billyO

Hello all. Not sure if there's an answer to my question, but I'll try anyway. After 4+ years of pretty regular use, my home-made guillotine tool is starting to show failure at 2 welds and I'm starting to look for another. I'm wondering if anyone has used different types and could guide my decision on which type to buy, a "Smithin Magician"? OCP's design? or another? Not to offend anyone, but I'm not looking for advice from someone who has only used one design as we can adapt to almost any tool and make it work. Thanks!

I'd agree with everything above, and emphasize the importance of putting some thought into your decision (which you are doing) as there is no one answer for everyone. As a "smith" who makes his living by working as a Physical Therapist (that's Physiotherapist for those outside the US) for the past 20 years, if your main concern is to avoid back pain, I'd suggest bringing your concerns to your local Physiotherapist for the answer. Your back pains may or may not have anyhing to do with your anvil height. It may be tight hamstrings, relatively weak lower abdominal muscles or just an incorrect posture while at the anvil. In my practice, one of the more common causes of lower back pain is flexing at the spine as opposed to the hips and relying on the relatively small spinal extensor muscles to hold your position instead of the large hip extensors (gluteals) to perform the same task.

Some would argue there's a reason it's a reflex. Reflexes are nature's way of us protecting ourselves without our brains getting in the way. At risk of opening myself to Steve's plight, I'd argue that unless there's massive deep tissue damage (third degree burns which are through the dermal layers and into the fatty, subcutaneous tissue) use the slack tub or whatever's close enough to take the heat away from your tissues as fast as possible. If it's a burn that's going to blister, that's nothing more than inflammation/swelling trapped under the skin and that's still intact skin, so there's no risk of infection anymoreso than when you quench a piece. The risk of infection comes when the blister pops.

Am I to understand by the title that it's a functioning water tap? If so, $2500 might be on the low side...I guess that why you said, "and up" so I second Smokeman's thoughts.

How about keeping it, including the stock, BUT, using the skills you have now and ones you'll learn along the way, get the wood and make your own stock and : Use these to add metal accents on the stock and now you've turned someone else's family's heirloom, which was on the brink of death, into an heirloom for your family. Keep the stock to preserve history, if that's important to you

If she bites, can't she fly up here? You haven't figured out how to forge a flyer? You call yourself a Blacksmith?

Looks good eric! She have a sister? Bringing her to Puyallup?

OK, fair enough, but a smith with MUCH more experience than me once said, "Cold is the most even heat you can get." With a piece that long, being barely over 1/4" thick, and only doing 1/4 twist, I'd try twisting cold....

If I'm understanding correctly, what you're asking involves no drawing out or other changes to the parent stock size, only twisting and bending, which is the way I'd approach this. Get a long, even heat throughout the whole piece to get the 90 degree twist you're looking for, then proceed to bend the ring, taking care not to change the twist, that will be the challenge. Good luck.

Hello all, and thanks for spending the time with the responses. To clarify, I wasn't looking for a "Magic Number" merely a good starting point. On the rods I've been using, I noticed that I had to bump up the amperage about 10% from the recommended amps on the rods, and was wondering if, when going to different rods, that would be a reasonable starting point or if I should go with the starting parameters stated on the box. Sorry if I wasn't as clear as I could have been with the original question.

Hello all. I've got a 50-ish year old Marquette arc welder/generator with an Onan engine that still works great. When I got the machine a year or so ago, I had a friend who's got a number of welding certificates help me calibrate the machine and adjust the output settings for 6011 and 6013 in 3/32" and 1/8" rods. I have a couple of things I want to do that need different rods, some hardfacing and some 70xx for higher tensile strength. My question: Is there a constant difference in the output settings I'm using on my welder and the recommended output on these rods compared to others? Or do I have to buy extra rods and experiment to find the correct settings with each new rod I use? Thanks for the input

Not entirely true, the size of the hammer is based on the size of material. There are a few threads on IFI debating this, but the physics of the question can't be argued. Many smiths move material quickly and efficiently with a 2 - 2 1/2# hammer but you need to go bigger with larger stock, say, inch+ diameter. My favorite hammer is a 4# sledge, but that's way too big for smaller detail work, like horns on animal heads or petals and leaves on flowers. Another thing to consider is how the weight of the hammer will affect you, not the material. There's NO good reason to cause muscle strains or ligament sprains or other repetitive use injuries. You can always get a new hammer, tough to get a new body part.

Most likely not welded, but rather made to allow for changing punches using the inherent 'springy-ness' of the iron to grip the punch securely

Hello all. Thanks for all the responses, and I appreciate all the opinions. As I read all of the above responses, I noticed that I agreed with pretty much every one of them, even though some are contradictory. As I thought about how could that be, I realized my initial question was a bit too open and general, and could be interpreted different ways. So perhaps a clarification of my question and summary of the opinions will do more to help clarify rather than muddy the topic. Like I referenced in the original post, bottle openers are what prompted this discussion. I saw the guitar bottle opener and thought it was neat and a great idea. I spent a few hours of my time, my fuel, my steel and my brain power (such as it is :wacko: ), to figure out how to make one. The first one looked more like a mandolin, the second more like a violin, the 3rd and the 4th ones looked, to my eyes, just like a guitar. I'm not trying to reproduce someone else's guitar bottle opener and/or undercut their ability to make a living, and there's no copyright (although I'd like to keep lawyers as far away from this as possible, no offense to the lawyers in the group), so this "taking of an idea" is OK. On the other hand, the Smith who we could consider my main mentor as well as one of my best friends, makes bottle openers with a ram's head that look very much like the steer's head opener I posted in the above mentioned thread. The main differences are that he curls the horns into a ram's horn shape and does a simple twist of the handle, because more elaborate handles take much more time and won't get any increased return on his investment (time). He showed me the process, and when I showed him my first steer's head he thought it was good idea, and if I remember correctly he indicated that was an idea he didn't think of doing. He's encouraged me to make some to sell at the fair with him, but I don't do this. There's not enough of a difference in the shape/form (shaping the horns differently and adding a few chisel marks indicating the long hair of my highlanders would not hold up as a significant difference in a copyright trial. I guess I can't keep the lawyers aren't as far away as I'd like, :( sorry), I'm not sure I would have been able to come up with the steps to reproduce one on my own, and he's trying to make a living out of smithing, and the ram's head openers are part of his 'product line'. So this "taking of an idea" is NOT OK.

Here's one of my steer's head openers I talked about. PS - I just realized I forgot to add the hair details :blink:...Doesn't really look like the Highlanders I raise....oh well

Hello all. I tried a search for this topic, but didn't come up with anything although I'm sure it's been discussed. This treads closely to the trade secret discussion, but is different enough for me to start a new topic. If this has been already discussed, please point me in the right direction, if not, I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts. I'm wondering what the consensus is on selling items you forge that are based on designs that found here on IFI or other places. I know of at least one printed discussion involving one highly successful professional smith who feels that if you didn't come up with the design, you shouldn't try selling it, and another professional smith who says it's OK as long as you don't claim that you came up with the idea and don't try to pass it off as your idea. I tend to fall on the side that if I made it, I should be able to sell it as a hand-forged object, made by me, which is the truth. Where the idea came from is, well a non-issue. I'm pretty sure someone smarter than me was once quoted as saying something to the effect that, "There are no new ideas anymore." What got me thinking about this is the bottle opener thread. I'm a part-time (read:hobby) smith who does demos at the state fair and am allowed to sell items that I forge, both during demos and while working in my own shop. And I'd like to sell as much stuff as possible to pay for my addiction. Bottle openers seems to be good sale items, relatively inexpensive and easier to carry around the fair than, say, andirons. They are also relatively quick and easy to make, and make for good demo items. Is it OK to use ideas found on the web? By OK, I mean ethically, not legally.

Ooohhh, I like the guitar, Sean. Mind if I 'borrow' ;) that idea? My brother may like that one better than the steer's head opener I gave him a couple of years ago.

Not to be argumentative, but I'd suggest changing the above to, "Blacksmiths never intentionally make off with others' tools. Marking your tools is always a good idea, as if one happens to end up at a new home, it can find it's way back. Unless you have plenty of extra spare time and materials to replace lost tools, marking them is a good idea.

Welcome back, Zigmund! I wondered what happened to you. I look forward to seeing more of your work, I wish I could afford one of your blades.

:o GASP...I WAS wrong in the first post....."Inconceivable!!!!!!" Sorry Steve, apparently I need to work on my editing as well as memory exercises..... :rolleyes: Anyway, do what I mean, not what I say.... :P

I just found and re-watched my video and Peter says, "the oil from your fingers keeps the file from cutting". And Steve, to clarify, I said that trying to forge the sharp 90 will tend to cause a crack when you pull the tenon, not prevent one. That's why I was filing the tool in the first place (which was the basis for the original question), to remove the sharp corners, and I was using my sense of touch because with the light in my shop this afternoon, I could feel any sharp corners better than see them in the butcher part of the tool.

Perhaps I should have said, "a crack", but yes, I basically meant what I wrote. As you form a tenon on the end of a bar, if you don't radius the shoulder where the tenon meets the main stock of the bar, you're much more likely to forge in a crack. Isn't that why we use a monkey tool to square up the shoulder instead of trying to make it square when we butcher the stock??? I may be using the term cold shut incorrectly, but that was what I was taught. (but age can make memory less accurate....)

Hello all. As I was filing the sharp edges off a combo tenon butcher/spring swage I was making out of 4140 before hardening, and running my fingers around it to make sure there were no sharp edges that would prevent cold shuts, I remembered hearing Peter Ross chastize Roy Underhill on an episode of The Woodwright's Shop a number of years ago for touching a piece he was working on with his bare fingers, saying something to the effect of, "Blacksmiths NEVER touch bare metal with their fingers when filing". Why?

Wow, Sweet looking knife. Every time I see someone of your caliber turn out a Damascus knife, it makes me think I should try my hand at a blade. Maybe someday....In my 'free' time....

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting an alteration of blood chemistry. The point was rather to step back, do something else that you enjoy until your perspective changes enough to return to the task at hand. (Hope that didn't sound defensive or argumentative :unsure: ...)