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.

One good way to attach doors in a fire place is to mount a piece of strip stock on each side with two machine screws, one high one low. The screws pass through threaded holes in the frame and using a wrench tighten the pieces of strap stock against the fireplace.
Frosty

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!

1-12 tons of scrap. (Pick a day)

After looking at the work you guys post here, if I didn't know better I'd doubt my own ability to tie my shoes let alone 'smith. I think your gate is outstanding and especially enjoy your exibit of joinery.

I'm not one to shy away from criticizing others , but I don't have the technical expertise to be of much use here. Asthetically, I think the arch could have used a bit more "weight". More crosses as has been suggested would probably fit the bill. More importantly, I would have prefered to see the tennon joints used on the lower section used on the top as well. If I had built this I'd have it posted anywhere and everywhere I could. So, my criticisms are only offered in an attempt to further the exercise.

The mention of budgetary constraints leads me to the question, "What would you have done differently with an additional 10%-20% in the budget?"
Since you didn't have any particular design constraints from the client why did you stop where you did? This is asked purely for my own edification.

Thanks, I'm very happy with it, but if I were a better photographer, you'd be much less enthused. I'm finding that smithing is a lot like chess. The basic ideas can be gathered in a rather short period of time but mastering them is going to be a life-long event.

My first completed "project" is also my mother in laws christmas gift. I've only had an operational forge for a month and every bit smithing knowledge I posses has been gleaned from the information generously provided on the IForge Blueprint pages. Thanks to the authors of "Braid 2", "Russian Rose", and the various tips on leaf making throughout this site otherwise this would still be 20' of garage door spring and a foot or so of 1/2" mild steel bar.

Now I just need to find some blueprints on photography...

EDIT: Okay...I realized when I went to look up the names of the authors for a couple of the specific BPs, that I did in fact get them from another "how-to" site. It doesn't diminish the fact that I have gained great knowledge and motivation from the denizens of this forum and appreciate how forthcoming you all are with information, tips and "secrets".

I don't know if it qualifies me as an addict, but I do tend forge in binges:
Once the Muse takes control and I am unable to quit until She allows me rest. She will compel me to work slavishly at my forge during every available moment until Her lust for fire and steel is well sated. I may fill her appetite for days and sometimes even weeks but when Her hunger stirs there is nothing to be done but obey. So, obey I must.
Like I said, I don't know if this means I should sign up for meetings but thank you for letting me share anyway.

The very first thing I attempted to make in my forge were some tongs and they are not only ugly but ineffective. I made the attempt based on what I remembered from some blueprints but mixed them up in my head and was trying techniques from at least two different BPs and wound up burning/breaking the ends off of a great many pieces of flat and sqare bar before I got anything that even remotely resembled tongs. My first successful use of the forge was a series of leaves out of 1/2 square bar.

I'll try some tongs again soon but I had to let it go for a while.

Lot's of workable ideas here and I'm not suprised one bit.

The charcoal option is for my neighbors and since I heat 100% with wood I can have a ready supply of charcoal just by sifting my fireplace ashes and much more if I purposely set out to make charcoal. I appreciate your concern though.

Chaos, an ajustable stack? Is this something suspended from above?

I liked the look and what I suppose would be the improved utility of the side draft forge and believe that I have sufficient airflow for it to work. I actually did move the hood to the side of the firepot just to see if it would draw the air and it seemed to work well. The only (admittidly juvenille) reason I haven't built it that way more permanently is that I like having a keg for a hood and since I've already cut it to the purpose... I suppose I could just turn it into fireplace shovels or flowers or something though...

Ice, nice pics. That's kind of what I was trying to get done with the fireplace screen. I reckon I could afford to put a couple more in-line and still retain sufficient airflow to keep me out of the dark sulphorous clouds.

Steve, thanks for the clarification on the smoke-shelf. I'll have to research some plans for a good side-draft hood for future implementation.

I used to think that forges were built but I've come to realize in the short month or so of my operation that they are instead evolved. I'll take some pictures so you guys can laugh at my set-up. I have to have it indoors because (even though every house in my neighborhood has at least one fireplace) apparently even the sight of a woodpile is offensive to some of my neighbors. I'm a Stealth-Smith! Maybe that's what I'll name the forge. Stealth Smith Forge. What do you think?

After numerous abortive attempts at creating an exhaust hood that will allow me to forge in my garage without killing myself due to smoke inhalation. I've McGyvered together a 1hp blower and some 4" exhaust pipe to successfully vent all the smoke created by my coal (I don't know from grades of coal but I do know that it was free) fired forge with Keg-made hood.

It works a little too well though, as it tends to suck up sparks and the occasional small piece of hot clinker out and shoot it into my from yard. I solved the large particle problem by using a piece of fireplace screen over the intake. But little sparks are still a problem.

Though I use coal for now I would like to have a charcoal option because of the smoke issues, I can't because the sparks look like an amateur pyrotechnics display.

All of this is to ask; does anyone have a suggestion on how to stop this while maintaining a sufficient airflow to keep my work space smoke free? I'm sure I'm missing an obvious fix somewhere and just as sure that you good folks can point it out to me. Thanks for the help.

congrats! Hopefully, your fortune will be "catching" and some of us other beginers with have its smile shine on us.:D

I'm glad you moved that decimal. If word got out that you were buying scrap at .90 you'd have had a line of beat-up pickups a mile long in front of your house and I would have been first in line. That's a nice looking score by the way. I'm sure everyone looking at the pics has already forged 100 different projects in their minds. At the yards around here it's all about the lbs. So, if you pick up a couple of washer/dryers, hot water heaters and miscellaneous junk on trash day you can trade for weight if you see something good in the pile. I don't spend a lot of time on it but I don't pass up the oppourtunity to turn someone's trash into someone else's trash that I, then, can use. That way I don't have to beg the treasury department for increased funding everytime I want to buy some junk.

Glenn, that's so obvious once you say it. Can't put water on the fire? Put the fire in the water.