PCRDNADave

That does make sense.    Thank you.    Mostly I’m practicing and trying a few new things with whatever material I have at hand to build some experience.  

On 2/27/2023 at 9:00 PM, Paul TIKI said:

  I then lit the forge and and was trying to get back to making leaf key chains.

I have a similar setup and the bricks behind the kiln do help

7 minutes ago, JHCC said:

It may not have turned out like you wanted, but it still looks pretty good!

Is that pipe hanger made from a hardenable steel?

I just have water to quench and it was still soft after bringing it to an orange heat.    Could be I did it wrong but try again tomorrow after getting it hotter.  

I’ll share a bit of a failure here on my first attempt at a blacksmith knife.   Didn’t turn out like I imagined but I’ll try again.  
 

on the plus I was happy with the blade shape and being able draw out a foot of handle from the bar.   I liked the 90 degree back of the blade, did that on the anvil not with a grinder.   
 

The blade is too big for the handle which is too flimsy and the scroll is sad.  

Started with a 6” pipe hanger from the restore.   
 

The bore holes were dug with hand augers (not pictured) and the hole was cleaned out with the bottom rod which has a little scoop on one end.    The dynamite was also pushed in with the other end of the rod.  The copper needle was used to punch a hole in the dynamite for the blasting cap.   This is very early hand mining equipment that I can’t imagine actually using.   
 

here’s another explanation 

To get the coal from the coal seam, John would begin by shooting the coal. Coal from Crayne mine was drilled by hand, with a hand auger. John would drill into the coal seam, usually about three feet deep, with the hand auger. He would then insert a long copper needle with black powder at the end into where he drilled. . Dummy sticks with clay were placed in the hole and tamped down with a rod. The needle was removed and a squib was placed in the hole and lit. After lighting the squib, John had to take cover quickly, because once the squib burned down it would ignite the powder, shoot down the hole made by the copper tube and light the powder at the end. Once John had finished shooting the coal, he would gather up the loose coal, usually more lumps than powder if he did it just the right way and bring it out in a wheelbarrow. 

I made these racks to hold/display some old coal mining equipment.  8 hooks from 3/8 round and a couple of scrap boards   

I finished this today.   I’ll call it a key ring holder.   And started on a file project that could end up like a little curved chopper with curls at the ends on top.   Not sure that’ll be food safe.   

Thank you, that’s good to know.   I’d like to get it mounted in my shop and use it a few times just to say I did.  

I found this at an antique mall for $90.00.     It’s no longer a lamp but I need to find a chuck.   

I’m going to call mine done.   Scrapyard letter opener.   Hope it’s ok to borrow some ideas.   I like the snake and want try that w/ rebar.  
 

On 9/10/2022 at 1:22 PM, Justor JeiGallo said:

TwistedWillow, this looked like fun when you posted it, so I gave it a try. Here's my entry:

Justor, that has a nice look to it.  I’ve never made a knife either and I went simple but I like what you did better.   

I just flattened some round scrap and had a few simple goals:

1  end up with something that looks like a knife 

2 get a handle attached that will stay attached 

3 don’t cut myself 

It’s not finished yet    I have the  handle drying after using some JB weld epoxy and then I’ll need to do some final sanding and finish. 
 

it doesn’t feel like I did much forge work so I’ll probably try something else in addition to this.   

Hey everyone.   I’m very new to this, just making my 3rd hook today with a leaf on the end.   This is very intimidating but I’ll give it a shot.   I have and old lawnmower clipping bag and a lump of walnut in the woodpile.   What could go wrong?   
 

My first project.   Clumsy start but ended up with a couple of passable hooks

On 8/11/2022 at 9:50 AM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma and welcome to the forum!  you have some nice tools.  what kinda of fuel were you using that give you trouble in your coal forge?

It was weathered hard coal but the hand cranking and moving hot spot was tough to start with.  

This was my first fire with the champion. 

I’ve been a picker for over 20 years, buying and selling many anvils, forges, blowers, and tools of all types over the years. Also grew up watching Roy Underhill and the woodwright shop, which is why I operate the way I do today.  
so I figured it’s time to take some of the things I’ve accumulated and put them to work.   
I tried a little champion coal forge but didn’t like spending more time on the fire than the project.  Now I’ve built a workbench and purchased a volcano gas forge which I haven’t built yet.    Looking forward to a good looking hook project 

here’s my modest setup.  (I need to get that post drill mounted and find a head for it)