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I Forge Iron

Derek C.

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Posts posted by Derek C.

  1. Tedious is a matter of perspective I guess!

     

    Anvil, that's an interesting idea. I may see how close I can get it that way and then draw file to finish.

     

    BTW - Do you guys prefer smooth jaws, or jaws with a bit of texture? These jaws had diagonal lines in them originally, which created a diamond pattern. Not sure if I should use a triangle file and try to put some lines in it, or leave it smooth and make some drop in jaw covers if I need more bite.

  2. Interesting, that's a new technique to me. Sounds tedious, but I'll give it a shot. I definitely didn't do well with regular filing. I've got a bench vise that opens wide enough to hold the jaws, so I'm thinking that if I hold the jaw in there, and cut a couple of pieces of mild stock to clamp on either side of the jaws as a guide that might help me keep the file level too.

  3. Yes, I won't get too close to the pin. Was thinking somewhere between the screw and the pin. As you said, it will be easier to adjust on the vise, and I have been meaning to get a rosebud anyway so that option appeals to me. It definitely only needs a tiny bit of adjustment in the horisontal. The un-flatness is the bigger problem.

  4. Thanks!

     

    NJ Anvilman - and suggestions for how to grind it pretty flat with an angle grinder? I used a flat flap disc and still failed.

     

    Thomas - Where would you suggest heating? Seems like the easiest part to heat is going to be near the bottom of the arm. Guess it's time to break down and buy a rosebud tip for my torch. I'm going to steal Jim Coke's idea for spacers.

  5. I never did report back on this. I've successfully welded up both of the jaws, and I welded on an extension to the washer. I ended up forging and grinding a pair of wedges, and I have the vise temporarily mounted to a bench, until I can find suitable material to make a stand-on portable stand for the vise.

     

    Overall, I am okay with how it came out, except that I wasn't able to get the jaws quite flat. They have a bit of a crown, and they are not parallel in the horizontal plane (I know they won't be parallel vertically, and that's fine). They work fine for holding stock vertically, but if I need to hold anything horizontally it's hard to get the vise to take a good grip.  I've worked at it quite a bit with a file, but I'm not making any impact, and using a grinder is how I ended up with them looking like this in the first place. Any suggestions as to how to get the jaws flat and more parallel?

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  6. Very nice. I may have to make some larger ones down the line. I have a piece of property that is quite a hike to get to, and these look like less effort to transport than the gas guzzling monstrosity and its associated consumables.

  7. Thanks, and yes I have been reading through the 101 classes, and yes I will be working both sides of the bevel, I'm just only working one side of the taper (this blade tapers both towards the tank and towards the point) to help curve it the way I want it to curve. I can certainly put a curve into it the way I would curve any other piece of metal, but that becomes harder when trying to manage a very large curve while forging in the bevel.

     

    I had thought about grinding the bevel, but I'm trying to keep the "rustic" look. Since this is a hand held sickle, I will probably harden more than a traditional scythe. I think the reason for leaving a scythe softer has more to do with toughness since you're swinging it and could potentially hit rocks. I'm not in a huge rush to get this done, and it doesn't have to be perfect. At this time, I'm just doing this as a hobby, so it's going to be a gift.

  8. Hello - I am trying to forge a boline (small handheld sickle) for someone, however I'm new to bladesmithing and smithing in general. Since this blade has a substantial curve, and will be beveled/sharpened on the inside edge of the curve, I am not sure how to retain the curvature of the blade while forging the bevel.

     

    I'm starting with a 1x6x1/4" piece of Cur Forge V, which gives me a lot of metal to work with, and will require thinning out quite a bit. For starters, I'm working the entire taper of the blade from one side, which is putting a nice curve on the blade so far. When I go to forge the bevel, I am wondering if I should start at the inside of the curve and work back, or start at the outside and work in. I am thinking that if I start from the inside, and forge the bevel with my hammer face the beveling will straighten the blade somewhat, but once I get past the center and start thinning the spine that should put some curve back in to it. Does that make sense? Any other suggestions? Should I use the cross pein perpendicular to the blade to thin the spine out to ensure I move more metal along the spine rather than back towards the edge? I've attached a picture of the general shape I am going after.

     

    Thanks!

  9. I finally got around to fixing the missing grip on the old monkey wrench I bought for $3 at a garage sale, and then I went ahead and bent up a nice handle for the top side.

     

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    The grip is made from an old broken sledge hammer handle (not the half a handle next to it, which is the remnants from re-handling my short handled sledge and is now used for straightening bent twists), quartered, and then meticulously shaped to fit the handle, glued together with high strength wood glue. While doing the final shaping, everything came out looking too polished for me, so I used a solution of peroxide, vinegar and salt to re-rust the handle, and generally tried to be as dirty about it as possible to make the grips look aged.

     

    The handle at the top I believe is actually stainless, but since all I was doing was bending and twisting it, and I don't need the weld to be super strong (I've tried breaking it and I cannot so it's strong enough) I went ahead and used it anyway because it was the right size and shape.

     

    So far I've just used it to put a couple of decorative twists on a poker (using my recently acquired, repaired and mounted post vise, but that's a story for another thread), and it worked just fine.

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  10. Well, 2 steps forward, 2 steps back. I finished welding up the jaws. They aint pretty, but they'll do. Didn't manage to get them to close perfectly, but they're close enough for now. Now, for the 2 new problems.

     

    It's missing a wedge. It has one sort of L shaped pin that goes through the mounting plate, but nothing to tighten it up. Presumably, I can just forge a piece of stock the appropriate thickness into a slight taper to make a new wedge?

     

    The bigger problem is that the box and screw are not original to this vise, and they're just a bit too long. They're probably fine for anything over 1/4 inch, but I'd rather address the problem. I think I could either make a shim washer to go under the thrust washer out of some flat stock I have laying around, or just forge a new thrust washer. I'm not real great at forging circles yet though, so I may opt for the washer. Do you think there'd be any problem with that?

     

     

  11. Well, I got one jaw done. Took me about 2 1/2 hours, much of that was prep and then grinding down because I overbuilt the welds by a lot. I did end up just cutting off the lip, because the welds on the plate they stuck on top were too deep for me to want to get into grinding all that out.

     

    At any rate, it ain't going to win a beauty contest, but even with the spots where I didn't quite fill enough around the edges, it still looks better than a lot of the jaws I see selling online and locally for 2-4x what I paid. While grinding down I didn't find any obvious inclusions or air pockets, so  I think I may have done a halfway decent job.

     

    I attached a few more pictures, one showing midway through the process, one showing what it looks like now, and one showing how nicely the screw cleaned up with just a little work. The screw definitely has some wear, but it also looks like it's got a lotta life left in it.

     

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  12. Yep, I think I will take a crack at it this evening. Not sure if I'll get to the actual welding though, as there's a whole boatload of the old weld to grind off to get the plate off. You can't see it well in the picures, but the plate goes quite a way down the back of the jaws, and is welded all around. I think I'm going to cut off the lip of that plate first and see what it looks like under the plate. I may just leave the rest of plate on, throw a bead down the seam I'll be opening up, and accept the fact that I'll have larger than average jaws. My wife would probably argue that a vise with a big mouth is a better match for me anyway.

  13. Thanks Guys. I'm definitely going to take the top piece off. I had thought of leaving one or both of the grooves in there for round stock, but the problem is they're not really cleanly cut, and when you take them both into consideration they really do take up a lot of real estate.

     

    If it's just filling with regular 70 series wire, how much skill does that take? I have a flux core welder, but I'm not really great with it. That said, I'd rather do it myself than pay someone to do it.

  14. I picked up a nice big vise this evening. I think it's a 6 incher, but I didn't think to measure, it's definitely 5+. For the most part, it's in pretty decent shape, the screw is not bent or chipped, the box is dirty but also not chipped.

     

    The problem is, someone really did a number on the jaws.

     

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     It looks like they not only welded a big old piece of metal over the top of the jaws, but they put these horrible grooves both in the jaws and in the piece they welded over the jaws. The plate extends partway down the back of the jaws as well.

    Needless to say, I'd like to get back to just plain old flat jaws on this vise. The way I see it, I have a few options.
     
    1. Cut the lip off, and just use it. as-is.
    2. Do #1, and then throw some screwed in or magnetic jaws over the top of the existing jaws.

    3. Grind down the welds, remove the added plate, and have someone re-face the gouged out areas.

     

    Are there any other options I'm missing? How would you all go about repairing this vise? If I go for #3, do I need to have the holes filled with hardfacing?

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  15. Thanks for the info guys. Dan, that repost is great. I'll have to try the flour trick and see if I can get a clearer shot of the markings. I think mine does have an England on it, so it's probably "newer". I'm still not sure what the Z stamp is for.

     

    If you don't count the tools or steel he gave me, I paid $2.19 a pound for it, so I feel like I got a heck of a deal, and didn't even negotiate. Call me superstitious, but if someone gives me a fair price on a tool I never feel right about arguing the point. When I do, they never quite work right for me.

     

    I got to go hammer a bit tonight, and I think I'm in love. After practicing on an ASO that was too tall for the last few weeks, this didn't feel like work at all. That square hammer with the pointed end fits me like a glove too. I think it may be my new favorite. Paired with that anvil, it has great rebound so I can move a lot of metal really fast.

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