Gergely

Try to get in touch with Matei Campan here in IFI. Have a nice time there! Gergely

Those are bent from 100 mm / 4" long 5x10mm stock. (First drawn out a bit.) I'd say 2" tall and a tad less wide. I try to get better pictures because that one above is really messy. My camera is getting a bit hectic. G

Some runic pendants and lucky horseshoes - you know, to pay the checks Bests: Gergely

Wow, Das! That's a keeper! Bests: Gergely

Thank you for the info, James! Bests: Gergely

Confidence, brother, confidence! Unique design elements make your work special not lame. You did a nice job, again! Bests: Gergely

Glad to hear you're off the blade and the hospital too. I wish you strength and perseverance for the healing time. Bests: Gergely

Cool pictures! Thanks for sharing. That anvil in the jewelry store just reminded me the time I walked in a jewelry store in Oulu, Finland. And noticed a bunch of nice axes and knives in the very middle of the shop. You could touch them as they were in an open display Bests: Gergely

It's not just the PH. It does speed up the work, of course. But we're talking about 56 heats in 70 minutes. You need a good gas forge for that. But even that's not enough. You have to organize and set up work prosseses so precisely to do that amount of work so fast - and that makes the professional blacksmith! I can only admire that level, and wish I could ever reach half of that effectiveness. Thank you Judson for sharing! Please keep them coming! Bests: Gergely

Great work, James! The nose-heavy look on the bush swords is wild! One question: how thick are these long blades at the start of the blade? (Near the handle, I mean.) Thanks and bests: Gergely

Okay, first of all: you guys made my morning and that's not bad as I'm already back from the shop after some cool pounding. First things first: 1. I'm sorry but forgot to mention that I punched the holes. Oopsie, I thought I told it in the first place but did not. 2. Around here all the log dogs have these Habermann bends. Although no one knows it's called that and who Habermann was at all... Also you must do full upset right angle corners othervise the iron doesn't fit on the squared timber log. Yeah, I'm happy with it 24 or so hours pickling in 3-4% winegear then neutralizing with washing soda, flame dried with PB torch, then took the angle grinder on it with wirebrush cup wheel. Worked like a charm. Finally heated with the same torch and got the beeswax/carnauba finish on it. On the other subject: I'b be very happy to help anyone here in IFI learning Hungarian - after all it was my job for years If any of you find yourself with overflooding Hungarian skills emerging from nowhere, just give me a howl! Finally: yes, the cursing vocabulary of Hungarian language is really wide and very-very offensive cowering all fields of relatives, sacred things and conceptions, body parts, bodily functions, proffesions, animals, colours, diseases, parasites, states of decay and so on... Better be without them. Bests: Gergely PS: I did these in the early morning, the wide bladed supposed to be 420J steel:

Thanks, JHCC! That's all I have from the start. I really have to begin to document my starting stock better. Thanks, Mark! They have so much bulk in the bottom half I can't say they would be top heavy. Bests: Gergely

Sort of, but without going into the wood on one side. I'm not completely sure. I'm about to talk with an old carpenter/roofer who may remember the application method and the Hungarian name. My old blacksmtih friend doesn't know the name... Thanks, Das!

Finished the first two candlesticks of this design. There are four of these all together. I found four pieces of these big L-shaped, old timber irons. (If anyone has a clue about their name, please do tell.) I saw the possibility of the candlestick in them, and this was the design I came up with. These are about 1' /300mm tall, the square is 3/4"/20mm thick. The width of the half circle is about 6 1/2" / 160 mm. The cup at the top is a 40x40mm piece. Thanks for watching Bests: Gergely

Nice, thank you! And on the mmish - good call, also thanks for bothering to convert it to my system G

Okay, I can't let it be untold, even it is cheesy to say : Please don't bother with those irritative alloys! Keep only the 4140 and send me the A2 and S7 I will know how to dispose them correctly... Back to serious, Thomas is very much right! D2 is not fun to forge. You can hardly move it, it's almost sure you'll mess it while forging, and if you don't you'll mess it while heat treating it. My experience shows that even HSS is easier to forge and HT than D2 like alloys. A2 and S7 has their own problematic sides. If you're a beginner it's better wait a bit till you acquire some experience on the basics. 4140 is way more forgiving material to start with. When you have the knowledge to use your own setup to heat and heat treat tool steels give it a go. Bests and happy hammering: Gergely

Get well soon and try to enjoy the times of inertia! I hope when you come back "refreshened" you'll hit the 30 000 posts in no time! Best wishes: Gergely

If the thickness of the stock allows it (thick enough, I mean) I think you can get the most of this material by stock removal. I have no personal experience forge welding D2 but based on its chemical composition it may not be the easiest to play with. - But why not try it anyway? - experimenting is fun Bests: Gerrgely

wow! incredible details! awesome!

Hi, I see no ugly but you got yourself some thickening under the head which can be frustrating to file/grind to have the screw fit. If I had the same job I'd make the header as a nail header with 3/4" hole. I'd upset the very end of the rod then shaped the head while it's in the header. It'd become round of course but you can easily square it after. I don't say this is the best method, but right now I'm thinking it could do it Bests: Gergely

Hi Mark, Cool shop and nice works again! I really like that axe - did you make it from scratch? What was the starting stock? Some things I've been working on recently: Don't know the name of these big nail-like things, I use them for candlesticks. The half round flats are going to be the bottom parts. Finally got the haft for this sheperd's axe. With the 10" long head it's quite a giant, still pretty well balanced and not overweighted though: And the parang advances even if slowly. Epoxy has cured, the handle waits for final shaping: Bests: Gergely

Today I did the last risky move on the parang: the tang had got a curve while HT, and I had to straigthen it hot. - Looks like it's okay now. Made a special, long sheperd's axe head - I want to make several different patterns in the next few weeks. No picture right now, I want to finish it first. I made this candlestick a couple weeks ago. But just today got pictures of it:. Starting stock was 40mm dia mild steel, all stem work done with power hammer. Very difficult to photograph, you have to use your imagination to interpret the pictures It's not chubby but has got bottom weight,,,

Thanks! Interesting thing: I like better the balls and rollers too. It's more work to get them into shape but still... But in this case there was no way to use anything else then a whole inner race. (As I wanted to use bearing steel.) Also the one you mentioned was my first idea about developing the crack: I remember to hit the not warm enough metal with the power hammer. There was at least two times when that happened. The second source could have been when I grabbed the hot blade with a big, cold pair of tongs. It was big mistake to do so but I just couldn't do anything else to save some blade parts from burning. I had no appropriate access to the workpiece while it was in the trench forge. And radiating heat forced me to switch to big tongs. In those seconds I remember saying it to myself: All right now I messed this up... Anyway I started to grind the remained blade part. It almost looks like a knife now, although not in this picture. Still much to do but hopefully no major errors anymore...

Oh, my God, Alan! Those are awesome works! Beautiful!

So I did make a trench forge. It worked like a charm. Used charcoal as fuel, because I couldn't provide anough airflow for coal. Was a great experience to see how I am able to heat up long stock. This was the tempering setup, only turned the U-channel toe down after it heated up. But something went wrong with the HT, the blade broke in half after tempering, when I hit a piece of wood with it. I have several theories about what could have caused the crack in the blade. The crack was there before the tempering - at least I think so based on the different tempering colors of a part of the broken surface. Nevermind, I still have an 11" long blade small parang left. It is tough enough, I tried to break it It was real silly of me using scrap 52100 for a blade of this size. It sure was fun, and procrastination still rules... Bests: Gergely