Shainarue

Rojo, I've turned bolts into punches but never thought to use the prichel hole as a bottom tool holder. I've still got a good handful of bolts so I'm gonna try this soon. Thanks for the idea!

Gewoon, that's quite interesting. Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Alexandr, your work is always inspiring.

John, looking forward to seeing the chasing decoration you come up with. I like that the simplicity of the border doesn't detract from the detail of the tiles.

Call and chat anytime! 

Thanks Das, George, and Hefty for the well wishes. I woke up this morning feeling much better. I could rotate about half a turn on each side and I could bend over to put on my shoes! I didn't even need a pillow behind me as I sat down to start working. 

Then I sneezed. 

Boy howdy. The pain. And now I'm right back where I was at the start. Barely able to walk and transitioning from sit to stand is rough. 

Bad timing, as I'm here alone today and Millie (our dog) is in rare form so I need to let her out when I take calls but can't leave her out because there are farmers here dumping to the grain bins and working on machinery. Unfortunately, George, I won't have Ashley here to pamper me until Friday. But honestly, neither of us are much of the pampering type, lol. More like, "I really wish you'd go to the Dr" or "have you taken anything for it yet?" It would be helpful to have her around to take care of the fur kids though...

Anyway, yeah, regarding the wine glass holder, I also saw ways to modify and elaborate. Considering making a few more just to play. There's another design I've seen demo'd that drifts a hole in the center rather than wrapping. Then I also thought it would be fun to do one that could hold the stemless glasses.

Last night I made a gift to give our realtor at closing on the 25th. Needed a few tweaks which I was able to do over my lunch break today (this aspect of working from home is awesome and I wish I could do it more often) then gave it a wax finish and let it sit until I got off work. Then I gave it a good rub down with my T-shirt in attempt to buff it. 

Last night as I was coming inside for the night, I managed to trip coming up the stairs. In an effort to keep from breaking the stemware I was carrying, I managed to fall in a way the pulled a muscle in my lower back pretty badly. My lower back was already pretty tight from sleeping in a very uncomfortable car Thursday night so I'm not surprised I pulled it. But that pain was the worst pain I've had in quite a long time. I got some food, meds, heat, and massage gun. After about an hour, I was finally able to move enough to climb into bed. Anyway, it's a little better today and I'm sure tomorrow will be even better. 

On 6/9/2024 at 6:54 PM, jlpservicesinc said:

I asked who pushed them together

Funny thing, they were pushed together when they got around to me (after Zach) but I separated them because I wanted to see the shearing bevels. I assumed you had put them together so I made sure to reassemble before passing them on, lol

I have a bunch of pics as well but most regarding your demo are basically the same as what's been shared. Except this one. It's hard to get a pic of demonstrators not looking serious so I was glad to have gotten this candid pic. 

I also got this video of the butterfly hinge just before the cuts were made to the barrel. https://youtube.com/shorts/nABewk6Rd58?si=tb7KnK-Sw56cqySn

I had a blast and it was awesome meeting so many amazing smiths and soaking up all the knowledge and stories they were sharing. 

Like Latticino, I was unaware of the informal forging that was going on after the event. I had even come back to that area at 6 on Friday to retrieve the water thermos I had left behind but the place seemed empty other than a few people in the training tent having a conversation. So I went back to the park, got some ice cream and listened to live music before heading to the hotel for a fairly early bedtime, mostly because I was bored, lol

Thankfully though, I got the heads up from Jennifer on Saturday afternoon that I should hang out with the Indiana crew and that they have people forging stuff pretty much constantly. So that's what I did. And wow, what a crew those guys are! It was inspiring to watch everything they had done and were doing. Then the Colonial Williamsburg guys start making a trowel at like 11 o'clock at night. Just wild. I was in my element and loving every minute of it.

Here's a video of the rotating swage wheel made by Kurt F and Paul K did Friday night (I think): https://youtube.com/shorts/BLT-rLTuH3U?si=W26IrT6FwYfHWzrO

Saturday night was the chef's kiss to top off what was already a great experience.

Here's a few other pics from the conference Friday and Saturday.

The Forging Competition teams (two exceptions are the pic of the 50 inside a ring which was done by a Thursday team and is actually what took first place - and the orbital looking sculpture which was also done by a Thursday team).

Artem Marshek's assembly on Saturday of the insane sculpture he started on Friday.

This tree full of nails holding business cards was fun to look at. Quite a few normal and giant nails but also a lot of artistic nails. I particularly liked this one:

Demo by Becky Schimpff on collars

And a few pieces from the gallery. And a few videos from the gallery as well. 

I also met Mark Aspery and thanks to my awkwardness, I came out with a pretty funny story to remember that moment 

I really like that opener design CGL! I liked the one you called ugly but I love the prototype you shared from previously. 

Whoa John, what an amazing score!

Also, I know it defeats the whole free thing, but maybe ship the rest to yourself?

Good start on the ring, Rojo. I also wear out quickly when I use more than a two and a half pound hammer. But sometimes, I just want to get the start of the work done faster. I always end up regretting it later, LOL

Chad, that's a nice looking hummingbird. 

Tonight, I finished up the punches that I started a few days ago. I also reworked the handles of the first pair of tongs that I had made a couple years ago. I still use them fairly regularly and every time I use them I think to myself that I need to adjust the handles so that they're a little more comfortable to hold. I guess today was that day, LOL we'll see if this is more comfortable when I actually get around to using them again. 

Tap the three 3 dots in the upper right corner of the post. Select edit. Gotta be quick though. The window for allowing edits is super short now.

CrazyGoatLady, that's a nice leaf for someone away from the anvil for a few years. I think I joined just as you took your hiatus so I'm looking forward to seeing more of your projects! 

I finished my 2nd floral project tonight. This one will be donated to the host of the June FSBC meeting in lieu of monetary donation for the provided lunch. I brass brushed the highlights then hit it with a clear coat. It will get a second coat tomorrow since it's going to be used outdoors.

According to Google, Treff is the German word for "meeting", which makes sense since the organization originated in Germany. 

Hey all! I've spent a few days catching up on the threads. This is always my favorite thread though. I just love seeing what everyone is making. Lots of great projects! 

We're in between homes for a bit so I'm currently staying at my MIL's farm until late June. I took the first 2 weeks as vaca from work, the last 2 weeks I'll be WFH. Anyway, since I'm mostly here on my own during the week (wife staying with her brother who lives close to her work), I've been spending lots of time playing with hot metal. 

Pictured is the life size tulip (as accurately as I could manage) that I forged last week.
6 petals, 6 stamen, 1 pistil, 2 leaves. As a challenge, I was trying to use as many types of traditional joinery as I could. I have wedge, wrap and forge welds.
Started with about 2 ft of 1/4"X2" flat bar. For no other reason than that's what I had on hand, lol. Probably would have been easier with a round or square bar.

Stem melted quite a bit while I was trying to forge weld the petals. There wasn't room inside to place a brick on top of the portion I wanted to protect. I had to get creative trying to get the forge welding heat toward the front of my little Mr Volcano single burner forge where I needed the petals to weld to the stem. Luckily, I had plenty of broken fire brick on hand!

The stem was upset on one end to use as the pistil. 

Made one piece that had a petal on each end and a hole punched in the middle. The stem went through that hole with the pistil part extending out.

Bundle of stamen are forge welded together. The mass hammered to a flat taper to use as a wedge next to the pistil. 

Two pairs of petals forge welded together then both pairs (4 petals total) forge welded to stem.

One leaf was wrapped around the stem. The other leaf was intended to be attached using a rounded over tenon but I machine welded because I ran out of oomph.

Used bernzomatic torch to heat and tweak the petals to how I wanted.

Then wedged the bundle of stamen into the hole with the pistil/stem.

I'm positive I could do better if I did it again. I learned quite a bit in the process and I'm not ashamed to bring it as a trade item.

It started to rust pretty bad in the high humidity so I hit it with some rust stop spray (paint?) then a few coats of the hammered antique pewter spray paint to get it back to kind of looking like metal. I don't have a pic of it painted through.

Currently working on a smaller bundle of what I'm calling "button flowers". The June Free State Blacksmith Club meeting trade item is "anything floral" and the host is requesting a forged or fabricated flower in lieu of money donations for the provided lunch. 

The meeting isn't until the 15th but I'm trying to get these finished by Wednesday because I leave this Thursday for the ABANA conference and after that I'm back to only a few hours of forging each evening.

Happy forging y'all!

Welcome from Northwest Missouri! I'm a member of BAM and saw that they put out a thread on the members' forum with the FB message thread. 

Hopefully one of our many members in the St Charles area connected with you.

Maybe I'll see you at one of the meetings. You can technically attend without joining but I highly recommend joining if for no other reason than access to the members forum, the newsletter, and the coal discount. I usually attend Feb, Aug, Nov, and the conference in May. Those are all the meetings that are less than a 3 hr drive for me. 3 hours is my limit for a single day excursion. 

I love the Blacksmiths Without Borders Treffs! The last one i was able to catch was over locksmithing. I think I've missed the last few. I've watched quite a few of the older ones they had posted. 

The entire thing is done by volunteers, so sometimes it takes a while (weeks, months) for the recording to show up. So if there's something on the schedule you're interested in, I highly recommend adding it to your calendar so you don't forget to tune in. Usually around lunch hour on Mondays for me (I'm in central time zone USA).

Frosty I was thinking the same thing. That run from glass work room to metal work room with a big blob of molten glass leading the way - it's a recipe for serious injury. 

I get it. Yes, I do call it art - but if it no longer satisfies your creative need then it's time to move on. Totally understand!

But .... and I'm just throwing this out there ... maybe you could continue with face sculptures by finding a way to make them more intricate or complicated?

On 3/2/2024 at 9:24 PM, Daswulf said:

The bobbleheads

On 2/26/2024 at 1:42 AM, BillyBones said:

May i introduce Capt. Krinklebein

Das & Billy, those are great. I LOVE those bobbleheads! I am a huge fan of creepy/odd dolls, especially clowns - and the bobblehead aspect manages to raise it a notch!

I will certainly miss seeing your face sculptures! Why is this the last one?

I love it. You can definitely envision that the picture was caught mid-step by the character. You did well at conveying motion.

I actually have a list of stuff for a similar purpose. I was asked to help demo at a Heritage Days event this coming October and they focus on period accuracy as close as possible. So I looked up what sort of stuff I should practice on for the 1700-1900s. (side note: 1900s make me chuckle since technically *I* was born and raised in the 1900s  - but I know they mean the first couple decades.)

I realize the Renaissance era is a few hundred years earlier but I think most of these would still apply.

Anyway, here's my list:

• tongs from 1/4" bar (have audience vote: should you make each side the same or mirror image?)
• screwdrivers
• spoon
• S-hooks
• nails
• branding iron (this isn't so much a demo as a pull to see your booth. Check ahead of time to see if there's a way to incorporate a brand into the event and "stamp" something they get from another booth. Since this is a highschool, maybe it could be their mascot or school letters.)

Toys (I know these are highschool kids but even adults enjoy old timey toys, lol)

• nail puzzle
• ring puzzle
• mouse

Please don't stop tormenting the forum with your stuff! I happen to love your sculptures. 

It's funny you named it Blubber Head from the appearance of a whale, because I saw Blubber Head - then saw the sculpture - and thought 'derpy' and figured that's what you meant, lol

On 2/17/2024 at 5:52 PM, Frosty said:

I still have to slather them and put on a pair of rubber gloves to get the cracks healed and closed. I don't recall what these gloves are made of but surgical or neoprene gloves will be softened by the creams I use and don't last. 

Have you tried cotton gloves (or socks)? That's what I've always used.

As for cracks, a few times a year my hands also get bad cracks and breakouts. Not just one hand though. That's a bit strange, lol. Anyway, I use No-Crack during the day and sometimes I'll use our dog's Mushers Secret at night and put socks on my hands to keep it from rubbing off onto the blankets.

John, I am loving the repoussé pieces you've been sharing.

Jennifer, it's crazy how you can put out the quality of work you can while working through the pain of an injury. You've been at this awhile, so I trust you know your own body well enough to know when you need to rest an injury versus work through it. 

I had a day off work last week so I was able to play with hot metal for a long while. It felt great. I started out with leaves, made an over-the-door hook, and curved some railing picket scrap to use on my friend's bird feeder hanger. Oh, and I tried to start on a "something that spins" sculpture for a Facebook blacksmithing challenge group I'm in. Except I hadn't planned on doing that and I was totally winging it. I just happened to see a scrap of tubing and another scrap of rod that looked like it would fit inside the tube, and thought, "hey, that might work for the spinner project!" I proceeded to get the rod stuck inside the tube. Then I drew out some of the 3/8 bar I had left from the hook and used that with some grease to push the rod free. Then I forged that rod just slightly smaller, added some flowers (also from the scrap bucket) and twisted the rod into a loop to hold them in place. It does indeed spin but not because the rod is spinning inside the tube. It's because the hole in the petals is quite a bit larger than the rod they are on. I don't love it. I'm debating continuing to tinker with it or just toss it back to the scrap bucket.

I went to the (Kansas) Free State Blacksmith Club meeting without a trade item. Trade item was the 1/2" sq x 6" challenge. I first tried a sculpture which I had planned out and had notes written. Got all the pieces forged but when I went to assemble, it just didn't come out as I had expected. So I kept futzing with it until I got this:

I would have been embarrassed to give that to someone. Funny, looking at it now, if I had *intended* for it to look like that, I wouldn't have been embarrassed. Oh well. 

So the next night I tried again but this time I decided to do the Russian Rose. Welp, it was about 30 degrees that night and as I was hammering to get the very first roll started, the vibrations went right on down to that quickly cooled thin metal with cuts and just tore it right off.

I didn't come away from the meeting empty handed though! The guy that was hosting runs a metal shop and had a bunch of scrap he was going to haul the following week so he said to take whatever we wanted. I gathered up a bucket full. Mostly stuff to make the forge stand, anvil stand, and a table for the vise stand. Also some angle iron to try out the feathers and a few pieces of small bar stock.

Not pictured: I've also been cutting and welding and whatnot, getting a new gas forge stand made with a frame that can hold the firebricks over the openings. Also getting a frame made for the rail anvil. It fell 3 times during that long forging day. It needs to be held horizontally bit also be able to be secured when I flip it on end. I'll post a pic when it's complete and too late to take on any advice for improvements, lol

Frosty, it never occurred to me to use broken firebrick in the gas forge to shield places I didn't want to get as hot. Thanks for that tip!

Glad to hear my intuition was correct. I just saw enough other setups (in person) with that configuration that I stated wondering. I'll still store it underneath, but in use I'll continue as I currently do - moving the tank as far as the hose allows off to the side. I've seen another person's setup had a pole that held the hose up and away - I guess to keep tension off the connection from the hose hanging down? My hose isn't that long - just the one that came with the kit - so I don't think excess weight is an issue in my case yet.

I grew up being taught a good amount of respect toward fire safety as my mother's childhood home burned down and she lost all keepsakes. She only has a few photos of her as a kid and those were given to her later from other relatives. She also has a few photos of her parents. I lost quite a bit of keepsakes in my 20s when my apartment flooded. I haven't really been much for tangible memories since then. I felt the loss of those items and grieved, but then realized it didn't take away the memories. Now I have things like songs or constellations or flowers that remind me of people. 

Anyway, straying off topic. I'll definitely keep the propane away from the forge except when storing it.