benito County Fairgrounds (AKA Bolado Park) in Hollister, California. Abbreviated details: Featured Demonstrators: Alfred Bullerman – Germany Assisted by Scott Lankton – Michigan Leonard Urso – Large Copper Sculpture -Rochester Inst. of Technology – Rochester, NY Dean Mook – North West Design – Seattle, Washington Kirk McNeill – Sculpture – Freedom Forge – Santa Cruz, California Megan Crowley – Pipe Forming – Dolores, CO Daryl Meier – Meiersteel, Knife Making – Illinois Phil Baldwin – Knife Making – Washington State Power Hammer Workshops(beginners & advanced smiths): Mark Krause – California Frank Trousil – California Hands-On Workshops by: Mark Aspery – Everywhere Darrel Nelson – Washington State John Mclellan – California Sign up early for a discounted rate!

This. I haven't truely whaled on my vice yet, as I don't do much of anything that heavy, it is stable enough even when leaning entirely into it when filing though, and I can raise copper on it with stakes without chasing it around the room. If it was becoming too mobile I would go with the concrete anchors, that's why I put the holes in the feet :)

All of my kit is influenced by portability concerns at present. I have to pull everything from the garage on one side of the house, walk it across the frontage and across the lawn (to avoid a step in the front walk), and into the side yard in order to use it. well, for actual hot work anyway, cold work I just do in the garage. My tools are all just in my tool bag which gets carried outside and my anvil is 100 lbs plus a halfway decent pipe based stand (came with it when I bough it) and that just gets scooped up and carried out by hand (if/when I get/make a new stand for it there will be wheels involved). My post vise however I had to build a stand for anyway, so I took my time designing a very portable system for it with the intent to be able to get it in and out of service at home, but also for demo's and classes if they are short equipment. you can check out some pictures and some of the spec's in this existing thread: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>>

you could serve up the humble flux spoon in three forms to illustrate how the same goal can be achieved through different means. have them execute and compare starting with a heavy stock and drawing down the handle to a thinner cross section while leaving the original stock size as the mass for the spoon at one end versus starting with the handle diameter as the material and upsetting to build mass for the spoon, versus starting with the handle diameter and fagot welding the end over onto itself to build mass. then they can practice tapering, scrolling, leaves, what-ever-floats-their-boats to personalize the handles :)