Roastbeef

Awesome, great character, if I was receiving them as a gift I would be amazed, well done.

 

Pretty awsome work! I will never throw away another bandsaw blade!

Wow, amazing work. You could find an old tractor rear wheel center for the bath if you want. A lot of hard work has gone into that, well done!

Nice work:)

love it!

Great finish love the notch's on the blade, Phil

 

I like making bottle openers, they get a lot of use in our house, well done.

can taste the cider already, well done, I love the attention to detail, good luck with the cider.

Fantastic work, nicely finished, well done.

Really nice work, bravo!

Hey, great work, scales on his back too.

Brilliant work, I must get back on the forge, thanks for showing us.

Phil

Hi, I live in France and these sort of hammers seem to be readily available for sale second hand at around 1000 to 1500 Euros (about 1200 to 1750 dollars). I have never seen one in action, or even up close, just seen them on internet auction sites.

Has anyone any experience in using one ?

Cheers

Phil

 

Hi Guys, I really fancy getting hold of some bronze to work with. I like to make belt buckles, candle holders etc etc, so I guess I am looking for some 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch bar.

I am in France so I think most of you won't be able to help with recommending suppliers, but my questions are:

What type of bronze should I be asking for ? 

Do you work it cold or from the forge ?

Is it expensive?

What type of rods do you use for welding it ?

 

Thanks in advance for your replies :)

 

Phil

I don't know what to say !! fantastic vision you have - truly amazing   - I will never again throw away a single bolt or broken spanner in the vain hope that I may be able to produce something like this one day!

Love this forum

Phil

I love your fish man !! how do you get the bluing effect?
Phil

Interesting. Can you forge weld with it? Any problem with the burners being so far into the forge? How do you adjust the air?

I guess you can forge weld although I have not tried yet, the burners have a stainless steel bezel welded on the end, they do get really hot and this may be a problem in the future.
The air is adjusted by a simple 1/2 inch tap, air is supplied by a blower that I had for a paint spraying system.

Here are some pictures of my first forge, it was a process of trial and error - so here is the process I went through, and how I ended up with this design.
Firstly the burner, using some 1/2 inch galve water pipe that I had lying around, I made my first venturi burner. This worked well but there was not enough heat, so I made another and put the two side by side.
The venturi burners were not very efficient in the forge, there was a lot of un-burnt gas coming out of the forge opening - probably because I the burners were not getting enough air.
Also the forge was too big, I had made it two bricks high.
So I cut it down to just one brick high ( as in the photo's) and did away with the venturi system and connected a forced air supply.
WOW this worked GREAT.
The forge works really well, the heat is fantastic, I get almost a white heat, also I can "tune" the burners by controlling the air input and gas supply, I can regulate the heat for a "eco" mode or turn it up for max heat.
Lighting it is a bit tricky, I normally throw in a lighted rag or tissue and then firstly turn on the gas - this lights up the workshop !, then I slowly introduce the air.

Your work is fantastic, I can see (as a newbee) the time these pieces must have taken - well done
Phil

I am very glad that so many people like my design and want to try it out! :) I am curious how you will put it into practice so I´d be very happy if you can post pictures or even videos of your tries.

I'm going to give that a try this weekend - looks great - thanks for sharing 99

Where are you in the SW of France?

Hi Yves, the village is called "Gasques" roughly between Agen and Montauban.

Hi everyone, my name is Phil, I am originally from the UK but I now live in South west France.
My wife and I run a horse livery business, a holiday gite and we are renovating an old fortified chateaux (just a pile of rocks really)


Just started forging and really love this forum.
I have built a gas forge from some kiln insulating bricks, I have made a couple of things to start with (a small fire poker, and a door knocker) and I am quite pleased how they have turned out.


Now I know why I have been saving all that scrap metal that a farm accumulates over the years, just couldn't bare to throw it away or weigh it in!
Anyway - loads to learn
Phil