March 21, 201115 yr I made a few items to test out the new anvil. A damascus kitchen chopper for my fathers birthday, a corkscrew (Hofi thread inspired me), a candle holder with a twist, and some horsehead bottle openers. Thanks for looking. Brian
March 22, 201115 yr way to put that lovely anvil to use! I like the bottle openers. I always have trouble drifting a hole that is that thin on the edge.
March 22, 201115 yr That's some nice work there Brian. Very nice, clean lines on all the stuff you made.
March 22, 201115 yr Author Thanks guys! Teenylittlemetalguy, I only drift the hole to around 3/4, then i take it to the horn of the anvil and draw it out to the size i need so it doesn't get too thin.
March 22, 201115 yr way to put that lovely anvil to use! I like the bottle openers. I always have trouble drifting a hole that is that thin on the edge. Like ironstein said drift to about 3/4 then work over the horn, take the edges down, then finish drift to 1 inch- no more only flatten it at this point and then take another heat for the dimple. One other thing to note- you need to leave some of the parent material at the end of the piece (do not try to slit and drift right at the end, leave a good 1/2 inch of material until you get to that 3/4 inch drift, then cut this off and file or grind to true up) now work it over the horn
March 23, 201115 yr I made the pot rack and hooks for my daughter over the weekend-ish. It works and is made all of scrap. Just having started in January I am happy with it. The flat bars come from a metal walkway grating. I had to do something with the welded gaps created when I took it apart. But that all just added to the design and got incorporated into the style. Not even sure where the hook metal came from.... By the way... Hooks are fun. I did cheat with a few mig welded joints. BUt on that point... I believe that a traditional blacksmith used whatever resources or tools he had available. Well, I have a mig welder and so I use it.:P
March 23, 201115 yr Author Nice work borntoolate! Thanks guys for al the comments. Hey Clinton, try out the corkscrew from Hofi's post, its a great forging exercise. Funny thing was, the first corkscrew i did came out perfect, and i havent been able to duplicate it! That is the key to good blacksmithing, taking an item and remembering the steps and being consistent. This is what i struggle with, but i can't think of anything i'd rather be doing in my spare time.
April 8, 201115 yr I've been into woodworking for some time now. Recently now some metal work and blacksmithing. I have been wanting to combine the two. This is my first feeble attempt not counting things like hammer handles and the like. Though I have made some drawer pulls but those are quite traditional to be metal. A towel holder for next to the kitchen sink. The wood base is oak and I wanted to make it blackish like the metal. So the oak is ebonized (rusty water reacts with the tanin and makes it dark). It's not fancy but I spent so much time trying to figure out the "best" way to make it and just got tired of it and started. This is how it came out.
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