JHCC

Thanks, RMB. I needed a pair of tongs to hold sheet metal circles to make into bowls, and I think these will serve well. Here's me starting to cut the reins with the treadle hammer:

Had my first student in the shop today who’d already gotten beyond tapers and S-hooks. What did I do in the shop today? I changed my lesson plans! We made a couple of bottle openers to teach him how to slit and drift. It went pretty well. After he left, I made what is probably my best pair of tongs yet:

If you cut down one side to make a series of rings, chain mail is always an option.

Quick update on the stem-on-bone experiment: I got impatient and didn’t let the glue completely harden, but it stayed together long enough to get the bottoms ground flat. Just remembered that I think I have some hot-melt glue sticks in the basement. Doesn’t matter if I don’t have the right gun; I certainly have plenty of sources of heat. Definitely looking forward to trying the next time.

It was a one-off sale: someone who had bought a box of 10 and was selling off the unused ones. Providing a link to the seller wouldn’t have helped you, even if it weren’t a violation of forum guidelines.

Very basic: a pipe welded vertically to a wheel rim and drilled and tapped for a big shopmade thumbscrew, a vertical inner piece with a crossbar welded on. The only details of interest are a welded-in V-block for round stock* and a ring to anchor one of my motorcycle-chain-and-bell-clapper holddowns. *per the recommendation of jlpservicesinc.

eBay. I’m researching places where I can order stock and custom 2x90s (prices, grits, abrasive types, belt materials, etc), but this looked like a great deal to get me started at an affordable price.

This stuff, which is basically a very thick, flexible rubber cement: (Hot-melt would probably work, but I don’t have any.)

A quick experiment: gluing stems onto a pair of bone slabs, the easier to hold them against the platen on the grinder. (The rivet block is to hold the stems while the glue hardens; the glue itself is Shoe Goo rubber adhesive.)

This didn’t follow me home; it was waiting for me when I got there! (My very first shipment of belts for the 2x90 grinder: five Norton R999B ceramic in 24 grit. Probably a bit too aggressive for knife making, but good for any application where I want to remove a lot of material quickly. Plus, they were only a bit more than four bucks each, delivered.)

Extremely general rule is at least one gallon of quenchant per pound of steel. However, that will vary considerably depending on the quenchant, the steel, and the shape of the workpiece. By and large, more quenchant is better than less.

My latest pair of tongs was a pair of V-bits to hold 7/8” square, which is what fits my hardy hole. This lets me forge the stem at the end of a longer piece, cut the hardy off the parent stock, and then forge the business end to shape.

Update: not looking good. The cut-and-bend test is giving a crystalline break rather than a fibrous splintering. Oh, well. I’ll cut off the metal strapping and see if I can sell the wooden parts to someone who wants to make rustic tables

Picked up half a dozen old silo doors for just under 10 bucks, taking a gamble that the metal might be wrought iron.

I’ll probably wash it with soap and hot water — perhaps with some judicious use of a toothbrush — to remove any loose dirt (drying carefully, to avoid causing any rust). We’ll see where we are at that point. A coat of paste wax will probably suffice. I’m certainly not going to take a wire wheel to it!

My metal stand has an upsetting block made of welded-up chunks of track plate. The location is convenient, especially when upsetting pieces about 18-24” long. However, the lack of coherent mass makes it pretty inefficient, and I’m constantly tempted to cut it off and weld on a solid block of some variety.

I agree. The rounded corner of the punch tends to push outwards anyway.

What is this “sweeping the shop” of which you speak?

The trick is threefold: shape of your fullering tool, spacing of the divots, and depth of punching. For the first, you want a fuller whose edges have the same radius as the bottom, with a quarter-sphere at the transition from bottom to edge. For the second, you want to the place the fuller far enough from the previous divot that punching doesn’t distort that last divot, but close enough that the ridge between divots isn’t too thick. For the third, you want to punch far enough down that the distance between the bottom of the fuller and the face of the anvil (that is, the final thickness of the peak of the sine wave) equals the distance between the divots. Make sense?

I've had the best luck making split-rein tongs, both twist-jaw and bolt. Our own jlpservicesinc has a good video on making these: Another good version is this one:

Interesting thought. I could see that. As a former decorative objects conservator, I’m torn on how much I want to clean it up. There are some flecks of old paint that are not original, but I don’t want to risk messing up the patina by removing it. I’ll have to give it some thought.

Still using the tank with the aluminum frame as a slack tub, with no issues. I’ve using a stainless steel stockpot for oil quenching. Thinking about an outer container that pot could go in, to accommodate spillovers. Party balloon helium tanks come with a built-in needle valve that can be opened to allow the tank to fully vent. Once the pressure is relieved, that valve can be removed with a wrench and the tank cut safely. Helium isn’t flammable or explosive, so sparks from cutting aren’t the issue they would be with, inter alia, propane.

I was visiting a donor in her home (I'm professional fundraiser in higher education, for those who didn't already know) and noticed this spoon hanging by her kitchen sink. When I remarked on it, she took it down and gave it to me as a thank-you for helping her with her philanthropy (she has, among other things, been a major supporter of our first-generation students). It’s an interesting piece. No maker’s marks, and she can’t remember where she got it.

THIS IS WHY WE TELL BEGINNERS TO INVEST IN GOOD TONGS!!!! (Not yelling at you, Jon; just trying to make the point.)

Get burned -- and have fun doing it!