Dewnmoutain

Doing some clean up in the shop, and im trying to organize my slits, drifts, punches, etc. I came up with the shelf unit in the picture, but i dont like it. I made another shelf like this when i built my shop and used it to store a couple chisels and punches that i had purchased, but in the end it ended up contibuting to rusty ends. I know this shelf will work for the time being, but im stumped on how to store these tools in my shop. So i was wondering how my fellow smiths organize their slitters, punches, drifts, chisels, etc?

Christmas presents finished. 3 back scratchers. Wish i could have seen how the middle one was going to space apart before i hammered it flat so i could have done a tighter twist. But, it turned out well enough to leave my shop.

Prototyping backscratcher designs. Successfully forge welded the ends

Getting better.

The thing that was missing for me to fully understand was that bit you talked about in your previous post, about working it down to remove the seam, and loosing height in your material because your having to mold the material. I watched asperys videos several times already, and always felt like there was something missing. Finally Frazers comment got me what i was missing. So tomorrow i should have some good welds completed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it now. ...no. i was practicing just getting them to connect first. I probably shouldve been taking the extra minute to set up that scarf on the material

(took too long in writing this up and lost the window to perform an edit for one post.) This is another one of those "im not sure how to ask this, so bear with me please" kind of posts. Working in the shop, practicing some forge welding, and i kept running into this issue where the metal would stick together, but when I'd test it, it would fail, just snap off. And i had seen this happen earlier in my attempts, and at those earlier attempts i thought it was due to my inexperience, i was forgetting something, too much scale, etc, just messing up my weld attempts. Today though, i t

So i understand, cuz im practicing with mild steel (im a glutton for punishment, i know), the unit becomes one hemogeneous piece?

So, how do i forge weld? Hopefully i made you chuckle. But seriously though, i do have a non traditional forge welding question. When you heat up the metal to welding temp, and then hit the metals together to set the weld, how thick is the weld supposed to be? And how thick does the weld get with subsequent heatings? I included a picture to hopefully convey what i am asking about. Theres a third and fourth question im sure i should ask, but cant figure out how to ask it, but it relates to the drawings on the bottom of the picture.

Attempted the infamous basket twist. Didnt have enough round stock on hand to make an attempt, so i used 1/4 square. Forge welded the ends. So, i twisted and then reversed, and it came out with that gap between the two legs on the back side. Im inclined to think that that was caused by lack of even heat

Just to add context, im showcasing my attempts at forge welding.

Success!!!

I thought about this. Read on here that some people liked it and others that did not. Decided to not use it...thinking i'll try it tomorrow. With my last attempt at forge welding, i had used just a piece of 1/2" square stock. I cut it 3/4 through and then bent it over onto itself, making a faggot? Is that the right term? I read somewhere that its easier to learn to forge weld mild steel using 3/8ths to 1/2".

well, im stumped. Made another attempt at forge welding mild steel today. and i dont know what im doing wrong. started today by looking on here, researching everything about forge welding as described. Even watched a few videos about forge welding. i made sure i had a clean forge. High pile (7") of coal cleaned my steel fresh flux on hand heated the face plate of the anvil because it's cold here in wisconsin. swapped normal hammer for a light hammer to ensure tapping heated steel on one side of the forge, and not over the center rotated steel to get even heat applied