ausfire

Great work on the vice, John. There is satisfaction in giving new life to something like that. Das, that guitar is coming along well. Do you anneal those saw blades before welding? I use them occasionally in sculptures but I find them hard to weld; they want to go brittle and snap. A slow cool in the forge seems to help. I'm still at work on the crocodile … another month or two yet. Only problem is I'll need a crane to shift it.

A '28 Chev (National?) . Nice. The last of the fours. Perhaps you could post a picture in the 'Everything Else" forum. Some of us here like old cars. I have a '27 Chev Capitol. Sorry for being off topic, Admin. I'll be quiet now.

Man, oh man! Forget the power hammer and make an offer on the A Model Ford. Beautiful!!

That's a lovely thing. Special for you, as you know its history. To be cleaned, cherished and used!

It's an ACME! Used primarily for dropping on roadrunners!

That's really cool, Das. I don't usually go much for paint, but that green suits him perfectly. The raised handle looks great. And no doubt grass is his 'staple' food.

Thanks, Jennifer. Yes, the first one (many years ago) took me all morning, Now I can knock them off in half an hour, or 45 minutes if you have to stop and explain the steps when doing them for demos. They are good demo pieces because there are so many different processes involved - splitting, bending, twisting, drawing out, punching etc. I often get the kids to turn the forge to heat the middle twist section where they are not likely to melt the horns off. Parents like to take videos of that.

Quiet time for visitors to the forge lately, so I have been building up the supply of longhorn lifters for when the winter tourist season kicks in. February and March are our slowest months but things will pick up after Easter as the weather cools. Got a few ready:

Nice use of rebar. Drawing out that 3/4 bar would have taken some energy. I like the cross pattern on that big rebar.

Lucky duck. We have to pay the scrap dealer to take away steel.

Perhaps when you start selling your work. Buyers do like to have the maker's touchmark when they buy an item. At times I have forgotten to touchmark a finished piece only to have the buyer return later to ask for it to be marked. My one regret is that I did not add a serial number to some of the more popular items.

With all those wrenches you could make a plague of grasshoppers.

March 14th. Autumn. Summer is not going to leave. Heat. 40C in places. Uncomfortable.

Beautiful hammer forging, metaldrms. And fine photography too, I might add. A fair length of round bar in that candle base, Das. Elegant scroll on the handle. Nice. And I had never heard of, or seen anything like a chicken popper either. Wonder what we would call them in Australia? A 'chook hook' perhaps.

Thomas: Yes, some textures are not distinct enough for twisting. I chose this one because there was a sort of filleted look to the pattern (see left of Pic 1) and also two very strong opposing lines which could give a rope effect. It's sometimes good to add a twist to a long poker to add some interest to the long shaft, but after these trials, I am leaning towards the idea of leaving the pattern as it is. (Das, I had to look up H.R. Giger art. Wow! What's that guy on?)

Ah yes, I remember it now. Nice to have another look though. Thanks.

Rebar has a well-defined pattern and I wanted to know what would happen if it were twisted. As we are all aware it's not much use twisting round bar, but would rebar be any different? Wondering if anyone has managed to twist rebar in a way that makes interesting use of the pattern. Here's what happened: A tight twist, one direction. A bit of a mess: A light twist in a fullered section to define the twist. Ordinary. A long reverse twist. OK. A squared section. Not much good as the twist loses the pattern on the steel. OK for contrast perhaps.

Frosty, I had a couple of your countrymen come by my forge today. Very nice people who were interested in the demo and had lots of questions. The couple on the left come from Fairbanks, Alaska and the other two are from Seattle. They were happy to have their photo posted here.

Did we see a picture of the owl. Das? Maybe I missed it.

Hope you have a power hammer. If you only have the Armstrong model, good luck to you!!

Those handles look so comfortable, Jennifer. I've done quite a lot of the bar twisted ones now, but even when you put a tight twist in they are not as smooth on the hands as yours would be. I would really like to try one of those flat twists. Am I allowed to use the MIG???

Nice use of the motor winding thing, Das. You don't find it hard to weld the knife blades onto that casing stuff? The ones I have are like sandwiched layers of metal and the welder doesn't like it much.

Alexandr … wonderful work. Out on its own. There looks to be months of work in something like that. Do you ever sleep??

Rebar gets a bad rap, but it does make reasonable looking longhorn billy hooks when you run out of square bar. The pattern gives an industrial look and it does take a high polish. There are many different grades of rebar though and not all have the same working qualities. I did these two today and the one on the left is square bar for comparison. The hang up rings are flattened spring washers (cooled slowly!) and the middle one has a ring forged from an old wrought iron chain link. Easy ways to make rings.

I agree with Mike - great work Jennifer and John. Just when you think you're getting good at making fire poker handles posts like these bring you back to reality. Claydon knots and flat bar twists - wow!