jcornell Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 My son's uncle, a Franciscan priest, has asked my son to make some Tau crosses. The tau is a big symbol with Franciscans. It looks like a capital T. Any clue on how to make one out of steel? My first inclination is to make a split cross but not allow the splits to cross, and then trim off the top piece. Any suggestions, oh wise smiths? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Simple solution would be a tee weld. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Looks very similar to Thor's hammer. How you make it could depend on the finished size, You could cut it out from plate You could do as you suggest with a little bit of forge and file work You could make it like a tenon and use a couple of round bars as suitable swages to give the undercuts, with a round fuller of suitable radius to form the top curve on the T, forge to spread and trim as necessary for the lower bit Looks a nice little challenge. Lets see pics when you have it done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 How big? I might suggest a different method for a 4" cross, an 8" cross and an 80" cross? Taking a piece of 1/4" thick by 2" wide and slicing and bending out and forging the arms into shape does come to mind as does just hot cutting it out of 1/8" thick plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Basically a triskele like the ones that Sam Salvati has been making but with shorter arms and some extra curves (also flattened on the top) . This thread has good info on the process: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/25486-triskele/page__hl__triskele__fromsearch__1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I was thinking of using a hot cut to make a couple of cuts in a sheet and then draw the two arms and leg out so that they are some what equal in length and shape. Or like Ten Hammers suggested just do a forge weld. And if you didn't want to do that of course you could just do a lost wax project and cast them up in silver, brass, bronze, gold, iron, pewter or any other metal you can think of. I also looked it up here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Tau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 Bigfoot, thank you ( slaps self up side the head ). Basic simple exercise in forging. Another reason I come here, to refresh the grey matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rthibeau Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 I go along with using one piece of steel, spitting one third the length to make the two arms. The final shape to be forged will be different if using flat stock versus round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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