Thanks Michael and Nuge!

 

Michael, Wow as usual.

 

My pile of random wrenches resembles a dragons hoard. Plenty in triplicate, foreign and abused. There are many scrap metal artist in the area

that use unmodified old tools in their creations so I tend to stay away from that. Changing the form is quite different. That covers two genre with the mechanics category and the ever snarky, "does it fit in a doublewide?". Would forging a top shelf name tool be like destroying coinage? Snap-on trucks menacingly lurking around the corner at night?

 

Nuge's cross reminds me of gender symbology. The Mars and Venus would sell well and command I fantastic price in the right time/place. 

 

Most of us would get bored over time, but if you made two of those a day for the rest of your life you'd have a rather large savings. Hoping they

still make bottles that need the tops pulled off. The forms themselves are worth working on. $$$

It still does happen once and awhile, no matter how carefully I'm going at it.... 

I swear at it a bit to make myself feel better and toss it into the reject pile and move on to the next one.  ;)

I do these in black oil finish too, but some people really like the colors.

So it is wrought iron just fold it back on itself reweld it to another lump and do it again. You might weld it a couple of times to be sure it stays clean but wrought welds so east it is almost a sin. I have done several axes out of wrought and sooner ot later I try for a little too mugh at lower temps and crack it just get it up to heat and hammer it back together. You are then refining it to make it better wrought iron.

I was thinking of doing that.... 

But when I'm trying to make a lot of them, it is easier to 'stay in the flow' of the process and just grab another stick and keep going in the same steps.

Maybe when I have some free time I'll combine some of the reject pile into workable pieces again.

I make mine mostly from 1/2" square A-36 and like them to have a Wizards head so one can have a "Wizard good time" :)

My wife is on an outrigger canoeing team, when they had there annual fund raiser this past summer, I made this paddle/bottle opener as a raffle prize. 

I am very curious about the price you can sell them at. What you describe is a lenghty procedure. How much time? What price?

I like these very much. Details like these realy add value (artistic and monetary) to a simple piece of steel.

The ones referenced in that lengthy procedure I do not typically even try to sell. They take so long to make (compared to the simpler designs) that I have never bothered to display them. The market for $80.00-$100.00 bottle openers is small, if it exists at all. They take about an hour and a half to make and there is no way to get that sort of money out of them. All the extra ones of those designs I have made to date have all been given away. I just made another one today simply because they are so much fun to make and because I am still working on perfecting the curvature of the business end. I think I have that part down now, for that design anyway.

Great work, keep em coming

All three of those are really innovative and totally awesome.

Started out life as a mangled tong jaw......

 

My duckies

My duckiesimage.jpg

Ha never thought of or seen duck before. They look fab!

How did you get such a vivid colour on them???

The ones referenced in that lengthy procedure I do not typically even try to sell.  They take so long to make (compared to the simpler designs) that I have never bothered to display them.  The market for $80.00-$100.00 bottle openers is small, if it exists at all.  They take about an hour and a half to make and there is no way to get that sort of money out of them.  All the extra ones of those designs I have made to date have all been given away.  I just made another one today simply because they are so much fun to make and because I am still working on perfecting the curvature of the business end.  I think I have that part down now, for that design anyway.

When I first started out I was really fixed on how much per hr. Now it's more about what do I need to survive, how much do I really need to make in a day, and am I statisfied on the price I sold that for. I would rather make some money on the things I make than none at all. I love being self employed. If I waited for the big priced jobs, I would be broke all the time.

Here are some bottle openers out of railroad spikes, bar stock, a horseshoe. I have a few more but don't have the pictures on me.

 

Pound Hound

here is an alligator from bar stock and a railroad spike twisted

 

 

 

I almost forgot a dog

 

This is great!  Lots of new ideas!   Been outa town so tomorrow I can try some out.   Thanks everyone.   But don't stop....   please!

 

 

I love small useful projects that allow this much creativity.   Something everyone needs.   Something useful, functional...  Something that just about any level of blackmsith can make.    Perfect.

Here are my BunnyRoo and wizard openers, the blue on the ducks. Clean well and I use a propane torch to bring out the color. Not hard.

Here's a pic of a few bits before they disappeared for Christmas. Mostly the result of trying to turn an experiment/practice technique into something useful. So far useful to enough people to hopefully fund a used chop saw. (Sorry about the color. Crazy cold for the iPhone that day.)

am only a beginner but inspired by things I saw I made a few for stocking fillers, not as good as any others I have seen here but they all open bottles.

they are made from 8mm square or round ( about 5/16th" )

they seemed quite popular so may make more better ones in the future to sell

Nice work guys, its funny as long as Ive been doing this I bet I haven't made one bottle opener..Dont know why?

Greetings,

 

I like the weird wall mount style...  Yep I am batty.  

 

 

Forge on and make beautiful things.

Jim

 

 

Nice work guys, its funny as long as Ive been doing this I bet I haven't made one bottle opener..Dont know why?

I was in the same situation until I started making them back in November. Before I knew it I had knocked out 30 of the things and I have been smithing for 20 years!

Jim, nice job on the bat. Any more details on how you made it?

Great job to everyone on all of the openers. Lots of great designs here.

I just did one today out of an old wrench. I got to forge weld (aka closed the closed end) for the first time. Went pretty well. Here is a picture along with a video of the wrench opener being made. Check the video out here.

Love the bat Jim!

Jim,

Octoberfest openers? How long does it take YOU to make?
Wings forge welded on the back?

Greetings Wroughton,

 

Not long at all...  I use sneckers  ( cutting chisels ) on the treadle hammer ..   Repousse and chase on a wood block ..  Less than 1 hour..   They are attached by the drill pin and coin method.  

 

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim