Eddie Mullins

I can't say if its the right or wrong approach, but I don't own a pair of "mass produced" tongs and don't plan to. I have the luxury of doing this as a hobby and enjoy making tongs. I am at about 20 pair now, they have much improved but have much improvement to go. The only thing I'll add to the finish of the reins, although I think it was perhaps not the intent of this post and is a given for most, is proper fit. Making do with ill fitting tongs has all sorts of downfalls.

Very Nice!  What are the handle and blade length?

I can see where using a radiused or thinner profile would greately reduce the size of the gap between the twists (the corners of my wrench have been relieved), but I don't see how it will eliminate it. I like the transition from one to the other to flow together, uninterupted. But this also has its draw backs. I have to do reverse twists in two heats and they aren't always identical, but then again, I'm not doing production work and don't mind each being a little different. 

Not saying either method is right or wrong, just my observation and may just be an error in my techniqe or tooling. I might still make a jig, can't have too may tools afterall : ) .

Is the purpose of the jig to hold both ends of the work while you use a wrench in the center to create the reverse twist?

This will leave a flat spot rather than making a nice transition between the twists and is the reason I don't like the technique. I do the twists separately, but that's just my personal preference. In some applications I could see where that flat spot might come in handy. It all depends on the situation and particular project I guess.

BTW - before I discovered the flat spot in the middle, I was going to make a jig that was notched to hold the stock. You could forge one, no welding needed. There's a few different ways to go about it, I could try to sketch something for you, but its not really my strong suite.

Looks like a good project to upcycle a tire tool to me, but thats probably because I have a few lying about.

Very cool pics indeed. I am still always amazed at the attire in many of the old photos, white button down shirts that look clean enough to wear to church. I can just walk past a coal forge and get dirty LOL.

Those are simply awesome. I haven't forayed into damascus YET, but I can see how it could become addicting.

Nice fit an finish on that one. I really like the handle material.

I just notice my first post says its a full tang knife, it should read hidden tang.

How did you get it to work? No joy here :(

 

Edit: I can get them to open in Chrome but not FireFox. Unfortunately, IFI is slower than frozen snot on Chrome at least on my puter...

 

Nice knife Eddie! :)

Thanks..

I don't know whats going on with the thumbnails. I made the post using Firefox, so it seems odd its the one causing problems.

Thanks for the kind words.

nicely done; tell us how you did the fittings.

 What would you like to know? The guard was drilled and then filed for a press for to the tang and flattened on the disc grinder for flush fit to the handle. The shape was done with band saw, angle grinder, belt sander and rotary tool. The pommel was shaped similarly. The pommel was also drilled and tang rounded passed through the pommel and peened.

Nice project. I like the angle of the hammer racks. I am in need of additional hammer storage now, and could add angled holders of that type below the 2nd shelf of my existing table.

This was a Christmas present for my father n law this year. A full tang dropped point skinner from an antler found on his property. New 5160 blade with mild steel fittings. For my 2nd knife of this type I am pretty pleased with it.

You could flatten the head so it stands on it and use the split section as a candle, bowl, ? holder.

 

Flip it over and turn the split sections into legs and forge a face on it's head for a critter, cute, scary, creepy or just plain weird; Looney Toons fashion weird that is.

 

It could turn into a muti lantern hanger, drive or hook over a limb style.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

I was thinking along the same lines as Frosty. After flattening or dishing the head, draw out the arms , scroll the tips and curl back over the head. I may have to steal my own idea : ) . Sometimes mistakes are just inspiration in disguise.... tell him thanks.

I yet to try damascus so its hard for me to comprehend how that pattern was even achieved, it certainly is one of the best looking pattern welded blades I have seen. The sheath and handle definitely pair well it too.

The hardware looks great IMO, but have to agree with Jim, the screw heads aren't quite right. I have only made 1 similar set of hardware, but I used standard plain hex head bolts that I heated in the forged and the square up the heads and finished the same as the hardware.

teenylittlemetalguy - Thanks for the pics, that helps a bunch. If I am picturing the vice weld step correctly, you would just need to space the bolts so that they do not contact your vice jaws.

I have also been wondering about the pattern creation, the angle grinder notches cleared that up also.

Good job frozen, looks like they turned out nice. Been doing much more?
There is something to be said for a heavy clamp. I made mine small so I could go in the small 2" bore of my little forge and not waste $ on gas. I also like doing the initial weld in a vice, keeps my thin clamp from getting bent.
Frosty I would love to see that shovel. You should finish it!

Could you elaborate on making the initial weld in a vice and what type of clamp you use?

Nice buy!

I have seen at least 1 setup where the flat platten was at about a 45 degree +/- angle with the belt running away from you or backwards. I thought it was a pretty good set up. I have a DC motor I plan to build my grinder with and am hoping to make it reversable so I do have to choose one direction or the other.

Very cool indeed.

For me its a nice connection with blacksmithing and the past. The tongs for example look remarkably similar in design to those still being made and used today. It makes me wonder just how long the design has actually been around, and also makes me want to make a pair : ) .

I wonder if a smith at that time would have had racks full of tongs, one for each different task, or a few pair that he made do with? my guess is the latter.

Thanks, hammering flat certainly makes sense.

Jim - glad to see you posting here, I hadn't seen the welding jig, and I'm sure you have some other gems not posted yet....

I'll make a small contribution (forgive the poor quality cell phone pic). Although others may have done this already, I haven't seen it that I can recall. I don't have a swage and wanted to start making fry pans, bowls, etc, so welded a hardy stem onto a short piece of thick walled pipe which I radius the edges of. It works quite well and I have produced various sized and shaped items using it.

That looks great. Mokume is still on my to do list, but havent tried it yet.

When you say you are flatening the faces, are you grinding them down perfectly flat? Isn't that removing much of the nickel? but I guess if it works and looks good, it doesn't really matter : ) .

Thanks for posting those Adam. I'll add them to the collection : ) .

Not sure what you are looking at, but I recently started selling and shipping a camping grill from home, 28 inch long box, shipped USPS from $8 to $13 +/- depending on where it went. I even print the label at home, its cheaper on line than in the post office.