MarkDobson

thanks! i squished it, didnt have enough to leave it round and make it large enough for a gloved hand to fit in. originally i was looking for a piece of flat stock in my pile but all i had that was flat was leaf springs and i just couldnt bring my self to use one for a door pull lol.

Figured while im in the posting mood id share a door pull i made for my dad to put on the wood shed we recently finished. i forged this from a piece of 3/4in round i had left over from a tong blank i had just made. i had no idea as to what i wanted to end up with when i started it and was on the fence about whether or not i was satisfied with how it turned out but after a little bit of clean up and some paint i can say im pretty happy with how it turned out.

just finished this guy up today, made from 0-1 tool steel. its not perfect by any means but should make a nice hunting knife. i'll get some more pics tomorrow after i get another coat of oil on the scales and get the kydex made for it.

i left the blade pretty rough but i figure since its going to be used to gut and butcher deer anyways so will probably get scratched up anyways. the scales are made from some figured maple that i saved when we were cutting up firewood. i was surprised at how hard that maple was, guess they call it HARD maple for a reason.  Ended up having my drill bit drift a tiny amount which threw the pin holes off for the handle scale (the first one fit perfect but it turns out you need a scale for both sides of the knife and not 2 for the same side LOL)which caused a slight gap at the back where the thong tube is but owell, All in all i think it turned out decent for only using a filing jig,spindle sander and a 4x36 grinder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

he shows it at 6:40

also as a side note, ive been trying to post lately and i hit submit but then it doesnt show up

nice score! cant help but love those early fishers.

if i ever end up with a piece of rail i will be making one of those. ive never seen someone put so many different tools on one piece of track

the fan on mine is made out of ~16 gauge sheet metal. looks stamped and then the blades were twisted

im glad to here that this is a sound design, i wonder if the weight of the hammer was just a product of him wanting to make it out of what he had available. i really like the simplicity of the design, reminds me of some of the "mini" power hammers ive seen only a lot taller.

 so i found this video on youtube of what seems to be a power hammer with a linkage made of two leaf springs. it obviously works but ive never really seen a linkage like this and was wondering how effective it would be vs a more common linkage. it also looks like he is using the pre existing holes in the springs to connect every thing together. 

looks very old, probably pre 1820(?) due to the lack of pritchel along with the very small horn. it looks like a nice portable anvil to use at a demo or something along those lines and if it throws the hammer back at ya id say its a good anvil. looks like a wrought iron body with a steel plate construction and similar to a lot of english anvils ive seen.

thats def on the to do list for it, my hand was getting a little toasty working that blower. i already have some sheet metal set aside for it, just gotta get the time to make it.

well i finally fired mine up the other day, just used some firewood i had and it got more than hot enough. im impressed with how much air that little blower puts out.

looks good, i still have to patch mine up and try it out.

forbidden 

thanks!, yeah it was a bit easier working with the larger stock, that and i actaully started with square bar instean of a piece of round stock that i roughly bashed into a square

thanks guys, as for thickness its actually thicker than it looks in the pictures by quite a bit. as for what the shaft was originally, i have no idea, probably an axle or shaft from a piece of farm equipment since i got it from my buddies farm when they were cleaning out their scrap pile. think half of that pile made its way into my truck  instead of the scrap yard. including ~4ft of 1/2" wrought iron

finally got around to making another one, used 3/8th square and rolled the top over so it could be made into a necklace

Well today i finally found time to get back on the forge and decided i would see if i could make myself a hot cut hardy. I started with a piece of 1 1/4in shaft then tapered it to fit into my hardy hole. After that i upset the metal to for a bit of a lip over the hardy and to give myself a bit more metal to spread out to make the edge. after i got everything situated where i wanted it i flattened the round stock out and drew out the edge. Heat treated it then sharpened and of course tested! Was like a hot knife through butter and beats the heck outa my hacksaw lol 

i like where this is going, cant wait to see what you come up with!

 i probably cant help with your decision but i can say that i forge outside as well and find that my fingers and hands dont really get cold and if they do, my forge is more than hot enough to warm them up. this is coming from someone who has to wear extra thick gloves with hand warmers to hunt because my fingers get cold so fast. heck even when forging in the cold half the time i end up taking my coat off from being to hot and this is in 0 degrees F or lower. i find that as long as im moving i stay plenty warm.

if i had to go with one your options, id obviously stay at home, only question i have is why not just leave the propane forge inside and have some ventilation going? i dont use propane nor know much about it, is it just the fumes/CO you have to worry about or something more?

1045 without a doubt. Will be tougher and can be hardened if you so desire

the "lean" of the anvil is probably caused by the top and bottom halves of the anvil not being aligned perfectly before arc welding, this could be attributed to the increase in production stated earlier and just the nature of trying to weld 2 large chunks of steel together in a production setting.

Im thinking the anvils are probably square but the miss aligned top and bottom make it appear as if it leaning.BUT if anyone has a "leaning" anvil and just cannot stand it id be willing to take it off your hands FREE OF CHARGE, i will even pay for shipping lol. in all seriousness though, i love my HB and wouldnt trade it for anything. im pretty sure mine is an earlier model since it doesnt look arc welded but its hard to tell tho since it looks like someone was practicing their cold chiseling on the side if it

im glad i got you two goin lol, id love to see pics of your guys crosses. im thinkin im gunna have to practice forging out crosses this weekend now and i  guess i will have to get blades for the portaband as well since i dont feel like using the hack saw on all of them

lol i was using my coal forge for mine and had to forge round stock square(which wasnt really even, which is obvious by the "legs" on the cross, also, i used a hacksaw to cut the split. then i split it open with a chisel and trimmed the "legs" with the chisel as well. i also went to grab it with my wolf jaw tongs at one point and promptly buried it into the fire and had to hurry to get it out before i melted it. i have to admit they are pretty fun and simple to make. its nice to see a project come together in a heat or so 

thanks, i really need more practice with the small stuff. the only time i work with anything under 1/2in is when i make rivets, so not very often.

so i decided i would give myself a break from all the large stock i like to play with and try something small. i didnt realize how small untill i started the project tho lol. I didnt have any square stock so i took some 3/8" round and made it square(ish),was probably 1/4in square and then did the normal split cross stuff. after two failed attempts at splitting it with a chisel i finally gave up and got the hacksaw. never realized how hard it it to hold onto something so small lol. guess i need to make some pick up tongs or something to hold small stock better.

Well here it is anyways, pretty ugly but owell, was a good way to end the forging session