ausfire

Here's a pic of my scrap kangaroo. The head is mounted on a bearing so can be in any position. The are two Bosch spark plugs on his front. I call him Skippy the Bosch kangaroo. (My fellow Australians will understand that!) Yeah, I know. Too much time on my hands.

Here are a couple of pics from a swap meet at Bendigo, Victoria. I thought these prices ($AU) were a bit on the high side, given the condition of these anvils.

Here's a picture of my anvil. Manufactured in Brisbane. I've seen several Sydney ones, but here's a Queenslander!

Daniel, Thank you for the reply to my post and the advice you gave. Today I had a go those ram's heads. I took a list of your instructions to the forge and followed them religiously. Started with 12mm square as you did. Twisting the horns was a bit of a problem because only the top, thinner part twisted so I had to quench that and do a second twist. I was wondering if you did the twist in one heat. And how did you get such a tight curl in the horns? I stuffed up a new pair of long-nose pliers doing that. On the first try I think I bent the head over a bit too short. I was chiselling the mouth and was just about to congratulate myself on a fine looking mouth when I removed it from the vice and found I had chiselled the mouth vertically. (The horns had become a bit distorted in the bending process.) So I had to file that off which made the head even shorter. I put borax on the gap to weld but as you can see from the pics it didn't take. Perhaps not hot enough. I was a bit worried about burning the horns off. Anyway, I made that one into a poker and got on with another try. The second one I bent too far making the horns too far back. The weld didn't take either. I debated whether I should adjourn to the shed and MIG it, but that just didn't seem right. I continued anyway and went on with the punching and the hook. A bit rough but it will do for the shed and I'll keep them as a first try to look back on when I get better. I learned a lot of things today. Anyway, for what they are worth, I will post the pics here. One day I will be ashamed of them, but for a first try I am happy.

Steve's right, maybe I have too much time on my hands. As a retired teacher, it's nice to have that time. I enjoy thinking outside the square and making fun things from what others discard. Here are a few more:

Daniel, Thank you for a great set of instructions. I have never tried to make one of these ram's heads but would like to give it a go. I feel reasonably confident about most steps except that welding procedure. What flux are you using and how is it applied? You only have 1mm of space there. Does the flux flow into that space? And then reheated to near sparking before hammering together? A very nice finished piece. Well done.

I would really like one of those shirts. How do I get one???

Not strictly blacksmithing, but the forge was useful in creating this bit of junk sculpture, and I thought it may be of some interest. I have a blacksmith mate who calls this use of the forge 'cartoon blacksmithing'. This lizard is based on a bearded dragon lizard - pretty common throughout Australia. I call them 'shifty lizards' because the starting point is a shifting spanner. I think in the U.S. you may call them adjustable wrenches. I have done close on a hundred of these things of all sizes - from the little 4 inch shifter to the larger 18 inch ones which make a lizard a metre long. They are very popular at my demos and sell well. Great garden ornaments and the small ones are good paper weights. The kids love them. Often I will make the parts in the forge after doing the more serious stuff, before closing down. I usually anneal the spanner first and then make a bend which raises the 'head'. On a big wrench I need to make some cuts on the belly to allow the bend. Usually put in a lateral bend too - as that is the pose these lizards often have. The front legs I make from an old exhaust clamp or similar u-bolt, heated in the forge and the feet flattened and chiseled into toes. The rear legs are old gutter brackets bent to shape. Tails are easy - they can be forged out of round bar or better still, old garden fork tines save a lot of tapering time. Reo bar works well too, as it already has a scaly look. Same with old round files, suitably annealed to bend. Eyes are done with the mig - held vertically for about 4 seconds. That way, you get a little crater in the middle. Or sometimes I'll heat the whole head in the forge and punch the eyes. A drilled hole fitted with a brass round-headed screw looks good too. A bit of brass burnishing on the head gives some colour, especially on a newish spanner. I'll attach a pic or two. There's one pic there of a 'frilly' lizard. The frill is an old circular saw blade annealed. P.S. No living tools were harmed in this project - all recycled broken stuff. You'll notice this spanner has no adjusting ring.

Hi Jim, Your posting amazed me - I have been doing roll holders today as well. Toilet roll holders on opposite side of the world!! I have to do a small commissioned job for a bathroom reno - two towel rails, a towel ring, a couple of leaf hooks and a toilet roll holder. I will try to attach a photo of the ones I did today. I thought I would make a few so that the buyer can select the one she wants. I put them on a wall to see how they sat. Cheers from Aus.

I'm a beginner too. Well, I've done a couple of years, but compared to the masters who contribute to this site I am a novice. I found that advice given to me was worth remembering. That was to start simple (yes, J-hooks, s-hooks, twists and so on) and try to make each piece as good as it can be. And practise practise practise. I used to have a hell of a time trying to punch holes in round 12mm bar. I would avoid doing it at demos, or do it before any visitors arrived. But after hundreds of goes and a cup full of slugs I am now confident I can get it right. So keep at it. Also, keep your first tries. The first hook, first leaf etc. It does you good to look back and see how you have improved. I have leaf hooks which I thought were OK at the time, but in retrospect I'm ashamed of them. Good luck with your efforts.

When it's hot here (which is most of the time) I restrict myself to forging the lighter items. No heavy hammering or large fires. My smithy has no walls, and allows any breeze in. A bit of a compromise because it should be darker. I also knock off before lunch as afternoons are too hot. I'm usually a bit worn out by then anyway. Heat stress is a serious business though, and should not be taken lightly.

Thank you all for the advice. A number of methods to consider there. I finished up opting for the simplest - whole tool heated to cherry red, quenched and slow reheat. Didn't see any colour so quenched again, fitted the handle and hope for the best. File test says it might be a little softer than I had hoped, but we'll see how it goes. If I have to regrind it now and again, so be it. Thank you again for the help. Much appreciated.

Thanks. I don't know what the alloy is. However, I shaped this hammer from the remains of an old, badly pitted, larger double face hammer. While grinding it smooth I could just detect the word Germany on the underside. So I imagine it is the required steel for a hammer. I just went and tested it with a file. The face end which received minimal attention is hard and the file makes no impression. The other end, which I have shaped into a cross pein (because that's the end I intend to use), is softer and the file does remove a little material.

I have read through a heap of these posts and it has really made me feel like the rank amateur that I am. I wonder if someone would be kind enough to enlighten me, in simple terms, how I should go about putting a hard edge on the business end of a small cross pein hammer. I wanted a lightweight hammer ideal for making leaves. All the light crosspeins I have are too sharp to push metal the way I want. I have a larger hammer which works well so I copied the radius of the pein curve and made a smaller one. It's good tool steel, but in so doing I have probably removed all the temper it once had. So I have the hammer ready to heat treat. My previous attempts at tempering have been less than encouraging. This hammer will only be subjected to light work, but I need to know how I can make it serviceable - not soft and not brittle - a happy compromise will do!

Ian, I notice Kyalami is the same latitude (about 26 south) as Birdsville - the hottest town in Queensland. Uncomfortable as the heat is, I think I would prefer it to the big freeze being experienced by our northern hemisphere friends. :P

tid, Send all you can. Heat, drought and bushfires here. (Makes it easy to collect charcoal for my forge, but that's the only plus!) Pity we can't even things out a bit ... we'll trade some heat for your rain. My demos have been reduced to mornings only. By midday you risk all sorts of heat stress and no-one ventures out to look anyway.

Yes, indeed, sir. The heat makes forging as uncomfortable for us as the cold makes it for you. Much sweat on the anvil. Touching 50 degrees C in places. That's about 120 in your money. They are frying eggs on the road in Birdsville, Qld.

Moony - you are a legend, mate. I tried this today. I annealed the steel first (using an old welding rod which was pretty soft anyway) and gave it the fifty hits as in the video. I reckon I was hitting it pretty hard, but I didn't even get a glow of colour. The steel was too hot to touch but certainly nowhere near red hot and the quench bucket produced not the slightest hiss. :( Had another look at the video just now. I see Moony was hitting along the rod. I was hitting the end so maybe the heat disippated rapidly. Another go coming up. :rolleyes:

Right on! An anvil in the sun here is way too hot to touch. It's gotta help. It was 45 degrees C in Adelaide yesterday - hottest place on the planet they reckon. Midsummer right now so I'm going to try that. Great thread - never thought it was possible. :blink:

Not really a 'spectator trick', but I guess you have all had the know-it-all spectator whose grandfather was a blacksmith. Seems everyone had a grandfather who was a blacksmith. He usually has a younger person with him, perhaps a grandson or nephew, and proceeds to give a running commentary in a loud voice on everything you do. He's the one who calls you a 'smithy' and gets stroppy when you tell him that he's standing in the smithy and you are the 'smith'. I hate being called a smithy. You all know the type. How do you deal with it? Do you accept the 'smithy' tag??

OK. Done.

Great work, mate. I would be proud of those leaves. #4 is a great shape. I worried a bit about the direction of the veins in your earlier attempt. I use a rounded chisel for the veins in my leaves, as I find it easier to control their direction and spacing. But there are many ways to achieve success, and if the result is pleasing, what matter the method? With my rose leaves I usually give them a brush with a brass ski brush while hot to give them a bronzy, burnished effect. Rose leaves are a little tricky because they have a fine serated edge, like saw teeth. I can do that with a sharp chisel, but perhaps someone has a better way they would like to pass on. I have made hundreds of leaves now, but I think you learn a little something with every one you make.

I respect any one who can make a hammer, and more so one who can fit a handle that won't come loose. I have made a rough cross pein hammer, but it's ordinary to say the least. The best hammer I have is a 2lb cross pein picked up at a local op shop for $2. It's the best thing I have found for forging leaves. Has just the right amount of curve. Better than the nice pretty blue cross pein I bought on eBay for $70, which sits in the tool box unused. I don't feel the wrath of Thor for not making hammers. I'm happy to benefit from the skills of those who know how to do it right.

I have not reached that level of frustration yet, and I think that's because in my couple of years of part time smithing, I have only made things I know I can do reasonably well. I see in the galleries here on this site some wonderful stuff I would like to be able to make, but I know without the skills required I would be doomed to failure. I just progress at a rate that's not too demanding. Even so, I still make shameful mistakes at times (like punching holes in 10mm round bar and not getting them centred) and it's usually when people are watching. There are a few of those pieces lurking in the bottom of my quench tub where I can't see them. But as a part-timer I don't have the stress of making a living from my smithing, so I guess that makes a difference. I haven't thrown a hammer yet. Just oh well, get another piece of round bar and try again. :rolleyes:

Thank you all for those suggestions. I will try them all. I did have some success using a commercial leather dressing which I think was mainly beeswax with a bit of linseed or neatsfoot oil.