Quick projects for demonstrations

[David R.]

I thought perhaps some of you might have some good suggestions for mini projects to do for public demonstrations. With school classes you typically get about 20 minutes with each class so it needs to be something fairly simple but interesting enough to keep them watching. Leaves are good but you can only do so many leaves before you feel like leafing. S hooks are good but not too exciting. Any ideas?

[jmccustomknives]

I love doing these for demo's.  If your forge is hot enough people get to see something that they never saw before.  The knives take me about 20-25 minuts (without the rat tail a lot less).  The snake can be done in about the same time.  I've found I can do this forge welding without the flux flying around, forge welding flat pieces is dangerous :blink:.  The horse shoe thingy in my avatar is real easy.  Split crosses are fun too!

[SoCal Dave]

I found doing a Brian Brazeal horse head on a horseshoe works well.  You use a few tools and you can get an unlimited number of rusty used horseshoes from farriers.  

[Marksnagel]

I agree with JMC. The fish are really easy to make and can be done in about 3-4 minutes. The split crosses are a big hit because they see a piece of square stock go from square to X to a cross. But they should have all their cuts done prior to the demo. I try to have about 30 of them cut before I go. Cutting them would be boring for them to watch. 

 

Small hearts are great and can be done in a matter of minutes. You have to figure out what the attention span is of your crown. School kids have a short attention span. Leaves are about right for grammar school kids. Quick to make and go from a piece of scrap to a cool key chain leaf in about 5 minutes. 

 

If there are equestrians in the crowd then they will like anything to do with horses or from horseshoes.

 

Mark <><

[Cdworks]

What do you cut the split crosses with? I do not have a bandsaw.

[Frosty]

You can cut the crosses with a chisel if you're good at it. A hack saw is faster than a most folk think if you have the right tpi. the rule of thumb for teeth per inch TPI is 3 teeth on the stock a all times. this give you the best cut rate and the least chance of galling cuttings in the kerf.

 

I do a lot of leaf coat hooks and occasionally something on request. I really like requests. My general rule for demo projects is 20 mins start to finish max, unless it's BIG steel. Nothing draws an audience like drawing large, 3/4" and larger out of the fire, they an feel the heat at a surprising distance. Still, it's best if you can finish a project in fairly short order, it's hard to hold an audience more than 20 minutes.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[David R.]

Thanks guys. Some good ideas. The little wire rope knives look neat. That would be good to do in the big shop I demo in sometimes, but would be hard to do in the little portable forge. I find the younger kids are easier to keep interested than the older ones. The teenagers are too interested in their electronics and don't even know where they are sometimes. I find a little borax sprinkled on the anvil face will get their attention when you hammer a hot piece of metal on it.

[Francis Trez Cole]

I make wizard's out of railroad spikes at schools can make one fast and nails then talk about the history of nails

[Eddie Mullins]

If its young kids you could make snails out of 1/4 inch round stock. There should be a thread on it on here. I know I have have read another thread or 2 on here on demo's.

[Eddie Mullins]

Oops double post, so I'll make another suggestion : ) . Snakes are also pretty quick to make out of 3/8 round stock, or hearts for the girls.

[Frosty]

Oops double post, so I'll make another suggestion : ) . Snakes are also pretty quick to make out of 3/8 round stock, or hearts for the girls.

 

Nice recovery Eddie. Well saved sir!

 

Guess I'd better add something to the thread to justify my post. Twists are great crowd pleasers and pineapple twists are show stoppers. Pineapple twists look oh so cool and complicated but are actually simple and fast, perfect for demos. the ladies usually prefer a cable/rope twist, they look cool and feel better to hands not used to sharp corners.

 

Key fobs and bottle openers are always popular. the ladies really like Brian's horse heads as finials, all girls want a pony you know. If you can appeal to folk below the conscious level you're golden.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JimsShip]

If someone has a band saw, I always thought there'd be a market for selling pre-cut cross blanks. I'm sure there are more like me who hardly have time to forge, nevermind prepping stock!

Horsehoe nail rings are popular, but they don't supply much visual excitement.  (It may be nice to give them something to take home though)
Troll crosses are pretty simple, and can be given or sold at the moment as well. I've always thought the backstory of them is almost as fun as the end product.

[Frosty]

Jim: I can't summon an image of a "troll cross" can you post a pic or link us to one please?

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JimsShip]

"A troll cross is a circle of iron crossed at the bottom worn by early Scandinavian peoples as a protection from trolls and elves."
They believed an amulet of crossed iron would ward off evil that may lurk in the woods. 

I heard about them in >this ifrogeiron thread.

Google images has several nice ones made by others to see.
 

[Frosty]

Thanks, I remember it now. Good demo piece, especially if you have Vikings in the audience eh?

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Peter Munz]

For scool classes I make a small horseshoe (from 20x5x120mm flat) and a nail ( 8mm round) to hang it up.

Time to forge it out: horseshoe 15min, nail 5min

Peter

[Joel OF]

 Leaves are about right for grammar school kids. Quick to make and go from a piece of scrap to a cool key chain leaf in about 5 minutes.

 

Are you exagerating or is that a real time? That's a genuine question, probably sounds sarcastic in plain text.

[Joel OF]

Sorry, that's assuming you meant drawing out a long stem and wrapping it around itself? I would have edited my last post to include that update but I can't find the button.

 

David, if you're demoing to teenagers take a bit of 6mm plate and forge an iPhone or TV remote

[781]

If you have an arc welded AlanKress showed making split cross out of square stock. He welded the middle in a few places to hold it together said he'd did grave markers up to 2" with 2 guys bending forks and a press to flatten after the bends.

[Nobody Special]

Mine's not as smoothly executed, but i like the troll cross with twists.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/37390-troll-cross/

 

Cheese slicers are easy and look cool too.

[David R.]

Frosty, what's a pineapple twist?

[Frosty]

Make me go look why don't you! Okay, so learning where this stuff is on this new computer is a good thing. Still!

 

The attached pic is a doffer for removing wool from a drum carder without damaging it. the hand grip is a pineapple twist. I hope this pic is clear enough. If not John has posted much better pics of one a little while ago.

 

You incise all four faces of square stock equal distance. Twist and keep count, this is important, stop the twist with the faces lined up. Flatten the twist on all four faces returning it to square. Incise all four faces the same distance. Reverse the twist HALF as many turns.

 

If everything works out correctly the points on the diamonds will line up but a little adjustment may be necessary. these make excellent demo twists, they're actually pretty easy to do but look like magic to folk watching. Even blacksmiths are impressed, especially with a well executed pineapple twist.

 

I learned something important with this doffer, even though the ladies thought the pineapple twist was attractive none of them liked the way it felt in their hand, the points are too sharp on soft hand. Guys like how they feel but not the ladies.

 

I find the spinners really like a cable twist doffer, falls right into the theme of spinning wool.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[billyO]

I learned something important with this doffer, even though the ladies thought the pineapple twist was attractive none of them liked the way it felt in their hand, the points are too sharp on soft hand. Guys like how they feel but not the ladies.

 

I found out a solution when I was first learning, both smithing and the twist:  if you aren't dead straight with the twist you need to straighten it, and if you use a copper hammer to straighten it on the anvil, at the right heat with the right force you will soften the points.

[Guest Johnnie]

A simple dragons head is a puller. With the right punches and a half inch square bar your laughing. Have fun!