Pault17

Very Cool Michael. nice job on the fork too

I wanted to try something new and cut out a bunch of petal patterns (several new caluses) and cobbled together a rose. didn't even try to put leaves on it. Just showed it to her and smiled.

Hutch,
I know how you feel. I am still very much a noobie after a year and a half. I remember staring at the parts for my first gas forge and was almost afraid to put it together. plain failure, fire, explosion, etc. Well after a few weeks and my wife telling me to get off the pot, I did it and have been learning ever since. banging for me is either practice or a nice product (practice that worked:D), and I learn from that too.

Rich,
you make a beautiful blade. very nice

Here are my main bangers. The little one I dug out of a hillside. sorry for the nasty edges, I had to grind them down, unless you want everything looking like re-bar. the big is a russian HF special with diagonal hardie.


This is one I gave to a neighbor that was interested and wanted to try out banging iron.


Hopefully, someday I will get a nice big one, but till them these will do
Oh, I was practicing tapering and ended up with a little black(smith) snake. head needs work, but it scared my daughter and mother in law.

Up until now, I have learned from reading books (McRaven, Lorelie Sims, others) playing with clay and cruising the IFI and anvilfire sites. There are a few video clips I have downloaded that I play over and over again. But up until now I just try something out.
I have recently joined the local NC ABANA chapter and am waiting on info from them. Maybe I can even find a "real" anvil and stuff.

looking forward to it

did they actually bring them up to yellow heat with a barbeque grill? Maybe I can combine the family cookout with the family hammer-in :D

I just finished up this first attempt - although I need to harden (as much as possible, temper (if there is such a thing for a RR knife) and sharpen it.
I had no idea where this one was going. I was showing my kid brother how much fun it could be working with RR spikes. This is how it ended up.

smack me around and let me know what should come next?

all very cool information. thanks.
I currently use straight beeswax rubbed on at a low heat (usually after cooling down from the last brushing to remove scale) and let it cool. I have seen a number of times that some of you will coat it then re-heat.
Does this burn things on, create a glaze finish, what??:confused:

just trying to learn.

on a side note, I finally sent in my application to NCABANA, so now I may be able to actually watch somebody who knows what they are doing and learn. maybe even find a "real" anvil

I too had mentioned safety and daily, but I must clarify. my "shop" is in my garage. I have an "everything done here" work bench and a handy smithing cart/bench that I put together when I built my latest gas forge. I can calw between them pretty freely, and I like to keep that area broom swept on a regular basis. I typically bang iron from like 10 p.m. to about one or two in the morning, when I get to (I have asked all my neighbors if I have bothered them and none even knew that I was banging).
Now the tricky part; I have eight children (all mine, no twins, same loving wife) from 2.5 months to 14 yrs. I have four boys in a row from 3 to nine and all of them will gladly get into my cart and beat on any mild-steel wire I have laying about. I bolted a piece of 3/16 steel plate to a little 15-lb cast iron aso from harbor freight just for them to bang on. My wife, who's nickname is martha, would have my tookas if I let them come in with scale dust or metal chunks, so I have to keep it reasonably clean.

basically, I have to keep it safe for and from the little ones and clean, so I can find whatever tools they have taken out while I was away.

As needed to keep it safe to work.I usually sweep every time I finish banging or the next day.

Being very much the noobie here, I have fallen in love with my 4.5 inch grinder with really thing cutting discs. I just picked up about 200 lbs of steel from my father in law (80-year old manure spreader buried in the woods and managed to cut everything, including 8 feet of 2-inch axles, into managable short sections. used up 5 discs, but did not take long. eye-wear and ear-wear are a must and a dust mask doesn't hurt (prevent most of the nasty black boogers). You can also pack along a power inverter that you can tap into your car/truck electrical system, if there is no local power supply

I have to try out a portable band saw. sounds much quieter

There are so many. just check out the blueprints section of the site.
enjoy

Oh, and by the way, Welcome to IForgeIron!

JW,
Now that my fingers are actually hitting the right keys, I read your poem to my wife and, after a few minutes (she really reflects on things at times) she said that your poem was really good. She has always been the artful one between the two of us, and she said that your poem managed to paint beautiful watercolors in her mind's eye and said to thank you for it.

Thank you

JV,
I had to copy it out wd read it to my wife. also hang it in my shop.

and it does rhyme!;)

You could make some of those little quarter-sized hammers or other lilte jewelry type things for quick cheap sales. love the mini-rose, by the way.

Valentin,
I have a small collection of even smaller forges (two modified bean-can forges and one modified "freon-tank" forge). I actually bought a T-rex burner (shorty model) from rex price and will say that it is amazing. In the freon-tank forge, using about 3.5 -4 psi, I regularly work everything up to 1-inch square stock in the bright orange-orange yellow colors I have no doubt that I can reach welding temps easily. and I am using one of his smallest burners. If the money is not a problem, they are most definitely worth checking out.

I like banging iron/steel, but I enjoy the building thing too - Sven, thanks for the links. they are really cool

I haven't "sold" anything yet. I have been giving it away, pretty much all to family and close friends. I haven't been able to create a base supply of "sellables" to even think about it. Because almost all of my steel has been found or picked up on the side of the road (still looking for the stray peter wright laying around) my biggest cost is propane.

that is so cool. I can see a little hammer pendant and one of Bill Epps' "$20 dollar" anvils

thansk for the link

man oh man, that is pretty. you take a nice picture too.

Hey Blackbeard,
The short of it is this: After finishing up my project, whatever it is, I hand-sand most of the black off so I get a lot of base metal showing, then I just reheat to the point of getting the oxidation colors. With small things like the bowls I just put them in the forge for a little bit. The colors in the line gradient is because the end was in the flame path. With the pot rack I just clamped it in my vise and heated it with a propane torch until the color flowed. If you work with coal or charcoal, you could just hold the object above the flame and watch for the colors. as soon as I get what I want, I quick dip or pour water over it to stop the colors and rub it down with beeswax.

If I have a lot of small things like crosses or keychain leafs, I clean them all up and put them in my forge after I have turned it off.

Thanks AM. I added a few pictures of the finished product. here is another sample of my finishing

I told my wife that I wanted to make something that was actually useful. When she asked what it was going to be I told her that if it "worked" it would be a mother's day present. If not, then it would be a piece of metal that was all banged up - what I like to call "practice".

This one actually worked. I haven't finished it up yet. I like to sand things down to mostly silver then heat it to various shades of oxidation.

Question: I usually just seal with beeswax, but is there something else to use? just curious.

Does anybody else use these things? I just got a pair and XXXXXX. I had to let everybody else who was still awake take a look into the forge with 'em on. amazing. Although my wife says I look like a dork from happy days.

Jimi,
if you check out the Anvilfire site Link removed at the request of anvilfire its a neat and relatively simple hawk from a RR spike.