December 9, 20178 yr 11 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Ausfire; how about adding dice pips to the faces before twisting. A smith I know used to sell blacksmith's loaded dice made in steel. They always rolled 7---of course one die had all 3 pips and the other had all 4 pips. They were sold with a warning that the smith would take no responsibility for any bodily injuries sustained by the buyer while using them... Like this, Thomas? The first one I made got it all wrong. I was unaware that the pips on opposing sides must add to 7. I don't make that mistake any more!
December 9, 20178 yr @Ranchmanben, I really like that design. I’ve been practicing doing corkscrews and am ready to make some useable versions. This design is exactly what I was looking for. I’m hoping to make a few before the holidays. I hope you don’t mind my theft
December 10, 20178 yr 20 hours ago, Lou L said: @Ranchmanben, I really like that design. I’ve been practicing doing corkscrews and am ready to make some useable versions. This design is exactly what I was looking for. I’m hoping to make a few before the holidays. I hope you don’t mind my theft By all means, copy away. I’m pretty sure I saw one like this before and am a copy cat anyways.
December 10, 20178 yr 1 minute ago, Ranchmanben said: By all means, copy away. I’m pretty sure I saw one like this before and am a copy cat anyways. Well, I went ahead and copied...kinda Didn’t check back at the picture today and just went for it by memory. Just looked at yours and I missed! I had some tong issues and would need to make something new to hold the work. Being easily distractable, I chang3d course when I went into the shop because I saw a leaf I had made on the end of a piece of round stock. So I experimented with a different design first. These are my first corkscrews and I’m actually relatively proud of them as such. I learned a lot today.
December 10, 20178 yr OK, I know, this is really overkill for a bottle opener. A mate of mine was watching me make a standard ram's head opener from 12mm square bar and he asked if I could make a giant bottle opener with a long horn bull on top. He has a collection of bottle openers. I already made a bull from a heavy tyre lever so I found the other tyre lever and made this opener. Very hard steel - these levers are not meant to bend! It does actually open bottles, but I suspect it will be hung on the wall rather than see much use, hence the brass ring around the neck. Here are a couple of pics, coin and 12mm standard bull's head for comparison.
December 10, 20178 yr Aus, your longhorn steer heads are awesome as usual !! "The bigger, the better", as they say.
December 10, 20178 yr Lou, those are better then my first. Aus, that's a beast of a bottle opener. It'll be hard to lose that one. And hard to miss if it's just hanging out on a wall.
December 10, 20178 yr 7 hours ago, arkie said: Aus, your longhorn steer heads are awesome as usual !! "The bigger, the better", as they say. Arkie: Ha Ha. Maybe I'll have to go to the other extreme now and see if I can make one from a 3mm welding rod or something. I've done a 6mm square one which was a bit tricky. Our mechanic at the Historic Village where I work wants me to make one from a 50mm square piece of buggy axle. He's offered to be the striker, but I think I'll decline the offer. I doubt the forge could handle that and I know I couldn't. I like a challenge but that's a bit over the top. Das: It's not the sort of bottle opener you can easily slip into your pocket, that's for sure.
December 10, 20178 yr I've been thinking about making a belt buckle bottle opener---hard to lose it on a campout! "Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water." W. C. Fields
December 11, 20178 yr Thomas, that's why it's good to be or be in the company of a blacksmith. We will always want but shal never be left wanting.
December 20, 20178 yr We have been amusing ourselves immensely trying out various twists for the bottle opener handles. I would like to put together a display of different twists and I'm sure some of you could add to the few pictured here. There's nothing spectacularly new here, but I do kind of like the last one. A visitor to the forge suggested it could be called a Swiss Twist because it looks like Swiss cheese. I must also add that I can't say these are all 'hand forged' , (well, the opener end is) because there was a bit of cutting and drilling going on to achieve the patterns before twisting in the forge. Perhaps others could add a few more ideas, or maybe illustrate a twist that you have invented. Stock for all these was 150mm of 12mm square bar. Fun stuff!
December 20, 20178 yr You've just given me an idea for a new twist (or maybe it's already been done)... I shall have to try it out this evening and hopefully it works... I shall report back. Dice twist is another effective one... this was to be a bottle opener, but I cut too deep on the last cube
December 20, 20178 yr JAV, I have also overtwisted the dice with a result like yours. My dice twist is at 11.00 o'clock in the first pic. I look forward to seeing your new twist idea.
December 20, 20178 yr I saw a really nice one on the Blackbear forge youtube channel, it was a split flat bar twist that looked really eye catching. He just split the bar and gave it a standard full twist, then just did a quarter turn back to open it up a bit. Cheers, Luke
December 20, 20178 yr my first bottle openers. actually the first I'll show. I have a lot to learn, but I think I can get the hang of refining them.
December 21, 20178 yr Hey all! Figured this is as good a place to toss up my second attempt at a horse head church key. This was made for my SO's work christmas gift exchange - CSU Equine Sports Medicine - It did get rave reviews, and was a focus of many hilarious dance-offs to "steal". https://photos.app.goo.gl/rCOnSCi5DUj0ZbrD2 Sorry, i couldnt get the image to load. Hope a link is okay.
December 21, 20178 yr Just the one that i hand wrote in the box it was packed in (metal tin with forming foam). They all know me, and getting some items out in the wild is always helpful. Not to mention im still really "young" in this field. Less than a year behind anvil, hammer, and forge. There's much i have to learn, and much i need to practice and build before i'm convinced i can advertise and fill requests. I really didn't want to give it away, as i really like how it turned out.
December 22, 20178 yr I need a few last minute gifts this year, so i decided to try my hand at a few simple bottle openers. Turned out decently for first attempt. And they actually work really well.
December 23, 20178 yr If it works, thats all that matters. Right? This was try #1 and wasnt up to par IMO. https://photos.app.goo.gl/vaBE0GT9bkmYtfRd2
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