Yance

Found a bent small trailer axle a couple of weeks ago at the scrapyard and thought it would be good for a new hot cut hardy and other things requiring a decent HC steel. Decided that since it already had tapered spindles, why not make a bick from one end. took a while to forge down the shank, clean up the pitting and refine the working end. Now that I have a couple of hours into this piece, what's the best route for hardening/tempering? Hate to have it snap off at the shank the first time I tap it. Thanks

My Maternal Grandfather did some blacksmith work, but I have no idea how much since he died long before I came along. My anvil , some tongs, and part of my forge belonged to him, then a Great Uncle who passed them to my Dad who never did anything with them. My "awakening" came in mid-July of last year at a reenactment while talking to one of the blacksmiths there. He was working with a small rivet forge and small anvil sitting in an angle iron stand. I was trying to ask seemingly intelligent questions and mentioned that I had this equipment and he asked "Are you forging?" When I replied "No", he asked "Why not?". When I told him I didn't have a place to set it up he simply reached over and raised up the horn end of his anvil and let it drop back in place without saying a word. Point taken. The first of this year I began moving my pieces here and looking for a small forge. I lost my blower in a warehouse fire several years ago so all I really had left of the forge was the tyeure, clinker breaker, bottom plate and blower pipe. I found out a friend had an extra home made rivet type forge and small Champion blower he let me borrow. My first project was a RR spike knife that still needs work. The same "friend" just happened to have a Champion 400 he wasn't using when I finished building my new forge. He told me to take it and see if it would do what I needed. Needless to say, it does. We finally came to "terms" on it yesterday so it's finally really MINE. All I need now is time. Dang "job" sure does interfere with a lot of things.:D

Guess you're just "livin' right". Congratulations!

Thoughts? First one is that you've done a beautiful job bending that wide flat stock. Second, the depth created by the three layers looks great! Timewise, I'm impressed. It's taken me an hour to do a simple split and turned heart finial on a flower pot stand. Good work!

WOW! With membership only $10.00/ year, how could you go wrong????:confused:

Too cool! That's a great job on the skull. I'm pretty sure you'll be making several more of those in the near future.

Awesome project. Looking forward to the finished product.

Yeah, that too. I hope I have it for tomorrow's BPCR match. I'll be buring some "high sulfur coal". The match and travel eats near the whole day, so no more hammerin' 'til Wednesday dangit!

Wow Mike! You HAVE been busy! All looks good for your camping trip.

Stan; Any chance you could post a few photos of those special grooves and notches, along with explanations of their uses?

I've been using straight 30 weight in the Champion 400 I run and it leaks out the front pretty badly. Does using grease like Lubriplate cause more drag, and then what do you do about lubing the shafts, especially the worm gear shaft in the 400?

Nice set of grabs Frosty. After freezup you can use 'em for ice tongs.:D

Mike; Thanks for posting the pics of the Chuckwagon fire irons. I'd seen that style a good while back, (before I ever thought I'd be making 'em) but didn't remember how the tops were made, or how they went together. Guess I'll be making a set like that in the near future. Since I doubt I'll be doing any "period" pieces for reenactors any time soon, rebar will still serve my needs nicely. If someone just HAS to have nice, new HR stock it'll be priced accordingly.

Actually Ken there WERE beans in in the pot, my Texas buddy's recipe for Camp Beans. If I had a fire under 'em you probably could have smelled them. Easy enough to do over the fire, and quick enough to get fed in a hurry. 3 16 oz cans of your favorite beans, pintos, whites, Pork 'n' Beans (no kidney or lima or "baked" beans) 1 cup each, brown sugar, Pace Picante sauce, your favorite BBQ sauce 1 lb of so of ground beef seasoned to you taste with Lawrey's Seasoned Salt Brown the seasoned beef, (I add a chopped onion), add the beans, brown sugar, and sauces. Simmer 'til thickened to suit yer taste.

Yep, some of us are easily amazed, but we can learn new tricks. Thanks for the flatbar tip.

Been wanting to make a nice campfire tripod since I saw this design on one of the forums a few months back. Since rebar's cheap and plentiful at the scrapyard I figured it'd be good enough for the prototype before I go buy 5/8" HR. 'Course if you're gonna hang a bean pot off the thing you gotta have pot hooks, so I made them, and a fancy twisted S hook to get it close to the fire.

How about a pigtail steak flipper? Got the idea from another local smith. He'd put a steer head on the top of his. I tried but broke off one of the horns while drawing out the shaft. Rather than try to weld on something to make a replacement horn I cut the other one off and drew the head out to about 1/4" square, put in a twist, and formed the loop. Overall finished length is 20 1/2". Time involved...WAY too much. Will I do another one? Sure. Good exercise.

Great photos Brian. Guess I can't grasp written instructions well sometimes and your photo series are always a BIG help. Beautiful work...as always.

Nice on both pieces! I'll have to try a spoon in the near future. Is the striker made from a regular old tire tool, like lug wrench on one end blade on the other? I've twisted the blades trying to use them for large screwdrivers before so I didn't figure they'd be hard enough for strikers. How did you harden and temper that material?

Nahh, "my" computer seems to crash all the time. Sometimes I don't pay enough attention. Been by the shop a few times but it seems you're always somewhere else. No sign of life around. I'll catch you there before long though. Sounds like the August Guild meeting may be somewhere besides Falling Creek. Just have to wait and see.

True, but it's a great freakshow, especially on Friday nights.

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments. Billy; Here's my "doming tools". The "block" or base had been bored and internally threaded like a big blind nut or cap. The flange is something I found that looked like it would make a good "foot" for my vise since my floor is hard packed earth. The ball pein is a 32 oz so the pein is a good size for the hole in the block. I've finally gotten to the point where rather than just looking for "specific" materials for projects I have in mind I notice bits and pieces I might could use for tools or to make tools from. My "raw stock" inventory continues to grow and my Wednesday quandry is "If I'm scrappin' I'm not hammerin', and if I'm hammerin', what kind of goodies am I missing at the scrapyard?!" Our local yard is a LOT more fun than WalMart! ;)

Wagon Master; Yep, I made it (crudely) from a piece of about 3/8" thick leaf spring. Drew out the handle then domed the head end with a ball pein over the hole in a piece of lathe drop I found at the scrapyard, driving it with a "softer" hammer. Cheated and drilled an undersize hole, then used my square punch to drift it to size. I have "refined" the tool since these pics so it doesn't look quite so "crude". Doesn't work any better, but it looks better.:rolleyes:

Fine work as usual mike. The bucket is really neat. Lotta work in that one. I especially like the "coiled snake" Viking strikers. I tried to make a couple that style last week by forging sections of 3/8" round spring flat so my peaks weren't high enough. Next time I'll try cutting a couple of sections of leaf spring and go from there. BTW, the shovel frying pans in you gallery are really neat too. Nice work.

Well, it was GOING to be a weenie roaster. 3/8" square, tapered and split tines, had 'em nice and even with nice curved bends. While deciding what type handle I wanted to make I thought I'd try my first pineapple twist for the middle. Somewhere around the middle of creasing the third side I got it a little too hot. Well, I got it a LOT too hot and only the lower half came out of the fire. After a short discussion with myself about my intelligence level I decided all was not lost. Referring to the copy of The Iron Menagerie given my a couple of weeks ago by my friend/mentor I decided I had a decent start on a steer head. It also just happened that this morning's work included making some of the shaped carving chisels and punches for the projects shown in the book. Anyway, here's how my hot dog fork finally turned out. I'll probably drill mounting holes and drift them square for the nails I've made with my new nail header.