GD85

Thanks again for the invites, will certainly visit some time. I will be posting some pictures tonight or tomorrow. Unfortunately I do not have time this lunch break to post them but i did manage to get a few shots. We found our USB cord for the camara (which will be flying with my wife to Ohio tonight for a few days but i did manage to snap some of my shop and a very small amount of my work. Good morning. I posted some pics of my work here: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/pics-my-work-smithy-alarm-sytem-etc-12786/ Also, there are a few more in my gallery: GD85 Gallery - Blacksmith Photo Gallery More to be added soon as the camara is back. Take care, I'm off to the scrapyard! Then back to work on an outdoor fireset for my parents. -Grant

All, Thank you for the replies. The blacksmith classes fall under the welding program apparently. I am very much interested in taking those (5 hours at a time devoted to forging?!?!?! SWEET!). I should have mentioned in the original post that, while no expert (or even seasoned amateur) I do have some experience in forging, fabrication, MIG welding, copper repousse etc from the last six months. All learned trial and error type skills coupled with being fortunate enough to view IFI, anvilfire, and a few books. I wouldn't trust anyones life on my electric welds, or sleep well at night charging what skilled smiths deserve to on my commissioned blacksmith work (mostly custom branding irons) but the heart and desire to improve burns deeply within. It reassures me knowing that the University of TX accepts their courses as transfers even though I do not plan on working towards an academic degree. It also speaks volumes knowing that Mr.Bastas has a good reputation on this board, as on the internet it is much easier to anonymously bash a person than to praise. I look forward to the next chapter in my life very much. Blacksmithing, welding, and metalworking have brought so much peace, sanity, and a sense of accomplishment to my present life. I cannot imagine how much better things will be when the bread-winning hours are devoted to smartly and creatively applying these skills. -Grant

Brief background...currently, active-duty military looking to separate in 15 months (not that I'm counting)... Found a strong love in metalworking by accident by building "ugly drum smokers" out of new 55 gallon drums, plumbing supplies, and Weber Grill replacement parts in an attempt to recreate the awesome smoked brisket that exhists in this area. The illness progressed from there. Now, i am looking at schools. The post 9/11 GI Bill is tempting. For now, what I am looking at is learning how to do structural and/or pipe welding to pay the bills (and get certified) but also gain some experience in art metal. Austin Community College, located less than four hours away from where I am currently stationed appears to offer the best of both worlds. I enjoy reading their course descriptions, but it seems like one of those "too good to be true" deals. Has anyone here actually attended their welding program? If so, do you have any regrets, advise etc? Please advise. Thank you, -Grant

They are 15" long and were forged into a sort of rounded hexagon shape near the open ends.

Thanks for the input everyone however upon closer review they don't match the pics i linked in the original post. Wife is out of town with the digital camera which is useless anyways as she lost the USB cable for it so I will post a crude MSpaint masterpiece... One end of the whatsit tool has a bone shape to it the end that opens. On the other arm it has a right angle bend at the end that lines up and fits almost perfectly into the center of the bone shaped arm. The two ends fit very well together and have little play to them. Unfinished tongs... why not? Couldn't someone have forged the reins and jaws separately? Not sure exactly what kind of steel they are from sight and don't want to grind them to find out. Thanks, -Grant

Good morning, Can anyone enlighten me as to what this guy is used for? http://lh6.ggpht.com/_GgUUcQHYZkY/ShhfvTBUGeI/AAAAAAAAD48/8MZnzFlxm3c/s576/IMG_7653.JPG I am thinking unfinished tongs or some kind of caliper. This is another thing I managed to scrounge (this one basically free, from the scrapyard at $0.20/lb) and found a similar one on the internet/ebay. Thanks, -Grant

Glenn, I raised the question to IFI (and myself) of modifying to suit MY needs, not because I "read it on the internet". It is something I would have considered if I had been living in a cave with no ISP and had never discovered the internet. The way I see it is, the anvil isn't too bad BUT if I wanted to make an edge surface/surfaces where my work wouldn't get dented/dings imprinted on it. I will go with your suggestion and make hardy tools. It was something I considered before however it makes me nervous to be repeatedely bending heavier stock using a hardy tool (paranoid I will break the heel off the anvil). It makes sense to me to fix an area that has more mass behind with a gently radiused edge(or at least cleaned surface that won't make ugly marks on the work). But you are right, I should learn to use the anvil for what it is first. I have only been smithing for 3 months, no where near accomplished but learning fairly quick how to make results acceptable to me in the relatively simple projects I have taken on (steak flippers, belt buckles, hooks, knives, numerous branding irons, and misc decorative sculptures). -Grant

Good morning, world anyone care to make a blueprint or post how they make a fire-heated branding iron from start to finish using traditional methods in most of the process? I ask because I realized yesterday that if I were to do it the traditional ways (aka no mig welder or angle grinder) what already takes me sometimes up to 22 hours (depending on design intricacies and size of brand face) would take weeks on end. Please excuse me for being new but I just don't see how you could forge-weld the face pattern like this very easily . My very first commission was to make a large brand with this as the pattern: I wanted to make it perfect and seamless and untouched by a modern welder, like one perfect life-sized version of that chevron carved out of metal. What I came up with came out awesome but still I had to resort to welding and the angle grinder for joining the parts. I live in a cattle dominated state and have seen many authentic antique branding irons used on ranches around here. Some are shoddy looking but functional, others are just beautiful and you can tell that some smith really put his heart into it. Can someone describe from start to finish how they would make a brand using traditional methods only? Thank you, -Grant

Thanks all. Will try making the saddle first and see how that goes. As a few suggested, I really just wanted to take off the high points in the chips so the edge wouldn't mar the work. Glad to hear I didn't overpay, way starting to feel like the price was a little steep for something that is only 138# and that maybe I settled due to difficulty finding an affordable decent anvil here. Thanks again, -Grant

Good evening, Bought a 138# Peter Wright anvil (my first "real" one!" this week, should be here Monday but I am having a huge struggle deciding whether or not I should take the angle grinder to the edges or not. I am pretty good at radiusing mild steel but haven't really touched anything else. A local machine shop said they wouldn't touch it. I pretty much know what you all are going to say but please take a look at the pics and let me know what you think... Also wondering if I overpaid. I have been looking for months, asking every shop, auto repair,machine, the local farrier who tried to sell me a swaybacked 60# vulcan with an obvious stick weld job on the horn for $150) junk store, tool store, farm/feed store, ranchers themselves with cavernous barns, craigslist, ebay, welding shop, fab places, the flea market, the scrap yard etc. I live in a border town with primarily Spanish speakers so I think the language barrier made it more difficult than it needed to be, even though I learned the spanish word for anvil. Will probably even keep looking for servicable anvils as I am becoming just as addicted to old tools that I can use as I am to blacksmithing and other forms of metalwork. Got this one for $325. Maybe a little more than what it should have fetched but it's done. I am looking forward to using it, as I'm sure it will kick the snot out of the RR anvil I have been using for the last couple of months. Going to pick out a nice stump for it this Saturday at a local tree farm then put her back to work! Thanks, -Grant

Good evening, Purchased a tool this weekend (for a buck!) that looks identical to this thing posted on a current eBay auction. My thought was it is some sort of swage or texture making die for round stock. Not good detailed photo on the eBay pic I am posting, but mine has what looks like vine texture carved into the troughs. Can anyone enlighten a newbie? Thank you,

Looking on craigslist I envy you New England folk. Anvil Antique Blacksmith Tools Having a devil of a time here in SW Texas finding blacksmithing tools on CL or ebay for reasonable prices. With the exception of a small stock swage tool I "found" a few weeks ago everyone here seems to hold onto what they have. Going to Mexico soon ("old" Mexico) hoping to find tools factories have forgotten. Living on the border has some advantages however scrounging old tools is not one of them as they are still being used. Goes to show how quality is timeless. I'll let you know if I end up humping any 200# anvils over the border and how my back turns out. -Grant (originally from CT)

Awesome work Steve, Thanks for the input. Looks like brazing may be the way to go. Thanks again, -Grant

Thanks for the replies... I read somewhere that this one bladesmith who made cable damascus with nickel (nickel stick electrodes with the flux chipped off) intertwined around the larger groupings of strands (this was my influence). If brass gives off bad fumes and liquifies before the steel reaches welding temps, would copper work using the process I described in the first post? I see that it melts at about 2000 F. FOund this article but it does not disclose how they did it. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9402E0D6103DE433A25754C1A96E9C94649ED7CF Are there any other raw materials that can be successfully and non-toxically welded to steel and where might they be found? I have seen the brass brushing of steel before but was going hoping to come up with a gold colored vein pattern within the steel. Thanks again, -Grant

Good morning, Is it possible to forge weld brass to steel? I apologize if this has been covered, I searched google high and low and didn't find anything that answered my question. Basically what I was thinking of doing is wrapping 1/16 brass round rod around railroad spikes (or weaving the rod into steel cable) that had been heated to orange-red, fluxing with borax, then back into the fire until the brass was up to welding temp along with the railroad spike or cable. Was hoping to make an interesting brass/steel pattern welded billet. Do you think this would work? Any suggestions? Is it even safe to heat brass up to a welding temp? I made my first cable "damascus" knife yesterday from found 1" non-galvanized steel and am hooked, as it came out pretty good for my 2nd knife ever, but looking for ways to put drastically different colors/pattern into cable or spikes. anther possibility I was thinking of is wrapping the cable with degreased chainsaw chains and tack welding in a spiral pattern, then mashing the cable or spike into a square, twisting multiple times and folding etc to make a billet. Thank you in advance, -Grant edit: realize to some this may belong in bladesmithing however if this works well i would apply this process to other items, not just knives.

Mike, I apologize for asking this but is this what you mean by "slit wheel or bandsaw the middle away"? So you would just cut like the picture I attached and then use the channel steel (post-cut) as a bender for stock or you cut/bend as needed and use the channel steel as the actual letters for the brand? Thanks, -Grant

Would a small torch like Bernzomatic propane torch work to heat up corners or do you mean an all out oxy/acetylene set up to make the bends? Thanks for clearing up the scrolling wrench. Should be something I can make out of a lawnmower blades (made a bar twister out of one already that works pretty well) Thank you again for the input, -Grant

Thank you for thw welcome and advice. I will try printing basic scaled fonts up when I get access to a printer tomorrow and comparing the stock to it as I bend. Will also make some jigs for the curves. Didn't realize that the type of stock mattered so much for branding quality, good to know what is better for wood, steaks etc. Thanks again and I am sure I will be around more asking newbie questions. Is there another name for a bending wrench? I googled "bending wrench" and got a lot of Chinese import pages. Take care, -Grant

Good evening, My name is Grant I am brand new to blacksmithing and have been teaching myself how to work with metal for the last month and a half or so on weekends. I sort of jumped right into plasma cutting and MIG welding as I have always been fascinated with the idea of being able to make or fix pretty much whatever I wanted out of metal. I make grills, smokers, various yard art and whatever comes to mind after a nice trip to the metal recyclers. Quickly I realized though that it would be better to be able to physically shape the metal myself and am slowly learning how to forge things such as railroad spike knives (decent looking but still a bit crude), hooks, and ornamental flowers. Now I would like to make branding irons for friends and myself. Would like to make "Legal" style as well as steak brands with smaller flat iron or round stock. So far I have been trial and error style cold bending with my homemade vice bending forks, my railroad track anvil and various hammers. It is proving very difficult to make consistent letters in both typeface and size. I can make "nice" looking letters with said equipment however keeping them to the same scale as the others is difficult. This I might add is with small round mild steel, currently experimenting with 3/16"-1/4". Does anybody have any tips on how to be more accurate/more consistent? I would like to make some nice quality brands to give as gifts and have wasted probably 8' of nice new steel on some inaccurately bent letters. Not a whole lot of material I know but waste is waste. They are definitely recognizable as characters however they just do not "look right" together. Eventually I would like to move up to 1/4x1" flat bars like in this picture for the "authentic" look which I imagine will prove even harder. Is this something that will just improve with time/experience or are there any tips anyone would care to share? Cutting soild shapes out of steel sheet with my plasma cutter is fine for graphics, I just want to be able to make the letters/numbers out of round solid rod or flat bar Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance. -Grant