Goods

Those jets of blue flame coming up around the mixing tubes are pretty scary! Must be a lot of back pressure to get jets like that. (Sorry, I’m not a gas forge guy yet, so I can’t offer much help, but keeping working on it. I plan on building one at some point, and you never know, I could run into the same problem.) David

Hans, I absolutely love that! Great job! (Don’t let my wife see it, or we might be working out shipping cost...) David

Kyle, I hope all of this has not chased you away. Get us some pictures of you current setup. We would love to help! If you in my area, I could help in person or hook you up with others who are much more knowledgeable than myself. David

Overall, good job on the first set. The most important question is do they hold what you are forging securely? Almost nothing worse than having hot metal fly through the air looking for something/someone to damage. Keep at it, and keep us updated on your progress. We like pictures! David

Glad to hear that you’re still at it and sharing your knowledge and skills with others. I really enjoyed your posts in the past and have missed not seeing your inspirational work! David

Picker77, that’s one reason I really like the slight beard with the set down. I forge the set down right after forging the eye. For me it serves three purposes. 1) I know the weld is good, 2) I’ve determined the handle direction, and 3) I really like the look (gives the 3~4” competition width with what is to me a graceful curve). Since watching JLP’s hawk video, I now draw the beard before wrapping the eye, so the direction is predetermined. (Thanks Jennifer!) David

Picker77, I just got off the phone with a gentleman at Dunlap. I hope my handles come in as quickly and looks a good as yours! David

Thanks for the input. I was planning on ordering handles at lunch today, but life conspired against me. I’ll try to get out of work early enough to order this afternoon. How fast did they turn your order around? David

I bought my handles at a renaissance festival. I ran across a bucket full in the corner of a shop and the price was right. Don’t have that option right now, so I was considering ordering from House Handle Company, Dunlap Woodcrafts, and Crazy Crow. I’ll avoid Crazy Crow now! Thanks.

I know the state meeting was today, but I when to the Vernon chapter meeting at John’s. Not sure about January’s meeting, but I plan on being at Ken’s in February. It’s only 10min away from my place. If you were there last year, I was the guy who brought the crate in with the ~30” bearing races with a couple of the balls and rollers for the iron in the hat. (Of course, that may have been the chapter meeting, they were back to back weekends) David

Thanks! That’s what I thought you meant. I’ll give it a try next time. I need to make a few of these to keep. Both my boys are wanting to learn to throw them, and I keep selling them faster than I make them. I need to order some handles and get to work. David

Thanks Jennifer. No concave bend and to be honest I’m not real clear on what that is. I basically forged the eye on the mandrel which is more round than the handles that I had on hand, but the same circumference. After forging the eye in on the mandrel, I let it cool, then had to work it cold to fit the handle. I need to buy more handles, and if they don’t compare really well to the mandrel I have, I guess I’ll just have to forge one of my own... Looking forward to that next video, David

Thanks all! Just got home from a hammer in. The hawk was wrapped, welded, then eye drifted/forged in the post vise with the weld clamped tight. Other that clamping in the vise, made very similarly to your video (just added a few more hours!) Oh, I forgot! I do forge a small step down where the weld of eye measures out to. That way the weld is exactly where I want it, and I don’t accidentally weld back too far in the eye. May just be a cheat to compensate for lack of experience. Here’s a side/top view:

I was asked if I would make a tomahawk for a friend at work to give to his brother. Well, finished the second try today. I feel this one is good enough. (Actually, I kind of want to keep it for myself!) 1018 with 1095 bit.

Looks pretty good, but BLO may not be the best rust prevention to use on food processing item. keep it up! David

Don’t sell yourself short! While the poker end may not be prefect, that twist is really long and consistent, along with a good clean elegant loop on the end. Keep it up, David

I’m not sure a man hole cover or weight lifting plates would be the best fit. I would think rotational inertia is what you want now just mass. Double the effective radius, quadruple the effect. Both items would have a relatively small radius, but heavy to work with. Michael’s design of a heavy ring with a large diameter looks very efficient to me. David

Keep an eye out for small diameter garage door spring. You could make hundreds of hair pins out of one of those and they’re often free. To the comment of hardening the pin, be wary, there are still some areas with old laws still on the books from when women would use hat pins for self defense and male leadership at the time frowned upon the number of men with puncture wounds... and women defending themselves. (Can’t give concrete details on this, my son is the well of knowledge here)

Leave it normalized. It is a lot harder than hot steel. Also, just like struck tool ends, you don’t want it to shatter when you hit it with a hard hammer.

This technique works well, but keep in mind that this truly only tells you the surface at that spot is up to welding temperature. You may need to give it a little more time to get the heat even. David

CLG, for the rim shoes, you could try heavy wire brushing before the fuller is completely closed, then flux and forge weld it. I actually had luck doing that with a trammel hook made from 1 1/2”x1/8” material. I drew the hook out too fast and saw the same type of cold shunt starting, but was afraid I couldn’t work it back out with out ruining it. So I tried forge welding it and it worked out. (Would have been better off if I was paying attention from the start...but at least my forge welding is starting to get better.) Great for “practice” work. keep the work coming, David

CLG, great work! On the next hair piece/ broach, you may want make the end into more of a centered loop so it’s less likely to pull through the “clasp”. keep it coming, David

Thanks, that’s almost exactly the same size that worked out for me. I tried about 2” longer for two hawks, but the proportions came out all wrong.

IFC, sorry! Misread your post twice. (Sometime my brain just sees the words it wants to!)

Irondragon, Should I really clay the fire pot? On all of the solid fuel forged I have used (at demos or othe IBA members forges) that have manufactured/cast fire pots have not been clayed. The only warning I have ever received was not water into the pot when shutting everything down. David