Strongback

Those look great! I'd be interested in finding out how you manage to get the Spur end forged out without distorting the texture. Do you mind giving a quick brief on your process? I don't anticipate having to make any spurs but that technique would definitely be useful in other endeavors.

I use smaller spring steel for stems and braids and such and it works just fine...as long as you don't quench it. If it's left to cool at a normal rate it won't get brittle. I did the exact same thing the first time I tried to braid with it. I don't, however, know if reheating a piece that's been quenched and then cooling slowly will fix a brittle piece of steel.

Is it up yet?....No. How about now?....No. Now?.....No. Uhmmmmmmmm.....Now?.....NOPE. Just thought I'd let you know how my day went yesterday. If it weren't for this site(and the sights on this site) blacksmithing would still be a boyhood fascination for me so I'm very greatful to the admins and members who take the time not only to create and maintain such useful content but to also display their talents and share their wealth of knowledge with the rest of us.

I'm glad a potentially bad situation turned out all right. Otherwise, I'd have felt bad for laughing so hard. Even though I was frightened for you while reading it I couldn't help but laugh. Especially, when I (unavoidably) imagined two grown men peeing into a big ole bonfire in hopes of preventing an explosion. That sounds like something you'd see in a Jack Black movie not on a Blacksmithing thread. Did you ever find the blown bung-hole? If so, how far did it go? I'll assume that you'll follow all the sage advice given here should you attempt it again so that your next post is also on IFI and not over on the Darwin Awards. Thanks for the funny story.

5-20 stiches should mend up that SEAM she left you.

Very Nice! That is a fine texturing job. Of course I'll have to try it but I know my first (couple) of tries won't have nearly that much success.

1. Join the local blacksmiths guild. 2. Get some learnin' from somewhere other than the internet. (see 1.) 3. Make some of the tools I need instead of "makin' due". (when the choice is (a) build a tool or ( work on a project. ( always wins) 4. Sell some work to pay for my habit.

You folks are too kind. I appreciate the compliments and having a forum to show my work where it might be appreciated/critiqued is a real motivator for me. I found myself thinking of how it might be recieved here while I was making it and that pushed me to do better work. I could have gotten away with a lesser product as a gift but knowing I was going to post it for review by better 'Smiths than I prevented me from taking any shortcuts. Am I alone in this? Paul. Thank you for your generous compliment but there isn't anything so technically involved in this that you couldn't do it now with a working forge, hammer and something to beat on. (An O/A torch and welder are very helpful too but not absolutely necessary.) This is the current limit of my know-how and 100% of what I know of blacksmithing has come by way of the internet. If I give you links to the BPs that I used to do this, I'll bet you 100 million fake internet dollars that with just a couple of attempts at the roses you'll be able to replicate or improve this within a week or so.

Drink more but I hope you've prepared your WILL.

I was thinking of how I would have dealt with this problem but didn't (and likely wouldn't) have come up with that. I'll have to file it away for future use. Thanks.

I know I'm a little late but I made this for my wife on Christmas eve. It took 8 1/2 hours but I finished wiping it down at 11:50. My wife was happy with it as evinced by the first thing out of here mouth, "Aw Tony, I want to sell it!" The highest form of praise from her. This was my first attempt at twist using a forge instead of a torch and I wasn't ready for how much harder it is. I intended for a bit of asymetry but not to have no two twist come out the same. I'll obviously have to work on that. Any suggestions/advice/comments/criticisms are welcome. Thanks for looking.

That looks like a tough job, but you did it very well. Good job!

Don't beat yourself to hard you'll raise a Welt!

It always takes a long time to dig wreckage out of SILT!