Blacksmith Jim

The shop looks great! I'm jealous The countryside looks great too.. Welcome aboard!

One of the more experienced blacksmiths that I know loves to work with cold rolled. He has influenced my work and I have found cold rolled to be more desirable as well. It is more uniform, moves easier, looks nicer, etc.. I buy all my metal at scrap prices, and don't get charged different rates for hot or cold rolled.

You could use an angle grinder to flatten them. They aren't really 'big machinery' and are very useful tools. Or you could use inserts.

Don't worry about rust. It will flake off when you heat it and beat it.

Diver Mike, did you fine an old anchor chain when you were diving?

I would try with something other then rebar and see if you still have problems..

I can't recommend this book enough. I got a hold of it through inter-library loan a while back. Sooo much info. Really neat to thumb through it. It's on my list to buy..

Wive's are like that I've found...

Here is what I ended up making last night.. I want to finish my guillotine and get dies made, but this was the quick solution for now. I used it to put a few tenons on some basket twists I had done prior, then attach a base and top for an OK candle stick. The product was quick and dirty because it was more of a proof of concept, but it worked well enough for putting on small tenons. I didn't butcher in or set the shoulder, just swaged it down through the different sizes then cleaned with the monkey tool. I think it would have worked better to set in the shoulder, but it still worked fine and set solidly..

could roll two different rings and weld them together...

John, that forge you posted looks ALMOST the same as mine. I love my side blast forge! A brit that is a good friend of mine built it, and introduced me to the joys of a side blast.

I thought about the cube wall dragon coat hook deal. Then they took my cube wall away and stuck me in a walk in closet .. I mean office... Right now I have 3 different test / sample / playing around pieces that I keep as paper weights. Don't get many people in my office, so usually I'm the only one that notices them That hook and key fob look great.

Pottery supply places usually carry different types. I remember paying around 50$ for a box of soft firebrick. Maybe 12 per box?

Jose! That video was great. Thanks for pointing it out to me. What a wonderfully efficient setup. Something to strive for. I don't have a power hammer to use, but it is nice to see the tooling laid out with the three different steps all right next to each other! :)

That's what I was thinking about while brainstorming on this earlier.

Wish I could find some out in Oregon...

mcraigl, I was thinking about building something exactly like that all out of angle. I hadn't thought about using square tubing. Sounds worth while though. Truman, I think that is the direction I'm heading in. Seems like a good way to go.

Thomas, I once cleaned up some square tenons in a clean post vice, just by clamping and pushing numerous times. I was surprised how well it worked. Although I wish I had good access to a screw press or fly press to do it in! I guess I could forge them square to start, in clean dies (just flat ones) and it should leave a good shoulder. Then I could swage it round and clean it up with the monkey tool.. Hmmm that sounds like my best bet. Thanks!

Peter, quick repeatability is really something I'm working on here. I want to be able to make certain things. Also, I'm not sure what the best way is to butcher or cut in for the shoulder of the tenon. I tried the hot cut, and it seemed like a bad idea from the get go. That is one of the reasons I was thinking the guillotine made a lot of sense. I could make a set of dies for butchering or setting the shoulder, then another set for swaging the tenon down... Spike, thanks for the feedback. You know its funny. I hear a lot of people talk about guides for spring swages, but I've never actually seen any with them. I've seen a number without, and pictures galore without, but none with :P

Thanks Ian, I'm kind of leaning that route now. Some of the more advanced smiths I hang out with have poo-poo'ed spring swages, so I think I've been a bit biased from that. I have not made one myself yet. Probably a good reason too right there I think. I doubt I would use spring steel for it, and I'm not sure about the guides (though it sounds like a good idea..)..

Yeah Doug. That sounds like the 'director's clap board' approach I was talking about above. It seems like it might be a little faster to make. But the guillotine tool seems more versatile in the long run... I'm almost inclined to go with a spring swage just to start with. I can cut, clamp, drill, and weld on a handle pretty quickly.... dj, I don't think of it as wasted.. But if its a choice between spinning in circles while I learn something the hard way, or going about something the smart way, I would prefer to go the smart route. Plus, if I spend all my forging time one week making half a tool and thats it, it leaves me wanting a lot more, and feeling a bit hamstrung during the next week...

I recently made sets for my vice similar to what was posted and discussed. The one thing I did different, was I used a lot of different diameter pieces of pipe for the upright posts. This lets me use it to bend different sized hooks (or whatnot) easily. Its nice to be able to quickly set up a jig to bend around.

Howdy all, I am wanting to improve my basic joinery skills. I am hoping to apply them to small things like candle holders, etc.. I want to start simple, and figured 1/4 inch round tenons would be OK. I recently started a thread about making Monkey Tools, and got a great response: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/monkey-tool-7599/ Now I'm wondering, what is the best way to swage down the tenon from the stock? I found that by mostly hammering a taper, the monkey tool won't really form a nice shoulder. So I am assuming I need to form more of it up front, and just use the monkey tool to clean the shoulder. As I said before, I tried just a taper. When that didn't work, I used a blunt hot cut hardy to set the shoulder, then I drew out the tenon by hand hammering. This ended up causing the base of the tenon to break off. Probably from a combination of working too cold, and inducing cracks / breaks by using a blunt hot cut. So what tool should I be using to form the rough tenon? I'm assuming I want a top and bottom swage. But I'm wondering if I'm better off making a spring swage, or a guillotine tool, or one of those chopper deals (looks like a movie directors clap board, *Action!*). I started to make a guillotine a while back, but haven't finished it. I've heard spring tools break off a lot and are hard to get to line up well... What do you think is the best bang for my buck? Time is really the sought after commodity in my world. I have a few hours to work in the shop about once a week, so I don't have hours and hours to waste... Any advice is welcome! Thanks.