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I Forge Iron

Show me your Bottle Openers!


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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!

 

dice twists.JPG

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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. 

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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.

2FA3166B-E3A4-47A0-AFD1-4514134BFA05.thumb.jpeg.dff2af77ecb390b921baf1169093b5c5.jpeg

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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.

 

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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.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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!

twists.JPG

twist 3.JPG

twist 4.JPG

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twist 2.JPG

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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. 

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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. 

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