Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the feedback. I don't have a monkey tool or guillotine swage. My tool arsenal pretty much consists of my forge, hammer, anvil, a chisel some small punches, and a fire poker I made for my coal bed. I'll check out that threading the needle technique though. I'm considering maybe trying the forge weld.... not sure. I really like what was done in the picture you posted John.
I don't have a sketch for it, but that's a good idea. Usually I just go out to my forge and start crankin' away and see what happens. Planning out what I'm going to do will probably bring better results.
This is the last one I did. Maybe for this one I'm working on, rather than trying to connect another piece of metal, I'll just draw the handle out and try to bring it back in the spiral pattern you posted John.
http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/38384-usmcbottleopener/
A quick newbie question. Where do you guys usually get your steel/iron? I can't bring myself to get it shipped so I end up using this garbage steel from home depot, or scrap rebar/railroad spikes if I can get a hold of it. The home depot 'plain steel' tends to crack and break a little easier. Any ideas on where to get some cheap mild steel or iron?