John B Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Hi, no powerhammer used on any of these, The first one on the flat plate was made from 3/4" square stock for the centre, and forged as seen, bevelled at the top end, flared at the base, waisted in the centre to fit the scrolls to Scrolls are from 1/2" x 3/16" (13mm x5mm), left hand and right hand bevel ends with offset fishtails at the other end. The Firebasket in a similar manner, but the centre bar is 30mm square (1.25") and the bottom of the fishtails spread both ways not offset as they don't need to sit flush onto a plate. The one on the firescreen is just from 12mm square section for the centre, and 13mm x 5mm for the scrolls, these were just fishtailed as the sat off from the mesh. Here is another quick method of making a Fleur de Lys on top of a flat plate, material here is approx 1 1/2" x 1/4", Mark out with centre punch and cold chisel to give a guide to hot cutting if you are not confident enough to do it 'off the cuff', then hot cut the two long cuts, followed by one of the shorter cuts to the edge to remove the excess, then hot cut the other short edge, take care not to cut into the previously made long cut edges or you willl damage the bevelled edge produced by the hot cut, which will be a feature of the finished item, This picture is from the rear of the plate after cutting and punching This picture shows one from the front, you may be able to see the bevelled edges produced by the hot cuts, they are more visible on the cut outs at the base of the back plate. If you wanted to make a Fleur de Lys using flat plate, do the top end as shown, then just split the base similar but scaled down, and don't remove the short cuts as then you will be left with a flared base, curl the two long cuts out, and trim off the flat end as required to 'balance' the units appearance. Apologies for the poor picture quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Hi, no powerhammer used on any of these, The first one Copy of Fleur de Lys flat mounted.png on the flat plate was made from 3/4" square stock for the centre, and forged as seen, bevelled at the top end, flared at the base, waisted in the centre to fit the scrolls to Yikes! :o 3/4" square! A striker then? How thick is it finished? That looks like a LOT of hammering by my lonesome. I mean it is all doable but that seems like pure hammer practice AND on a "fat" piece. Sorry, had to throw that "fat" bit in. I used it once before and got some grief. ;) I'm gonna coin a new term. Ya'll can use it if you like. Fat Metal - means starting with way more metal than is required to finish the job. Understanding that back in the day Fat got used if that is all there was! And I have used fat metal many times cuz it was all I had. But these days I try to get a lil closer to the finished product. No more hammering out 3/4" rebar to make a steak turner for me! I was thinking to use something like 1" by 3/8" or maybe 1"x1/2". Though I think the 3/8" would put me close but still require a hammers touch everywhere on the piece. Not sure I have any of that but... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 No striker, just a 2lb hammer (see avatar) for all those shown. Nothing "Fat"about that size,(up to 1" is skinny) so long as you are at the right heat no great problems forging, you just have to get it hot and hit it, its how and where you hit it that moves the metal, irrespective of hammer size.You could use 1" by 1/2" and get the same result, its just a case of marrying up the scroll width to centre size for collaring, or make a stepped collar to fit.On the picture shown you can see the slight recess to match the scroll widths and set the collar in, at the time I probably used the 3/4"square bar as the scrolls material was slightly over 1/2" and rather than have to forge them to fit the centre, I opted to just form the ends and shape them, then fit the centre to suit them, as I had to forge this bit to shape anyway, so I considered this an easier option, my choice, yours may be different.No problems with using the nearest sized materials if you have them, I am all for saving energy, particularly my own, but you will have to put a hammer to them at some time to get the finshed shapes you need.Have fun, and hit hard ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 excellent! I like the fine scrolls on the points :) it looks like you ended up drawing a flat taper and chamfering the front face corners instead of going for the full triangle cross section, am I reading that correctly? is that collar actually brass/bronze, or did it just really soak up the brushing? Yeah, I bypassed the full triangle. I hammered on the diamond though (for the two sides) and I think that gave a bit more depth to the sides... perhaps. No there is no brass. I must have just hit the right temp to suck up the brass. Though this is using a brass brush I bought from Backsmith Depot (Kayne and Son). It has a LOT of very soft bristles (Platers Brush). This is unlike the Home Depot version with thicker and less numerous bristles. I think the larger number of softer bristles provide a much fuller brass brush effect. You can get better coverage quicker! I need to work a bit harder on the next one to get neater lines. Though I am a bit crude myself and much of what I do is a bit crude. I am sometimes torn between really trying to make thyings very neat verses sort of letting it happen and only neatening up the lines to a certain extent. When I punched the hole (as requested) it bulged out the top a bit/ I could have fixed it but I thought that just made it a bit more hand made and ilustrates what punched hole lookes like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted June 12, 2013 Author Share Posted June 12, 2013 BTW... I live in Baton Rouge. The New Orleans Saints are nearby... I could probably make a killing selling these. People go ApeShat over this kinda stuff down here. That is also part of what inspired the brass rub. http://www.neworleanssaints.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinobi Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 knock your starting stock down to 1/4 or less and bang out a few at keychain size, feel them out at local bars or places where fans congregate and see if theres much interest, you could indeed make a killing off them. HOWEVER I would imagine that the icon is trademarked, so make it substantially different to keep their legal team off your tail for copyright infringement and licensing etc etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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