Jobtiel1

Some blacksmithing firsts for me today! A friend came over to strike and help me with some stuff, so that was my first time working with a striker! went pretty alright, some mishits but we made sure to work slow to get the basics under control. swapped my anvil with a railroad track, to prevent damage to both the anvil and us. 

we made an hammer eye drift, and started working on a hot cut. first time punching a hammer/top tool eye as well, it went great, the eye is straight and true.

Hi Frosty, That's a great idea! I'm going to ask around a bit, several wood suppliers for construction work I called didn't carry any ash, so a more specialised woodworker might point me in the right direction for a good local supplier, in the meanwhile I have found two ice hockey sticks I can use to make top tool handles.

Hi all, thanks for your replies!

Thomas, unfortunately I don't know many craftsmen around me, there used to be a farrier in the village but I don't know if he still lives here. My father's a carpenter so I might try asking him when I see him again, maybe he knows. Searching online for local handle wood didn't give any results beyond ash.

Now that I think of it there is a wood mill a few km away, I'll ask them too, maybe they have some cutoffs I can get.

BartW, when searching online I read that oak contains acids that corrode metal, is hardware store oak (praxis) good enough for that, if yes I'll try buying a piece of that.

Glenn, I understand what you mean, and I have been trying to find old handles (including shovel and broom handles and things like that) that I can reuse, but this past year there has been virtually no garage sales or the like, and I haven't found anything in the local thrift shop. 

The hockey stick is a good idea however, I have an old ice hockey stick lying around, so I can get maybe 3 handles from that, that will at least get some tools handled.

I'll keep this thread updated on my finds, maybe other NL people will find this useful in the future.

Glenn, thanks for the additional info, I'll have a look if those trees grow nearby and if any of them get cut down soon.

Deimos, thanks for the link! I'll give them a call and see what they can offer me.

Hi all,

First of all, I know it is probably easier and less time consuming to buy pre-made handles, however, since I like to do any type of crafting as a hobby, I'd like to make my own wooden handles for hammers and top-tools.

Now I unfortunately have a problem, I cant find wood suitable foe hammer handles.

I know hickory is favorable, but I found virtually no supply of unworked hickory in the Netherlands. I then though Ash, but I am having trouble sourcing that, most people sell oven dried ash for use in the fireplace, is that suitable for handles?

Hardware stores nearby only seem to sell fir and oak wood.

So how and where do you source wood for hammer handles? and what kind would be good for use? I know chestnut and birch grow locally, so if that is suitable i might have better luck finding that.

And if anyone has tips for sourcing handle wood, or know a place where I can buy ash in the Netherlands or Belgium, that would be great!

Thanks for your replies, 

Job

Today I finished forging tongs for 4140 hex bar. Going to use the hex bar to make an eye drift as well as top tools, and maybe a claw hammer after some practice.

I also went an pickup up a used drill press, was looking for one for some time and this one popped up for 25 Euros, now I can see of I really need a good quality one.

Thomas, Thanks for the tip, that's the first thing I'm checking next time. Any recommendations as to how to test this? my guess is to grind a large chunk off so that the unhardened core would be exposed and then quench to see if it gets hard.

Had some forging time today,

I made a prototype awl, without any handle yet, to see what I need to change for it to work optimally, continued working on some tongs as an ongoing project, forged a new spring for my post-vise, as the old one broke when I dropped it. no idea why though, there were no visible clues to a crack being at the breaking point, my guess is that it had somethin to do with it being -5 degrees C in the shop. 

finally I started preparing a big ball bearing house to make a few drawknives from, the diameter of the bearing was around 25 cm.

Now back to studying for my finals next week.

First time in the shop after recovering from a dislocated shoulder I got from trying to ice skate a few weeks ago. Ice is always thinner than you think.

Finished up some tools (top tool-ish things I am holding with tongs instead of a wooden handle) and also finally got myself a drill press! 2nd hand on the cheap, paid 25 euros for it. If I am using it a lot now I can justify spending money on a better one.

Now I'm gonna start making some tools to get a start on some leatherwork. Managed to get a full bag of scraps to practice on from a guy who does car interiors.

I don't have any socials at the moment, but I can update if/when I start an IG account again. if you want to contact me you can through IFI I guess.

The province, so a bit farther away than the town is.

Yes, I'd like to know this too. Maybe we can meet up and make some things, as I think Deimos lives somewhat close by.

I think JHCC is right, when is started I frustratingly tried to make my own tongs without tongs, after buying a single pair of wolf jaw tongs I have used those to make around 10 pairs of new tongs for other stock sizes. But like Thomas says, they don't have to be the most expensive tongs around, mine were only 30 euros as I bought the cheapest I could find new. 

If they break, you can always make a new  pair yourself!

Billy: It could be that the size is not perfectly 18 mm, by I measured using calipers before removing and it was roughly that. Close enough to use 18mm thick bolts.

And a vise from the 1800 is really old, nice! However, this vise was from my great great grandfather's carpenters shop, which he set up around 1912. So the vise you have might not have been bought new by your great grandfather, I don't know if mine is, but I suspect so because of the low amount of wear on the inside parts 

Jlp: thanks for the information! I was actually wondering what the side plates were for. And at the moment, the vise is dissassembled again. Forging my own bolt is now something that I want to do for the vise, but I might have to make some tooling for it first, since I haven't been forging that long (started last summer). Neither do I have thread cutting tools, but I think I know some people that I can borrow them from. Anyways, thanks for the advice! 

I'll follow up as soon as I've done some more work, don't have that much time to work on this unfortunately.

Yes, I tried heating the bolt initially before we decided to drill a new hole through it but that didn't work. I'm going to try to get up the whole area around the pivot hole and try to hammer the stuck piece out with a drift next.

Hi, 

This is the piece of the old bolt still stuck inside the pivot hole of the vise.

I got some time in today before exam week starts.

I made a metal scribe trying to replicate Joey vds's one. Not quite happy with how the clip turned out, but I've only been smithing for half a year so it's just something for me to practice on.

And also started on the backplate of a norfolk latch for my new shed/smithy in the new house. 

Daswulf: yeah I think I have quite a clean coal then, I see only small bits of shiny clinker when I clean the forge out, but a lot of dark unburnt ash and small pieces of what I presume is coke. I think I will follow your lead and forge a spoon for taking out the clinker too! I just have to make sure I clean the fire in such a way that I can easily restart it again.

Thomas: first off all, thanks for your help and tips on this and several of my other recent posts. I have a foot pedal cranked blower on the river forge. So far I haven't forge welded on the river forge, as I read that it is much more difficult to do without a fire pit to help create a deep fire. But I have been heating stock up to 20mm thick, as well as small scroll work on firestrikers, I guess that with this kind of work the clinker stays small and broken up.

Anachronist, as soon as I start working in it I'll send update this thread with a picture of what's inside the hole.

Iron dragon, yes, I was thinking the same now, the reason this bolt is in it now is because I took the vise to my brother's work, he works on a shipyard. There we took out the rusted bolt. Before we left we took the largest fitting bolt we could find. Since then I haven't tried to remove the left over bolt, as the stand isn't usable yet. But I'll try remove it now!

And yes, the I wanted to straighten the handle too, but my brother convinced me it was part of the vise's character, but I think I'll straighten it out anyway.

As always, thanks for the replies and tips!

Oh and English isn't my native language so I always think I come off as a bit rude while talking online. I hope this is not the case!

I have to remove it from the stand anyway to make a new one, so I might as well loosen the bolt and the screw and see if I can make a thicker bolt fit in. 

And that's a great idea! I think I will do that! I have found some small marking which i think is the catalog number, as in "vise number 8). So I have no idea who made it. But putting in my great great grandfather a name and my own seems like a great idea!

Thomas, I wasn't clear in my posts sorry, I meant that the threaded ends of the bolts were 14-16 mm thick for the new one and (corrected, I looked it up) 18 mm thick for the old one. So the difference is maybe 2 to 4 mm in thickness max. I'll take them out and see if I can remove the old bolts and fit in a thicker bolt before using, if not, I have some 18 mm round lying around so the wedged "bolt" idea might be interesting too. Again, thanks for the tip! I was kind of worried about downsizing but hearing it from more experienced smiths makes me feel like it will be a real issue later on.

Thanks for the advice Thomas! If I remember correctly the bolts in it are now 14 or 16 mm threads, while the original bolts had 20 mm threads. 

I'm planning on using the vice for upsetting tong jaws for box jaw tongs and other upsetting operations, and drifting hammer, top tool, and axe eyes. You think this will be too rough on the smaller bolts?

Job

Thomas: unfortunately I had too, a larger bolt didn't fit with pieces of the previous bolt still in the pivot hole, I haven't used the vise yet, If this will be a problem I will try to fix it before using the vise.

Hi all,

I made a post maybe a month or two ago asking for help on restoring a leg vise from my great-great-grandfather's workshop. Which I restored after it being used as garden decoration by my parents for about 20 years.

Following advice from forum members I thought it was nice to show the results.

I forged a new spring from a salvaged leaf spring. I also welded new threads on the mounting plate and had to cut out the pivot bolt, and obviously replace that bolt as well. Now it's all greased up, and nearly ready to use! I just need to make a new stand for it since my improvised one isn't safe. Prone to falling over.

Here some pictures.

The condition before I restored it. The screwbox was completely filled with dirt and gunk, and I had to use rebar for leverage to get enough force to be able to remove the screw. The pivot bolt was completely rusted shut, and I broke of the threads of the backing plate while trying to remove the bolts.

After restoring, and now on a makeshift stand I cobbled together from some wood I had lying around, it's back in its old glory.

My father's a carpenter (and so was his father and his father's father and so on) so I plan on visiting him again soon to make a stand worthy of this piece of family history.

Thanks for reading! And I hope you found my post and this vise's transformation interesting!

I made a pair of box jaw tongs to grip bar stock I salvaged from the scrap bin at my brother's work for better handling while I'm using the bar stock for more tong making.

Due to popular demand from my friends who are into Viking related stuff, I started practicing on making some fire strikers from coil springs. I feel I made this one too thick, and the scrolls don't align, but that just means I got to practice more.