Gayle Brooks

Wow Michael! Thank you for such kind words. Some about me: I'm a second generation smith and am 28 yrs old. I grew up in the studio. It was used as punishment for quite some time when I was younger. I never really got grounded, I just went to work with dad. I have been full-time since I was 15. I work with my father and 99.9% of what I know, and how to do it, is because of him. I take an occasional class but most of the time he is my walking library. I could not do this craft without him. As for the business side of things, I get handed a design that he has drawn up. I am allowed the freedom to interpret the drawing how ever I see fit --as long as it looks like the drawing at the end-- and I finish with in the given amount of time to stay with in budget. Most of our work has been in higher end custom homes. The designs are custom to each client. Either based on their personal experience and/or design of the house. As for these firedoors he is really liking them. Has made the comment "I like where you have taken these. Nice touch." The shop is quite large. It has been 30 years of my dad gathering, building, modifying. The past 10 years of my contributions as well. Some update pics of what I was able to get done today. Rolled some barrels and fabed the pins into place. Riveted the grill and handles

Thanks! The mounting pads for the handles were welded on.

found some in progress pics wewt! and a close up on the head

thanks for the kind words, Beth update on these doors. Got the grills done. I have left is to hang them, rivet then grills on, build the glass frames and some fine details. Handles riveted together. A tenon was forged on the end of the 1/2" square stock and riveted through the 3 pieces of flat bar

I gave the topic the same project name that it is in the studio. After cleaning up the working drawing I was given, and got the small details figured out I went to the prototypes for the grill of these fire doors. This particular one was a type of "knuckle" joint. The challenge was to forge this detail and be able to do it so that another joint could be laid out on the same bar. I tried to forge this out on the anvil and power hammer, though could not get a consistent, controlled result. So after upsetting the mass, offsetting it to one side, drilling a hole and cutting mass out to create a slot; I used a press to squish this joint out. I made some tooling for the press that had 2 shoulders to control the piece to stay inline. Ended up breaking the press step up in 2 parts. One was using a 3/8"x 1" flat bar and set it in the joint under the press. Next I opened it up a little making room for my 1/2" x 1" bar and doing that last squeeze. The result was nice and very clean. I apologize ahead for this is a camera phone pics. Thanks for reading! Ill post more soon.

upset, 2 sided taper leaves? Typically I get those long one when I fuller off to much mass. can only guess that kind you are making. hope it help!

very cool! gj

another Ball peen conversion. Is my first curly maple handle. I reinforced it with a 3/8" round bar through the handle from what I read these dont make the best working handles. I welded a rivet to the top of the round bar, a 1/4"x20 thread on the bottom and tighten it up with an acorn nut. Goes to a new owner next week. Enjoy! Oh an some RR spike knives for xmas gift.

Gunters sell an oil quench designed for such a thing. I have a 5 gallon bucket of it, works great. Doesn't produce the smoke like the motor oil. The most I have seen react from it is a little flash of fire. Also I have not had a fire start on the surface like I have seen from the motor oil. Email em @ brad@g3blacksmithing.com Tell them Rory recommended them to ya. Hope it helps :)

here is mine!

Zipp Products,pneumatic tool, vibration reduction air saw, shock reduction air hammer, air hydraulic riveter, industrial air saw, chipping hammer, universal swivel air inlet joint, low backlash planetary gear reducer, air sander, air file, air impact I have a version of this. Its an air hammer with an attachment. I modified it when the particle board diaphragm broke with a metal one I made. That was 6 years ago.

oh and I forgot to mention, they have a yahoo group that they do use. People post questions, events, etc. RMSmiths : RMS OnLine Im Rory by the way. Hope to see you around :)

Elizabeth Brim is noted for mastering this technique if anyone was looking to research this. Master Metalsmith 2009: Elizabeth Brim

Heya Ben! Join Rocky Mountain Smiths. I know they are going to have a workshop soon in Erie. I believe its geared for people who want to learn. They will have a forge setup with an assistant smith who will help direct and answer questions. Rocky Mountain Smiths, Colorado Blacksmiths

I hope the work inspire others as much as what I see has inspired me. So dont be shy about things you make.

more like inspired. the fold and weld technique was what I used, though I was limited by the handles. For viking period axes they are a bit on the exotic side, and the handles are wrong. Since then though I have traded the small war hammer and a large axe for a wood lathe with tooling. I'll start turning my own handles in time. Thanks for the compliments :)

Received this in the email from a fellow smith. Thought I would pass it along. Short article about the this guys experience concerning brake cleaner and tig welding. Definitely read, takes 10 min and could possibly save your or someone else's life. Brake Cleaner = Phosgene Article August 2009 issue of American Iron Magazine Photo used with permission of Steve Garn (author). I spoke with Steve and weeks later he is still recovering. He has some damage to internal organs and breathing problems that will remain. We wish him well and thank him for allowing IForgeIron to use this article to inform others of the dangers that exist.

wow thanks for the compliments! Yes I used the torch to give the handles that color. The next war hammer could easily have a slight curve in it! good point.

These are going to an Irish Festival. That hatchets have wrought iron bodies with 5160 forge welded tips. The war hammers are w2. Everything was annealed, progressively hardened, and heat treated after the forging. Enjoy! -Rory

when I was little I was very concerned about doing the trade with my dad. He asked why and I said "I don't want pop-eye arms."

I am guessing heat to non-magnetic? Also I have never heard of someone color blind not being able to do spark testing. If there is alot of tungsten wont be much spark just dark red (in that I can see it being difficult.) Otherwise its looking at the stars of the sparks, how many there are, how they break, where they break, length of their tails, etc. And using a known to see how it performs. I would give it a try if you could as well as the heat treat test.

I had taken a class Rob Gunter taught that was mostly heat treating. Harbor freights ballpeens are w2 and that is coming from the the store rep he had contacted. Thats just some control about where you buy the tool. Im sure other ballpeens could/are different metals. I had noticed that my blade moves during the normalizing process while in the vermiculite. Every time I pulled it out it would have a rack in it. I would straighten it back up and do the normalize again until that blade didn't rack. Anyone else have this situation? It took at least 2 normalizing processes until it stopped racking.

nice. Heres mine

ohhhh ya I get ya. rlarkin has got it

from the pic hard to tell anything about it since the pot is most important. Dont see a klinker breaker and wondering how the trap on the bottom works to clean out the pot. Is that a shelf right under it? It might be difficult to clean out your fire. If its cheap you can always fix it. I know blowers are getting hard to find where I am at.