bigfootnampa

The small ones make an excellent fly vice for the heavy duty salt water flies and even large bass bugs. Just turn them sideways and weld on a post and, voila! a set of mondo jaws for your fly vice! Various special versions are pretty successful tools too... I have a set with a pair of disc jaws for clamping face frames to assemble with pocket screws and use a small welding clamp type to clamp the ends of metal studs while a screw is driven through the channel into them (otherwise they will just bend out of the way). They are not a good substitute for heavy tongs for forging work though (that was their originally intended purpose). Vise grips have become a pretty successful product considering that they failed in the purpose for which they were invented. MANY such failures enrich our lives today in applications that were not originally intended... D2 tool steel for example.

I have a friend who makes carving knives from straight razors. He gets several from each razor and rehandles them so they are no longer folders. He may temper them back a bit but I think not... I know that he does not do a new heat treatment. His grinding process may naturally result in a softer temper as he grinds them very finely. When he is done with one it looks a lot more like a needle than a carving knife. He gets them VERY sharp though and carves away quite a lot of wood with them. He works in extremely fine detail. For example: he will carve woodland spirit faces into the sides of ordinary school type pencils. He uses cut-off wheels in his Dremel to rough out the profiles. Having said all that I must say that I would be tempted to sell them and use less valuable steel for my own knives. I have done a lot of antique shopping and it is tough to find a decent looking straight razor under $10 nowadays. NOT rare to see nice ones going for more like $20 each and up. I can get some real nice file steel for about 95 percent less and it makes quite nice knives (usually about 1095 I believe). If the girls are city gals they will know how to handle razors! They keep them in their purses... in case untimely stubble requires a swift shave?

I was just thinking that her gas supplier could be a good stock to invest in. Amazing!!! but also obsessive!

It sounds like what you are doing is similar to turning the barrel for a hinge? Having done a few hinges I find it helpful to slightly thin (taper) the end that will be turned. I start with a short but very hot heat and begin the turn by laying the strap flat on the anvil with a small overhang on a gently radiused edge. Hammering the end over the anvil edge gets the hook of the turn started. I then quickly flip the strap and hammer against the hooked edge to get a nice C turn. I usually have to take another heat here and then continue hammering against the hook to continue the turn moving toward a full curl. I get it fairly close and then drift the turn with a mandrel (test fit pin) and tighten up the fit by working the whole unit (pin and hinge strap) against the step and anvil edges, sometimes using a hammer with a narrow peen to finish the inside corner of the curl. Try to get the heat to help you by roughly centering it where you want the metal to bend... easy enough when you want that bend at the end of your strap. Get a high heat, bright orange leaning toward yellow (1/4" stock is pretty stiff when wrapped to 3/8" ID). The hardest part of the bend is at the edge of the stock so bend that first and use an anvil edge to help force it into shape (here's where thinning the stock edge a little can help too). Begin the bend over the anvil edge and continue the roll by flipping it up and tapping at the end of the strap with your hammer. When you have freehand roughed the roll, finish by drifting and hammering tight over a mandrel. I hope this helps, there are many other ways to approach this but this is about the simplest and most basic (works too).

I have known at least one quite skilled smith who used a drilling hammer as his favorite forging hammer. Personally I like to have one with a peen end but to each his own. The weight of a drilling hammer is about right and with a little dressing they could be quite serviceable.

Hhmmm... I haven't tried that. Clay is not TOO hard to find here in MO.

Well a few years back I was looking for some Janis Joplin music for a gift and when I asked if they had any of her music the answer I got was "is he country or what?". My jaw sorta dropped down as this was a dedicated record store and I just could not make excuses for youth stretch THAT far!

Nuge; I used to do a lot of jewelry work and I made quite a few Ginko leaf earrings as they seemed to sell well. I made up a run of them in woodchip patinas (as well as a few other designs) and they were quite dramatic! What I really liked about that patina system was the amazing variegation that I got... colors from black to bright copper and blues and greens between (on copper grounds). I used mostly chips from my planers somewhat sorted for size... it was important to get the grain size in proportion to the ground size. Certain woods seemed to add some nice effects to my patina solutions. I don't remember too clearly but it seems like oak was a favorite... probably due to the tannin content.

For most of the parts soaking in vinegar for a day or two and THEN wire brushing will save a lot of elbow grease. I would avoid getting vinegar into the screw box though (shouldn't find rust there anyway). I'd straighten the leg just cold on the anvil. The spring looks okay but if it needs more curve I would just re-arch it cold by hammering over the hardy or step. It is easy to make a new spring and they are often missing. Commonly some of the wedges will be missing too... but it looks as though you have an exceptionally complete unit there. Mine is similar and has been very useful. You will often be thankful for this gift.

It looks very nice! You did a nice job with the details!

I have recently been doing a bit of drywall taping and I like to use setting muds that have to be mixed. When mixing hot mud every minute counts so I use a mixer made from 1/2" mild steel rod that I can clean in around ten seconds. I have noticed that the exposure to the mud mix seems to develop a black (blue) patina on the metal. I am wondering if anyone has done more extensive experimenting with this type of chemical patina? It seems to have some promise.

VERY interesting Sam! I like the concept and the nice smooth curves very much! It is far harder than most people realize to get those nice gentle curves but they look so graceful! The legs are beautiflly tapered also. I think the "dancing twist" while interesting seems a little sharp edged to me... I might like it better with some regular twist added on top of it or maybe reforged round a little. A thought inducing piece of work with several layers of interest to investigate, very sculptural, very nice! I like the very subtle twists near the ball feet very much also! It seems to be about 1" square stock originally, is that right?

Brian; It can be done that way but sometimes people will use solder between the layers too. I'd think that you'd still call it Mokume whichever way was chosen. The fusion method generally gives a stronger bond but some types of layer materials might actually bond better with solder. Note that we are talking hard solder here.

It looks like a stand for some sort of macro camera... could be for an enlarger but it seems too small for that to me.

Pretty nice! I like the latch, though I think it's handle should mimic the bottom scrolls.

That sounds right Dablacksmith. My work was actual fusion welding though... copper to copper or copper to silver etc. with no solder at all. I like the possibilities for the copper brazing though! I'll have to keep it in mind. Modern pennies are nearly all zinc so might not work very well. I guess we can't afford copper to make them from any more? They are thin copper on the outside and zinc in the middle. I have copper tube, bar, rod and sheet though.

What works well for me is to size the pics to 78 DPI and 10 inches for the longest dimension. If they are sized for printing they will be giant on the screen. Most editing software you need to set the DPI and then resize the image size too.

The dies look nice Clinton! DO get that top die secured though... loose is unsafe. My Anyang has a similar attachment for the dies but has a spring activated gate that secures the wedge so that it cannot back out. The wedge is adjusted to exact length with a shim... I like aluminum as it is just soft enough to compress a tiny bit. I have used brass shims but they do not last as long. Eventually any shim will become too thin as the hammering draws it thinner. When they even seem the slightest bit loose it is time to check and reshim/reseat.

Joe; I was taught to hot file at 400 to 700 degrees. Note that this is WELL below red hot. Even so these temps are enough to make steel significantly softer. In most cases this type of filing is done to quickly rough out bevel angles and smooth tapers/shapes. It is the primary way that I sharpen my hardies and chisels (though I will often touch up the edges on the belt sander). Though these temps are well below red hot or critical temps they are hot enough to draw tempers so coarser toothed files and rasps (mostly larger ones as the teeth are coarser in the larger sizes and the mass is helpful too) are used and the work is done quickly with the files in contact for as short a time as possible. Obviously tools that require heat treatment must be hardened and tempered AFTER the hot filing is finished.

Waal now here's a google link to 181,000 hits for "blacksmithing, San Diego". Ye might find somethin in there ta sink yer teeth inta pilgrim. blacksmithing, San Diego

I have used linseed oil which worked very well, and motor oil which is also fine... I can't see why sunflower oil wouldn't work well. Temperature has at least as much effect as viscosity rating. My advice is to use what you have.

My googling is not real clear but seems to suggest that the type mercury that you have (pretty pure but no lab type certification)would be worth somewhere around $6 to $7 per pound or less. It's a problem to ship so best to find a local buyer. Some specialty scrap dealers will buy it. Craigslist or a similar venue might be a good solution.

I can't see why you'd want one... when you could have an air hammer. I notice that they have new leg vises though.

You cannot use most finishes on something like that because the finish will break down in the heat and get on/in your food. I would just oil them up with walnut oil and reoil as needed. You could use regular veggy oil but the walnut oil will dry and so I like it better for the handle ends. No oil finish is going to give you much weather protection though and varnishes or lacquers are not good for you so regular attention is the answer. Clean and oil frequently just as you would with a nice gun.

When I do such things I generally leave the steel in "as forged" condition. Given the size of the bar and it's intended use it would be difficult to improve upon its performance by heat treatment. I think you will find that it will serve very well without HT. I've not had any problems with any of mine.