ausfire

Very nicely forged twists there! The tabs on the openers look a little small, but I guess testing will decide that. I have often wondered what the advantage is in using a slot punch for bottle opener loops. I have done hundreds of these and always used an ordinary tapered round punch. After all, you want a round hole, use a round punch! Perhaps, using say 12mm square bar, you may save a small amount of metal by aligning a slot punch along the material, but I'm not sure it's a significant difference. Just wonderin'. In the shop today I made a couple of lifters for fishing out small objects that like to bury themselves in the forge charcoal. Things like key rings and small troll crosses etc. I also made some BLT wax according to directions given to me by Das. 50% beeswax, 25% turpentine, 25% boiled linseed oil. It cooled to the consistency of soft butter and is easy to apply with a brush. I used the mix on one of the lifters straight off the forge ( a dull, matt finish). I removed the scale from the other one before applying wax and I prefer that finish. Both finishes seem to repel water so we'll see how they last. Here's a pic of the two lifters and the BLT. (My wife laughs at my BLT label - she says that means Beetroot, Lettuce and Tomato)

Yep, great snake material. Looking forward to the photos, Ben. PS. I like your dog. Is that a Sheltie??

I have no idea how you did that, but it's a lovely piece. Well done, sir.

Well, you upset the end of the bar to give some mass, and then forge the head shape hammering back towards you. Using a ball pein hammer, widen out the bar just behind the head and then push the steel outwards on each side, trying to leave a ridge in the middle for the throat. I try not to overwork it, as I like the stretched scales across the back of the hood. (That's if you're using threaded rod, of course.) And I always punch the eyes before forming the hood. Much easier that way. Practise widening a piece of scrap bar before you forge a snake.

Snuffy, that's a really neat poker. The twist in the middle will add interest. You have a lot of room there - how about a reverse twist? Classy work there, Jennifer, as always. Your 'two more' will make a unique set of ten. Brilliant.

G'day fellow Australian, and a Queenslander at that! You will find this site extremely helpful, as I have over a few years now. I'm a couple of thousand km north of you and there are not many blacksmiths up this way, so I depend a lot on the knowledge found here. Good luck with your knife making and post pictures of your progress. We like pictures!

I reckon about 6mm square. (About 1/4 inch) Most of the nails I've done are about 3" (75mm) and they seem robust enough. I guess a lot depends on what your workbench is made from. Soft pine like Oregon or something wouldn't offer much resistance, but my nails would have no chance in any eucalypt timber.

I believe chocolate moose is quite nice.

I like the way you paired the legs on that spider, Das. The abdomen looks like the back end of a ball hammer but I can't figure what the body is. Nice job anyway. I'm still plugging away at the crocodile - a bit more each day. Like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

Yes, they must sit level. My work anvil is not perfectly flat so I set the hot snake on a heavy flat length of timber and tap it level.

Cured yet, Ted? I'm curious.

By any measure that looks like a fair lump of anvil. They do things in a big way in Preston, U.K. We have an English Electric engine/gen set made there. 32 tons all up.

Found a couple of long 1/2 wrought iron bolts. I always have difficulty with wrought so thought it would be a challenge to forge a snake. Kept it really hot and managed OK with only a minimal amount of delaminating (Pic 1. I thought it may have been a fluke so forged a second one and it went well. So the real challenge was to forge a cobra without splitting open the hood. I wrecked one but the second go was OK. Wet season here so very few visitors to the forge - a chance to use demo time to try things that are not guaranteed to work! Here are the three:

Good on ya Ted. I look forward to seeing the mortar-handled opener.

Thanks for the comments. Ted, I'm not sure how a concrete handle would go. Might be a bit unstable. (Not for want of reinforcing steel!) Brass rivets could be a good way of brightening up the handles. Forge a couple of depressions in the steel and add rivets for decoration. Hmmmm... John, there's certainly no shortage of raw material for these. Off cuts from starter bars, trench mesh corners, slab cut -outs for plumbing etc. Our council rubbish tip is full of this stuff. Das, the twist does work well provided you don't overdo it. Frosty, you are right … great man cave items. I often wonder how many of these just get hung up in the bar and never used. Most caps now are twist tops. And MMM, that fish is just great. Straight to the inspirations file. Thanks.

Been catching up on a few bottle openers while it's been a bit quiet round the forge. People only need a sniff of a cyclone to put them off coming north. Made a few longhorn and ram openers and then messed around with some 5/8" rebar scrap. It's tough stuff but I kind of like it because it has a great pattern/grip and there's plenty of mass for the loop. It also polishes up quite well. The two on the top are twisted, the other two are left plain. Any ideas of how to make a rebar handle more interesting? (Without losing the texture).

Yep, stink bugs are aptly named . Horrible things. Das, your sculpture looks real and has perfect proportions. Even the underside is a true representation. Love it.

That is SPECTACULAR!

Great video of the bird's head. I think I caught a glimpse of the rest of the bird in the background there. Would like to see the finished piece. Classy work. I was wondering how he gets on arc welding with no gloves or sleeves. I would be suffering 'sunburn'.

Jennifer, that is the most intriguing basket twist handle I have seen. Your "Ah' says it all. I have no idea how you achieved it and I don't want to know. I'll just admire the finished piece and wonder.

Nice. How is it connected to the base plate. Well concealed.

Mr Hughes, you have not done much research on this site, have you? Your question has been answered many many times. LEAVE IT AS IT IS!!!!

Well that depends on what part of Australia you're in. I'm guessing W.A. because that's where the jarrah is. Also assume that you mean charcoal and not coal. I use found charcoal exclusively in my forge, and I have tries lots of different timbers. Seems to me all the hardwoods and gums work pretty well. Ironbark and dead finish I really like, but bloodwood (sparky) blue gum, lemon-scented gum, stringybark, all do well as charcoal. The only ones I have found that don't work are cypress (hot but gone too quickly) and she-oak (too soft and spongy). I haven't used jarrah or karri because we don't get them over here, but I would assume they would be ideal. I reckon Gidgee makes the best charcoal in Australia, but I haven't used it since leaving Mount Isa ten years ago. They reckon River Red Gum and mallee root work really well but they are out of my area. Let us know how the Jarrah goes.

Advice to self: STOP raking the coals up with the gloved hand. You made a good rake for that. Those gloves are expensive!! (Old habits die hard).

Yes, that's true. I'm thinking a hoist attached to the roof of the shed and a couple of slings. As you know with these things, it's good to conceal as many welds as you can, so I need to turn him over to weld from the underside. It already takes two of us to roll him and he's going to get much heavier. And when it comes time to create the legs I will need him at floor level to even things up. I want the main weight on the belly with legs to stabilise. I have no idea how I'm going to do the legs yet, but something will happen. I'll post pics when it starts to look like a croc. And it's not a baby - 3 metres nose to tail.