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I Forge Iron

"Of Shoes,and Ships,and Sealing Wax ..."


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Let's see if I can answer it all in order, Beth:

Yup, a tire is a tyre or visa versa. No, last photo is steel. I don't know if I have a good shot of the titanium forged texture. Might have to get one for you all. It's harder than stainless to forge, but I like the texture and when people pick it up they can't believe that it's lighter than steel. Just a different material to forge. It's a more generic hand, but used mine as a model for proportion, detail, lines, cracks, etc. I'm also using the hand to push around a piece of stock, like squeezing clay. I have two videos on youtube of how the press works and doing some squishing. Yes, I wrote and illustrated, "A Blacksmithing Primer". How special if you do indeed have it. Another connection.

A friend of mine just sent me this: http://by160w.bay160...=0&n=1802023383

This guy is an artist! I like how he uses old tools to create the figures, too.

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Here's a piece of titanium that I hand forged many years ago. Even with the hand hammer notice the surface texture. If you can zoom into where the twist tore you can even see a fiber texture in it. Unique stuff! The color was done with a torch, similar to tempering colors, but they are more resistant to wearing off plus there are more colors than other metals have. Like greens.

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Wow,Randy,that IS some different material,very wild shape,as well.

Yes,the oxidation colors of Ti alloys are marvelous,i've seen a machinist friend do some wild stuff with cut-offs...

Thanks for all this neat stuff.I'm falling-down tired,and didn't figure out how to open that link above,will try again in the morning.

Every time i get into tool-making i remember again just how ill equipped i am to deal with more complex metallurgy than simply mashing stuff around.The set-up has to be all aranged anew,as i only do this a few times each year...But i'm done with it now,strangely,no losses to the quench this time(only lost my quench bucket,and some time shovelling up 4-5 gallons of oil,melted a hole in a silly thing warming it up with a piece of scrap.But i ended up mixing forge ashes into the oil-soaked gravel,and made some cool patches in the forge floor,cinder,petro-bonded!I may have to do the whole floor,and impress magical spirals in it,too!).

The steel oxidation colors are way cool,too.I like them SO much better than all the silly work that goes into finishing stuff... B)

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I had a wonderful friend whose father has always told him:"Son,never forget this:Work is neither good,nor necessary!!!".He was a truly wise old man,too bad he worked himself to death,long ago now,but at least he knew what's what!

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jake - they look beautiful - jewel like :) the last two remind me of hooves... see your a natural sculptor!! ( i do realise they are functional axenalia... :) )just heard this on the radio.... woodpeckers - the reason they dont break their own skull or give their brains damage by pecking so much (speed of 6meters per second and deacceleration of 1000x gravity needed to repeatedly stop>>!!) they are safe due to their complex beak and bone structure, the upper and lower beaks offset to spread the load, spongey stuff (didnt catch that) in brain also,but, they actually have a complex system something like a saftey belt from beak to skull... cool.....:)

want to delve into the magical spirals on your floor jake, but i am choosing to resist that today... ;) (although i may revisit....) also that quote - its so true - theres nothing essentially morally upright about work in and of itself, and sometimes it is indeed very silly! :)

randy. i got your book!! its the only really useful book i have on the subject! and what a sweetie you are! the way you have writen that book, can i THANK you not only for the content which is great, and very clear, but MOSTLY for the attitude of this is all so mellow and simple really, that you put across - which is just as valuable as the info!! some people decide they are going to make rthis stuff intimidating and unreachable, and quite frankly, they succeed, but i know your a thoroughly good bloke from reading your book! ace :) its in the workshop actually, so i cant refer to it her - (testament to its being in use - all blackened at the edges...) but i loved your heart excersise - huge fan of The Heart Shape, and the very lyrical way you instructed on that, and all the projects . how cool. jake have you seen this book too?

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I HAVE seen the book,very briefly(i lived close to a very wise fellow who had a rule that every time he sells a piece of his forgework,he buys a blacksmithing book!but i was a very brief period in my travels).Unfortunately,i don't remember any specifics,as i was trying to read as many books as i could while the opportunity existed.
Having the good fortune to've "met" Randy on here,i can see how he could thoughtfully explore the heart-shape.
I've also been always MOST impressed by it,these two connected S-curves,and how adjustable and versatile it is in working it on the anvil!NOTHING in it is anvil-shaped,yet,working it,it just WORKS with the anvil.
Sometimes i thought that in part it may be the fuction of how steel "whips",does a re-curve,when working a section of it over the edge...In any case,it's one of the most natural shapes to make,somehow...
Thanks,Beth,yet again,for so astutely connecting the (in retrospect)obvious points! :)

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Thanks for the kind words. I used to hear all of the nay sayers and others making this craft sound mysterious and complicated. Still do on occasion. That used to be the way shops protected their business. But today we can focus on this being a series of steps to learn no matter if it's hammering, forge welding or heat treating. Once we learn the basics then we can really explore how it all works and the extremes of what it allows us to do with it. It's amazing! One never stops learning. Always something else to explore. And really that's what's it all about. Learn, explore, share. Very spiritual.

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Randy,that's very true.But even if someone thinks otherwise,that's great!As long as they actually THINK.
For a Thinking person in the craft(s) is so vastly important...It is really impossible to practice a craft and Not think.(Even if the craft has to teach you to think,it will,eventually).
So,it's a great pleasure to make your aquaintance,as a fellow sentient craftsman :)

I've spent this whole day thinking of a hot-split,forked,stock.
(As i was hot-splitting a chunk of a 1" sq. of WI).
The hot-cut,being a wedge,forges an Nth of mass at one side of split.Each of the tines comes out trapezoidal in section.
Their Mass is equal,and they can be forged back into square.It's work(a four-letter W word),and it can be difficult at the crotch.
Instead,they can be forged as a Trapezoid that they are.
The way that the tines curl up as one is splitting stock is Magic.It reflects,i think,the force of blows elsewhere,it's a function of Harmonics.Given the even mass of tines,and even heat radiating from area being split,the helical curve that they take on can be very fair,very proportionate(it could be logarithmic,if the tines are already tapered :ph34r: ).
That curl is handy not only just technically,as it keeps the split being heated just So,(and it keeps the max pressure/bearing on anvil face),but it's also visually very cool.I like it,and use it.Sometimes in it's raw form.

Today i nedded a split that was bent at right angle,like a hook,so i let the tines curl upwards to about 90 deg.,and kept forging the resulting two mirror helical curves.
It wasn't hard to keep track of,as the things were tending to that shape themselves.
The horn,being a section of a cone,and making helical shape on things that you Don't want to twist,came in handy today,really good,and Interesting,control of the twisting tines,one from each side of horn.
I've seen iron do some amazing things today!It was Glorious! :)

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cool stuf jake :) i love the idea of letting the tines curl and that being the final desired shape - its a bit like cutting a carrot and wtching where the internal forces pull it - it IS very cool :) its fascinating to try to imagine/visualise why all this is happeneing, you lose me a bit with the logarythms ( i wish you didnt, i love that word, never known what it is though!) (maths?) but it is all maths heat sounds forces and extreme visual coolness, AND its lovely that you notice such detail - its all there to be enjoyed after all :) i bet wood carvers get it when curls of wood are shaved off and do their thang! always enjioyed watching large sections of wood at the sawmill, it can be have unpredicatabley.. i wonder if WI has as many variables in its structure as wood..? stone carvers must get their "language" of moving chips and chunks of stone too, it would be an entirely different set of vocabulary, visual and otherwise though wouldnt it? (seems such a shame not to use HEAT... ) all in all im glad you had a good forging day which revealed the wonder of participation that we are all after and enjoying :D jake - or anyone - does WI come in sheet form very often?

randy - learn, explore, share, thats great thats all thats necasary isnt it? and so, like my good friend jake says, extremely happy to make your aquaintence! :) i am a great advocate of the demystification of processes, its ALL easy once you can do it, and theres nothing you cant learn, AND its retaining and passing on the essential free to all comers magic of the whole thing, which is life itself really, that is important. which you guys do absolutely well, its could be called generousity and enthusiasm i think- and it makes the world of difference to ME, for all thats worth :lol:

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The photo upload is unwell today,or i'd show you a photo,Beth,of a catastrophic failure in WI.You're very right to compare it to wood,it's very fibrous.
The fibres are lined with Si,(nominally,though the actual composition of slag is complex)so,if only because of that,you're limited with how any given piece can be used,like punching or slitting it in places.
And the way it transfers vibration is also different,making it very easy to bounce off an element off an end of a stalk,like a leaf,say.
And,since we don't know what may've happened to it in it's past,very unpredictable.Some previous forging action in it's original manufacture/use may've already taken it to the breaking point.
It can be refined by faggoting,and was,in the past,the smiths buying whatever grade would suit the complexity of the job.One can certainly do it oneself,by folding and welding under the PH,but what a lot of work that would be!
Fun work,to be sure,as the stuff is almost self-fluxing,with all the Si pouring out of it at each high heat.

The way that i use the term "logarythmic" is simply to indicate the proportionate change,a constant rate of increase in a bend,say.Like a Nautilus shell,that twists with a steady increase of radius.

So,hypothetically,a mathematically even taper,with a math.evenly distributed heating,with a math.constant direction/energy of force,would form a math.perfect logarythmic spiral.

It actually works in reality.By forging a nice taper and heating it evenly,one can spiral it into a scroll that is extremely fair and pleasing to the eye,just by hitting it weith a hammer on a constant angle.When it comes to scrolling i've a hard time doing it any other way...It is the way that the steel tends to act,itself,and smithing we usually are wise to study it,and use it as much as possible,for any number of reasons.

The way that the steel tends to behave itself is a necessary study for anyone attempting to design in iron.As some things the steel is almost wanting to do itself,other things are about impossible to coax it to do with Any force.
After all these years,i still regularly draw/plan shapes that,once at the anvil,i realise that the material would Never comply with.It's a life-long process! :)

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yes , jake, thats surely the key to good design in any material, knowing what the chosen subject wants to do before you start your disscussion !! its too, as we have said before , the much more zen approach, and you can apply this theory right throughout life!... if only it was a more constant state of approach for myself :) eventually it is how situations in life become instinctive, your allowing your material wether it be iron wood stone food another person, to do its thing and getting the best from the symbiotic relationship without even reliseing thats what your doing. it becomes unconscious. SO the studying of what iron Wants to do is of extreme value, as you rightly say :) nature is definately the best role model, all this stuff is everywhere in a generous multitude of examples. to try to make something that has natural harmonics is a wonderful aim, and would result hopefullly in a creation that has that appeal that we have talked about, the ultimate one, that is kind of genetic and in all our bloods :) someone said earlier and i meant to comment (you jake?) about the fact that people are prepared to buy cheap imitations of authentic products, is Proof, not otherwise, that they look for an aesthetic ideal, they have not found it for lots of reasons (people may even know deep down they have not found it which is why a similar new item may be sourced very quickly..) reasons to do with the luxury of time spent thinking about it all probably, but the fact that we want certain shaped items around us is come from the same place for the same reason, in everyone. i like that :) and that reason is some kind of visual and sensory harmony? who knows..
im sorry you had a disaster with the WI jake, would certainly like to see it if your photo shoot decides to work, and i hope you have had more success today :)..

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The fickle Photo Deity loves me today,so i've stuck a few in,to illustrate some stuff about the twist.Unfortunately,it happened so unexpected-like,that i've not processed yet those later shots that would clarify where i'm going with this.Also,while i was trying to do this,my reply to something very pertinent in Beth's last post has flown my pea-brain,so i'll try to make another post here forthwith(it's hell getting old).

The original stock being split,1 3/8" x 3/4",

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After the split,if the tines are in any way close to a sq.section,one can forge them on the bias,or any way at all,completely changing their orientation.Here i'm forging one on the horn,which maintains it's already helical shape,and the sky's the limit as far as where one can take it.
Always wanted to forge a Mobius strip,and i may yet,you wait!

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The next,not directly related action,is a slit in the very end of the same size stock,which is a weird thing to do,WI fibre being very linear,and prone to splitting.I pointed the stock beforehand,because later i'm hoping to drift it square,on a diamond to the stock.
The slitter is to the left of the began slit,it's a pavement breaker bit that i originally forged into a slitter to slit 1"round mortices,years ago...:

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As luck would have it,the end of the stock is holding,but the side is blowing out-the seam between two layers has opened.I'll ignore it,there's nothing that i can do,welding it to just continue slitting would be inane,it's the slitter that stressed it to this point...

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But i finish the slit,and that delamination just hangs in there,which means that i can continue to ignore it...Look at the miserly amount of stuff that was removed in slitting!Somehow,a nice little solid plug seems somehow cleaner,but this sharp slitter saves so much energy...

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Drifted square,it looks cool,and is exactly what i wanted.That sq.mortice has so much metal in it that it can be worked over the edge on the anvil without the drift in place.It's very lucky,as i'm too lazy to actually forge a dedicated drift,and am using a piece of stock that is out of square.But that chunk is massive,like i said,and gives very good control over the outside of that mortice.

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At this point i fuller it very rudely,by using my PH to shove a 3/4" across that stock,to isolate the end.I watch that delamination throughout,it runs in a different plane from anything that i want to do,and we seem to peacefully coexist.I smash it right in with a fuller,it don't say nothing...Then i crudely reduce the stock some,now it's small enough in section to begin Writhing!That's exactly what i was hoping for,as i need further design ideas!

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It's working again,so the tale of woe and despair continues!

Just to finish the thought,this is one of the effects that i've gotten out of torturing the split-off tine,that facet rib was all that all the work was for...

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And,in general,this is the current project:

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It's a door handle(well,it's supposed to be,and May,yet,become one).The idea was,as usual,to pile up as much iron in one place as i can find any excuse for...(Big enough pile of Anything ought to be worth Something!).
The handle itself will be wood(we're in a cold climate,and grabbing super-cooled iron is unpleasant,plus,bad little boys and girls won't have it there to suggest to their younger siblings to lick,when it's -40 outside).
The bottom end of a vertical handle will go into that square mortice that i've been torturing for the last 2 days(today will be the 4th day on that job).
The top end of the wood will be skewered by the protruding post at the top part,and wedged there(just had to plagiarise Dave's design from the neighboring thread,exept that half the joint will be wood,so maybe he won't resent me too much).

On the subject of wedged mortice:I've asked John,specifically,if it gets forged,normally,and if so,how.
John replied that it does Not,but is drilled and filed,and done with,and works well.
So,of course,i Had to forge it(John being too far to box my ears).And,what do you know?He was right!It would've been Vastly better drilled and filed!
I'm a maniac,and just have to torture iron,wether it makes any sense or not.
It Can be forged,that trapezoidal mortice(it actually needs not be parallel to the wedge,but sq.instead,the wedge angle may be enough),but it's a hassle,and in a strange,subtle way,too.
The wedge itself is a chunk of a broken cheapo axe,(that my student and i used in a heat-treating exercise,the bigger part of which fragment went to blading one of the recent adzes,as usual,the funk-factor thrives).I forged it as a drift,and will re-make it,it looks crude and the steel texture very different from iron(the rest of it all is WI,naturally):

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The bottom of mortice,where i've gotten lazy,once began,to maintain the trapezoidal section,and as the slit matched the top in lengh it formed a fudgy pinch on the ends:

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Ok,what other poor decisions have i made,resulting in such rich experiences having to catch up to straighten things out afterwards?Their name is legion!

Here's something that wasn't my fault,really.The stock has suddenly failed,straight across the grain,as WI would at times,and i had to make a corner-weld.
A corner is a good weld(IF there is such a creature),it offers lots of control.It's useful,as that whole series of welds is,the T and it's ilk,the angle welds.They were very instrumental in much of hardware,with the stock making sudden direction changes as the grain orientation goes.

It worked ok,the welding is not only useful,but quite satisfying,WHEN it WORKS.I'd still rather avoid it,and was actually hoping to do this project without welding.It's on the bottom,pretzel-shaped part.

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As an aside,but vaguely related to all of the above:My mind is permanently twisted by all the children's books that i've read to my daughter(over and over,as kids like it).There was one about this weird creature,an unidentifiable immature phase of something,that was looking for it's Mommy.
It was approaching all these different animals,demanding to know if they were it's Mommy,all in vain,as they were invariably not,and were annoyed and dismayed by the whole pathetic deal.
Even horrified!
So do i wonder aimlessly,trying to find my Mommy.
The epic event will consist of me finding this magic designer,who'd understand and love me,and design in such a way that i'd like to forge,and take that onerous burden off my shoulders.
There's an important reason for that,it's that i'm just not good at it,my mind is all over the map of techniques,styles,historic periods,and whatnot.Entirely lacking any focus.
And without that,some direction,i undertake too many different forging methods/styles,and as a result exist permanently in an immature stage,i don';t put in enough practice in any given technique that i try out.
My dearest friend and mentor,Phil,has come up with a design for a woodworker's holdfast,that sells like hotcakes.Over the years he and i have banged out a huge quantity of these "same" tools,a couple hundred feet of stock a year's worth.
Now that i'm busy with this project i've abandoned Phil with those orders,but here's the reason that i drag this in:We've had a number of conversations with Phil about how NOT boring the forging "routine" is.Even though those tools are simplistic in the extreme,still,EVERY time you learn something vital,and it's NEVER boring.Hard to envision,but true.Forging Anyting is interesting,and challenging,even if it's repetitious to the max.
Another time i had a stair-rail commission that required 96 identical elements.I dreaded it till actually getting about forging it-i loved it,totally surprising meself!
Not sure why i can't force myself to doing something similar,but i can't.The couple of times that i've come across some repeatable design that the customers also liked,i lost interest,and wieseled out of any quantity work.
Something needs to be done about focusing,otherwise,an inevitably sub-par work keeps coming out from under my hammer,it's bad,and wrong...
There're two distinct directions(at least):To do one-off "sculpture"-like stuff(for which i want my Mommy!!!).Another is sticking to a narrow range of work,and getting good at it.I'm not man enough to do both at once,and do it all on my own...

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jake ! id help you if only i could! but im in the same predicament..... :( you make me laugh and cry in equal ammounts. :):( i cannot even begin to answer that post without an empty house and a calm head.... i want my mommy for all of it, the whole of lifes tasks :) or is it my daddy? i dunno >...! :ph34r:

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the problem is, i reckon, that two different things are going on here - there is artist, and technician. the artist wants freedom to express himself, to create the images and ideas of his brain and heart, straight away, with spontinaeity, right now, unhindered by rules and by having to take the long, appropriate, mature route always, these rules and necessities are not really his concern. expression and freedom and his personal aesthetic are his only orbit and where his set of values will lie.. the technician craves perfect, considered, controlled execution, and justifys the value of his work through ideas to do with patience, tradition, history, function, Skill, use of correct tools at correct known planned points. certain types of people can weld these two working styles/ethics successfully, but i fear, that i might not be that person, wish it as i might, maybe the two just wont meet for me. i Really want to have some decent traditional skills, but whenever i want to express myself, its as if i know none of the things ive learned with blacksmithing. impatience and "yes, but i want to do it like this!" take over completely. i think also, like youve said before jake - this stuff takes a life time, and the wild and the tamed will meet , in the end, if we're lucky, before we 're all dead and gone!!! :)
my own personal answer to this, at the moment, is to separate the two subjects, for now, till they are at least on the same continent, and the bsmithing skills have caught up a bit with my imagination, so, sometimes im a novice bsmith, learning slowly, a beautiful traditional art, where i put on my virtuous Patient Head and do what im told, no ear boxing, just calm silent listening and learning :) (made doable, suddenly, by the realisation that i dont have to approach all i love with one mindset... its only for the Moment ive got that head on...) then the rest of the time i can do what the hell i please, and i justify it to No Man ! i can be as spontaneous lazy awkward Brattish speedy delusional, messy, deranged, random, contradictory, expressive, angry, happy, delirious, bad tempered, oppinionated, brain dead,personal self indulgent, all the things artists are about . thats the way im dealing with it jake :) ( at the moment ) one time, the two approaches might find some middle ground, at which point, i will get on a plane Myself, and come and tell you about it!

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AND, this has been a huge relief and a revelation to me , partly and a lot , with your help and advice that the wrought iron that we talk of here,you rightly pointed out once, is not my main medium, so i can just CHillaxify about that whole putting all my eggs in that basket, in terms of expression,. how you differ, if i can presume to have any idea, is that iron IS your main medium ( aparts from the written, and for all i know, spoken, word, a skill for which your often praised on here, and something you choose to side step at every opportunity :) ) and it being your main medium of expression, you Will find that joyous meeting of artist and technician, because you will simply have to, and also you show such god forsaken tenacity in this subject that if you cant find The perfect place, eventually, then i doubt very much if it exists. and you DO have the time to persist with this stuff, the design and the technique come on in leaps and bounds as we watch/talk, and i feel a constantly changing and strengthening vibe from you. and also , the thing i really admire, is that you just bullishly approach the material, as if it is going to do whatever you ask of it ( regardless of wether it will/does) like you see it as soft clay, to be manipulated and deformed in endless configurations, and i think this attitude will be victorious eventually! you are having such a deep conversation with your Fe, that one day you are sure to see eye to eye with each other :)

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Thanks,Beth!I know that you understand,and i envy you your mental acuity,to be able to think and to speak of it rationally.
I swear that ALL's that i've ever wanted is to do Right by Fe.I'm not attached to any personal,artistic achievement.
I do not "express" myself in forging,i just want to facilitate the Iron in becoming what it can be.
It's all there,already encoded in the very molecules,the wonderful shapes that the iron takes.I just get in it's way,with my clumsy,fumbling,overthought meddling.
Zero vanity here,just trying my best to represent the potential of ironwork,and falling so dreadfully short.
But thanks,and i'd better get on it,for better or worse...(Can't force meself to get rolling this cold morn...)

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youve so got what it takes for this task jake :) youve just got to keep grabbing it by the balls and then speaking kindly to it, in quick succession, for the rest of your days. i know you can do it, cos you already are, this is YOUR subject boyo! and, respect, for not wasting your time with arty vanities, your pursuit is wholesome and fantasticly valuable :) hope you warm up a bit..

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no, thats actually wrong what i just said, (not the post about you got what it takes - you DO :) )you may just want to do right by the fe, but alas jake, that Does involve pouring part of yourself into the subject, as the artist/designer, the material MUST be met with yourself, otherwise it is worthless, or it may as well be iron ore formed in lumps in the ground by geographical forces, the job of doing right, involves engaging the vain artistic ego, with the material, theres no escaping it, that is what will make it sacred and authentic a pursuit. that , and only that....? you need to look at what exactly or bit by bit go towards or nearer to your personal aethetic, its not good to leave it all to the material.that wont work, nor satisfy you. thats my honest oppinion. get that artists way out jake :) it may seem periphery, but its not, its CENTRAL to engaging meaningfully with your chosen element. how do you think the stonecarving guys created such lasting beauty? they poured their egos into it, even if it was all on the premise of worshiping their god - your not telling me they did not relish the design process and delight in making their work personal to them and pleasing to themselves as well as God?? each carver with endlessly different and varied details in his soul? we need to talk about this more, youve left me completely unsettled!

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I'm sorry to unsettle you,Sister Beth,but here we have it.I'm much unsettled meself...

I see myself as a Keeper,a Warden,it's my job to make sure that Fe is treated as is it's due.
It's a relatively simple job inasmuch of my participation in it is very limited.
Mostly,like a little microprocessor ,i just make a yes or no decisions,open or close the switch.
Can i create new forms in iron?IF that was my desire,AND my talent was on the par wirh Christopher Ray,maybe,kinda,sorta.
But my path seems to be the older joinery,and the aesthetics stemming from it.IT,the joinery,has to do with engineering,the mechanical properties of steel.That has EVERYTHING to do with the steel's microstructure.

I do believe that all i need to do is to respect the structure,pay attention to it,be sensitive to where it's at.
The rest comes from the expected function of the object.It influences things,of course.
So i just administer these factors,allowing the creation to take it's course,myself guided by other facets of creation.I watch to see how the grain of wood acts when i split it,(something that i do every day).I observe how the muscles were attached to the skulls around the place,how the ice-chunks rotate and bump in the river now...All that gives me the sense of physics,very familiar,in part innate,(and now that i'm kicking 50 in the a...,lots of it!).

This project here,a door-handle.It's a front-door handle,and this alone instantly creates limiting,or guiding,parameters
It's solid,it represents the front,the face of your house,it's one of the first things one sees,and the first that one touches!
It's to be made out of iron,(WI,no less)and Look it,And,be made Well..
Then,it has a wooden insert.
Last,but not least,one must put a little bit of effort to try to stick it to the Walmart boys-make it as difficult to automatically reproduce as you can,just a a good luck gesture.
That's a bunch of info to go on,i only have to sort it all out. :)

This is where i quit last night,

post-3679-0-85666500-1320032883_thumb.jp

And after most painful decisionmaking,ifinally turned it into this:

post-3679-0-31610100-1320032945_thumb.jp

Then this pretzel:

post-3679-0-47897700-1320032973_thumb.jp

And that corresponding part punched,

post-3679-0-18049400-1320033009_thumb.jp

Here it's,kinda,positioned where a piece of wood will transect it.I'm not sure if this bad picture would tell anyone what i'm trying to accomplish here:post-3679-0-04688200-1320033062_thumb.jp

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I'm sorry to unsettle you,Sister Beth,but here we have it.I'm much unsettled meself... I see myself as a Keeper,a Warden,it's my job to make sure that Fe is treated as is it's due. It's a relatively simple job inasmuch of my participation in it is very limited. Mostly,like a little microprocessor ,i just make a yes or no decisions,open or close the switch. Can i create new forms in iron?IF that was my desire,AND my talent was on the par wirh Christopher Ray,maybe,kinda,sorta. But my path seems to be the older joinery,and the aesthetics stemming from it.IT,the joinery,has to do with engineering,the mechanical properties of steel.That has EVERYTHING to do with the steel's microstructure. I do believe that all i need to do is to respect the structure,pay attention to it,be sensitive to where it's at. The rest comes from the expected function of the object.It influences things,of course. So i just administer these factors,allowing the creation to take it's course,myself guided by other facets of creation.I watch to see how the grain of wood acts when i split it,(something that i do every day).I observe how the muscles were attached to the skulls around the place,how the ice-chunks rotate and bump in the river now...All that gives me the sense of physics,very familiar,in part innate,(and now that i'm kicking 50 in the a...,lots of it!). This project here,a door-handle.It's a front-door handle,and this alone instantly creates limiting,or guiding,parameters It's solid,it represents the front,the face of your house,it's one of the first things one sees,and the first that one touches! It's to be made out of iron,(WI,no less)and Look it,And,be made Well.. Then,it has a wooden insert. Last,but not least,one must put a little bit of effort to try to stick it to the Walmart boys-make it as difficult to automatically reproduce as you can,just a a good luck gesture. That's a bunch of info to go on,i only have to sort it all out. :) This is where i quit last night, post-3679-0-85666500-1320032883_thumb.jp And after most painful decisionmaking,ifinally turned it into this: post-3679-0-31610100-1320032945_thumb.jp Then this pretzel: post-3679-0-47897700-1320032973_thumb.jp And that corresponding part punched, post-3679-0-18049400-1320033009_thumb.jp

post-3679-0-04688200-1320033062_thumb.jp

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yes! but how can these very decisions be nothing to do with your artistic nature? .... you very beautifully say youre guided by facets of creation, and, it seems the structure etc and innate properrties of the material, but this IS the very essence of your artistry - exactly this, is jake the artist. i wont argue with you my friend (how could i?? :) ) but i do believe you belittle your personal input, and maybe, the work will suffer, and then, maybe even Fe will suffer. which would be perilously nearing Fe blasphemy...... :) how should i know, in any case, ( i really mean that - its all just a point of view) but what youve made is lovely lively metalwork, of the sort that would make my hand involuntarily reach for it - how you view its arrival into this world is quite another matter. cant wait to see its final forms :)

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Hi Jake, I am just sitting back here looking at your progress, but a little niggling feeling has crept in with regard to your tenoned joint. If this is to be used to secure the assembly to a wood item, door frame or handle. You may have to consider using a forged washer type plate(s) to prevent the pieces compressing the timber, and the unit becoming loose over a period of time. Not having the gift of telepathy and knowing where you are going with this, It may be a wrong suggestion, but I thought it worth mentioning. Wood 'gives' where metal is solid.

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