The day before yesterday I had a go at the small hearts as in Brian Brazeal's post.

Using a small gas forge made them a bit tricky, so I came up with the idea of drawing out both ends of the bar then forming the shape. How hard is it to hold a drawn out taper, probly not too hard if you have the right tongs, I don't. But kinda got there in the end.

Anyone have any other ideas for small projects that can be made on the end of a bar, no need for unaquired tongs.

Also I had a go at putting a slit into a bar. Hmmm! Can it be done with a cold chisle or am I barking up the wrong tree again.

Thanks Alan

I have found that when I have the wrong tool or no tool for a specific job I need to take the time to make the right tool or find the right tool. This pays off in the long run.

Sometimes we have to shift our priorities. I'm bad about that too as I want to complete a project and want nothing to stand in the way. But I have learned that somethings are necessary to complete a job.

Other small projects? Leaves. Lots of leaves. Its great practice for hammer control.
Nails. Zillions of nails. Great control practice and teaches patience.
Fredricks crosses. Great to give as gifts.
Snails.
Round stock hammered into square stock hammered into octagon stock hammered back into round stock. Great practice and then can be made into anything. Like leaves and nails and snails!

Make some more tongs. There are many many videos and tutorials out there.

Mark <><

Also I had a go at putting a slit into a bar. Hmmm! Can it be done with a cold chisle or am I barking up the wrong tree again.

Thanks Alan

Hi Alan, yes it can be done with a cold chisel, but it will ruin the chisel and not make a slit, more like a horrendous gash

Cold chisels are for cutting or marking metal when it is cold,

Hot chisels or hot cuts or hardies are used to cut off hot metals

Slitting punches are used to slit hot metals

Slot punches are used to produce slots in hot metal as opposed to slits.

If you get the terminology correct, most tools identify what they do in their name.

See the Tools Section "Blacksmiths tools explained", which may help some if you are a relative newcomer to the craft.

Mark, you hit the nail on the head for me; I always seem to be trying to do the work without the proper tools, and that rarely works in my favor. I'm waiting to replenish my coal supply; I've scheduled some time a couple of weeks from now to go pick it up, but once I've gotten the fuel I need it's "tool time at White Barn Forge"!

JohnB thanks for the link.

I have some experience with using a cold chisel as a slitting chisel. Receintly Jake Progebinsky and I have been working on an axe. We used a cold chisel, Stanley 1", to make the slit. I would not do it again for several reasons.
1. It took longer. Because the chisel has the wrong shape it takes longer to make the proper slit. As a hobbiest, I don't care about time so much. However, doing it faster would afford more time to do other things besides slitting.

2. It was difficult to do. I wasn't able to make a deep slit. I had to make the slit about 1.33 times longer to accomidate the profile of the chisel. Again, that is more time slitting and less time doing shaping, ect.

3. Because it took longer I had to use more heats to do the work. This isn't good for the steel. Large amounts of scale loss, more time lost.

4. The ammount of upsetting caused by the profile. There was significant upsetting caused by the shape. We started with a 2" tall piece of mild steel. When we were done we had lost about 1/3" of material height. Using the proper profile would have reduced this loss.

I should have listened to John in the first place. I will use this chisel again but with the proper profile for a slitting chisel forged or ground on it. It's -35 F here right now. Just a tad cold to be working in the shop.

Take a pair of farriers nippers, and grind little A "V" in the venter of each jaw, you won't believe how handy these will become, for round and square stock. Also do a search on miners candle holder and make one of those, a real fun challenging project, also an articulating arm candleholder is fun.

Thank for all the great replies.

I had another attempt at drawing out both ends of a bar only this time i done it slightly different. The piece I was making required a scroll at one end and the other was becoming a spike. So I made the scroll and held it with a pair of suitable tongs.

I will be ordering some slotting and slitting punches next week.

If you have access to the tools, cut a bunch of 1/4-inch pieces off the end of a section of heavy 2-inds angle. short-cut starting point

Make tongs.......then you'll have the unaquired tongs, then you'll be able to do more projects. You don't need tongs to make tongs.