Jobtiel1

Glenn and frosty, thanks for the tips, I like the idea to put stuff on wheels. But I don't have that much in terms of machinery, so it would just be anvil, vise, and forge on wheels. Most of my stuff is in hand tools, for woodworking too. Speaking of which, tomorrow I'm checking out some woodwork tools my grandma has, from the picture she sends it looks like tools to make wooden shoes.

Once I move out, the shop will still be a general work space, just the blacksmithing corner will be gone.

In terms of building a shop that I can move in it's entirety, houses with backyards are expensive around here, so the most likely prospect for a new shop would be a garage box, unfortunately, I don't think I can just shove a wooden structure in there ;).

And moving in a year is a positive outlook, I think with the way my brother moved out, it's at least 2 years working before I can find a decent place to live.

~Jobtiel

George, We have been moving other stuff around the house for a few weeks now. I've lived here for 22 years, and now every little nook and cranny has to be emptied and packed. Luckily in the Netherlands, a 250 km drive will get me to the other side of the country and halfway back. our new house is the next island over, about a 40 minute drive so whenever i needed something during renovation I could always just go and get it.  

My shop was one of the last things to go, and I thought I could pack it in an hour, but I guess that barely a year worth of smithing has left me with enough stuff to warrant at least two trips (and now 5 hours of packing it all up, and counting!). I can't imagine the amount of stuff I'd need to move had I been doing this longer. The good thing is that at the new house I'll get a bigger space for the shop, and the forge will finally be inside. Now I can set up the anvil and vise in a triangle too!

I'm not looking forward to moving it all again in a year when I'm (hopefully) done studying.

~Jobtiel

Spend the whole day packing up and hauling my entire shop in the back of a combo, at least most of it. you only know how much stuff you have acquired when you try to move it all. Tomorrow I will be moving everything to our new house.

My first car was a 1996 Mazda 323F, the thing was three years older than I was, very nice car with low Km count, and it was painted Ferrari red. Too bad I only had it for about a year. After that an Opel (Vauxhall, same brand) Astra from 2003, still have that one.

~Jobtiel

Had a great weekend, planned the whole summer camp, and received my very first comission, a dutch oven lid lifter. The old one was lost a year ago. I'm not getting paid however, but it's fine, I'll be using it myself most of the time. I'll start working on that after moving.

Also, I made a belated father's day gift, I'm going to see my dad this Friday. I very originally made a steak flipper for him. From 8 mm round bar, the only thing I really did was form the point and fish tail, and some bending.

I think he'll like it! Big BBQ guy.

~Jobtiel

That's a good story Frosty! Personally I haven't been to a Jamboree yet, the nationals are being cancelled every time. I hope to be making stories like that too!

~Jobtiel

Sounds like a great time with the grandkids! Makes me remember the times with my late grandfather, who used to teach me al about foraging sea culture on the beaches and rocks. He taught me how to open oysters and the like too! And most of my fish gutting skills come from him too, although it's been a while since I've done that and was never any good at it anyway. Maybe I'll try and do some ocean fishing soon as the new house is practically on the beach!

The lighter is definitely the best, we teach all of the kids to start fire with no more than three matches, but within a year of being in out group they usually do it with one. We always try to teach them the more primitive stuff too, only using wood that they can forage, no pre dried stuff, or cooking without any sort of pots and pans. They like it, and we like to see what they come up with.

Coldest that I've camped in was -10 C, not as cold as -20 C what Thomas said, but still too cold for me. Was after a beach party in January, fun times, and a lot of frozen clothing in the morning :). Nearly everyone here burned their 'jollies' (those plastic/rubber garden shoes, they're handy 'cuz they float) at least once around a fire here.

I only joined the boy scouts when I was 18, so no learning that stuff as a kid. But my father took me splitting firewood since I was 11, and wood stove lighting taught me firestarting too. I am however not very good in the more primitive ways, so now I want to learn together with the kids how to start fire with flint and steel and maybe even a bow drill. At least if they're interested. I also plan on baking bread in dutch ovens with them.

~Jobtiel

That's what we do, and the kids keep wondering how we get our fire going so quickly ;). But we teach them without, never know when you might need the skills.

Well what do you know, I needed some flint for the new striker, and thought to have a look in the gravel paths in the front yard, and fished out multiple large chunks. tried my hand at knapping, and have some reasonable and a few good pieces to use with the fire striker.

In the shop I made a few more items that will go in an online shop soon. after moving in two weeks I will make a few fire strikers for the boy scouts when we go to summer camp, maybe teach the older ones some advanced fire starting techniques.

~Jobtiel

Hi Pat and Chad,

The key reason a fire striker works is because it is hard, I hardened the striker in oil, and did no tempering. What I understand/heard how it specifically works is that the stone (usually flint) is harder than the striker, and you scrape a tiny bit of metal from the striker which makes some sparks. If the striker would be soft, then the stone would be unable to scrape of small pieces, as the metal is more likely to deform rather than break off those tiny pieces. It's essentially the same principle as pieces breaking of when hitting two hardened surfaces together (which you should NEVER do).

So to conclude, yes I hardened the striker, and didn't temper, and it needs to be high carbon steel, unsure if medium C would work too, but from what I know the fire striker needs to be as hard as possible.

The punch from your work might be suitable material, test it like you would any unknown steel, and test forge it. maybe it can't be hardened hard enough, but then you got some practice for the second try.

~Jobtiel

Thanks Ted, atm I don't have much foraging to do, but I'm moving soon and at the new place there are a lot of oysters, mussels, and "krukels" (type of sea snail) to gather. Also berries and the like whenever I go camping.

No idea how that would work, around here knuckle dusters are illegal, but I plan on carrying this one in either a tinder pouch with charcloth and flint, or in my scouts uniform, so I don't think I'll be prosecuted for it. And I think I'll do more damage to myself when I hit somebody with that.

And indeed, "out of sight out of mind" as long as you don't go waving around with it and only use for firestarting, it should be fine I think.

Ted, that's a beautiful candle holder! I especially like the leaves.

I have been busy with life the past couple of days, but found the time this weekend to make finish a leather foraging bag I've been working on for a while. The bag rolls up to take up less space when not needed. The bag itself is pigskin and the rest veg tanned leather.

I also started practicing some stuff I wanna start selling this summer.

Last weekend I talked with a friend about fire strikers, and wanted a fancier one for myself, so today I found some time to forge one out of coil spring..

I like the way this turned out, and maybe I'll make a few more to sell.

~Jobtiel

JHCC, Thanks, I fullered in on opposite sides to isolate the material for the boss, from there I only knocked down the corners to make it a bit more round. I always read here that you shouldn't leave it too thin, and only my first pair has a boss that's too thin, it broke too, so that's good advice.

Thomas, I hope you have power soon too, looking back at the time you said you might have had power in the shop in a week or so was a tad bit too optimistic after all.

~Jobtiel

Found some time to be in the shop again, I finished up a pair of tongs that I've been working on. Made from flat bar and the jaws are twisted.

Quite happy with them! I think I made them the fastest of any of my tongs, and might be the best as well.

Also I forged a little gift for my girlfriend, no pics of that one though.

~Jobtiel

Sounds really great! Maybe I'll make a trip to the states some day, that happens to coincide. Would be interesting to meet some folks from here.

~Jobtiel

That quad-state thing seems like quite the happening, I'm on the lookout for gathering like that around here but up until now I haven't found a lot of gatherings. The language diversity might be the cause that prevents big international blacksmithing events.

There are medieval LARP events though, and I'm planning on visiting a few once that start happening again, hopefully meet some other blacksmiths from the area.

~Jobtiel

I have imagined that this would happen way too much to me the next flea market after covid. More than a year worth of stuff just waiting to be sold by people.

I'm probably buying a lot of tools then, woodworking things too.

~Jobtiel

Yeah JHCC it also forces you to differentiate between "need" and "want".

Saved me from a lot of unnecessary purchases.

I currently have a family heirloom sort of type vise, the German style. Been eyeing at others but most of the ones I see are nearly identical to the one I already have. Quite cheap, so they're tempting.

On another note, I got some letter and number stamps in the mail today and stamped the vise with my initials and 2020 to show I renovated it. Also stamped the hinges I made with my initials. I guess I'm finally proud enough to stamp my initials in things.

~Jobtiel

Wow Billy, you're making a habit out of starting off the new page here.

I've gained some weight too unfortunately, but whenever I'm close by and the shop is open I tend to get something to try, lucky for me I don't get close by that often!

We have a local gelateria that makes ice cream themselves, in all kinds of weird flavors. My favorite one is sea salt flavored!

Anyway, I finished up the forging on the straps for the hinges today. Unfortunately a small piece burned off from one of the Fleur de lis finials, but I still like it good enough to use.

BLO as finish, still need to test what finish holds up best under circumstances here.

Only thing left is drilling holes, and maybe cold bending to make sure the straps sit flat on the door, and the door flat in its frame.

~Jobtiel

Today I tried making barrels for my hinges again, this time with a proper drift in the right size, and also put together the pintle plates for said hinges. Now I want to do a fleur de lis finial on the ends, but I haven't decided what decoration I want to do for the rest of the hinge. Tonight I'm making some sketches to see what I like best.

~Jobtiel

Exams are done, passed one and waiting for the result on the second, but that means I get to have some time in the shop the rest of the week!

Today I finally started on a drawknife, after butchering the first two attempts, and thinking I didn't have any good stock left. I found a broken big half round file I took home from my brother's work. So it started drawing out the reins of the drawknife:

the final forging looked like this:

I'm pretty pleased with it.

Then I used some clamps and a piece of wood to start grinding and filing, and finally I put some handles on with 5 minute epoxy.

Tomorrow I'm shaping the handles, which are made of Maple, from the logs I got recently. Also I get to practice my sharpening skills tomorrow. The maple is not dried yet, so I hope it's not gonna be a problem, if it is I got a block of mahogany a friend took from the cutoffs at his work.

Also bought a piece of 45mm round C45 (1045) steel for 50 eu including shipping! lowest i've seen so far, most companies charge about 1.90eu per kg, which totals around 70 to 80 euros for this stock size and length.

~Jobtiel