Mark Aspery

Tim,
Can you give me a description or a photo where the heel bar connects with the hinge style please? Do you have a heel tenon?

Do you have any issues with the gate sagging at all or being 'whippy' when opened?

I use 1 1/4 inch heavy (120 thou) wall tubing to make a smoosh-a-matic. that gives 5 thou clearance for 1 inch bar inside.

I'm not sure that I would make them as I used to.

I think cut two sections of tubing and weld them onto a piece of angle iron.
I like angle iron as it can easily be filed to fit a hardy and with a wedge fit 'kitty corner' it will fit in any larger hardy hole.

Sorry to twitter on, but I gave my last posting a bit of thought and wanted to add to it.

I agree with the comments about Highlander's rose. I would like to see the edges thinner. BUT

Supposing Highlander came back to us and said -

"This rose is one of 50. They are to be placed on an overthrow to a gate and will be about 7 feet from ground level"

That may change my view point somewhat.
What then if Highlander added

"This work is to be placed outside in a New England environment (read wet and possibly salty)"

That would definitely change my viewpoint considerably.

2 feet above eye level -in a group of 50 -and in a wet environment. Thin edges wouldn't last very long.

What then if Highlander said that each rose had to be finished in 'X' amount of minutes or dollars to come in on or under budget.

Alas I am starting to ramble on.....

Highlander,
I like your rose -

But what I think I enjoy more is the fact that the next two comments were able to give you good feedback as to how to possibly improve your rose in the future.

Such feedback is hard to get.

In the UK we used to put a piece of work on the table and let all the participating smiths offer feedback. If they wanted to shoot it down they could _ BUT they had to defend their comments with a WHY they didn't like it.

The second round of feedback was where the maker could give the crowd the design brief from the client, as that could effect the way a piece was made - again the smiths could comment... changing view points if they saw fit.

The third and last round was design brief and budget constraints given - again the smiths could offer comment. At about this time the comments could and often did differ from their original views now that they had more information.

It was sometimes a bit harsh but not cruel. You could always run to the bathroom to cry if you needed. The end result - on reflection - was an improvement of the smiths design and build skills.

Thanks to those who offer constructive feedback!

I think Darryl is charging in the $35 dollar range. Plus S/H and the Governors cut if you live in WA.

Howdy Mark,
How's the book coming? You going to be at Weaverville this year? See you later.
Mike Limb

Mike, I'm writing the book at the moment. I taught a couple of classes at Darryl's this November and we had a few days to play with his video. It was a nice distraction.

Darryl will be coming to Weaverville in 2010 to do a demo/workshop.

I'll see you there in March. Regards to MikeH

Larry,
I helped Darryl with the video and extracted a couple of sections for YouTube.
I posted them on my channel as Darryl's internet service is a bit slow for him to create his own account.

I wouldn't have said that his were small.

I bet they stand well over 2 meters - I couldn't guess at the tonnage. There were two drive wheels driving the friction drive.

I'm a UK smith living in USA.

By friction screw press are you referring to a friction drive to a fly press type of set up?

Grant Sarver (sp?) of 'off-center-products' in Washington state USA was bringing them in for a while.
He has one set up in his shop and he does a lot of his drop forging under it. It's very impressive and very quiet.

If that's what your referring to you might want to try and make contact with him.

That is correct.

Chris,
Yes - The book details tooling and projects - chapter by chapter.

Sorry here is the Lynx head.

The Bear's Head shown in the picture is from 35mm or 1 1/2 inch square stock.

Darryl does a much better job.

You should see his Bison, Wolf, Ram and Lynx heads.

This is a Lynx I made in Darryl's class

Here is the URL for the YouTube clip for Darryl's Bear's Head;

YouTube - Bear's Head YouTube

I have just previewed Darryl Nelson's Bear's Head DVD that he has for sale. It was quite good. I am trying to get him to post a clip to YouTube. I'll post a thread if that happens.

It shows both the three dimensional and two dimensional bear's heads each in a step by step progression.
Each step is described (showing the tooling used) cold on the anvil. A close up of the actual forging follows each description.

There is a section on tooling.

The DVD runs for about 1 hour.

Darryl can be contacted at
firemtforge@hotmail.com

I show some of my efforts after taking a class from Darryl below.

Thomas is quite right. There will be some residue post welding. You will see this as a white powder around the area of the weld. It can take a few weeks to materialize, but materialize it will - sooner or later..

Where possible I like to pickle my welds by submerging them in white vinegar for a day or so. That normally does the trick. No more residue.

That's the stuff.
Try and keep it as dry as you can - it will work a little better that way.

20 mule team is a mix of acid and alkaline salts. I think the alkaline have the upper hand.

When molten, the corrosive nature of the alkaline attacks the scale on your work and dissolves it into a liquid form. This allows the scale and crud to exit the weld site when you start lightly hammering the two pieces together.

The borax also make a glass covering around your steel preventing further oxidation for a while.

I don't know what is going on chemically, but from experience, flux degrades over time in the forge environment.

Put it on at a near welding heat and don't let it sit too long in the forge when the bar is ready to weld.

If the bar looks crusty when you go to weld, don't bother. Brush the crud off - re-flux and re-heat and try again.

The hammer is the easy scenario, the adze a little more challenging.
There is, of course, a relationship between the finished eye and the initial slot punch.

I punch from 1 side up to 1 inch thick or two sides for over 1 inch.
If I am working at the anvil, I forge out the desired ends of the hammers before drifting the eye. If I am working at the power hammer, I continue to drift and spread the eye before forging the ends out.

In spreading the eye, the eye is elongated and distorted as shown in the photographs.

I have a second drift that I apply from each side to form the hour-glass shape to the inside of the eye to prevent the handle from flying off.

I'm afraid that I do not have an adze progression of photographs.

The difference for me is to fuller in from the bottom of the adze to start shaping the ends. In this way the top side of the adze remains flat.

You can either drift with a parallel drift and work the eye or you can drift with a tapered drift from the top and work the eye.

You might find it useful to drift over the vice jaws for support of the adze-eye edges.

I have seen some variations to this (portable) stand. One I really liked had three pivot points set about 6 inches down from the table. From memory these were arranged - one on each of the two front corners and one at the back flat side of the square upright pipe.

The legs pivoted out from these points to the ground, making a triangle shape - with the leg (hypotenuse) ground (opposite) and upright pipe (adjacent).
The legs were secured to the bottom of the upright pipe by chain going to the bottom of the leg, following the opposite side.

It seemed a sturdy set-up for a portable unit. The really nice thing was that the legs folded away for very easy transport, unlike mine in the book.

Steve from Colorado is to be credited with the idea.

Have you considered punching the eye by hand and foregoing the jig and press?

If you are going to use a press, make sure that the plate that the jig/tooling is welded to is VERY sturdy - I'm thinking 2 inches plus. I know that 1 1/4 inch plate will flex.

I recently tooled up a friend of mine who has symptoms resembling Parkinson's - trembles!

He wanted to make hammers so we mounted a slot punch into his #5 Fly press. The receiver/stripper combo was welded to a 1 1/4 inch thick plate. and secured to the base of the press.

We were going through 1 inch stock from a gas forge in 7 bumps. I was surprised at how much the base plate flexed. Also, the tool carrier at the bottom of the screw thread moved too much. It was too far out of the ways or guides. We moved up to 3 inch thick material to do two things

1. Reduce the flex AND
2. Place the tool carrier up into the guides to prevent sideways movement.

I have enjoyed a little success twisting square tubing. I tried to have the corners take more of a supportive role in the twist. To do this I 'gently' tapped the flat sides in to make them slightly concave and the corners proud. I do not try to draw the corners to a point, just make the sides concave.
This should twist a little better than stock tubing.
Twin convex rollers - one set top and bottom the next set side to side should do this on a large scale.

Just fine Frosty.
I have other PDF articles if you ever need them.

I do a little B&W photography for my articles and book. I am by no means an accomplished photographer.

The picture attached below gives a rough idea on how I set up the area. I used (in the past) flood light bulds (not spot light) inside of brood lamp reflectors with light diffusers from the kitchen florescent lights in front of them. Some very light white nylon material in front of that diffuses the light even more.

The broadest, diffused lighting that you can get will be your best bet.
The whole lot was done for under $100.

I now use a more professional lighting system -Interfit Super 5 cool lamps. But they cost $400 a pair.

I get my background from watching how special effects are done in the movies with a Chroma Key background. This is nothing more that a green or blue background. This Youtube video will give you an idea. YouTube - How to make awesome green screen (Chroma key)!! part 1 DVD

I have a PDF article that goes into this in a lot more detail but it exceeds the limit for IFORGE.

You can E-mail me and I'll send you the document if you wish.

Good luck.

I use a 1/8 inch wall 10 inch diameter pipe that sits on the forge table. I have a 14 inch tall 8 inch (across the chord) opening. Of that I close 2 inches at the bottom with a piece of 2x2x1/4 angle iron. This helps the flue's stability.

PDF document attached

Blackmiths flue article.pdf

I see that you list Denver as your home. I take it that you are a member of the Rocky Mountain Smiths.

I think that I agree with earlier postings -that blacksmithing is more of a calling than a career.

As far as retiring is concerned, I personally don't want to retire from this craft -BUT that doesn't mean that I'm not prepared. Accidents and illnesses can re-shape a plan pretty quickly. I think most smiths aim to retire by selling their building. This can be hard to do if you rent shop space.

Unless there is a manager between you and the product, then when you are all done, all you have to sell is your tools - not a business.

I think developing a product line is a good starting point. It will smooth out the highs and lows of self employment. The blacksmith shop -owned by Joe Koches- buys your wares outright.

Cherry Creek Mall seems like a place to get into - high end galleries.

Contact Rod Picket of Durango and have a chat with him (Rocky Mtn Smiths) he feeds his family from his forge. 970-769-1020

Ditto Craig May of Pine Co. 303-838-2619

I have heard it said that you should do what you want and the money will follow. I think that's a load of balony.
Do what you want and live within the means that it provides is more like it.

If you have good design skills you will get on - if not then you are pretty much relegated to the also-rans. Poorly designed but well made will not compete with well designed but poorly made. Look at impressionist art.

The physical hard skills can be purchased at a school or hired with an employee.

Good luck with your decision.