Shainarue

My state of mental well-being is the same. I'm hoping the Dutch studies with be sufficient though. That's a cool idea for the vase! Looking forward to seeing it finished

I figured I could use tong clips! Then just let the tongs 'rest' in my right hand. We'll see. Right now I don't even want to test the waters. I thought I'd work on my needlefelting but even that started aggravating it last night so it's definitely not ready for anything more. I'm going to dive back into Dutch for awhile and maybe finally get the workshop organized but I'm sure within a few weeks, I'll be itching to beat on metal again, lol I will have to be extra careful to not go and mess up my left arm from improper handling of the hammer though!

I made some edits to the original feather before bringing it for the trade item last Saturday. I was much happier with the results. I messed up the elbow on my hammering arm over vacation. The symptoms are pointing to tennis elbow AND golfers elbow... But I'm hopeful that I'm wrong, lol So far I'm 5 days into babying it, trying to remember ibuprofen, trying to remember to wear the forearm arm brace, and just not using it as much as possible. I tried grinding on some pieces for a new anvil stand I was working on and it made it worse so I guess I really need to be serious about resting it. Which sucks because I'm really not good at that. Might get more proficient with my left arm, lol

Very nice! This style is one I really need to make soon - as I keep starting projects that work with flat bar which I don't have a set of appropriate tongs to hold, lol.

Thanks Mike! Cost was less than $10 difference so it really didn't matter cost-wise which configuration I used. I'll go with your recommendation And yes, the gas hose will connect to the shut-off valve at the bottom.

Curious if anyone can tell me if one configuration is better than the other - or suggest a different configuration. I assume I'll need to come up with some kind of brace to support all this? Since I will sometimes have the top port open, I wanted to use copper tubing until it is well out of danger of a rubber gas hose being at risk. For ease of reference, let's label them "with loops" and "without loops" - even though there are other differences.

Tonight I practiced square corners while making brackets for the new gas forge I'm building. 3 of the 4 finished. From right-to-left: "Lee Sauder" method, first attempt. I did something wrong and ended up with a fold on both sides when I worked the upset down. "Lee Sauder" method, second attempt. Better. Both attempts have crease on the inside corner that I couldn't get worked out short of filing (tried fullering and using the cross peen, even tried hammering into the soft edge of the anvil knowing it would thin that area). Not sure if that's something I'm doing wrong or just a thing that's expected with this technique. The 1st way I learned, through a class teaching techniques for ABANA curriculum level 2. Basically, bending just short of 90 and then upsetting into the bend from each side. Most work done in the vise. Repeat and periodically clean up any twisting or bulging on the anvil. Took longer, but the inside corner is cleaner.

Tonight I finished my first ever feather J-hook from angle iron. This is for a trade item for the June FSBC meeting.

I finished the trellis for my friend and brought it to her last night. She loves it. I edited the photo to lighten the background so the trellis is more visible. Black trends to blend into green backgrounds!

This is more in like with what I was wanting. Not that anyone will ever see it, lol

I've been in a fairly low funk lately and haven't even wanted to forge since Friday. Last night I decided to whip out something simple that would help clean up the spray bottles we currently have grouped in a corner of the kitchen. I've been wanting to try that reverse twist pattern in flat bar and this was the perfect project for a fun twist. Well, a few critiques of my own work: 1. It's not even. I don't know how that happened. I measured, I marked, I VERIFIED (but obviously missed it, lol). One end has a shorter leg than the other, creating a slanted opening. 2. I think it would look better with the twists closer together. Or maybe even twisted 3/4 rather than 1/2. I'll play with that. 3. I measured the required length but it didn't occur to me to measure the depth required for dropping the spray bottle handles in there! So, it doesn't really work for its intended purpose. I'm going to mount it in the basement bathroom to replace the cheap plastic towel rod that's currently in there.

Haha, I should have remembered those!

Congratulations on the commission! Have you done a railing before?

I like that candlestick.

Good enough for me, lol I did try a quick search using site: iforgeiron.com and then "rigidizer" and "dilute" but kept coming across posts just instructing to use rigidizer, not commenting on whether diluting was good/bad/other. So I appreciate your working memory