Dan Crabtree

the last part of making a rose is the best! getting to see the rose at a bright red... its awesome.

starting material was 2-1/2" x 5/8" bout 20 inches long I believe

It found a good owner at the repair days auction and helped out the musuem which makes me happy. I wish I could describe the construction breifly but it was a pretty complicated doing some forging and then some grinding and then some forging again and some more grinding. Ill try and put together a series of photos the next time I do something along the lines to help explain. Once again thanks for the comments.

I didnt get any construction pics but there was alot of grinding and sanding everywhere. lol Like alot of sanding

Here is a peice i just finished up for the Repair Days auction at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. Its about 28 inches tall made from mild steel. Forged and ground to shape and then alot of sanding and polishing. Pictures are not the best but if I find some better ones ill post them as well.

Made the basket out of 1/4 in. mild steel and forge welded the blade made out of an old file into it did some tig welding in there too before the final weld. The tang was bent at a 90 degree angle and left sticking out after the welding and then I wrapped it around the handle. Its out in Colorado being tested on an elk hunting trip.

Im 21 been employed as a blacksmith for a few years I'd say go for it man.

Yo mang! Im in Lebanon, IL I ussually get steel from Lickenbrock Welding in O'Fallon IL. They got good steel at a good price theres the awnser im sure you were lookin for.

Just get a 50lbs little giant sillys... But seriously, my main forging hammer is a sledge style hammer. One of the faces is flat and the other has a convex shape to it. I prefer the convex surface for drawing steel as opposed to the well accepted cross or diagonal peens. Using the peen on a hammer creates to deep of hammer blows for me sometimes that later turn into hot shuts and then develop into problems. When I am really trying to move some steel by hand I will hold my hammer crooked and strike with the edge of the hammer, but this radius is not nearly as sharp as any of my cross peens. but anyway about the original question, In my personal experience it is SLIGHTLY quicker to use the edge of the hammer and the edge of the anvil, HOWEVER I prefer to use the edge of the hammer on the face of the the anvil to move metal quickly, HOWEVER I prefer not to move metal so quickly and (I know someone is gonna come after me for this) dare I say sloppily as the 2 methods listed above. I would much rather just forge it out on all four sides nice and even and at a decent pace instead of trying to murder a poor defenseless piece of steel with the edge of my hammer. Just my 2 coppers

Well, I was just about to post pictures of the table I finished up and ouch... you owned me. ill have them up later but geeeezzz, Way to go!

Fast, effective, wirebrush4tehwin you can wire brush on your way to the anvil then forge normally. I think using water on the anvil is counter-productive as far as time goes. Putting water on an anvil and putting your hot steel onto the anvil is going to cool it rather fast, especially on a thin blade. Or you could just get one of them grizzly belt grinders for knife making and leave as much scale as you like.

Moya thanks for the advice on places to look. I went to college for welding and got my certification. I can tig weld aluminium and stainless (I believe im better with aluminum than stainless) in all positions and make a fine looking bead once I get the machine set up how I like. Aside from college I weld for my brother on race cars which involves alot of AL welding and a good bit of MIG. I can also stick weld but would rather not because its dirty hot work and I still want to be able to come home and put my heart into what I really enjoy and thats my own work. The program at swic our local community college was very in depth and I'm confident that I could pass most weld test the only thing that may throw me off is very thin stainless I could use more practice on that.

O man. Games like world of warcraft, and dark ages of camelot < my personal fav. are already addicting enough. I would say that dark ages of camelot actually got me interested in smithing. Your doing a great thing lol. I quit playing mmorp awhile ago but if features like this are implemented in the future I may just start up again.

Frogvalley how do you usually bend your pipe? I like the idea of running the wire through before bending the pipe. I sand pack my pipes before bending and was going to do that on a lamp, this piece originally was going to be a fountain and then after the pipe was bent I decided to go with a lamp instead. Will dish soap deterirate the coating? Because that is what I tried to lube it with before I tried using a vacuum.

Ok so yesterday it was 66 degrees outside here in Illinois, Im close to St. Louis. Today its about 60 something and its been raining cats and dogs all day long and there have been tornado warnings. Its normally freezing cold this time of the year so what is goin on?! Global warming? Just a freak thing? or am I just too young to know stuff like this happens? Honestly if ya ask me keep up the global warming if its gonna make it 65 degrees in December. jk jk save the planet, green revolution, ect ect. also has anyone noticed how big corporations have taken the "green movement" and turned it into a marketing tool? Yet they still dont put the ingredients on tooth paste.... hmmmmm I havent checked into the toothpaste thing yet but apparently theres some nasty stuff in there. I hear your better off using baking soda, but still using aqua fresh here. Oh, and what day is our new president inaugurated? anyway thats about all the off the wall topics I had in mind let the opinions fly!