Joel OF

Consciously or subconsciously, do you have any habits or mantras whilst forging? When I remember to, I always tell myself to STOP and STAND BACK and look at what I'm doing. Much easier to see if everything's straight, in proportion, balanced etc when you're standing back. I should write it in capitals on my forge hood to remind me, I get wrapped up in small details so easily I often forget to stand back.

Indeed Frosty, I had considered the same thing though it's the weight of the vise stand that's half my problem. Ditching it for demos & having a portable leg vise in the workshop has it's perks too. Not having constant access to the hardy hole isn't the end of the world as I can put my hot cut/jigs/bending forks into the vise. Yep Chinobi, that's what I meant, but with an engineer's vise.

I did my first demo the other day for which I made a fairly typical portable vise stand for a spare 4" blacksmith's leg vise I have. Whilst thinking of ways to make the vise stand I considered not using the leg vise at all, (for sake of space and weight), and instead buying an engineer's vise, bolting a mild steel plate to the bottom, welding a hardy shank to the mild steel plate and just dropping it into the hardy hole. I dismissed that idea because I thought the leg vise would look more authentic but now for various reasons I'm thinking I might just go with the engineers vise idea. Anyone else do this? I could remove my leg vise from the stand I made and do this with the leg vise instead, but an little engineer's vise would be quicker and easier to remove if I need to use the hardy hole for something else.

I'm still very new to blacksmithing/markets/demos but I've definitely noticed that even filing something - just so you're doing something - creates more intetest than just standing there smiling like a retail assistant drone.

Yeah I asked parents to stand infront of their kids for that exact reason. The closest person was about 6 feet away so I felt it was OK. Definitely not something worth taking risks with.

Sieve - to separate little pieces of clinker from the coke. Went well cheers. I just showed leaf making,twisting and scrolling on repeat. Can't remember who said it but I think maybe Frosty said in an old thread somewhere that audiences want to see stuff happen quick - so I just did quick things. I did however do a bit of fluxless fire welding too which drew a big crowd which got a collective "wow" & even a round of applause. One thing I'd overlooked is how tricky it is to explain the simplest of processes in non techno jargon..."so before firewelding I'm just going to upset and scar...err...I mean make it thicker at the end and put a step in it". I bumped into one of the venue managers later in the pub & he said that they loved having me there & would like to have me there semi-permenantly, which if nothing else is a lovely vote of confidence & an avenue with possibilities.

Just got back from the demo. Forgot to put a sieve on the list, doh.

Sandpaper - quick rub over twists highlights them & makes them stand out.

They're on my list Eddie. Is that medieval style titanium Thomas? :-P

Wood block

Got my first demo coming up this weekend so I'm writing myself a checklist, thought I'd post it so people needing a checklist can just print one. Please add to it, too easy to forget something important! The bits brackets aren't things that I have/use but I'd imagine many people do so I tacked them on. Forge Coke Charcoal Newspaper & lighters Anvil Vise Hammers Quench bucket Tongs Bending forks/jigs/nail header Hot cut Punches Files Twisting wrench Chalk Wire brush Rope barrier Fire rake Anvil hold down Hacksaw + spare blades Work to sell Display table Goggles Gloves Money/change Business cards Steel Sandpaper Finishing wax Magnet Tape measure Lunch + water (Photos of previous work) (Flux) (Apron) (Rain cover) (Sack barrow/trolley) (Ear plugs)

Nice and understated. Is there any play in the legs?

Very nice. Meaty joinery is where it's at!

Cheers Colleen. The contract for the show was quite full and I'm wary of giving away too much incase they send some Sicilians around to practice their golf swings on my knees but the candleabra section was heavily cut down and as a result there didn't seem to be any close up shots of them. I loved some of the features on Darren's and it would have been nice to see more of it. Going back to John's question about how it went - we all were thrown by being taken out of our comfortable workshops and thrown into a new environment and I certainly struggled at first. I'd never worked infront of anyone else before (bar my girlfriend and my parents) so to be suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar space going from using a hand cranked forge to a full on electric one, to be surrounded by crew - who are not used to being around hot metal and power tools, working alongside Sally who is a machine and is 110% on the ball, sharing tools, working infront of a master blacksmith, giving mini interviews where you've got to give succinct answers without looking at the camera when it's 12 inches from your face...well... Being away from home was hard at times too, Darren and Sally both have families, and I have Chronic Fatigue Sydrome so there were times when being on a cold and wet farm in Shropshire for a month was a little wearing.

Cheers John, yep it was a great experience for me. Wish I could do it again now as I've improved massively in attitude and technique since then, and that's largely due to the experience. The collars on the bench are tight, I can't remember exactly but I think I let them shrink tight in place. I might have undersized them a fraction too. It's a TV show and will always put the human interest aspect ahead of technical info. 99% gets cut, even huge sections which you think are bound to be used, so the little techno-speak that gets left in is kinda a miracle. The candle spikes on my candleabra were riveted underneath the drip trays and my bench was mainly held together by keyed mortise and tenons - none of that geeky stuff gets a look in. It would have been nice to see more of Sally's scroll variations and some of the cool features on Darren's candleabra. The thing I really hoped would come through was the variation blacksmithing could produce. It was fantastic working alongside Sally and Darren, we got on brilliantly, laughed our ..... off and really enjoyed seeing eachothers methods/ways of thinking. I hope people enjoyed the show for what it's worth.

There's an extended trailer about the series on the More4 site: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/monty-dons-real-craft

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of them side by side, they irritated me so much. Luckily these were for the fabricator I work alongside and he wasn't bothered either way as they were tiny detail in a massive project he's got on. I think you're onto something there. I actually have a bottom blast forge and now that you've mentioned this I think an additional factor could be that the firepot itself was red hot and even though I was pushing the bar back and forth + rotating it, the lips on the firepot (that stop it from falling through the table) were red hot too, so I reckon there was some kinda heat transfer going on where the ends of the twist section were touching the lips but the middle was suspended over the clinkered up fire. Nope, tried that on the last one, didn't work. The one and only thing I didn't try which could have had a chance at rectifying this was to go 1/4 turn with a full heat in the twist zone, then let the heat drain out of the ends towards the middle as it's cooling from the contact with the vice and wrench, then do the remaining 1/4 turn when the heat is specifically in the middle. Oh well, at least I haven't missed some really obvious and even the more experienced folks are saying "it could be..." and not "you wolly brain you didn't do..."

Cheers but these came out of my coke forge.

Yeah that's it. It's bizarre, steel moves most where it's hottest but these weren't doing that!!!

Hi Jim, if I unserstand you correctly you're saying it's not straight. In the flesh it's straight but in the picture it looks kinked because of the wonky camera angle. To clarify, I'm trying to figure out why the twist isn't tighter in the middle.

Anyone got any clues as to why this 30mm x 30mm (1 3/16" x 1 3/16") bar has twisted so unevenly and got a horrible straight bit down the middle? This is a 8 inch long half turn twist. I deliberately concentrated the heat into the middle of the twist area to avoid this problem. There was an even heat all sides and the bar had been in the fire long enough for the heat to have soaked into the middle. This was bar number 14 of 14 however this problem started at about number 9. The first few were perfect and behaved as they should. Unlike this one in the picture I twisted them with an even heat all along the twist area (and even a bit beyond so that the heat wouldn't drain out in the time it took to lock the vice and put on the twisting wrench), but as this problem started to creep in I began concentrating the heat into the middle of the twist area to counteract it, but it obviously didn't work. Any clues to this headscratcher would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

Cheers Frosty. This went pretty smoothely though there's definitely days when I feel like I'm forging with a banana instead of a hammer.

Cheers folks! Non-smiths don't understand the extra effort that goes into joinery, (compared to glueing bits together by mig/stick), so nice to have good feedback from those that know. Not sure how much it weighs t.b.h. The two axes are made with 10mm bar and the rings are made with 8mm bar.

Cheers guys. Relatively speaking I'm pretty new to blacksmithing and obviously still learning so it was a good little project. Getting joinery strong as well as aesthetically pleasing is an ongoing learning curve.

I made this in my coke forge for Mother's Day, it's a hanging basket to house one of her many flower pots. I designed it in my head on the drive to the workshop and made in 1 day with a hangover. Many points that could be better and I'd like to have the luxury of more time to tweak a few things, but I'm sure she'll be happy enough with it anyway. Highlighted a particular top and bottom fuller tool I'm lacking and will make sometime soon. Joinery is what really turns me on with blacksmithing so it was an exercise as well as a present I guess.