blubrick Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 In response to my first post here, over in "Introduce Yourself", Dale Russell realised that he and I were "just a hop, skip and jump" away from each other and offered to show me his smithy. I suspected I might just learn something from this bloke, so I called him on his offer and spent a bit of time in his workshop with him. Lesson one - Make a leaf. He showed me how it was done, then handed me a piece of 8mm square and said, "Now you do one". So I got to it. First, I fullered the stock on the edge of the anvil and drew it out a bit to make a stalk for the leaf. In truth, it was probably nothing like the way he showed me to do it, but I thought I was doing what he did - turns out that the stalk was too short so I was up for some more fullering and drawing out. The next thing was to flatten out the leaf blade - I started that and by this time it had wound up on a pretty odd angle to the stalk, so I straightened it out before putting it back in the fire. So there I am with the makings of a leaf going, feeling pretty good about my work and the strangest thing happened - when I pulled the bar out of the fire, my leaf was gone! Just like an alchemist of old, I had transmuted a base metal. Unfortunately I had not turned lead into gold, I had turned steel into sparks. :mad: With 20/20 hindsight, I understand the three things I did wrong to cause this to happen. First and foremost, I wasn't watching my work close enough. That's ultimately what caused it to burn away. But I think the leaf stalk may have been a bit too cool when I straightened it before putting it back in the fire. When I did that, I may have put a little crack in it that the fire got hold of in short order. But underlying both those things was that I failed to realise that as the work became thinner, I needed to work quicker with the piece needing less time to get up to working temperature and cool down again. Even though I came away from the day having made nothing I could call my own work, it was a very instructive experience. I had no idea I wasn't swinging the hammer from my shoulder. For that matter, I didn't even realise that I should be putting my shoulder into it. Now that I do know, I realise why I have been working that way - I'm more confident of not missing the work when I bend my elbow only. I have got a few chunks of steel I could use as my own anvil, but I really don't want to spang up anyone else's real anvil, so I guess I might've been kind of overcautious. Ah well, practice, practice, practice! And how am I to practice? Well, Dale very kindly loaned me the guts of an old charcoal/coke forge of his - it just needs a blower and something to keep it off the ground. As a loaner, it's on me to, if possible, return it in better nick than I got it, so I'll try to build a little stand for it. He also gave me a pair of tongs to clean up and put some longer handles on. So now all I need to find is: some fuel (easy), a place to set it up (still easy) and some time (now, that one, that's a bit tougher). Shortly after I can put all that together, I'll have some pix to share. In the meantime, I'm havin' fun and learning - and that's what it's about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogo Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Sounds like a great start!!! We all burn up some metal frome time to time;) good luck and keep practicing Drogo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Russell Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 G'Day Blubrick , hey bloke , glad ta see youse had " fun " at least ... Hope i's wern't too hard on youse ....... Any time youse wanna come up just call mate , youse ave the phone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Blubrick, glad you boys hooked up. Early on you have a few issues that you can really learn from. Later on you have a few issues you can really learn from. Bad information kills more people than firearms ( daily ). You have good information ( in Dale ). Spend time with him when it works for the both of ya. We were all new once and heck I learn something every day. I know I have a lot more to learn. Ten Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Russell Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Steve , the day you DON'T learn anything is the day you DIE Dale Russell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pault17 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Dale, even then you learn whether the rest of your time is hot or not:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I promised paul (?) from the blacksmiths asscon. of Vic the manual to fix the Massey 1 cwt slides in the 'barn' - ill get onto it tomorrow! - I enjoy receiving my copy of the 'Drift' every now and then here in the UK . (its getting quite international this smithing lark!) Learning from those that do is so much quicker than working it out yourself (and your list of excuses for burning the steel will get longer & better with experience :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blubrick Posted November 29, 2007 Author Share Posted November 29, 2007 Learning from those that do is so much quicker than working it out yourself (and your list of excuses for burning the steel will get longer & better with experience Excuses? I hope it didn't sound like that! The feel I was going for was "the moral of today's lesson". When I did what I did, I did it wrong - plain and simple, there's no escaping it. Now, if I know why I burned the steel, I can work on that and might not burn it next time. If I don't, I will keep making the same mistakes without learning from them. And that's not my idea of fun. Still, it's nice to know that there are plenty of new and inventive ways of screwing up for me to learn! And I'll be here telling everyone just as soon as I find the next one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mende Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I think that's actually the way to becoming a blacksmith . .learning ALL the ways to screw up . ..after that . .you can only do good. .. This should be a Blacksmith school motto .."Teaching people ways to screw up since. .18**" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skunkriv Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I figure when I burn the end off of something it was obviously too long to begin with Blubrick, welcome to ifi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nonjic Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 blubrick, I understand your not making excuses, and we learn from our mistakes, however, when it happens a second, third time etc you might need some of these 'excuses' (especially when theres people watching you work :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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