rokshasa

i spoke with a fellow smith a few hundred miles away, he was asking me what type of work i was doing, i told him i was studying traditional smithing seeing as i dont own a welder and have only 2 power tools (blower and sander)so i do it all the old way, by hand . he promted to tell me that ppl dont care how you make it as long as its made and i think that is one of the main problems.i see his logic but i just cant bring myself to go in that direction , besides its more fun working hard and comming up with something unique thats worth the time and effort you put in it, rather than getting something that you can go buy at wallmart or whatever get less of a return and for me at least not be as "happy" that i would have taken short cuts (just my opinion, nothing agains fab workers)i guess what im saying is that something is lost in the work when its not done the way it was meant to be done. there are no "schools" that teach smithing(in can) persay and noone to train us anymore, all we can do is read books and check out iforge or some other sites but it doesn't even come close to what it should be(although this is a great site for info).lol donno if i lost perspectives here but thats what i think.

those look really good.they look like they where made by hand rather than rough.

wow that really nice, total diff concept than i thought you would go for, love the brushed metal look.

yup thats real nice job, the cover of yuor chest will never fall off, how many holes are you going to put in and in what configuration?

have any pics of the ones you make? maybe if we see those we can give you a better idea

sounds like you had an awesome time Brian, if your like me you dont get to work with to many other smiths and seeing as you had to drive 5 hours it would apear so lol . love the shop pics ( nice shop frosty!! )looks like there is alot of space in there to work unlike my babybarn lol. power hammer....ooo aaaa :)

its something i wanted to try when i first seen it but i didn't think i could pull it off...then i did some forge welds . welding is simpler than i first thought, i tend to overthink things . its both a curse and a blessing lol.my next one is gonna be some kind of tree , maybe i'll do that today, get some more projects done befor work starts up again.

thank you for your comments, it was really fun but time intensive.

phil- yes i did cold forge them, putting any kind of heat on there dulled and im pretty sure disitegrated the silver plate , a pair of nidle nose pliers with the teeth ground off and patiance is all you need to shape the forks.

i plan on making lots more fun stuff with this technique , small metal sculpture is something im getting into bit by bit

and thx brian for all the info on forge welded bundles!i got this idea from the squid you posted a while back and im happy to say it went really well for my first bundle.

hello, been a while that i havn't posted ,so here i am . the first one is a hammer pick or a pick hammer the handle is white ash, in my opinion i would have put on a longer handle but i just didn't have anything longer than the 16" but it turned out ok, the second is a recycled claw hammer i got from work, it is now an axe as you can see, the scales are the same white ash(waste not want not) with copper rivets and a wire wrap at the tope of the handle, and lastly is a small axe with a hammer head at the back, i have since cleaned it and gave it to my father in-law.

hello , it's been a while but thats ok because i've been working in the shop alot of late . here is a wind shime i am making for a friend of the fam. the top part is 9 bars of 5/16 bar wraped with a collor and forge welded , i fullered it to give it some deco. the shimes are silver plated stainless stell given to me by said friend...after breaking a few i got the hang and just twisted the forks and flared out the spoons,it sounds really good, i think i may have enough to make one more wind shime.

lol my beard is my filter hahaha, no really beards dont help at all in any way but it would take 5 time more work to stay shaven than it is to work the wood lol.

yup nothing wrong with those, im sure i could fetsh a sweet deal down here with them! give yourself some credit:)

WOW!! you got both feet in the door now tomcellwheel!! really like the way evryone jumped on your post, if only half of us had the encouragement you've got from the site( and outside im sure) plus some big help from some of the big names and a guild in your back yard!! and on top of all that you have the drive needed for it all, not that i want to make a big deal out of it but its very refreshing{like a junior mint }i'm working with a young fella right now that wants to learn ,came over for the first time and wanted to start forge welding...had to tell him to slow down , it was all kinda disrespectful if you ask me but i digress.you have something ppl around here( new brunswick canada) dont have access to and if i wher you i would take full advantage of any help you get from anyone. and if your budget allows you, take brians class if you seen grants posts you must have seen his too. lots of talent here on iforge .and us acadians arnt better off with the way we speak lol oh and here are a few books you can check out for free http://maritimeblacksmiths.ca/ just check out the library. good luck!

lol pretty cheap! for good smithing coal i have to pay 700$ a ton, or spend several days hunting for abandoned mines(open pit) for scraps (danger dont try at home)and most of the time the ones we have around here wher anthracite mines but it still got the job done when thats all i had.

yup thats a really nice knife, love the look.

i think you may have tought her to keep an eye on the fire lol, attention is key, the same thing happend to me the othere day, my cousin stoped by and i always get side tracked.....anyway love the effort and i cant wait t'ill my little guys is old enough to help me! good job.

you could make a set of bells or some triangles with scaled tones, i've also seen iron bass (large metal box with a neck and strings attached).

very nice spike!! love the candle bra, real clean looking work

here is the site to my smithing group it has some books for view and some for download http://maritimeblacksmiths.ca/pdf/ really nice resource

ma langage martarnel est francais , la plus part de nouveaux brunswick est tres bilingue , mes je ne pratique pas trop mon ecriture lol, c'est un peche .

(im french, where i am is blingual but i dont practice enough. what a sin)

thats a pretty little knife and your english is pretty good too, as for the steel for your knife, i make alot of knives from stuff i have on hand like file for instance. i use alot of coil springs from cars or trucks or leaf springs, these metals will do what you want them too if all you want to do is carve wood, i use oil to quench my blades if they are thin and a luke warm water/salt solution(brine) for my larger blades with the spring steel this seems to work very well for me then i temper with some heat to the spine and watch for the colors then quench again in water when i get the desired color on the edge. hope this helps

thats a nice axe.

the battle axe of peace lol, good one!

hey brian. thats a nice project,sure someone could turn a quick buck in no time with those. hmmm, is that the same type of bend on your hammer tongs?

the steel is 1084 and thank you for your comment, the blade went pretty well. the knife holds a very nice edge but im not to accustomed to hilting knives and the such is all im getting at. i do need more practice lol.

lol its funny but not haha funny that you would say something like that, as i looked at what you wrote i reallized that i was thinking in much the same way, trying new things with less "fear" of the outcome nowing that it would come together from skill and technique. i do things now without thinking much about it where as a few years ago i wouldn't have even thought about it. it pleases me to see and notice otheres and myself advancing in skill and truelly appreciate what we have acomplished with the guidance of our teachers , freinds and iforge. congrats on the recognition of your feats and to those that do as well.