Camping Fork

[Luke March]

Here's a camping fork I finished up today. I used about 13" of 1/2" square A-36. Finished length is around 30"




Comments/critiques are welcome.

[Marksnagel]

Nice looking fork Luke. Neat tines and twist.

Mark<><

[CurlyGeorge]

Good looking fork, Luke. Nice job. Thanks for sharing it.

[monty]

really nice i think that the one i made needs tines more like yours mine were very short.....

[clinton]

Looks good, forks are not easy to make, at least for me they are not easy, I find it hard to get both tines even- so I give two thumbs up

[ThomasPowers]

Even length tines are easy!

I use a pavement slitter bit with a wide thin edge.

Place it in the vise or hardy hole.

Place tines on it with the handle at 90 degrees.

Trim tines even with hammer

Dress the ends...

Of course the closer they are to start the less dressing is needed.

[Michael]

I like the handle, the lack of a hook or hole (unless I missed it)

Marshmellow forks I made get stashed next to the fireplace, their carefully hammered hooks unused.

Nice work.

[FireCat]

Nice work there. I made a fork similar to that and made the mistake of taking it on my sons cub scout camp out. Every xxxxxxx kid and parent wanted one !!!!!!!!!!! So what i have done for the last couple of years is make one up and every camp out i "award" it to the most well behaved scout of the camp out...funny how all the kids are well behaved when i come around.......hhmmmmmmm.

[ThomasPowers]

I did a smithing demo for a cub scout den one where we took steel wire frames from election signs and each kid *made* their own marshmallow/hot dog roaster by heating a length in the propane forge, bending it double and twisting the middle section leaving an untwisted section on the bent end for the handle and an untwisted section at the open end for the tines. I did all the heading and moving and setting up and then they did the twisting and we alternated strikes on the tines (tap THUD!, tap THUD!...) Took a while as only 1 kid at a time was working---safety reasons but they then proved them in with a cookout when we were done.

[Marksnagel]

Thomas, I bow to your expertise in blacksmithing and metallurgy as I am light years behind but I would like to warn others to be careful not to use the galvanized sign frames. Almost all the ones I have seen are galvanized.

Mark<><

[ThomasPowers]

None of the ones I have seen here in NM or back in OH have been galvanized (and I'm talking in the hundreds---one friend collected over 300 after *one* election!). I am speaking of the 1/8" wire ones that make a sort of square C shape and not the smaller wire ones that have crossbars welded to them.

[Marksnagel]

All I have seen are the "H" shaped ones (by the gazillions) like you said with the welded cross bars. Reckon different places have different types. Just thought it was worth the galvanized warning.

Mark<><

[ThomasPowers]

Never hurts to warn new folk about safety issues. One election there was a fellow whose signs used 1/4" material---I sure voted for him as I wanted him to run again with those *good* material signs!

Part of my patter when I'm working them is telling folks that there is a crop every year and a bumper crop every 4 years and removing them from the public right aways *after the election* can save thousands in mower repair as many tend to get left and buried in the grass to wind themselves around mower components.