Pault17

Lord of the Rings look to it alright... now you just gotta find a "vertically challenged" person to sell it to.

Very nice axe Sam. it does look good

I have been told many times that hammer work will remove the rust. A little elbow grease with scotch brite pads work too.

I will have to update my user info. Thanks Unicorn! I guess it didn't transfer with the new website. My wife just realized the inuendo in my post topic and started beating me up

She IS actually interested in doing some more 'smithing too.

Happy New Year,
Paul

oh, and btw, we DO have 9 (nine) wonderful children! B)

I asked my loving wife fo 17+ years if she would like to try blacksmithing. She said that she has been waiting for me to ask.

As my gas forge is sorta tubular with openings at both ends, we were both able to work at the same time. I had her work on my smaller ASO (75-lb block of hardened & tempered D2 6x9x9) and we shared the slack tub.

I taught her basic tapering, drawing, bending, scrolling, ribbon tapers, scale removal, brass patination and protecting with wax. With only a little help from me (very little, really) she finished this little drive hook.

John,
Glad to hear things will clean up in time. I had a small sliver in one of my eyes a while back and was lucky enough to be able to remove it myself with a super strong magnet. I could actually feel when it was gone.

A family invited us over for a Spanish (Catillano, not Latino) Christmas get-together. I have only met the husband and wife once and they were evidently impressed with us:o So I figured I would bring along a gift from us to them.

made from 3/4" square, cut and split. textured with a narrow cross pein. polished to shiny then oxidized for coloring - purple outside to straw inside. overall height is about 7.25 inches. bottom was drilled and tapped, and the base is oak scrap painted with felt glued to the bottom. Cross is beeswaxed, the base is spray laquered.

I know they are strong Christians, so I hope they like it.

nice idea. very well executed.
may they be traded more than a fifth of whiskey

I also feel the need to partially clarify. There is a distinct difference between the "country gentleman" Redneck and the "jeff foxworthy" redneck.

other than that, nice backwoods engineering on the chop saw!

Good time on the walk Fin. that is a stout pace. Never tried to "date" spikes before. They probably made the older ones out of wrought instead of steel. You could sacrifice one to destructive testing for evidence of grain structure vs. crystalline structure

Glenn,
as for Christmas gifts (there is no X in Christmas!), I am making RR spike split crosses mounted on chunks of granite for the parents/inlaws, key hanging racks, candle holders, little 3/8ths round rod snakes, key chains, curtain tie-backs, and maybe some bottle openers.

paul

You go Jeremy!!! Tell Glenn what you really think:rolleye;)

Regarding the back scratcher, I used a piece of 5/16 round (cause I had it at the time) upset one end to a knob about 1/2 inch egg shape and fish-tailed it. curled the end to provide a scratching surface and smoothed all edges. I scrolled the other end to provide a means of hanging and made the whole thing a measured 22.5 inches. I then ergonomically bent the shaft to allow me to reach every portion of my back with ease.

I have to stress the smoothing of the scratching end. no sense in flaying your own back, or worse - allowing someone else to do the same, to you or themselves:o

Michael,
two things: jump into your user cp and plug a location in - there may be someone nearby that could give some shared forge time and knowlege.
second, search the user's galleries for knockers or something like that (when the galleries come back on line.

third, google door knockers and check places like anvilfire

I second CurlyGeorge's comment. cool idea. I will have to try and fab one up this weekend.

Mr. Brazeal,
very interesting concept. when it can be used, it would be basically the same as a faggot weld, correct?
(mind you, I have yet to even really try any kind of welding in the forge, but have watched a few very talented people do it)

that is awesome Doug. I may have to check into a possible new Christmas present or two

Frosty,
I have been here only intermittantly, but have been praying more than daily. As have my children and my oldest daughter's school. We are all so glad to have you back in the thick of things. Hug Deb for hanging with this all.
God Bless you all up North.

It can't be too hard:o. I got to watch a master by the name of Robert Timberlake do just that when I worked at the state fair a month ago. He had just finished welding a bar of 3/8 round into a necked-down piece of 3/4 in steel pipe. He did the drop weld on the thin piece of plate he was forging into the ladle, welding it onto the ladle stem.

:(
he made it look so easy. and he didn't even have a lot of sparks flying about.

honestly, it was truly amazing and educational to watch. and he was about three steps from the forge to the anvil, and it was all mild steel - no wrought

Hey Dragon Dropping,
you DO have a fuller. the pein on your hammer and the edge of your anvil!

and even with mild steel you can easily (more practice here) draw your 3/8 rod down to way less than 1/8 inch. Practice being the key

John,
looks great! My only question is hour long did it take you to prep/cut the blanks before starting the "real work"?

oh, and what size stock are you starting with?

I especially like the shot in the first (#2) video where they are striking over the "horn". The one is holding his hammer on the base of the leaf and the "striker" is whaling away at the cold other end. One of the hits almost launches the first guys' hammer at his own face.

The other is the fact that the "striker" in the second (#3) video is using a little ole 4-lber as a striking hammer. I would have gone up to at least an 8.

Very cool idea. I like the sand trap too.
I still wouldn't wanna reach in and grab the drift too soon

thanks for posting

Having been interested in gun-smithingfor a while now, do you have any pictures?

ofafeather,
I went to the local tech school and "borrowed" a welder and made a bunch of hardy tools.

I copied this down from somewhere a while ago. I don't remember the source, but am pretty sure it is from here. I actually keep it in my pda for quick reference (my welding teacher thought it was a "hoot" and wanted a copy)
it is long, but worth it, i think

Geometry for the Metalsmith
- find the circumference of a circle:
Multiply the radius by 6.2832 or
Multiply the diameter by 3.1416 or
Multiply the square root of the area by 3.5449
- find the radius of a circle:
Multipy the diameter by 0.5 or
Multiply the circumference by 0.15915 or
Multiply the square root of the area by 0.56419
- find the diameter of a circle:
Multiply the radius by 2 or
Multiply the circumference by 0.31831 or
Multiply the square root of the area by 1.1284
- find the area of a circle:
Multiply the square of the radius by 3.1416 or
Multiply the square of the diameter by 0.7854 or
Multiply the square of the circumference by 0.07958
- find the area of a hexagon:
Multiply the square of the distance across by 0.86603 or
Multiply the area of the inscribed circle by 1.1027
- find the area of an octagon:
Multiply the square of the distance across by 0.82843 or
Multiply the area of the inscribed circle by 1.0548
- find the area of a rectangle:
Multiply the length by the width
- find the area of a triangle:
Multiply the base by one half the perpendicular height
- find the side of an inscribed square:
Multiply the diameter by 0.7071 or
Multiply the circumference by 0.2251
- find the side of an equal square:
Multiply the diameter by 0.8862
- find the diameter of the circumscribing circle of a square:
Multiply the side by 1.4142
- find the circumference of the circumscribing circle of a square:
Multiply the side by 4.443
- find the cubic contents of a cone:
Multiply the area of the base by one-third the altitude
- find the area of an ellipse:
Multiply the product of its axes by 0.7854
- find the area of a parallelogram:
Multiply the base times the perpendicular height
- find the volume of a parallelogram:
Multiply the area of the cross section times the length
- find the surface area of a cylinder:
Multiply the length times the circumference of the body plus the area of both ends
- find the volume of a cylinder:
Multiply the area of the base by the perpendicular height
- find the surface area of a sphere:
Multiply the square of the diameter by 3.1416 or
Multiply the diameter times the circumference
- find the volume of a sphere:
Multiply the cube of the diameter by 0.5236
- find the capacity of a tank in gallons:
(all measurements must be reduced to inches)
- For cylindrical tanks, multiply the length by the square of the diameter by 0.0034 - For rectangular tanks, multiply the length by the width by the depth and divide by 231
- For elliptical tanks, multiply the length by the short diameter by the long diameter by 0.0034
- convert Brinell Hardness to tensile strength:
Divide the Brinell Hardness number by two to get the approximate tensile strength in thousands of pounds per square inch. Example: Assume a Brinell Hardness of 248.
248 divided by 2 = 124,000 p.s.i. (approximate tensile strength)
Conversely, drop the last three figures of the tensile strength and multiply by two to get the approximate Brinell Hardness number. Example: Assume a tensile strength of 122,000 p.s.i.
122 X 2 = 244 (approximate Brinell Hardness)
- estimate the weight of a round steel bar:
Multiply the diameter by 4, square the product, and divide by 6. The result is the approximate weight in pounds per foot of length.
- estimate the weight of a square steel bar:
Square the size, add a zero and divide by 3. The result is the approximate weight in pounds per foot of length.
- estimate the weight of a flat steel bar: Multiply the width by the thickness, add a zero and divide by 3. The result is the approximate weight in pounds per foot of length.

Again, I apologize for the obvious plagerism, but am sincerely thankful for the knowlege shared
paul

Yeah, but what about all of the ones that tell you the blueprints are under repair and not to bother the moderators any more on the subject. :)