Well, learned how to make a Celtic braid today and turned it into a chipping hammer. All traditional blacksmithing, forge welded and the tool steel hammer head is riveted to the shaft by the shaft.
Cheers

That's a cool looking handle How did you make the braid?

Great looking hammer! I really like the handle. Would make a great BP.
Thanks for posting.


Mitch

The braid is made from 6 individual pieces of stock that are forge welded together and twisted to form the braid.

That will be a nice skill set for making many other things that require a handle, like spoons, ladles, pokers, forks, ash shovels, etc., nice work.

Thanks all, I appreciate the replies.

hey art thats great - thanks for showing us. lovely texture to the braid isnt it?

Artwerks, Please add more detail to what was twisted of the six pieces. Two at a time? All six? Details.....

Artwerks, Please add more detail to what was twisted of the six pieces. Two at a time? All six? Details.....

No problems, You take 6 equal pieces of stock and forge weld two at a time on both ends. Leave enough material to join to whatever piece you are putting the handle on.
So now you have three pieces of two. Twist each of these separately. Forge weld all three twisted pairs together. Heat the entire handle and twist..very carefully.

No problems, You take 6 equal pieces of stock and forge weld two at a time on both ends. Leave enough material to join to whatever piece you are putting the handle on.
So now you have three pieces of two. Twist each of these separately. Forge weld all three twisted pairs together. Heat the entire handle and twist..very carefully.

I would like to contribute a little here if I may.

It is important to make sure the twists in the rods are all the same length, and the same number of twists on each of the pairs prior to forge welding the ends together.

You can also get different appearances by using different techniques.

Tighter twists will give a corn on the cob appearance, if you reverse the direction of the pre twisted bars you will open up the links giving a totally different appearance.

The ones illustrated are made from 8 rods. You should be able to identify which is the tightest, and which was reverse twisted.

These are some of the twists we will be undertaking on our next course at Westpoint on March 6th and 7th Various Twists

Thread Jacker, please start your own threads to sell seats in your course and show your work. Thx.

I would like to contribute a little here if I may.

It is important to make sure the twists in the rods are all the same length, and the same number of twists on each of the pairs prior to forge welding the ends together.

You can also get different appearances by using different techniques.

Tighter twists will give a corn on the cob appearance, if you reverse the direction of the pre twisted bars you will open up the links giving a totally different appearance.

The ones illustrated are made from 8 rods. You should be able to identify which is the tightest, and which was reverse twisted.

These are some of the twists we will be undertaking on our next course at Westpoint on March 6th and 7th Various Twists

Thread Jacker, please start your own threads to sell seats in your course and show your work. Thx.

My apologies, It was not intended to hijack the thread, merely expand and illustrate what can be done with this technique as I have done previuosly on this site with other threads.

If this is not acceptable to post something relevant to a particular thread then please tell me and I will cease.

As for the selling seats and showing your work, I have posted pictures of my work and receive no financial rewards from these courses

The courses are to pass on skills to interested parties and are usually posted elsewhere on the site under Blacksmiths Guild UK

John B i thought the pictures were great,i wish folks would just calm down, no one gets anything out of this site other than some knowledge and a little amusement. its not like your work would be seen here and you'd be discovered as some blacksmithing guru. the best way to sell yourself is to go out and sell, not post pictures on a blacksmith only site

How is staying on topic and showing pics of the same technique threadjacking?

I think you may need to take a look around and see both how this forum works and maybe get an idea of who you may be talking to in a less than supportive manner.

Thanks John B for showing the pics of what can be done when expanding this technique.
Thanks again for pointing to where we can go to actually see this technique done and maybe learn how to correctly do it ourselves under expert guidance.

hey art - just to smooth the waters john is def one of the ones on here to give freely of his knowledge - so easy to read people wrong online - but i can vouch this man aint in it for the money!!! respect to one and all :)

No worries, it's all good.

Great braid work and illustrations! Thanks for taking the time to show and explain them.
Dick

No worries, it's all good.

You might consider a real apology.

You might consider a real apology.

Yes, I might. There are probably things you might consider also.