Thanks swedefiddle.  I will have to think about a twist-top design that I can forge.  Would be an interesting challenge.

4 hours ago, ausfire said:

Thought I would make a bottle opener with a pineapple twist handle. Cut the grooves OK but things went astray during the twisting. As it turned out, the crazy twist didn't look bad so I gave it a few more tweaks to rough it up, and went ahead and forged the opener. Sometimes you can resurrect something out of a disaster.

that's really neat, I like it! its like a bunch of reversed twists! do you know how you did it?

                                                                                                               Littleblacksmith

13 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

A suggestion on the fork, put a radius at the bottom. As is it is a weak design that can promote a crack.

Looks like a fun day at the forge.

yeah, I made a fork from a railroad spike last night, and after splitting the tines for the fork I put it in the vice with the tines facing up, grabbed a fuller and rounded out the end of the cut which also helped spread the tines a bit. killed two birds with one stone!

                                                                                                                     Littleblacksmith

I'd be careful with the raised ears on items that may be used with ethanol dehanced dexterity

2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

I'd be careful with the raised ears on items that may be used with ethanol dehanced dexterity

 and yes, you are right! I spent way too much time curling and filing those ears. They aren't idiotproof but they are "mostly harmless".

4 hours ago, littleblacksmith said:

that's really neat, I like it! its like a bunch of reversed twists! do you know how you did it?

                                                                                                               Littleblacksmith

I used a splitter to cut grooves in all four sides of the 12mm square bar then twisted it and reversed the twist. Things weren't going well so I just kept twisting it back and forth. As luck would have it, it sort of looked OK. Looks better with brass high points too.

8 hours ago, mcb said:

Thanks swedefiddle.  I will have to think about a twist-top design that I can forge.  Would be an interesting challenge.

  

These work well for twist tops, they were originally made for a live forging competition, 45 minutes to make something to crack nuts with, and were made from an old car spring, But my wife used them when she damaged her wrist and couldn't get to grips with the twist tops on bottles.

Very cool John, I think I have a new project to try

I have a bottom fuller that drops in my hardy hole that works perfect for forks. I get a nice radius, and I can refine the tine shape as well. I do them first, then proceed with the rest of the fork. 

Why not a

pretty woman ?

model created by Phil.....( a friend )

Magnifique! Beautiful flowing lines. Fits the hand very well. Even opens bottles.

please tell me that they went through a massive pile of prototypes before getting it just right.  Otherwise I might cry...

No cry......some  "proto"  and I keep the less ugly

I made this damascus bottle opener from a bandsaw blade and pallet strapping.  It was my first attempt at pattern welding layered steel, and went pretty smoothly.  It got a little thin on one side, but seems to hold up in use.  The strapping is mild steel.  The old bandsaw blade could have been a number of things, possibly 15N20, but the etch didn't bring out much contrast so I suspect a different steel.

 

I included a picture of it pre-etch, just because it was so nice and shiny.  Maybe it's better to start at a coarser grit for etching though?  

It reminded me of some of Picasso's work.

Pretty awsome work! I will never throw away another bandsaw blade!

looks good - for the etching - polish as much as possible using courser grits to very fine grits to get rid of the previous sand scratches - you can still see the sanding marks in yours so continue to go finer - say up to 800 grit minimum - I like to go to 1500 grit before etching.

Bottle opener from stainless rod. Twisting stainless is harder than I thought. The opener works so I am going to count this as a win.

Not my best work - frantic to meet a party deadline - crappy time to discover that you forgot to temper your treadle hammer butcher. Design is something that I stole from Robb Gunter that he put in iron-in-the-hat a year or so ago. I think the illusion still catches the eye.  (with sincere apologies to Robb).  

 

 

 

Nice bottle opener, it REALLY shows the plastic nature of steel. I really like it, well done.

Frosty The Lucky.

I'm not great at skulls but made one of these for a friend and been getting orders ever since.

If you're getting orders then that means you're doing something right. 

47 minutes ago, Michael Cochran said:

If you're getting orders then that means you're doing something right. 

Truer words were never spoken. It's gratifying to hear folks say how wonderful your work is but nothing beats someone getting out their pocket book and complimenting you in cash.

Frosty The Lucky.

Here in the USA true compliments are those spoken by dead presidents or Founding Father of our Nation; (I'm partial to Ben Franklin myself as he had 13 illegitimate children and so was a true  "Father of our nation"...)