Forging Carver

On 3/9/2016 at 3:30 PM, JHCC said:

Well, here it is, filed into the end of a hex wrench. I may try to deepen the interior bits a little more, but it looks pretty good when tested in a wad of damp paper.

Think I should try to harden it?

Not a bad idea, using a hex key

Pretty neat. I want to get into this kind of large stuff.

Well, I just realized I may have messed up a cut. Instead of measuring 3.5" from the bottom of the tank to mark the straight line, I measured 2.5". I literally studied the instructions like a test, and of course I have to mess up when I get to the cutting. However, I don't think it should be too big of a deal. If the bottom has 2 layers of 1" ceramic wool, then that should leave me with a half inch until I reach the lip. Then I am probobly going to put about a half inch of casting so that should bring me to the lip. Worse case scenario, I have a little bit of lining showing. Sometimes I just need to talk things out to figure out something.

Oh yeah I know. Many guys have given me advice in the chat room, in the forums, and pms. No doubt about it. I was just saying that some don't you can't trust like Frosty said, and I can tell which have the knowledge and I can trust. As far as that book, I have read it. It really helped me out to understand things, especially flares. 

Thats a nice knife!

You can:

 A.) Build a grinder or buy a grinder that is similar to a grizzly in that the majority of the space the belt takes up to rotate is in height, not width.

  OR

B.) Build a portable work bench you can wheel outside and mount a grinder on there. The plus to this is that you got good ventilation too which means less dust and steel particles floating around in the shop and less to clean up.

I don't think a hot cut built in is the best idea. You might cut you hand badly or damage a tool. You are better off making a portable hardy hole if you want to use a lot of hardys. Otherwise, your vise can probobly hold most. For a hot cut, you can put an old axe head in a vise. 

I wood carve. Here are some pictures. Note, the blacksmith shop is a work in progress picture.

That's really good work!

Alec Steele has a video showing how he makes his leaves and I believe they have a raised vein. Search how to forge a decorative leaf hook by Alec Steele.

6 hours ago, orange said:

Forgot to mention the forge is insulated with ceramic wool. Apparently nasty stuff for the lungs but it insulates the forge nicely.

There is no reflective coating, not sure what that would even be.

Over the ceramic wool you should put casting. That will stop e wool from flaking off and going in your lungs. It should also get you to welding heat. You can also put an ir reflective coating over that which will save money and be more efficient in heating your steel. Your burner might be wrong too, or you are running propane at too low of a pressure. Hope this helps

You also might want to consider looking at Wayne Coe's website for forge build plans and forge materials. If you are rebuilding the burner, try making a T Burner. I am in the middle of building a gas forge myself.

Now I don't know much about knifemaking but I have made a few knives before. I have also watched enough knife makers make knives that I have a general sense of what's right. When I saw both of them quench their swords, I was thinking that one was too dull of a red and the other was around the ball park, maybe a bit higher. That explains why the one sword bent. As far as the other sword goes, his tempering must have not gone well since it cracked. Again, I don't know much but that is what I saw even before the outcome.

You are right. It may have seemed that I was mixing plans, but really the only plans I was using were Wayne's forge plans and your burner plans. I was just a bit confused since I never done this before. As far as inexperienced people giving me advice, I agree. I first came to realize it when I made that coffee can forge. One guy said to use it and enjoy it and you then said it was very unsafe. Now, I only listen to the people I know I can trust such as you and Wayne. I also have been sending you guys pms more instead of making a thread. It's funny, when I first started I was asking guys questions in the chat room. They got ticked at me and told me to go ask thousands of blacksmiths on the forum. Little did they know, I trusted them and their advice so that's why I was always asking them instead of posting in the forums. And I am not talking about the Tuesday night crew. You guys are awesome. I am talking about a different bunch of individuals. Anyways that is beyond the point. Yes you are right Frosty and sorry Neil  if I came off a little harsh.

Yeah I agree, but Wayne probobly forgot to put them in, or he built so many forges that these simple things we wonder seem common sense to him. By all means not his fault. Also, these are free plans. Wayne could have easily charged us for them and make a fair amount of money. Thank you Wayne for the plans. More progress pictures should be up this week once I get to the welder.

Brian brazeal has a video on making tongs. There he shows how he makes forward and reverse tapers on the edge of the anvil with half on half off blows. It moves the steel really effectively and should be fairly easy if you keep the steel hot. I don't think I will ever get myself a power hammer unless maybe to make hammers with. I find hand hammering is all the fun in Blacksmithing. There's nothing like putting sweat, blood, and tears into a project. The end result is priceless, literally.

On March 6, 2016 at 6:32 PM, Frosty said:

 

This is kind of off topic a bit, but you were speaking about winter. So frosty, I understand that salmon is good fishing up by you and a lot of guys there store their catches for the winter. I am not sure if you like fish, but if so I got a good recommendation for you. What you can do is cut up some extra salmon and put some spices on it. Then you can either smoke it, put it in a dehydrator, or even bake it in the oven. Then what you got is salmon jerky. I really want to try it out one day. A few guys I know make venison jerky and I have even heard of kangaroo jerky. Don't really know how I got to this, but it has been in my head and I figured I would just share  

Well, I am following his plans. He never said if the burner mounting tube should be sticking inside the forge or not. If you don't want to answer questions, then why are you on this site. A huge part of this site is for people like me to ask questions and get help with their projects. I do understand things, but I just wanted to make sure that I understand them right. If I told you to make a hamburger, you can make it medium, well, medium rare, have cheese, mayo, etc. My point is that I understand the general concepts, but I want to make sure that I do it right so that all my hard work wasn't wasted. Plus, all these questions have taught me so much and my next forge build will be much simpler. Thank you all very much for your help

I am looking to buy one too, but maybe sometime in the spring once I make some more cash. 

For some reason I am thinking that the burner tube should patrude little if at all into the forge. I think after school today I am going to cut about a third of the pipe off and then drill and tap some screw holes. To me, I guess the angle isnt too bad, but maybe should be a little bit more angled. 

Ok, I am getting my forge welded tommorow. Just wanted to make sure that how my burner mount will be welded is correct. My concerns are that it is at the wrong angle and that it enters the forge too much. Please let me know. Thanks

The pictures uploaded crooked, but if you click the image it should show it straight

10 hours ago, WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith.c said:

I have youngsters come to my shop for classes.  First thing they want to make is a SWORD!  I tell them that is to advanced so then they want to make a KNIFE!  Then I tell them you come here and learn how to move metal and to make the projects that I assign and then after about a year we will look into making a knife.

That's what I always get asked when I tell people I am a blacksmith.

"Oh so you make knives and swords?"

And then there is everybody's favorite

"Can you shoe my horse?"

Alright thankyou

I say, if the kid is disciplined and knows what they are doing, don't make the parents stay there for the entire time. If you can trust them just like you can trust anyone else, age shouldn't mean a thing. A good idea might to be to have a separate membership form for minors that the parents sign a waiver stating that the group is not responsible for anything that happens to their child. I don't know much about blacksmith groups, but maybe this will help.

I think that is really cool! That dragon head is so nice!

I can tell you what size brazeals prey anvil is. In his horse head video, he uses 3/4" X 1/4" steel. He takes a cube of material, which in this case is 3/4" long. That 3/4" takes up about a third of the anvils width. 3 times that amount gives you 2-1/4, so I would say about 2-1/2" is right around the correct dimensions. I guess if you want the exact size, you can contact him and I am sure he has much more information on it than us!