Ian

That rope like twist could be used in a lot of other items as well, have you played around with it at all? See what it looks like when its squared up
I've used rope twists for simple (as in not overly ornate) door knockers and latch handles with students (when I was teaching at Surrey Docks Farm) sorry no photo's but they're not that hard to figure out.

Ow Do Ratel10mm (you got a proper name I can use? Peat Oberon's a gent, met him earlier this year, you should also try and track down Brian Russell too when you get back.

Anyways, I spent a year down under and can recommend a few places and blokes well worth your time, depending on where you intend to go (Its a ruddy big place after all).

The Hot Iron Muster is a good event, Alan Balls not a bad bloke and a good Smith, it's great for networking and picking up contacts. I met Dan Davies (multi award winner) there and blagged an invite up to his Farm in Gympie, and Wayne Saunders too who's the Resident Smith at Timbertown in Wauchope to name two. Dales a VERY good smith (although he denies it) and an even better 'Bloke' who 'made' my trip to Oz and Mont De Lancey is just down the road from him (Melbourne), it's also WELL worth a look if you can put up with 'The Bowler Hat' (in joke, sorry) or Oskar as he's known. The ABA lads I met with Dale were a fantastic bunch of guys and there were a couple of old timers that have forgotten more about Smithing than I'll ever know. They're well worth the trouble of tracking down.
If you get up around Sydney then you HAVE to go see Glenn Moon, end of story. The Man is a genius on the big hammers, and as mad as a Badger in the BEST way possible. I'm trying to juggle 'everything' to make it to the first 'Get Hammered' Event, it should be great.
Over on the West coast Perth is a good place to go, there's the BAWA, if I remember rightly theres an old English Smith who lives that way who was instrumental within the Rural Developement Committee (those nice free books), but I never made it over that far (yet )

It's the James Wilkinson that appeals to me

Possibly because it's from Sheffield, in my home County, but mainly because Wilkinsons produced some of the finest steel (and steel products) in the world for a time.

Oh yes we do mate
Even the 'Legends' on here know exactly how you felt.
It's only ever when you're making somthing purely for your own pleasure that the "Oh **** I hope they like it!" Gremlin doesn't leer at you from a corner till the clients gone.

Thanks guys. I've been putting a few sketches together to explore how far this theme could be taken (Very far, it's got tremendous scope) The mesh is woven as its made at the factory, it's usually used in heavy industry as part of filtrations systems. Because it's woven it can be stretched and bunched and worked almost like a flat piece of clay ('almost' being the operative word!) it's a lot of pushing and pulling. Getting somthing recogniseable out of it is down to you

AS AN ASIDE:

APOLOGIES TO ALL BUT I MAY BE OFF THE FORUM FOR A WHILE, MY LAPTOP HAS BEEN HIT WITH A VIRUS OR HACKER AND IS OFFLINE UNTIL I CAN GET IT FIXED. EVERYTHING 'AFTER' OZ is at stake so I'm taking no chances.
I'm using the PC at Davids Studio today so at best I'll be checking in once a week till I can get the old faithful back up and running. Speak to you all soon I hope

Thanks Adrian, I really appreciate it. Haven't seen that face but I'll try and find some images (I'm curious it might be David Begbie's work). The mesh was worked free hand, no moulds or such, some hand tools to push against like wooden dowling or a butter knife (LOL high tech eh?) for instance.
It was heavily influenced by Davids work and as his technical assistant and a Blacksmith I was really interested in seeing how the semi transparent mesh would work against solid heavily forged iron. This is the end result of that first experiment and I think it works, it certainly would on a much bigger scale I feel sure.

Justin, It's forged 1" square mild steel and steel mesh. I sprayed it gold with silver highlights, the rest was finished in satin black. It stands exactly six inches high and to me is a more of a maquette for a much bigger piece (6 feet) than a stand alone work.

Comments and thoughts please :)

I now own a Denbeigh No 6 flypress (recently aquired) after using a No 3 for nearly a year as work required for my old 'boss' I had to have one. Flypresses are brilliant tools, especially from a noise point of view, and with the right tooling can do a HECK of a lot of work. Last job I used the No 3 on was a set of 8ft by 5ft flatbar gates (thats 8ft x 5ft each side, style wise think portcullis) we made dies to sink the verticals into the horizontals prior to hand riveting. Also made all the rivets with it too (hundreds) The No 3 had no major problems sinking 5mm x 50mm flatbar at a yellow heat, two or three fast heavy bumps. I'd go as big as you can afford or have space for as you can use a light touch on a bigger press but would have to use lever bars to get more torque on a smaller unit (NOT ADVISED AT ALL).

considering a lot of folks (myself included) started out with big lumps of rail track as ASO's that is a GREAT lump of steel. The spark test and ring test may help you guage its carbon content but even if its mild steel as long as you work your steel hot it'll stand a fair amount of work before it starts to mar up. It'd make a great anvil base for a JYH then :D

Deepest forge fire I've worked was with Moony in Oz, that was an old truck rim with refractory to angle the sides. Must've been nearly a foot deep from the hearth table to the air grate. We filled it woth coke and it would happily burn with the sweet spot above the hearth table, mind you the blower was a big old thing that could float a tennis ball and we were working big stock. 30 tonnes of coke to keep the fire going was only a short wheelbarrow and shovel ride away

I'm with John, thats exactly what I've been taught and its what I do as well. If your patient you can hook out some real 'cowpat' style lumps, like a flat donut, and have a really clean roaring fire five minutes later (instead of the shrapnel you get if you dive in too early after shutting off the air).

George, probably the opposite. We used logs Lay the log on, rake up coke around it and leave, come back later, often much later, and turn on air. 99% of the time it'd fire back up. Drag out the log, water it down some and save it for the next time. The charred bit will spark it up again really easily.

I've met Brian twice, once at Ironbridge with the rest of his family and once when I went with a Blacksmith mate of mine (Moony) who came over from Oz to see him at his forge. I'd heard about him before I met him, seen his work and rated it but was suprised by how generous he was. I tried to lurk and just watch, but made the fortunate mistake of asking a question about how he got such a sharp clean outer corner on some square bar bent 90 degree's without thinning the corner. I think they were components of a gate. I'd hoped he'd just tell me, instead he showed me how and then went on and gave me a bit to try myself. He dragged the steel about so ruddy fast it was just impressive. I took another heat to get it done LOL. He said the one I did was good enough to try doing the other 100 or so he needed. Purely from an educational point of view I envy you those three years, I'd love to take some classes with him.

I'd have no issue with using that after a bit of a brush, nice find

"Get it HOTTER!" - Dale Russell

"If you give someone your word then you KEEP it. If you tell someone you're going to do something then you DO it. A man who doesn't value his own word is NO kind of a MAN at all. So don't EVER give your word lightly " - My Father

Outstanding Adrian, truly beautiful work. Looking at it makes me think you've worked with Brian Russell maybe?

My latest purchase arrived this week and I'm pretty happy with it. Should certainly come in handy wherever it ends up going. For now it's living in the bosses cellar, along with several other bits of kit (I still darent tell him about the 'little' forge hearth in there. LOL) safely greased and wrapped up snug.

Oh thanks very much Steve! As if I don't have enough on my plate all I need is a hoofing great door knocker clattering my nose every time I nod my head . Even if it does look fantastic (hands up how many folks here have seen a TAPERED pineapple twist before?) I reckon it'll look better where it was made to go.
Welcome to the site Manny, trust me, ask sensible questions and you'll learn more from this mob than you ever will with me.

If you mean to use a mould made of aluminium to contain another molten metal then I wish you best of luck and may I reccomend a good undertaker?

If you mean how do you make a mould to CAST aluminium INTO then I refer you to the terms 'Cope and Drag' and 'Sandcasting'. I also suggest you google 'Backyard Metal Casting' as well.

I've heard it pronounced "To" and in 'touch' and "Yair" as in 'lair', and thats how I pronounce it.
That being said in England I've heard Tue ( as in teusday ) iron as well.

This is all with regards to side blasts though, for bottom blast forges it's not so clear to me what everythings supposed to be called. The blast goes through the same pipe the ash is dumped from, so technically only the part above the T junction at best could be called a Tuyere, but then it doesn't extend through the air grate into the firepot like a true Tuyere on a sideblast does. Everything below the T (on a bottom blast) would be classed as part of the Ash Dump to me.
How about some answers from the text books?

Your pile of bricks, or even a hole in the ground will work, mine did. It's up to you what standard of work you can produce with them, but it will only improve with practice.

I know both Glenn Moon and John Nicholson personally and I can say without hesitation that they are both totally genuine blokes and a fountain of knowledge on these hammers as well as a heck of a lot of other stuff. My two favourite hammers were made with Moony and a lot of my favourite beer (free) was drunk with John. Great blokes and an asset to the site.

Can't be 100% sure but my 2p's worth is to try to choke the burner first. I also think that having a ton of dragon's breath is no good either, seems to me thats combustion going on outside the forge thus wasting a lot of BTU's.

I've heard of a few non invasive testing methods, one of which you've already tried (and because you say the hammer bounces back nicely makes me think it's not cast iron) the other is sound, cast iron sounds dull compared to the 'ring' of steel so how did it sound when you hit it with the hammer?
If all else fails you can spark test it, cast iron has dull red sparks that don't split. Could someone else confirm what I've said? 12 hours at work with a ten mile bike ride chucked in means I'm tired and a bit foggy