TomN Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Had my car MOT'd today and had a bit of luck, as the garage is right next to an old forge. I did a bit of skip diving and found a couple of coil springs. I will add that I asked permision first! The old blacksmith at the forge nextdoor has retired and is looking to get rid of some stuff, so I will go and have a look at some of his old gear that I could use. If I do take some stuff away, I will give him some money for it, even if he doesn't want any. I'm sure it will come in handy, even if only to buy him a pint or two. Can't imagine he has a great pension! The guy was absolutely deaf as a post, so I guess they didn't have ear protection in the good old days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenbeast Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Nice, it's fluke connections like this that make up the rich tapestry that is the history and trade of blacksmithing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Very flukey indeed. Hopefully it will lead to something! Its a nice old place, right next to the garage. An old barn converted into a forge. The difficulty is getting the old boy to understand me, because he's so deaf! I'm playing rugby this Saturday and Sunday we are going to zoo thing for crocodiles near me, because the wife wants to go as part of her birthday present. So not a lot of time left for forging. Will still get over there and try and measure my hardy hole and base of the anvil and see if I can commision the local steelworks to make me an anvil stand, as the wooden stump I have it on now is a bit small and the anvil moves a bit. Adding a few things to my list of things to do. Namely getting some calipers for measuring, making some cold cuts and also making a twisting bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 10, 2012 Author Share Posted March 10, 2012 Helped clean out my grandmothers garage today. A LOT of old stuff in there and we filled a whole skip. On the plus side, I got myself a small monkey wrench to make a twisting bar out of, as well as an old mattock and old pick axe. Not sure what to make of these yet! Hopefully getting to the forge tomorrow to put a few hours in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 I did some work on Sunday. Tested out my new blower and it is a lot more powerful than my previous one. Found it difficult to light the fire with it as it was too powerful, but I got it worked out in the end. Had a go at making a leaf keyring. I made the leaf, but I made I didn't neck out enough material. Next time I will know better. I free'd up my tongs, by working them in the fire. Had to tighten up the rivets on a few of them. They are now usable and just need the heads modified to their own purpose now. I started on a poker, but ran out of time. On Saturday I am picking up a leg vice I got from ebay, thanks to a tip off from Colleen. On Sunday I hope to do some more stuff up the workshop. I will try and bring back some pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 Here are a few pictures from today. Got a bit done, but then it started raining. Bit of a nightmare! Here is the leg vice I got from ebay. Just need to clean it up and make a stand for it! Here are 2 things I acquired from cleaning out my grandmothers garage. A mattock and a pickaxe. Got to work out what to do with them.....? I burnt the paint off of 3 cut sections of coil spring and straightened them out and normalised them. Then it started to get a bit rainy, so I made a poker quickly for a friend of mine. He wanted a ring on the end to hang it with and no roller. I put a twist in the middle as well, as I wanted to test out heating the centre of bars on the forge, with my new blower. Shame I didn't have more time, but thats the way it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 good stuff tom - looks like its coming together - new blower sounds like the job :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Great stuff, Tom, you got the leg vice!!! How much did you get it for in the end? Looks good anyway!! Poker looks good too, well done!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 The new blower works well Beth, but its a noisy bugger. Thanks Colleen. Got the vice for a good price. Had to drive into the middle of nowhere to pick it up, early on a Saturday morning though. Solid bit of kit. Must weighat least 35kg. I wasn't entirely happy with the poker. The end piece I formed into the ring, I couldn't keep as clean as I wanted it. The transition into the ring wasn't smooth. When I put the twist in the bar, it deformed quite badly and I didn't get it back quite straight. I've given it to my neighbour now, as i'd promised him i'd make him one. He was very happy with it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tzonoqua Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Tom, glad I could help! Once you get that vice up and mounted, after you've twisted some bar and it's gone a bit wonky, you can straighten it up in the jaws of the vice. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 18, 2012 Author Share Posted March 18, 2012 I straightened it up a little in the jaws of the engineers vice, but the heat was almost out of it by then. So I had to reheat the middle section and I straightened it further with a wodden mallet, on a block of wood as I didn't want to damage the twist. Worked ok, but wasn't exactly straight. Got to get a stand for the leg vice and the anvil made up now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Things are moving along. Slowly, but still moving! Ordered some thinner round stock today. Mainly so I can knock out a load of bbq butler drink holders, as I think they will sell realtively well at the Thame fair and I can knock them out quite quickly. My wife has also got me another little show to do for her nursery. Will just be selling stuff, but I think they will sell well to the posh parents. Thats some time in August though, and I obviously can't do any demosntrations, so its just selling stuff! Going to order some rivets later. This weekend I will be seeing if I can commision my anvil stand and also seeing if they could knock up a stand for my new leg vice. Should get a good bit of work doen this weekend at the forge. Looking forward to it! Thought of a few names for the little business. Redironforge. And Nicholls Smithy. Both are free, but when I googled nicholls smithy I got a video on youtube of smithy vs Nicholls, eating a pube sandwich. Marvelous! I did think of calling it Hwicce forge as i'm originally from Bristol, but all the maps I could find of the ancient kingdom of Hwicce, didn't have Bristol on the map, just Bath. I could also have called it Mercia or Mercian forge, as I live in Oxford which was on the border of Mercia and Wessex. I just think MercianForge is too big of a name for a hobby smith.... Any thoughts people? Options are: RedIronForge NichollsSmithy HwicceForge MerciaForge MercianForge HELP!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 lol - i cant imagine what it was you found on you tube tom, but red iron forge sounds the best to my ears - the most memorable - most important thing is that YOU are happy with the name though...hey whats the bbq butler thing then? ive just made a load of those snailed up candle holders as a quick and cheap but pretty thing to make... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Hi Beth, Drinks holder to you, for wine glass or beer glass, first forging exercise/lesson on a taster day. Got one of Giles's swage blocks today, you will wet yourself when you get yours, (probably in sweat as you struggle to lift it) nice job though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 BBQ butlers with acknowledgements to Rex Latham (Google him on You tube for demo/tutorial) although we do them differently they look the same, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 22, 2012 Author Share Posted March 22, 2012 Those are the ones John. Beth - how do you make the candle holders? I'd love to be able to make them, as i think they'd sell well. I quite like the thought of RedIronForge as well, as I could make letters out of iron, to spell forge and then put heat them up to a red - orange heat and have that as the header picture for my website when I get round to making it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 Made 4 bbq butlers for wine glasses today. Also made up a tool to bend the steel round to form the hole for keyrings. Unfortunately I burnt my hand quite badly on it near the end. I also ordered my anvil stand and the the guy is going to call me with a quote soon! Back to the forge tomorrow to do a bit more, hopefully my hand will be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 thanks john - they look very nice and actually quite useful!! i cant wait to get my fancy pants swage block, i am totally confident it will be a class act! :) tom the candle thing is easy once youve worked out what your doing - i got it off here off one of glenns things, i explained how to do it (not very well) for someone else on another thread but i will try again for you :) get a four ft long bit of 6 or 8mm round, (this is how i did it anyway) taper one end and curl it or do whatever you want to it for the finished handle, i actually made the handle next becasue i wanted to decorate it , but you dont have to do it in that order. taper the other end about half an inch nice and small for a candle to go on, then knock over that half inch section 90 degrees, then you want to start just coiling the rest of the stock round, and to do this you have to point your knocked over point one way or the other (to the left or the right..oh dear...) and then ignore it and pretend you were just starting an ordinary tight wound spiral. so the point sticks out at 90 degrees or as jeremy k would say, perpendicular :) to the flat of the spiral bit. SEE!!!!! im utterly utterly useless at explaining it clearly ! if you were here i could show you in about 10 mins.... hope that clear enough anyway :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 Thanks for explaining that Beth..............I did get a bit lost though. Probably because its a bit late! And the blumming clocks go forward now as well. Me hands not too bad. Got some leathery bits on a few fingers and on my palm. Will see how it stands up to hammer work tomorrow! Going to have to make something different tomorrow as I have used all my 8mm round. I will try and see if I can some more, but the steel works doesn't open on Sundays often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 what have you done to your hands tom ?i missed that.. hope its just overwork not an injury..? if you search about you can find glenns instruction for that thing, its much better, i just cant remember where i saw it ... good luck today :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Thanks Beth. I actually burnt my hand! I made up a little tool to stick in the vice, by just squaring the bottom of a section of 16mm round. Its just to use to form the ring, of leaf key rings around. I put it in the vice to check it fit ok, then left it to clear the clinker out of my forge and fiddle with some bits. I went back and without thinking went to grab it and unwind the vice, and burnt my hand. Very silly of me! I made a 5th bbq butler for a wine glass this morning and then a poker. Came out quite nicely! Didn't have a lot of time, as I had to go to visit my brother in law for his birthday. Was thinking that i'm going to either paint my drink holders with my black hammerite paint, or put the flap wheel on the angle grinder and polish them up, then laquer them. Will that work to protect them? I'll try and get photo's up soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Hi Tom, For outside work, paint is preferable, but your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 Ok, thanks John. Maybe it would be simpler to just paint them all with hammerite. I want my first products to last and leave a good impression, not rust and damage it. For the poker, what would be the best course of treatment? Just heat in the flames and then rub with veg oil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Just about ready for the Thame show now. Heres a few pics of the stuff i'm taking to sell (sadly not a lot). And the rig I set up for painting the stems on the drinks holders. Pretty low tech! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 cool stuff tom - nicely done - GOOD luck for the show, hope you make some good contacts and have fun, hopefully sell stuff too. i will be coming on one soon, am intrigued to see whats what :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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