Frosty

Sure it's quick but the whole planet's bucking for you. <grin> Well done. Frosty The Lucky.

Stephen: Seems you AND Joe think I was criticizing, my only intent was to add my favorite trick to efficiently upsetting the end of a bar. Seeing as Joe seems to think I was being critical I viewed the video and this does indeed lead me to make some observations. I'm still not being critical Joe but you brought it up. No I don't do videos, I teach face to face. You spent more than 6 minutes upsetting a piece maybe 3% or so. So efficiency isn't part of the game. Watching the upset end repeatedly drawn down to correct bending illustrates why straightening should be done either over the hardy hole or off the edge of the anvil. All that's needed is a little straightening, that's removing bend or bending it back. Drawing the thickness down is counter productive though it's really common for beginners. To straighten a little bend simply place it high end up, and give the end a light tap, when the hammer kissed the shaft of the rivet you're DONE, stop and go back to upsetting if it's not large enough yet. Same for doing it over the edge of the anvil, in both cases use half face blows, that's the hammer face strikes half on half off the anvil face. When it comes to dressing the shaft below the upset end, again use half face blows to avoid drawing the head down and do it off the edge of the anvil. Lastly, once you've headed your rivet don't take it out of the header to cut it from the stock, use the header to hold it, score it deeply and break it by bending. This will save you wear and tear on both your hardy and your hammers. Once again it'll save you time at the anvil, walking back and forth to the forge and IN the forge. Time IS money, saved fuel is money. The folks I show what I know aren't rich or they'd fly to one of the big name schools and I'd get them to teach me things when they came back. I've seen video from way back of the two hammer upsetting technique. In that case the smith was working what looked like 3/4" or better stock and at least doubled it's dia. in maybe two minutes. Truly inspiring. Frosty The Lucky.

Thank you Michael, that is some wonderful work. Is there more? Frosty The Lucky.

Must be nice having connections in the lab. I like it, what next? Mark: Have you heard the story, true in fact, about the bush pilot who dropped a couple off on a remote lake. Before they boarded they got the bear bells and pepper spray tutorial. As they were coming in they saw a browny on the far side of the lake the cabin was on and he made sure they unpacked the bear spray, (NEVER carried in the cockpit) first off. The took off and after seeing what the bear was up to, they can be curious but this one wasn't, he flew around to give the couple a wing wag on his way home. What he saw was the couple writhing on the beach so he made an emergency landing and hot floated it to the beach. What had happened was the flat lander couple seeing the bears decided to make use of the bear repellant spray and started hosing themselves down good. The pilot rolled them into the lake to rinse the worst off before he could strip their clothes off, his included as he'd touched them. As it turns out they decided to fly back to town and charter a fishing boat. No bears to worry about at sea. Frosty The Lucky.

I think you're off to a good start, picking brains here. <grin> You can buy "cap rail" and weld it to a channel iron structural component that is connected to the pickets, welded that is. The channel is web down and the cap bridges the flanges for a closed hidden space for whatever your welds on the picket ends looks like. It's VERY strong and not too hard to form. One thing to remember about the cap, if it isn't covered in CODE, make it small enough a person can wrap their hand completely over/around it. If someone starts to fall being able to wrap their hand around the banister makes it a LOT more likely they'll catch them self successfully. This IS the prime purpose of a railing, safety. I'm not going to get into the subject more than a couple vague suggestions as I have so little experience it's laughable. Heck, my first move would be to ask advice here. Frosty The Lucky.

Confidence comes, don't sweat it. If I did nearly as well when I started I'd be so over confident none of you guys would talk to me. Okay, sure I was 10 or so but all I was doing was smacking hot steel on a piece of bar stock with one of Dad's ball peins. MAN did he get ticked when I burned up his spot welder heating steel. I increase my skills sets, confidence, et-al every time I pick up a hammer or watch someone else hammering and I've been a hobbiest smith for a good 50 years now, with breaks for the paycheck jobs or trees of course. And sometimes folk wanting to give me money for things I've done or want me to do. Feels good, DARNED good. <grin> Iron/steel is a lifelong learning curve, you'll NEVER hit the same piece a second time just like you can never step in the same river a second time. Smithing is about change, a flowing river IS change, living is change. So don't sweat it, you'll never get to a stage where it's consistent in an, "every blow yields a known result" way. AIN'T happening. <grin> Well, it depends on how you measure consistent, I call close good enough to tweek into shape. Search out "eye punches" and such you'll find threads about using and making the things, Brian B's being some of the best tutorials. You gotta make your specialty tools, they're just too darned expensive to buy and what the HEY, this is ABOUT making stuff. Yes? And that skirts one of the blacksmithing's natural laws, "More tools!" Frosty The Lucky.

Tekkou Do is the online Japanese - English dictionary translation of iron/steel way. Or, "The way of steel", as close as I could get without spending the whole darned morning searching or calling someone who speaks Japanese. Do is from memory studying martial arts Dojo being the "place of the way" or school. Fun looking though, if I didn't sidetrack so easily I might still be searching. . . Where was I, what am I doing? Frosty The Lucky.

Finding stones and slag in coke is possibly a byproduct of stone in the coal, usually coal or oil shale. During the coking process the shale produces enough heat to help the coking process and ends up as slag. Here in Alaska you're going to get stoker coal or coal shale suitable for furnaces that use powdered coal like gas in burners. If you want metallurgical coal you get to either order and ship it in from the lower 48 or go coal mining yourself. Every spring we have an event called "Art On Fire" featuring arts needing fire, we smiths put on a show but the big show is the iron pour. They fire the cupola melter with commercial coke and a big part of the event for the iron agers is scraping out the slag and ckinker stuck to the inside of the cupola. I don't know where Pat gets the coke, it may be petroleum or coal coke, I've never asked. Frosty The Lucky.

Nature calls, be it my stomach, natural light, a dog, Winter temps, Deb or my arm. I'm retired from the paycheck universe so . . . Frosty The Lucky.

That's enough to choke me up with memories of Dad and I. We need more lady blacksmiths in the world, keep it up. Thanks for the video and addicting a couple new smiths. Frosty The Lucky.

Try searching the Library of Congress? They have it if it's been published. Of course you may have to ask the Librarian. Frosty The Lucky.

Yeah, you've arrived for sure. You aren't the only one learning this craft . . . Heck, we all are. There's a lifetime's several times over worth of things a person can learn about steel. Just look at how many ways different people here make it work. Bronze is good for cold chisels and probably good for stone chisels but I won't venture an opinion as I've never made one. I like pale straw for wood chisels and knife blades but that's just the edge. I draw the temper from the spine to the edge, blue on the spine and pale straw on the edge. This is a progressive tempered, I got the rest of the sentence written before I remembered the term. STUPID TREE!! My portable welder is a Ranger 9 with a core flux wire feed if I wish to use it. I LOVE Lincoln welders. Sure, I know other guys love their Millers or whatever, it's a matter of taste like so much of what we do. Oh yeah, I use an All States Oxy Propane torch set, it's several times as efficient as oxy acet. consumables cost me less that 2% what oxy acet would and it's screaming fast for many things. And NO I do NOT use it to heat for forging unless it's an emergency or no choice situation. I much prefer a proper fire, even a camp fire is preferable. Lastly, we don't give diddly do if you consider yourself a blacksmith or not. All you have to do is beat hot steel long enough and everybody else will and there you go. Frosty the Lucky.

I think it looks nicer in the living room than a torn down 327 or Harley and they both looked just fine. The 327 was laid out like it came in the engine but the Harley took up too much room for that. Nice drill press, good score and top notch treatment you gave it. Frosty the Lucky.

Nice use of bricks too. thanks for the video Glenn. Frosty the Lucky.

If you keep some brews chilled you'll have all the blacksmith consultation fees you'll need. Frosty the Lucky.

man, that is a Loooong way from an awful example of work. It's actually a darned entertaining and whimsical snake. Another way to forge a snake I haven't seen yet is start with a RR spike. Forge the shank into the snake's body leaving the spike head till last to be forged into the snake's head. Upsetting or fold welding are other ways. This road you've chosen has as many different paths to the same place as there are blacksmiths traveling it. I keep my failures for future reference. What I find surprisingly often is a failure of a technique to provide a desired result is often perfect for another result. It was ME who didn't see what was what. The climb up the learning curve is what I love most about this craft. Frosty the Lucky.

Yes, all the above. It is what you make of it, some are satisfied to make knife shaped objects, others make indescribably beautiful knives, others make art every time they pick up a hammer, twisting wrench or step up to a forging hammer/press. Using humanities two oldest tools, fire and something to bash with to have our way with iron or steel is art in itself. It's good for the soul. Frosty the Lucky.

I really like em! Very pleasing profile, it speaks of grace and utility. I truly love hex handles and yours look to have an excellent feel. This from a non bladesmith old coot. What's the purpose of the tapered tang. It seems to me to add another level of effort with little or no utility. That's just me though, I know little about knife making. Frosty the Lucky.

I sure do Bryan all I need to do is finish the shop, organize what's in it and make room for the connex full. Not that I'm keeping my eyes open for more tools and equipment . . . It's a disease I tell you, a DISEASE! I like it though. When we gonna see you again? If we can get someone to critter sit Deb and I may take a road trip up your way. Deb's never been farther north than McKinley park and we have a new truck that's a joy to drive. Heck it even gets decent mileage. Frosty the Lucky.

Nice shop Waldgeist and well laid out. Sure you'll need a larger one, no matter how large you build it you'll need a larger one. It's a law of blacksmithing nature you know. Kurgan: There are lots of places like you describe in the states. Seems lots of folks just do not like to see human activity, construction or hear the sounds. Misanthropic is my thoughts. Deb and I bought some acreage just outside building codes except federal and state codes. Things like distance between septic systems and wells, property line setbacks and such. Then again I had to carve the place out of a forest and some years later the forest carved a hunk out of me. Good luck dealing with government types and remember NEVER raise your voice, in person or on the phone. If you do or worse yet cuss them out like they so richly deserve, you'll end up on the list of crank callers and they'll never talk to you again. Ever, show up in person and enjoy a police escort and maybe a night on them. There are ways to work gvt. types but I know nothing about your side of the pond. Bummer. Frosty the Lucky.

Have you tried belt dressing? The newer synthetic belts have a different friction (whatever) than leather belts so it may need a little belt sauce. Even a little bar soap helps, just touch the inside of the belt with a bar of Ivory while it's turning. I don't know if dressing the belt will help but it can't hurt. Belt dressing is also available at the auto parts store in spray cans. Pics, we love pics. Frosty the Lucky.

I'm thinking the word beautiful is going to wear out looking at work like this. Frosty the Lucky.

Welcome aboard unpronounceable web handle guy, glad to have ya. If you'll put your general location in your profile you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out how many folk here live within visiting distance. Also check the section of the site with club locations, hooking up with a blacksmith club is unbeatable for learning, finding tools, swapping BS, potlucks, hammer ins and just general good company. If you're even in Alaska feel free to look me up, we can build a fire and beat the stuffins out of some poor innocent steel. Frosty the Lucky.

Well done, how's the customer like them? More than satisfied I'll wager. Frosty the Lucky.

Not bad at all Riley and glad you're wise to RR spikes. The last knife with the antler handle is much nicer. It has a better profile and the proportions between blade and handle are much better. Keep these so you can look back to when you were just getting into it. It's a good thing to be able to look at progress in your own skills sets. Makes you feel good. Frosty the Lucky.