Goods

Tim, the weld itself was not a big issue. I just brought it up to temperature real slow. My issue was two fold. First, the cross section of the leaves was tapered center to edges. Second, the leave we to small to wire up and not have the wire in the weld, so I put a spot of mig weld at the corner. Both of these made it very difficult to bend the scarf in. I also had issue with the parent bar thinning from scaling due the the number of welding heats the blend the weld. I ended up using an isolated heat to upset in the areas (and a lot of file clean up). All lessons learned for future projects. About the swage block, I’ve seen a couple sources for water jet cut swage blocks from mild steel, but they’re still pricey. Hopefully I’ll run across what I want at the “right” price when I’m actually convinced I need one. Keep it fun, David

Tim, is that swage block 2” A36 water jet cut? If so how do you like it? I got the forge welding done on the picket last night: It took way longer and was way trickier than I thought it would be. It’s not as clean as I would like, but it passes… on to the next step, whenever I get another forging session. Keep it fun, David

Alexandr, you’re always a hard act to follow! Beautiful as always! I got some time in the shop today and started on a single picket for a railing. (One of the smiths in our group is redoing his and asked for one for all the smiths, with their own style and touch mark.) I’m maybe half way there: I’m probably over doing it, but I guess that’s my style… I’ve got to clean it up, before I can got to the next step of forge welding. Keep it fun, David

I’m assuming you’re using an oxypropane torch? In not, I’m very curious on the setup? Keep it fun, David

I brought a couple scrap shafts and some injection machine draw bars home: The stepped shaft is 1-1/2” to 1” diameter and the other is 1” diameter. The draw bars are 50mm and 30mm diameters, but only sparked as mild steel. (The stepped shaft and bearings went to “iron in a hat” at today’s hammer-in.) Keep it fun, David

Good day today at our local chapter’s Hammer-in. We work with two new first timers and I got time to forge a steak flipper for my neighbor and a started another BBQ fork: Sorry, I don’t have a work in progress picture of the fork. Keep it fun, David

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the situation. I can’t even imagine losing my own boys. I have the most heart felt remorse for the loss that I can’t fully even grasp… The most sincere condolences, David

How long ago was that snow you were talking about in Baton Rouge? My wife has a story of driving with almost a hallucination fever from the measles in LA when she was growing up there. It’s the only time she ever drove in snow until she came up here for college and I derailed here life plan… Keep it fun, David

I almost made a joke about cubit earlier, too bad I didn’t. It was my understanding the a cubit was from finger tip to elbow. (Big difference between me and wife in cubit length.) Keep it fun, David

No, it means every forge is different. When you fire it up the color in the forge will tell you more about your forge than we can by guessing.

The hot spots are usually under the burner, but every forge is different. On my two burner gas forge, when it’s cranked up high, there is a small cold spot directly below the burners. It’s a tunnel forge that doesn’t have a lot of height, so the gas isn’t all burnt when it hits the floor and actually cools a two small spots… Keep it fun, David

I’m good with either metric, fractional inches, or 1/1000”. Everything at work is in metric, but a lot of the machinists I deal with all think in 1/1000”. I’m converting in my head close enough for blacksmith work all the time. keep it fun, David

Forge welding a handle on defeats the purpose. The handle is to make it easier to move the work piece around. If you have to move it around at forge welding temperature to put the handle on, you should already have a different solution. If if have good fitting tongs for 1-1/2” or 2” diameter cable and you comfortable working with those tongs, stick with that. If not, make good tongs for that size, weld a long handle on, or weld a stubby handle on that will fit in the size tongs you have. Lots of options, but don’t make it harder than it needs to be. (Some times it’s fun doing things the hard way, but I don’t think this is the place for that! You don’t want you to loose control of you billet when it’s at forge welding temp, or ever really!) Keep it fun, David

Is this sarcasm, or did I miss something? (I can be slow on the uptake sometimes…)

I’m not sure welding it the way to go on this repair. If it broke along the original braze repair, all the brazing would need to be ground out to make a good weld. Keep it fun, David

One of the smiths in our group built his anvil years ago. He machined the body from block of 4140 pre hard and the base from mild with about 1/4” chamfers at the joint. He bolted them together from the bottom with 4 3/4” socket head cap screws and welded it up. You would never guess that it was made from two pieces and it is great anvil to work on! (I wouldn’t want to move it, the anvil is around 500lbs and the stand is made very stout.) Keep it fun, David

Again, what’s your location? I still have one of these, and it would make a killer base: https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/70036-it-followed-me-home/?do=findComment&comment=787818 Might take a bit of welding but it would probably quadruple the mass! Keep it fun, David

The city (town really) will take the brush away and grind it up into mulch which the gets given away in spring. I gave the first batch of wood to a neighbor whose brother has a cabin on the river. They’ll burn it in camp fires. The second batch of wood is going to my neighbor on the other side. His son-in-law asked for it while I was up in the lift. Not sure what his plans are. That tree was in their yard, while technically on my property. The property line is fairly problematic, but so far we’re good with it. Once my mortgage is paid off, we’ll redraw the line and call it good. I’ll loose some on paper, but nothing in reality. (I didn’t know the property line was seven foot under his garage until I was working on getting a variance for my forge build…) It would be nice to turn it into charcoal, but I think I’m already creating enough smoke in town and keeping the neighbors happy it always a good thing! Once I repair my fireplace, I’ll start collecting firewood for myself, but that could be a while. Keep it fun, David

Ok, so I had more work to do today than I expected… I started by trimming the dead limbs out of a Norfolk pine in the backyard. (Lightening damage from a few years ago.) Then, with help from my dad (who was visiting from PA), we cut down another tree piece by piece. I thought that one just had some dead limbs, but upon inspection, it was completely gone. Finally, we moved onto the limb that I was really worried about. It wasn’t real big, but it was dead and above my forge, ready to take out my flue and probably damage the roof. We had to rope that one down in pieces… Tomorrow, I have to return the lift, and finish cleaning up. Unfortunately, my family headed back tonight, so just me and my younger son to get it done tomorrow. With the day off, I was hoping to get some forging in, but I think I’ll be pretty worn out by the time everything is cut, stacked and brush removed. Keep it fun, David

Long day today outside the shop. I dropped two smallish trees piece by piece. (They were just too close to the house and the red dogwood in the front yard.) One sugar maple and one mimosa, both never leafed out in the spring. I’ve been trying to get a lift rented for months and finally found one available. I’ve got family in town, so I had some help cleaning up, which was great. We’re going to do some sightseeing tomorrow, so Sunday I probably be back at it. I’ve got a bunch of dead limbs in the back yard to get down while I have the lift. I also want to pick through the wood and get some good pieces for the wood turners who setup by our forge during festivals. The maple has some good spalting and the mimosa has some good color (and I heard it’s good for turning?). There was was good burl I saw as I was cutting, but I’m not sure I’ll find it again. Keep it fun, David

I usually make mine from 1/2” square bar with an inverted pyramid preform, forge down on the diamond, and draw width with the peen. Keep it fun, David

So that’s where my short term memory got off to…

Now that’s good! Certainly made me laugh out loud. (Not sure that it will help with supporting the jig block though.) Keep it fun, David

To bad I don’t have a lathe to make custom posts for it… Well, I don’t really have space for a lathe anyway. Keep it fun, David

Last night a long awaited fixture plate was delivered. (Long story of how I came across it…but no cost.) 30”x15”x6” 4140 pre-hard material with 5/8” threaded through holes in a 2” square pattern. Now I have another project on my to do list: make a hefty stand! Keep it fun, David