January 12, 201610 yr I've had that happen before. I start out wanting to make a mythological critter and it ends up a mystery. I like the horned snakelike opener too. Heck I like em all. Frosty The Lucky.
January 12, 201610 yr Great pics. Here's another opener. Just for fun, I tried a valve rocker from a truck engine. The starting hole was already there. Yeah, I know ... too much time on my hands.
January 12, 201610 yr 5 hours ago, ausfire said: Great pics. Here's another opener. Just for fun, I tried a valve rocker from a truck engine. The starting hole was already there. Yeah, I know ... too much time on my hands. Love it Ausfire. That would probably sell well to a mechanic.
January 12, 201610 yr 3 minutes ago, Black Frog said: More fun experiments with snakes.... :-) Ooh, reticulated!
January 12, 201610 yr Great work, Frog! How about some more details? How did you get the reticulated look? Seems you left a bit of fire 'scale' on the scales too. Looks good. (P.S. Good to see I'm not the only one who gets spark burns - if that's what they are?)
January 12, 201610 yr Keep in mind I'm brand new to smithing...but here are three that I've made. They all open bottles pretty easily. I'm sorry for od angles, apparently IFI isn't very IPhone camera work friendly. Oh and they all have the same type of jaw to open the bottle, I haven't got around to making a drift big enough to make a bottle opener the more classic way. Let me know your thoughts, and don't hold back. Brent
January 13, 201610 yr Bayshore Forge, you're off to a good start. Ausfire, that rocker arm looks very much like the head of a duck-bill platypus.
January 13, 201610 yr 10 hours ago, Black Frog said: More fun experiments with snakes.... :-) I really like that look. I'm thinking you used rebar or threaded rod as your base stock to get that look. What did you do to get the dark and silver look to it? Sand the surface lightly?
January 13, 201610 yr 19 minutes ago, DSW said: I really like that look. I'm thinking you used rebar or threaded rod as your base stock to get that look. What did you do to get the dark and silver look to it? Sand the surface lightly? Same exact thing I was going to say
January 13, 201610 yr Threaded rod, different sizes and different thread pitches give different looks. The look I was going for was to mix the light/dark areas onto the texture. Entire piece is blackened and then lightly sanded to desired light/dark areas.
January 13, 201610 yr 2 hours ago, Black Frog said: Threaded rod, different sizes and different thread pitches give different looks. The look I was going for was to mix the light/dark areas onto the texture. Entire piece is blackened and then lightly sanded to desired light/dark areas. I love what you achieved on this one.
January 13, 201610 yr 9 hours ago, coldironkilz said: Ausfire, that rocker arm looks very much like the head of a duck-bill platypus. Yes, but maybe the eyes are a bit big! I have used the rocker arms for the heads of baby crocodiles though!
January 15, 201610 yr I finally made one for the house and used the spring fuller I made today to neck it down then draw a minor tapper.
January 15, 201610 yr I gotta try this type of opener one of these days, after I master the classic type
January 15, 201610 yr 3 hours ago, coldironkilz said: I finally made one for the house and used the spring fuller I made today to neck it down then draw a minor tapper. Would you say this type of opener is more difficult to forge than the normal opener with the full hole in it?
January 15, 201610 yr MrDarkNebulah, IMO, the open loop lever is easier to forge than the closed loop lever. That being said, I do not recognize "normal opener". Have you ever used a truck bumper and the heel of your hand?
January 15, 201610 yr A tightly folded dollar bill? There are whole Youtube videos on improvised bottle openers.
January 15, 201610 yr A dollar bill! I need to try that out one time when I "accidentally" forget to bring a bottle opener for my dad when we go out to eat. As far as the open loop, I would thing that what you need to do is half on half off near side of the anvil and then make the bend and lever. Then you can dress it to your liking. At least that is what it looks like in your pictures.
January 15, 201610 yr Belt buckles are "normal" bottle openers but John Wayning them is acceptable. On a serious note, Anybody here know when bottle "Caps" were introduced? We might be able to come up with a probably earliest opener if we know who and when caps were invented. I don't imagine the company that started capping bottles didn't want folk to be able to open them and made openers available. Frosty The Lucky.
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