Hey All, Been a while since I posted anything and figured I better pitch in. I am doing a log rack for a nice client, who has given me some freedom in making a log rack-so long as it is the style they like. No twists etc. Just clean forged stuff. So, I am doing all mortise and tenon construction. Here's some various pics in progress. It's nice to do an all forged project I'll post more pics after assembly.

mark I hope i will be able to forge nice clean tenons like that some day. Your client will be quite happy.

Thanks Eric. And you will be able to-they are not hard. It's the old "how do you get to Carnegie Hall?? question. Practice, Practice, Practice.

Please show the tooling you used for the tenons. very nice work.

Please show the tooling you used for the tenons. very nice work.

He did look closely.

I missed the tooling. I thought he would have used some type of die for the rectangular tenon. If no tooling was used, very nice freehand work. It must take a lot of time to get the right dimesion.

When you use the side set (pretty sure that's what it's called, correct me if I'm wrong), do you mark in someway to your finished depth and work to that with the side set? Or do you go less, and bring it down to size with a set hammer? I've only done tenons once, and I had barely any tooling or knowledge at the time, so I did them on the edge of the anvil with lots of sloppy hammer work and then did a lot of upsetting and cleaning with the monkey tool, and they certainly did not end up sharp and clean looking.

Hi All, I'll get pics of the what I used today when I go to work and post later. Basically all I used was a butcher and a set hammer (no side set used) and the edge of the anvil. I butcher in a bit, then use the set hammer and the edge of the anvil. I also made a "down and dirty" monkey tool. Basically, the tenon on the long bars is a traditional heel bar-like in the COSIRA books-only 3 sides forged in. On the other bars (kind of in the background) which have 4 sides forged in, I mark in a bit with the butcher, then forge in on the power hammer. I have a Big Blu with a set of sharp edged dies. The tenon and hole sizes are straight from Mark Aspery's book-the hammer head slot punch/drift he shows. Work out to be a great size for what I'm doing. What I'm trying to get across here is tenons are NOT hard. Most important (for me anyway) is to SLOW DOWN and watch what I'm doing. I do pretty much "eyeball" my dimensions on the tenons. I forge the tenon-knock the corners off till it's close to the hole size-I keep a punched bar next to me to check when I'm close-then hot rasp till it fits. When I hot rasp (I just use a old horse-shoers rasp) stock removal is fast and it takes a very short time. When I say hot rasp-I start filing at a normal forging temp, and stop when I would stop forging with a hammer. I make sure the area where the tenon and bar meets is "clean" meaning no excess mat'l before I use the monkey tool. If you don't have a monkey tool, you can just use a set hammer to clean up the shoulder-I did that for a long time-just work around the tenon and watch what you're doing.

I'll get pics and write it up what I do tonight.

Mark thats a clean looking job, When my new shop is finished I would like to check out the big blu, Sam Salvati has a Anyang I'm going over to check that one too, did you upset or draw out the tenon side of the stock ? What size stock did you start out with ?

Mark thats a clean looking job, When my new shop is finished I would like to check out the big blu, Sam Salvati has a Anyang I'm going over to check that one too, did you upset or draw out the tenon side of the stock ? What size stock did you start out with ?

Hey Larry, empty your mailbox or send me PM with your email address.

. If you don't have a monkey tool, you can just use a set hammer to clean up the shoulder-I did that for a long time-just work around the tenon and watch what you're doing. I'll get pics and write it up what I do tonight.

If you don't have a monkey tool, you can use the punched bar ( or a sample one like the one Mark used to size/fit the tenon) placed over a suitable bolster or hole in swage block as a monkey tool, like this one,



using the pre made backplate with the slot/square hole in being used over the pritchel hole as a bolster

If you can't hit the free end of the bar with the tenon on hold that piece in the vise and place your component on then use a tube (or round monkey tool) on top of that to allow you to hit on and seat the tenon to the piece to give you clean shoulders.

Hey All,
first off-Nice idea John.
Gerald-nice to hear from you-time for another class at your place yet??
Larry-come and check out the hammer-no problem. Anybody else local wants to come and visit-just get in touch.

OK-tooling pics first.
Now progress pics

When I headed all the tenons over-14 in all-keeping the rack square and plumb is a real concern. My solution to this was to clamp it together as straight and square as possible-then head each tenon just enough to hold it, then progressively head each one in stages till finished. It came out pretty well-only needed minor adjustments.

Here's some shots of the finished rack-sorry about the poor pics-I am not very good wiith a camera-need to work on that.

Forgot to add-the uprights are 1" wrought iron from fencing-the cross bars are from 1-1/2" round wrought iron-didn't feel like doing anymore upsetting-so I just knocked it down to size.

That looks great!

Thanks! I put a lot of effort into making a nice piece.

Very clean and nicely finished - good example of "less is more".

Simple and elegant. What else is there to say?

Very cool. I'm just starting out and am pondering whether to start out with a coal or a gas forge. Maybe a dumb question, but what type of forge did you use for this? It seems too large to fit into a gas forge.

Not a dumb question. I used both. Coal for the heating for the upsets and punched holes-you can get a much more localized heat, and propane for the long tapers and forging the tenons. I have a Chili forge-the double burner model-that give a nice long heat-probably 14-16". I usually use propane more than coal, just because it's easier. I can put 4-6 pieces in the propane forge and not worry about burning anything.
Thanks for the compliments!

Mark , that really looks great ! The clean lines and crisp well fit joints really set it off.
Thanks for sharing it.

Very nice work.

Good job!