olydemon

Thank you! And that's a good name for it...

Here are a couple recent openers. The hammer pendant one I made over the weekend. It was my backup stock for a custom Thor's hammer order from Etsy (pendant image included). The opener was made from 3/4" square bar. I always love this twist, not sure the proper name for it.. Was tough doing the veins... I did it after the hammer and opener ends were basically finished. On the flat it was not so bad... but the ones where it was on its side was tougher. Lucky my old Vulcan anvil was a perfect on the horn step down flat. Another one I made is a Tentacle made from rail spike. I didn't intend to make it an opener, but a couple friends commented on my Instagram post giving me the idea. First one inspired me to make the hook on the big end. I welded a chunk to it and ground it down till it worked well. Then another friend commented on how it looked like the skinny end was perfect for hooking the cap. It wasn't my intent, but I reworked it until it did grab the cap. So I am gifting this to the first friend who has flowed me a bunch of welding supplies and knowledge.

My first attempt at the Dragon Scale twist. Started with about 7" of 1" square. Tapered to about 3/16" at the end. I did the opener end taper and punch before cutting the diagonals. I tried to pre plan the cuts with partial success. Once cutting I messed up the first one cutting too deep and across the center line. In the finished piece its hard to see. Overall pretty fun project, may try again on a bit smaller stock.

I've bought stainless screws to make pendants from. I figure there is no coating on them and when its finished it shouldn't rust.

Thank you! Thank you. Its also a great lesson on handling small items... I think the screws were probably 3".

Made some more horn pendants today from stainless screws. One of them ended up looking like some sort of dragon so I punched an eye to finish it off.

I have but I found that I distorted the suckers a lot more when I tried to form the pendant loops...

JHCC posted the exact video I would have. Only things I can add are... 1. After I weld the beads I heat the piece up again and flatten them down. It helps to create a nice spot to start the punch. 2. A helper when punching really helps makes the job easier. I have a jig I can use for the larger tentacles, like on the octopus I posted. But for these little pendant ones,. they are too samll for the jig so I get my oldest kid to help.

Thanks! Made some more tentacle pendants posted below..... Thanks! Today I made tentacles, a leaf, a tiny troll cross and a bear claw... and finished the gas lines to my double burner forge...

Really cool, it's almost a mixed media piece with the laser cut flat and forged tentacles. I need to make some tentacles this weekend for an etsy custom order.. Mine will be pendant size this time, but my last tentacle project was rather large... made from 3/8" and 1/2" bar.... ALSO.... (edit to add note since my reply to previous and a new post were merged) Not done today, but last weekend... Lots of pendants made from old screws....

I have only treated a few with beeswax to protect from rust. The idea of coloring the low spots does sound interesting, may have to give it a try. Beads is a good idea. I was also thinking of drilling a few holes through the eyes, then smashing some copper wire into the holes.

Yea, basically a bit of both. I start by rounding the top some, then I go at the bottom of the jaw over the anvil. The last thing that gives some shape is punching the eyes.

This weekend I worked on some blockhead style skulls. 3 are made from 4140 and 2 made from some random splitting wedge that was in my garage. I usually make smaller pendent sized skulls so trying these larger ones was a fun challenge. The chunks of 1 inch x 1.5 inch 4140 sure takes a lot more effort to work than the 3/16" mild flat bar I am used to. I also made some spirals out of spring steel to later be bunched like a plant, then welded into a large gear as a base for future yard art.

So a few months back I posted about failing trying to forge weld a fire poker. The consensus was that I either over heated it, or I had copper contamination in my forge (or both). I believe the copper has since been cleaned/burnt out of my forge so the other day I gave it another try. This time it worked with 2 things I made sure to do during the process. First, I filed the scale off to bare metal after the initial tapering of the poker end before bending to weld. Also once I started the process I didn't hit it on the side. I think last time my weld may have been weakened by hitting it on the side to even up the joint after it had slipped sideways. I didn't get a full length shot, but here are the 2 ends. The handle side just has a basic loop and reverse twist. The hook end also has a long one direction twist with it being round stock for the middle section, not shown in the photos. I know its not as fancy as others posted in this thread, but it feels good to finally get the weld figured out. Next one I will try to get a bit more fancy on the details.

Thanks! No effect just for a nice color.