Mark Ling

Thanks Das!

Thank you too Jlpservicesinc! No, not based on anything, I decided on forging it part way through the day as it had been about a year since I had forged one and I decided it had been a little too long since I've made one. 

If that comment about having a good eye was meant to me, than thank you! I am not a great drawer, never been taught. I have found though, that when laying out hammer billets where to punch, I can take my calipers and set them to the length that I think looks right and when I scribe the billet I am allwys no more than 1/8-3/16" it's crazy. I have found I am bad about being abstract. I have no imagination and have no interested in fiction books, and and find it hard to do abstract forgings like for sculptures etc. I guess I'm just to practical and narrow minded to be able to think up shapes and forms that would look nice, or maybe it's just cause I don't have any liking for abstract art. 

                        Littleblacksmith 

Yes I completely agree. I do not like these proportions, and if it was another tomahawk I woulda just shortened the bit by maybe an inch and a half, but because I had the damascus edge I didn't really wanna cut it off and loose that work. I also agree about having more swoop down of a beard, I just didn't have enough steel to do so. 

                       Littleblacksmith

Finished this tomohawk the other day. Body is a rasp, edge is a peice of cable Damascus. 

Thank you arkie!

                                                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

I am pleased you like it! also, great pictures.

                                                                                                                                                   Littleblacksmith 

That's a very nice first knife, and also a nice looking hammer.

                                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

Thanks mud man!

Oh das I really like that idea alot. 

                    Littleblacksmith

Haha thank you Mr. Powers I was going to post a similar response about bails and bales until I saw you had done the job for me

did something a little different last Sunday. Forged this cross, it's been an Idea of mine for a while and finally gave it a try. the larger "spike" is from a spike harrow, which it actually turned out to be wrought iron. I punched and drifted the hole and made a similar spike out of 1/2" HR mild steel. I drifted the hole slightly undersized on purpose, and so I drove the middle arm in, and then secured it also with two wedges. 

                                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmith 

Or it had a steel rod handle...

                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmiths 

yeah strange he's got a PH, anvil, and two flatters but he doesnt forge and wont sell them. That would drive me crazy. Dont give up.  

                                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

I looked him up he does very nice work too.

                                                                                                                                                          Littleblacksmith 

Well thank you RanchmanBen. 

Thank you jlpservicesinc. Yes, Brian is still a large inspiration, Alec not so much anymore as he is more annoying than inspiring and our interests don't line up as much anymore. I was a subscriber when he had less than 25,000 subscribers and he was much more personable and more educational, and did more hand forging and tool making, now he is a people pleaser and forges knives and other weapons. Jakob Faram recently has been an inspiration. His work is so darn clean. his hand forgings and his tools are both really clean. seems so many people seem to focus on quantity over quality, but I think for him it's the other way around, all is stuff is really nice, and it's different. A man that I forge tools with, he has been an inspiration when it comes to finishing stuff. I don't always spend as much time finishing stuff as I maybe should but he does and his finishes look nice, and he does a variety of finishes, while I only do a few.

                                                                                                                                                                 Littleblacksmith 

I dont have much to add to this conversation, I'm in about the same boat as RanchmanBen. I like clean forged surfaces, with as little scale as possible. That's probly my biggest thing. If it is over oxidized than to me it isn't finished, and either requires grinding/rasping, or some more planishing at lower temperatures and brushing with a block brush. On hammers, I dont file or polish anything other than the faces most times. I have before, but when I do that I have to charge more, and not everybody will pay more for shiny tools, though some will. Like Ranchmanben said, I am never fully satisfied with my forgings, there is always something I could have done better, but that is what strives me to do better.

Lots of the time I will bring what I forged that day and put it in my room, and before bed each night and at other times I will sit and look at the pieces and see whats wrong with them, and also what I like about it. I will do that for a week until the next weekend and I go to the forge, and either will fix the pieces that I think could be easily fixed without messing with other parts of the piece, or I will forge another one, a better version of the last on (hopefully).

But back to the question of what I considered a finished forging. Very little scale, smooth with no hammer marks unless they are intentional texturing, and also I need things to be symmetrical and even on things that are supposed to be. If a hammer isn't symmetrical, or isn't straight, I try to fix it but sometimes you can't fix them without spending more time than it's worth and it goes to the scrap pile, or is used as a personal shop hammer. My scrap pile is full of "failed forgings" though I recently brought buckets full to the scrap yard and got rid of them. Though I guess I shouldn't say failed forgings, cause on each one I learned something. Either what to do, or what not to do. I think it's important to have high quality standards. I see so many people selling items that, no offense, should be at the scrap yard. Most of the time it's people who have been forging for a year or less, and are trying to make some money off the hobby already. But maybe those items are up to there standards. I was going through totes of products I have made for shows because I have an upcoming one and I was going to price stuff. While going through the totes I found stuff from maybe a year ago that was not up to my standards, and was put in the scrap pile. It goes to show that peoples standards change, or at least mine do. Its not that a few years ago I didn't like the clean forgings free of hammer marks, it was more of that I didn't know how to get that finish and didn't have the experience to. As peoples skill levels change so does there standards. 

I know I was all over the place and maybe didn't answer the question the best, but I'm not the best with words anyways.

                                                                                                                                              Littleblacksmith

Thanks! This is the only other one I have at the moment, I can take some more tomorrow though if you'd like. the face is a bit rectangular actually,  about 1-3/8 x 1-5/8".

                                                                                                                                                               Littleblacksmith

Finished up this cross pein and ground and made a handle for a 3.5lb rounding hammer for a member on here who is buying it. About to go heat treat it and put the handle on.

                                                                                                                                                   littleblacksmith

here is the 3.5lber about 3/4 of the way forged, and also a picture of it after forging was done.

Yeah I have had problems with 4140 cracking quenching in water, I only use it on struck tools now, and use 1045 for hammers. Also after hardening 4140 you want to immediately temper it because the stress that is built up in it can cause it to crack after being hardened. I too use a heated drifts to temper my hammers.

                                                                                                                                                   Littleblacksmith

Yes Brian is in Brazil. You can contact Lyle Wynn on Facebook, let me know if he doesn't respond and I can send you his number.

                                                                                                                                                 Littleblacksmith 

Brian is now in Brazil, just got there a few days ago. He is offering classes, but, in Brazil. Yes, Lyle and Stan do classes, I recommend them, and I will be giving some in the fall, as we have discussed.

                                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmith

Thank you very much!

                         Littleblacksmith

Thank you!

                                                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith 

Here is some recent stuff. 3-d horse head bottle opener (actually a really simple thing to forge), sea horse wall hook (proportions are off, next one I hope will be better), hot chisel, feather wall hook that I actually like, top fuller, and cupping tool. also forged a pair of tongs from a set of blanks I got from Ken's Custom Iron.

  Also here is some pics of a photo shoot. I like them.

                                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith 

No, I havent done anything with it yet, I forged it about a year ago. I haven't had a need to forge it back into a bar, and It's not worth salvaging the hammer, it weighed less than a lb.

                                                                                                                                         Littleblacksmith 

Yeah really nice looking hammer Ben! I once tried a wrought iron hammer, it split in half (almost literally) when I was drifting it. just was working it too cold.

I tried doing that design JHCC that black bear forge showed, and mine got really wonky haha. I made a hand held fuller to do the indentations which worked well, its jus things got all out of shape. I think I'll just put it on a bit of mesquite and sell it as a sculpture. Some wine drinking cheese eating rich person who has an artsy bone in them will like it.

                                                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith 

Thanks. Yeah that one was completely thought up while the steel was heating in the fire, just a random idea. Those are actual rivets, made from 3/8" round. 

                     Littleblacksmith

Thank you!

                                                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith