Caleb Hale

1 hour ago, ThomasPowers said:

whats the name on it?

 

It looks like the stamp says "GERMANY".

Yeah it does resemble those slim molding paint scrapers. The hole in the top where something else connects is throwing me off though.

A guy at work brought this in and he has no clue what it is. I've never seen one, anybody here have an idea?

That's a wingnut on the side that tightens down something else you slide into the hole on top.
The pointy piece has beveled edge on both sides, and is a little twisted (not sure if that's on purpose or not).
Overall it's pretty small, about 7-8 inches long.

No they haven't been tempered at all. The last two were straight stock removal. They got hot enough in a couple of spots to turn blue/purple before I'd dunk it, but nothing near forging temp.

Unfortunately I just have a cheapish belt sander, so no speed control. But dragging the tip across and off the edge of the platen with some pressure...I was consciously trying to do that to get the bevel to follow the curve of the blade. Started realizing toward the end of this last one that it wasn't really needed. I'll try it as you've described next time with stopping the tip in the middle.

Thanks for the tips! (<- haha pun!)

So I'm getting better at grinding in my bevels. I still need to work on getting them parallel to the spine, probably just need to be a little smoother and consistent...

...but I keep breaking the tip off once the metal at the front starts to get thin. Three times in a row now  

Is that just a matter of dunking it more often to keep it cool or what? I'm using a jig to grind so I let it get pretty hot before I dunk.

Thanks for lookin'!

I gave up on freehand grinding after several failed attempts and made myself a knife grinding jig:

Now I just need to make another knife to test it.

This was also the first time I've welded anything. Kinda fun...looking forward to practicing more of that.

Mine is made from 12 pressure treated 4x4's connected together with 3/8" all-thread rod. It was pretty easy to do...total cost is around $30.

I was a bit shocked when I saw how much a damascus billet goes for, but you can buy Chad Nichols' billets online here: http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=1022

 

Awesome tongs dude! Way better than my first set. 2 bottles of prop though, ouch! 

Just curious, how fast do you burn through a tank? I can usually get about 7hrs out of one but I only have a single burner.

I'm so frickin jealous of y'all. I was looking forward to going to that dang demo for a month until my boss told me a had to work. Maybe next year

Thanks man! Yeah I think I was scared to hit it real hard the first few times...wasn't moving much metal. That first tong took like 4 hours or so, second one probably only about 2 hours.
I'd say a tank last me 5-6 hours using a dual burner setup.

 

Great tongs man.  I've tried and failed like 4-5 times so far, bought 1 pair of Wolf's Jaw tongs and they've been great,  I plan on attempting some more tongs here in the near future, hell I'll be happy if they looks or operate anything remotely close to how yours look.  Major Kudos for the first pair....Job Well Done.

Thank a lot man I appreciate it!

 

Awesome setup man! It's taken me close to 3 years to get even close to that far along. But I have built a 2x72 and love it. If you build one, you'll regret not doing it sooner. "Screw a bench grinder! lol". I built my first anvil stand almost identical to that(I'll try and post a pic) and it works great. That work bench though! That thing looks phenomenally sturdy and well built but please get it dirty so I can feel better about mine lol. Great design!

I would definitely modify that forge to suite your needs(which I'm guessing is knife making?) Edit- just read the first paragraph, I'm stupid lol

I too am in the Houston area(southwest), there actually seems to be quite a few amateur blacksmiths in this area. If you haven't already, check out the HABA-Houston area blacksmith association. I joined up last Sept and have really been and learning a lot. 

Anyways, forge on brother!!!

PS is that a bc rich behind the sander???

Sure would be cool to meet another metal head smith

I'm with you on the 2x72 grinder. I can't wait, but I have to because I haven't learned how to weld yet. As soon as I get some welding skills the grinder will be my first big project I have planned. My little 4x36 is ok but I go through belts really fast and it heats my work (and fingers) up pretty quickly as well.

I've checked out the HABA website in the past but not lately...I'll go check it out again and sign up.

That is a BC Rich. Right next to my Randall half stack (big Pantera fan) that plays metal while I work on metal! 

Thanks for the info, and the vivid descriptions! Apologies for not searching beforehand.

I'm rather attached to my fingers and skin (pun intended) so I'll have to start getting used to going gloveless as much as possible.

So yeah, this is the show that pushed me over the edge to try blacksmithing. I had always been interested but I thought it required a huge forge and all kinds of crazy expensive tools, but once I started seeing the other people's home setups I figured I could do that too.

Anyway, I was rewatching a few episodes recently since I've started smithing on my own, and I'm picking up and noticing a lot of things that I wouldn't have even known about before. But one question I still have is why do blacksmiths not like wearing gloves when working? Am I missing something important by not having the steel touch my skin or is it all just preference? If I don't wear gloves all of my fingertips would be burned and my knuckles would look like hamburger from the belt grinder.

I made my first knife-shaped object today. I only say that because it's just some unhardenable mild steel. It will be pretty useless and was mainly just for practice.
I found out my bevel grinding skills are...hmm...severely lacking.

Left-handed grinding I did ok...

...but right-handed grinding was a disaster (I had a low spot in the blade and couldn't get it out, just kept looking worse and worse)

It all come out pretty centered though

It's fairly comfortable in the hand

And it cuts very well.

1 hour ago, littleblacksmith said:

I was there too! were you there Friday? also, did you get the chance to meet a fellow by the name of Matt Marti? he makes some beautiful hammers, and also did a demonstration. Did you get your anvil and forge from the front where there was Tons of tools, or in the back? I had to keep myself from buying everything do to the high prices..... Steep hollow is only like 30 minutes from my house.

                                                                                                                            Littleblacksmith

I came out Saturday afternoon. The only person I met was a guy named James who owns Texas Farrier Supply out of Fort Worth...he was setup right in the front where most of the anvils were. It was just pure luck that when I bought my anvil/forge online he emailed me back that he would be at that show and if I wanted to meet and pick it up in person to not have to worry about shipping costs.

I did see some really nice hammers there. I actually went with the intention of buying one, but my jaw dropped a bit when I saw the prices. Then James recommended I start out with a cheap hammer anyway to see how heavy I like it before I spent a lot of money...that was probably good advice.

2 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

That's a really good first pair of tongs. Just do that and make them overall beefier. The reins are a good size. Keep at it!

if you are ever neer me, feel free to shoot me a message and drop by! Or if you just are wondering about where to find stuff, don't hesitate asking, I'll try and help out as much as I can.

                                                   Littleblacksmith  

Awesome thanks for the offer! I was actually out near Bryan a couple of weeks ago at a demo at Steephollow Forgeworks where I picked up my forge and anvil.
It's only about an hour drive for me.

Thanks JHCC that's some good info on dressing the edges.

I think I'll go the route of hand filing a radius as the need arises, like what Daswulf suggested.

3 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Pictures, please. Hard to answer without seeing what you're actually dealing with.

Can't take any new ones right now, but in the last photo you can see the edge of my anvil pretty well. It's got a pretty sharp right angle to it all the way around like that. I've seen some posts about "dressing" an anvil, but grinding down the edge to a radius makes me nervous.

10 hours ago, Daswulf said:

The term you are searching for I believe is "Bolster plate".  Nice work on your first completed tongs. 

Bolster plate, thanks! I need to make some modifications to my bolster plate for the next time I pin some tongs.

3 hours ago, ausfire said:

Nice job. Folks say tongs are easy to make but they're not.

Agreed! It would have been a lot easier if I didn't have to make a matching pair.

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

Pretty good first try. Pay attention to the interior corners next to the bosses: it looks like you've got some cold shuts and cracking starting there. Make sure that there's a bit of a radius on the edge of the anvil where you do the set-downs. I strongly recommend that you go back and round out the reins more; the sharp corners are going to be hard to grab and will tire your hands very quickly.

Keep up the good work!

I struggled with making any radius at all because my anvil is new. Should I think about dressing the edges myself or just let it wear down on it's own?
I wanted to round the entire reins but I was worried about drawing the material out too thin, so I just did the handles.

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Thank you sir!

I punched and drifted the holes. Ruined my punch by not quenching it often enough and dulled the point severely.

Preface: Sorry to those who object to the idea of tongs being someone's first project. I didn't start reading here until I had already planned and started this adventure  

So I've been at this whole blacksmithing thing for about 3 weeks now, I'm definitely hooked. I just had to steal the propane tank from my barbecue pit to finish heating the pin for these tongs, so yeah. I started off pretty slow because well, my arm was just a limp noodle after a few hits...I'm much better now.
This is actually my second attempt at tongs, the first ones I abandoned very early on, after my first day of forging, when I realized I didn't have enough metal in the boss.

These are made out of whatever the low grade steel bars are they sell at the big name hardware stores - 1" x 1/4" x 3' flat bar (I read that it's A36 steel from an unofficial source). The pivot pin is the same steel - 1/4" round bar.
I used 2 whole cans of propane while forging them / learning to forge...that was a bit of a shocker how fast it goes, but I know I'm wasting quite a bit right now. All good.

Anyway I'm pretty proud of how they turned out, and they seem like they will do the job intended. The real test will be when I actually hammer on hot metal while gripping it with them I suppose. They've got good motion to them and are comfortable when I'm gripping the intended steel. Most importantly it was a completely awesome experience and I can't wait to make more stuff.

Picture time...

Everything is pretty much in-line and on-center.

Overall 25" length. I rounded the handles as much as I could by hand.

Front profile view...sorry so dark. LED lighting for my workspace is on the to-do list.

Rear profile

This is the first side of the pin I hammered on. It started to fall off to one side as I was hammering...I recovered a little bit. The pivot hole is actually centered in the boss.

I punched as big a hole as I could in a piece of 3/16" flat bar and set it under the boss with the pin in it for my first few strikes (not sure what the technical name for something like that is, swage block?). It kinda worked, not as well as planned (needed to double the thickness of my swage block or whatever it's called) but I do have 1-2mm of pretty thick overlap all around the pivot hole on the other side. Notice the hole actually is centered from this side...

This is the knife stock they will be holding for me. They have a nice, firm grip on the material. They feel springy in my hand when I grip tight.

Banged it around on the anvil a few times...didn't budge.

All comments and criticism welcome! And thanks for reading this far!  

18 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Hang fire extinguishers by the exits NOT by the fire hazards say behind the kitchen range. It's sad to see the window of opportunity to extinguish a new fire close with the extinguisher plainly visible THROUGH the flames. Having them by the exits gets you moving the right direction and puts on at hand at the safest spot to use it. By window of opportunity, there's usually a short, sometimes VERY short period of time a person with an extinguisher can put a fire out before it gets away from you. Often it's only seconds long and you can't be reaching through a fire for the extinguisher.

Flux core is NOT mig, they're two entirely different types of wire feed welding. Flux core is a fine way to weld once you've developed the skills and will do most of what you need even if you have to chip and make multiple passes.

I have a Hobart 120 Handler a GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welder) a good 30+ years old The shielding gas I use is 75% argon and 25% CO2 or 70-30 depends on what's there when I exchange a bottle. Anyway, CO2 is not an inert gas so using any mix shielding gas with CO2 in the mix makes it NOT a MIG. (Metal and Inert Gas). Yeah, I'm being picky but having the terms and jargon right will save you time and confusion down the road.

Gotta go.  Frosty The Lucky.

Great point, I'll move the fire extinguisher to a more logical location!

I must have gotten confused by looking at the welders that are MIG and flux core capable...just assumed it was basically the same thing. I really didn't want to have to deal with any bottles of gas which is why I went purely with the flux core machine. I was probably a bit too hasty in the welder purchase, but I'm sure it'll get some use.

No worries about being pedantic, I appreciate it. I like to get the details correct myself!  

41 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Looks like a farrier's forge; may want to see if you can trade someone it for one more suited for your use.

Also think about putting wheels on it and placing it outside when you use it, or having a fan to provide air exchange. I'd definitely invest in a CO meter to see if the open door is enough without something pushing air in/out!

Yeah I thought about trying to sell/trade or maybe even use the parts from this one to build one that better suits my needs. I always have a box fan blowing air out of the garage while I'm forging, been wondering if that was enough ventilation. I'll have to get a CO meter to put out in my garage.

37 minutes ago, C-1ToolSteel said:

Welcome Caleb! Looks like a decent setup. 

A couple of thoughts...

What do you need that welder for? You don't need one to make knives, and the thickest stock you can weld with flux core is about 1/8".

Also, if you are intending to bevel your knives with that 4x32 sander, I'll go ahead and burst your bubble. I would much prefer bevelling with just a file than with one of those. Good for handles, though.

All in all, I think your off to a good start. Be safe, and have fun!

The welder is mainly for welding handles on the bar stock I'm working with so I don't have to fiddle with tongs the whole time, as well as making hardy tools (welding the shank to the tool). Also I'll need it to weld up stacks of steel for damascus billets eventually. I'm not trying to build any metal structures any time soon.

I wanted to go with a 220v stick welder, but I don't have any outlets in my house that provide enough amps, so I just went with the cheapest 110v they had. In my mind it's just temporary until I can get something with more capabilities...and have a proper outlet installed.

Thanks!

6 minutes ago, CMS3900 said:

Welcome to IFI Caleb.  When you get a chance, add your location to your profile so when you start asking questions folks will know where your at to assist better. Who knows, you might even live near a member on here!. It looks like your getting your shop together nicely. Fire prevention is always key so it's good to see the extinguisher. As for the forge, you might be able to modify it later to open on the end.  There's a bunch of reading on here on forges, forge design, and materials.

Done...I'm in northwest Houston, TX but it doesn't want to update this post. I'll have to look into possibly modifying my forge, thanks!

2 minutes ago, beech said:

I assume you figured out that the computer probably will not be well served by hot steel...

Yeah, computers and heat don't mix. It's really just an mp3 player so not too worried about destroying it.

Thanks!

Hey everyone! I've just picked up the hobby and started acquiring tools a couple of weeks ago. My focus will be knife-making. Here's what I'm currently working with:

Workbench - 6' x 2' - designed and built this myself out of 2x4s with a 3/4" Red Oak plywood top...thing is sturdy as a boulder. Future plans include adding some shelves and storage areas, possibly drawers. 

Anvil - 100# from Texas Farrier Supply
I built the stand out of pressure treated 4x4s with 3/8" all-thread rod to connect them all together. The anvil isn't fastened to the stand, just held in place by the two pieces of plywood on either side. The red magnet on the end of the horn there deadens all the ring. The garage door is always open when I have the forge going for ventilation. There's a sheet of plywood behind me when I work because the wife is scared of sparks flying everywhere.

Forge - 2 burner propane farrier's forge. I should have done more research before I bought it. The side entry is problematic for the metal stock I'm working with and generally I'm only able to utilize 1 of the burners.
My belt sander is there on the right as well. I just bought a cheap one to get me by until I decide this is really for me, and then purchase something more substantial or possibly build my own 2x72 grinder.

Welder - I've never welded before. I've had this machine for about a week now, but haven't tried it yet. It's been taunting me every day...maybe tonight I'll give it a shot.
It's a flux core only MIG welder. And of course, an easily accessible fire extinguisher.
You can also see a blurry bit of my first forging project on the workbench. Tongs!

My drill press is on a truck to be delivered any day now, then I'll have all the basics I need.
Let me know if anyone sees any safety hazards or something stupid I've done in the pics please!

Thanks all!