Donal Harris

Good idea there. As I get older and my belly grows larger, I find more and more spaces are tighter and harder to reach into. 
 

I’ve often thought that style of anvil with the sloped side would be handy, butdo you get by without a pritchel hole?
 

Alexandr, the two in the second to last photo are just splendid.

This is what gave me the idea. I believe it is a war hammer, but don’t know if it is an actual one from when they were used or if it is just a modern one. I found it on Pinterest. The actual site no longer has the photo. A woman who works for me wants me to make her husband a walking stick like yours. Spike and all. 
 

Wandering Rogue, unless you are just really, really wanting to learn to make a decent set of tongs, there is really no need. I made a mangled mess once that was intended to be tongs. I still use them to fish things out of acid baths. Ugly, horrid things. I just buy them. 

On 10/24/2022 at 4:34 PM, alexandr said:

And in Russia now it's a complete "ass".

Did something get lost in translation? And do you ever ship to the USA?

Finally finished the cane for my Dad. I think next time I won’t use wrought for the feathers. It is too hard to keep hot as thin as they are, thus they want to crack, split, or just break. One of them I had to use a welder to put it back together twice. Plus you can’t really tell they are wrought iron beneath all the BLO and beeswax anyway.
 

I had worried about the quill ends breaking or splitting when bending them over into the grooves on top of the head. I had thought I would need to do what I believe someone from here suggested, use a torch to heat the ends and dunk the head in a bucket of water to keep the wood from burning. But I didn’t need to. I had been worrying about nothing. 
 

Dad is in South Dakota hunting birds now, so I assume he has fully recovered from his surgery and no longer needs it for getting around, but I guess it won’t be totally without use for him when he gets back. It might come in handy should some wanker decide he wants my Dad’s wallet. 
 

Finished. 

Sweet work, Alex. My wife really likes your lanterns. She asks me to try and make one for her every time you post one. Maybe in a few years when I’ve learned more. 
 

This is what I’ve done today. Still not finished. I have to rivet on the hooks and then apply a finish. 
 

10 hours ago, Buzzkill said:

I'm not sure why, but Sir Mix-A-Lot came to mind when I saw that picture.

Me too. 

Copper or steel bowl?

I agree. Salsa without peppers is like the Bulls without Jordan or the Patriots without Brady. 
 

Still not finished, but did get one of the feathers rough forged. Still need to texture it and forge the other one. 
 

I need to chop the tip of the beak off where it begins to curve down, add the eyes, beak features, and other texture, but it is very near to done. 
 

I plan to make another just like it, but with a carbon steel beak and carbon steel to the blade shape on the back of the head. I want it to use for walking around the neighborhood. There are a few bobcats and occasionally a dog will decide his yard includes the street. I am too old now to run and a bullet is too permanent. 

The WI split in two spots on one side of the eye and in one spot on the other when I was drifting the hole. I plan to fill the cracks with using a MIG, grind the welds flush, heat it so the grind marks flake off as scale, and then camouflage those spots using a needle file to match the WI’s grain somewhat. The cracks are not bad enough to affect structural integrity, the fix is just for aesthetics. 

I will be making a wider slot chisel before making the next head. The one so tried to use was only 3/4” wide at most. Had it been an inch and a quarter, I think maybe I could have drifted it without splitting. That and stop drifting after 2 or 3 blows. 

On 9/17/2022 at 4:16 PM, JHCC said:

Eat your heart out, Brian May and your sixpence!

Exactly. Or in my case, like Billy Gibbons and his silver peso. 
 

I had worried copper might be a little too hard, but then I read that coin silver, being only 90% silver has the same, or nearly so, hardness as copper. Brian May is reportedly able to change his sound just by altering how he holds the coin. 

I really like cigars and am familiar with needing a device to hold things which had burned down to a length which was uncomfortably hot, but not once has it occurred to me to use something to hold a cigar which had burned down. (Am I allowed to use the term for such a device here on IFI?)

My dad is recovering from back surgery, so I decided to make him a cane. At the speed I work, he will have recovered long before it is ready. 
 

All I managed today was punching the eye and rough shaping of the head. Also started shaping two possible pieces of bois d’arc for the cane shaft. 
 

The head will be sort of like a bird’s head with a long beak. It is from a wrought iron wagon tire I picked up at a yard sale a while back. I plan to run iron feathers a few inches down the shaft to help secure the handle to the cane. I am not quite sure how I will groove slots in the head for the quills. I don’t have a die grinder and filing seems like it would be a lot of work. I am thinking maybe use a piece of flat bar as a drift to form to slots. 

Technically they haven’t “followed me home” yet, but they should arrive soon. Copper picks from Billy Helton. I am thinking later I may take him a few silver quarters to see what he can find to do with them for me as picks.

Billy is primarily a bladesmith, but in the last few months has begun learning how to do engraving. He literally (and I truly mean literally) went from looking like stuff your kids would draw and you would post on your fridge to real quality work.

I first met him when I bought a leg vise from him on Facebook Marketplace. I was pretty surprised a few weeks later when I was surfing the net and found he was actually pretty well known and been on the very first episode of Forged in Fire. He had seemed like just a normal guy like me, but with a really cool shop. (I’ve only seen one or two episodes of the show.)

ПРЕВОСХО́ДНЫЙ1

(Google Translate, so that could actually say, “I kiss a pig.”  I hope is says “Excellent!”)

Learned today something I already knew to be true is in fact true. Never use a handle with the growth rings running perpendicular to the head. They should be parallel. 

That handled fuller made it through only three sessions before the handle snapped off at the head. And it wasn’t because I missed and hit the handle. 

I totally did not know you could blue rusty tools by simply boiling them in water!!!!  I wonder what else I don’t know today that I will know tomorrow?
 

 I am a stupid comment master. 
 

Turned out ok, but I didn’t realize I had put large scratches in the sides when grinding of the forge scale. I lost count of the number of cycles. It is dark, but maybe it could use 5 or 6 more. 
 

Now to re-handle it. 

Bolt together forge with a Frosty T burner is looking like it will be where I will begin. Frosty’s instructions look like they should be easy enough to follow. I will need to buy the fire bricks, a stick of angle iron, hose and regulator, but most everything else I already have laying around. 

This was built by my dad’s granddad. He was a carpenter. My dad and my uncle used it in an old barn on my dad’s place for grinding they had to do when making truck grill guards and headache racks. That was at least 40 years ago or longer. It sat in a corner of that old barn the whole time since, the past 15 or 20 years essentially exposed to the elements once the roof blew off the barn. 
 

The pillow block bearings (by the green lines): the one by the disc still spins freely, but the other one will turn, but not spin. Can these be repaired, or are they best replaced?

Maybe soak the whole thing in diesel or some such for a month or so until I can get the entire assembly apart?

The motor is not the original motor my great granddad used. He had used a motor from a washing machine or something else he had scrapped. The motor on it now was placed on it by my dad or my uncle. It is frozen. I will probably end up taking it to a place in OKC to be rebuilt. My granddad had the motor mounted below. The belt would have come up through the middle of the table. 
 

The wiring is all cloth insulated and will be replaced. I hope to be able to keep the old style switch. 
 

I’ve wanted this thing for a very long time, but dad is funny about his stuff. He would almost rather it rot in place than risk someone else ruining it. 
 

I plan to remove all the nails, dry out the wood, and soak each piece in linseed oil, before putting everything back together.  There is nothing special about the wood  it would have been scrap my great granddad had salvaged when tearing down a house. But his hands were on each piece, so I want to keep as much of the original wood as I can.

Any suggestions?

That’s right. I went with my wife to Indy. 
 

Well, let me know again before the next one. I have kin in Salisaw and Muldrow to use as an excuse if my wife feels I need one. 

Forgot to add the photo. 

When I get down there while he is rebuilding a wheel, I will be sure to take lots of pictures. 
 

These followed me home yesterday. Both were made by my great granddad. He was a carpenter. The disc grinder/sander was in pretty good shape when I last saw it about 30 years ago. But with no roof or doors on the old barn it was in, it no longer is. A buzzard and a pack rat had built a nest on top of the grinder and table saw next to it. 
 

The wooden frame I think I can repair without needing to replace too much of the original wood. The disc still spins, maybe just lubricating the bearings will work. The motor though will not turn at all. I may need to rebuild it. The wiring is from the late 40s or early 50’s. That I will have to totally replace. I am hoping I can keep the original switch. The motor is not original to it. That was added by my Dad and uncle when I was about 10 or 11. Originally the motor was mounted beneath the table and the belt came up through the middle. 
 

The small cabinet I am just restoring and taking back to my dad. My great granddad made it as well. It is missing a drawer. I will have to make a new one as well as replace a couple of the drawer fronts. I figure I will clean out all the rat poop and put it on a shelf for a while to dry out. I assume my wife would refuse the use of her oven. 

Crap!!!! I am several months late seeing this. 2023?

On 8/26/2022 at 7:44 AM, jlpservicesinc said:. 

Why would you buy a custom hand made hammer from someone that you had to redo the temper on again? 

I am fairly certain I am the reason the face became squished on one side. I was using it for something I probably should have used a heavier hammer for. Plus the handle is longer than on any other hammer I own and I was holding it about as close to the butt end as I could and swinging way faster than I should have been for someone who doesn’t have the best accuracy with a hammer to begin with.  
 

The right side of the face hit the face of my anvil with about as much force as I could deliver. I am not sure the face of my anvil can be dented even with a center punch. When the edge of the hammer struck the face of the anvil, something had to give. Had the maker not tempered the head as soft as he had, I am pretty sure the head would have shattered. 

The head was one he had rough forged during a demo at our conference last year. I bought it at the auction they have during the conference to recover some of the costs of putting on the conference. I don’t remember how much I paid, but it was easily two or three times what I would have paid for the same on his website. After the auction he told me he would finish it out if I would ship it to him. Having spent two days watching me flail away on the axe head he showed me how to make, it is entirely possible he tempered it softer than normal knowing I was likely to miss my mark and hit the anvil with it. 

Later this afternoon I plan to try rust bluing the head and start on the handle. 
 

If I ever get down to Duncan, Oklahoma to buy more scrap axles from the guy there who restores old wagons, I will ask him what the proper terms are. He should know. Cool guy. One of these days I would like to get down there and watch him repair a wheel.