Chinobi

Polish up the surface real bright to put some shine on the nickel, then put it in whatever you are using for pickle (or vinegar, just a weak acid) to take the shine off the copper parts. Then apply your patina. I haven't delved too deeply into the chemical side, but I have had some good results with the torch and oxide patinas. You should be able to get some good color on the copper without severely darkening the nickel, which makes for a pretty near contrast :)

Froggy, you need to take a nice lengthy vacation to california. i will provide the beer, you will draw the anvils from the darkness :-D that is a superb find right there!

Depends if the clay will expand or contract or dry up at 4 or 500 degrees, or straight up melt if it's something like plasticene. A really viscous oil or oil clay might be easier to control and provide a better oxygen barrier, might also smoke out the place so keep that in mind too :)

very appealing curve indeed :) excellent work!

Way cool! Hot wax or an oil finish would look far superior to spraypaint IMO. if you are going to put that much effort into making something by hand I think the sprayed on paint finish just kills the aesthetic and makes it look like you overpayed for it at Home Depot Expo =/ of course YMMV :)

you did better than I did! kudos and use it in good health! :)

im always deeply impressed by the quality and quantity of tooling that Brian's students pump out in such a short time. Very well done Matt, I hope you are able to put that knowledge to work for you in the future :)

boy I hope you mined that area before you left, I would be SO mad if somebody snuck out there and pinched it before I could round up the lifting equipment to retrieve it myself! Awesome story and an even cooler find, I hope you get a lot of use from that thing and enjoy telling the tale to many generations of friends :)

Most of those should be fair game for use in mokume, DEFINITELY read up on your local laws and regulations regarding destruction, defacement, and 'repurposing' of federal currency beforehand though. there is a clause in the US laws that allows for coinage to be used for "art purposes" as an exception to our ban on recycling/melting/defacing etc. there have been a couple of threads about it previously. im not certain about the one with 6% aluminum though, that might be kind of a wildcard. id test a stack or two with those once you have gotten the process down a bit to see if you can get them to work consistently before trying to source out a large quantity.

awesome work Nicole! that looks great! There are quite a few patina recipes strewn throughout the alchemy and formula section of IFI that you might find interesting, or you can also look for a copy of Ian Ferguson's book on Mokume Gane, he has a whole chapter on patinas and a lengthy gallery in the back with examples of finished pieces. maybe take a piece of your next billet and do the twisting before you cut it in half lengthwise, you can get some really cool patterns that way! looking forward to future work!

nice to see it come together :) gotta side with Geoff though, some better pics would be helpful, maybe one of the opposite scale as well. i like the handle shape too, i think that came out well. looking forward to seeing the next one ;)

im liking the computer MoBo scale idea too, that sounds like a pretty awesome gift for the techie's in our lives. after you have done the final shaping on it would it be worth running another light coat of epoxy or shellac or something over the top to seal all the exposed edges of the circuit boards? or is that a non-issue?

that's true, most of the construction products are galv. forgot about that =/ what scale is this project anyway? some small textured bits might not work for a huge project, and vice-versa. boat parts brings those perforated metal steps/decks that hang off the back of speedboats for people to sit on or climb in/out with, but im afraid that anything made for a marine environment will be worse than galvanized, maybe chrome plated, might be straight stainless if you are lucky but I don't have a lot of knowledge in the marine equipment field.

hardware store PVC cement will bond them together, I don't know exactly how well it will perform long term in that particular environment, as they are formulated to just be set and buried and left alone. I would also avoid leaving PVC scales in the sun regularly, as PVC gets brittle when exposed to direct sunlight over long periods of time.

something like a Simpson Mending Plate might provide an interesting texture if you hammer all the little teeth back into the holes they were punched from, or just knock it down so they stand out a little like fur or small feathers. http://www.strongtie.com/products/connectors/mp.asp# or a Simpson Cam Plate could provide an interesting set of circles for pattern http://www.insulationplace.co.uk/Simpson-Strong-Tie-Cam-Plate-CP-41x152.html

Now that's awesome! you could make some kind of pvc-mascus if you get white, black, and recycled water purple, and green pipes and laminate them together with pipe glue! pretty limited in terms of what you can do with the pattern but you could probably still get an interesting stacked leather look to it at the very least.

What about Diamond Plate? (methinks its the same thing as checker plate) several variations of that around. http://www.industrialmetalsupply.com/products/diamond-plate-tread-plate have you experimented with using angle iron to make feathers? built in spine when you flatten them out, you could probably make a combination swage and texture stamp if you make the swage fairly thin like a guillotine die (or just make it a guillotine tool in the first place...) so as the die flattens the angle it intentionally mars the work with grooves that make it look feathery :)

I find smaller more readily repeatable projects to be a better learning tool for me than larger projects that take more time and do not offer the same repetition. plus if during the course of the long project you make a mistake that cannot be readily 'designed into' the plan then you just offered that much more time to the scrap pile when you start over. want practice drawing tapers that don't just get cut off and tossed? start making nails! taper, cut, upset, repeat. save them for some rustic woodwork around the house or bring them to a swap meet or craft show and pawn them off for funds to buy more tools! make the 5 candle holders first, or maybe 7 or 8 until you get 5 that look similar enough to pass off as 'matching', then work on punching 5 holes in a long flat bar, then make tenons on the candle holders, then rivet the 5 holders to the bar with the tenons. lot of good practice there :) plus, don't look at tool making as something that should only be done once. if that's the case then use a really nice alloy tool steel and treat it well in use, otherwise use whatever you have on hand or get some sucker rod and beat it to death, then replace it when you kill it :) but the process of making tools can be applied to a limitless number of tools. why stop at one chisel? make a V edged chisel, make one that's single bevel, make a curved one (inside and outside bevel), wide blade, narrow blade etc. round punches, slot punches, hand fullers, you name it. they all share the same basic structure, you are just varying the business end to suit the task. heck you can forge up 2 or 3 blanks that are just struck end and indexing with nothing done on the business end, keep them in your tool kit so when you are away from your shop and you realize that you forgot a tool or really need a different size of XYZ you are already 70% done with the tool. just forge the tip to whatever you need, HT if applicable, and keep at it :)

HF #55 is a footstool, or a cupholder. 1$/lb is a very attractive price for an anvil, if its not beat up or otherwise unfit for service. that one looks like it has seen a long service life, but from the one pic it would probably still outlive you. the now chamfered forners at the cutting table are not much of a loss, and square corners can be swapped in on a hardie tool as needed. definitely ask for more pics, especially of the far side under the heel, might be my imagination but it looks like that rear right (from the one pic perspective) foot may have been broken off. IIRC Vulcans are cast and are relatively quiet, but I don't think I have worked on one in person yet.

Im looking forward to Waynes World, Scrambler you should try to get in on that too, its going to be pretty close to you. Oktoberfest is a solid haul from my area, IDK if that's going to happen for me =/

im glad this cycled back to the top, I have recently become a fan of the Leek, and now that I know what it is I am seeing it EVERYWHERE! That is a very fine replacement blade you made and certainly an EDC to be proud of! you have set the bar pretty high with that :)

Frosty i'd enjoy the breeze from your windy posts in any weather :) LJ you are in luck, the 2015 April CBA conference is to be held in Hollister, id keep an eye on the various websites starting about thanksgiving and jump on registration for that shindig as soon as it goes live! Ill have to see what my schedule looks like for next year before I can start deluding myself into thinking I can make it!

im down in the southern CA area in Santa Barbara and Ventura, so I smith and take classes out of Los Angeles for now. I have seen a lot of class offerings in the SF area online and in the CBA newsletter, so you shouldn't need to bump out as far as Sacramento for instruction. James Austin forges a mean axe and is meticulous in his methods and experimentation process, if you can find and excuse or reason to spend time in his shop you would be in great hands!

lol, thank you for a much needed chuckle today guys XD glad I was between spoonfuls or id be cleaning Pho off my keyboard, phone, and twin monitors!

1. many anvils are not solid tool steel, but a 1/2 inch ish plate of tool steel welded onto a lower carbon or wrought iron body. milling the top off will at best severely reduce the thickness of said top plate, if not completely obliterate it. so no, attempting to re-harden an anvil that has been milled is not guaranteed to bring the top back up to a good working hardness. this is to say nothing of the expense and equipment required to heat and quench that much mass. sharp edges in certain locations on the anvil are a blessing, but certainly not required for an anvil to be serviceable. a slight and sometimes variable radius on most of the working surfaces is usually suggested to facilitate bends and inside corners. sharp edges on the anvil can lead to sharp edges in the work, which can lead to cold shuts and cracking (not fun). 2. pseudo customary, not obligatory, but most consider it fun or a challenge. certainly a good way to practice your skills, and if you can make your own tools, you can make tools that can be sold to others :) 3. theoretically, yes, a steel yard will carry steel that can be used for blacksmithing. the questions revolve around the price per pound and what they have available to you, and if they will sell to a small time operator like an entry hobby smith, or if they only deal to industrial/big fish buyers. I think in apple valley you are in good shape though. which yard is it? as to starting size, 1/4" square and round are very good easy starting stock, bring it up to 3/8th for more substantial projects and a little more elbow. entering at 1/2" is challenging, 5/8" or better I would leave on the rack until you have a better appreciation for what CAN be done, before you start getting bogged down with the larger sized stock. im sure the more grizzled veterans will say that the larger stock is just as easy, but for someone just starting it can be intimidating, and its real easy to start working it too cold because you didn't know to let it heat all the way through, which compounds everything :) 4. I don't use it, so I wont pretend to know where to find coal. I prefer gas myself, which is cleaner, easier, and more readily available. YMMV. Welcome to your next addiction, glad to have you on board! :) its a VERY slippery slope from 'I want to do the railing work myself' to actually doing it! You would be wise to hook up with the CBA, they are online at www.calsmith.org and we recently opened up a subsection here on IFI. Lot of good people there that can lend a hand and a hammer, plus more wisdom than you could digest in a lifetime! There will probably be someone relatively close to you that you can link up with if you are so inclined. pack a lunch and a drink and start bathing in the firehose of knowledge that is IForgeIron! edit: forgot to answer the stock size question