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I Forge Iron

Just wanted to say hello


Xaiver

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Hello everyone. I'm scrolling the forum on my mobile, so I'm sorry if I managed to miss the introduce yourself ' forum. 

I've been working on setting up my forge for about a year now. Ilive in town, so propane was the only real option... Didn't want to smoke out the neighbors. 

I made the pile of bricks forge, with a frost the burner. I also got ahold of a 100ish pound anvil from my inlaws. 

Salvaged some old rusty tongs from my grandma's barn, and I started trying to learn how to make this thing work. 

Anyhow, while I was brainstorming what to make, the wife said "you could make me another ring holder" 

Her wedding band has a mother of pearl on top, and they're pretty delicate. She takes it off to do chores and bathe andsleep and stuff. 

I've been tinkering around with some stock that I got from Menards (the home Depot of the Midwest) 

It takes me about an hour from firing to finish on one of these, but I'm still not completely happy with them.... Will keep working. Here's a couple photos of you all would like to see.

 pictured below : the first one is the one driven into the wood block. It didn't want to stand up, so I sharpened the base and hammered it into a block. 

The one that looks like egg noodles was the second attempt, stands on its own... Kinda ugly. 

The third one broke one of the arms when I was filling off the jagged edges... So it's a single ring holder... Looks much better. Stands on its own. 

The fourth one, I decided to split the arms in opposite directions. Stands on its own, actually looks really nice.... 

 

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Welcome to the site. You are off to a good start. Your work improves with each attempt.

Try looking at the third one a different way. It didn't break, you broke it. Study what went wrong and what you have to do to not let it happen again. The metal only does what you make it do and if you don't pay attention to each forging,  successful or unsuccessful your skills cannot improve. 

Just something I wish someone had told me in the beginning. Your fourth one looks good and I would like to borrow your design. 

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Thank you. It shouldn't be hard to think of it like that, my dad always said "be careful. You're a big kid, you can break stuff"  that's kind of drilled into my head by now. 

By all means, have at it. I'm still trying to figure out what it is that I don't like about it. 

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Creating smooth flowing lines can be difficult. Try tapering the stock so that the base is wider than the top end. Taper it all the way from end to end. The heavier section will look more appropriate for the base, and the thinner fingers will look more in tune with holding a delicate ring.

 

Look up some Art Nouveau pieces to get a sense of flowing lines.

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Welcome aboard Xavier, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many of the IFI gang live within visiting distance.

I see and hear a number of things I like about your pieces. I'm not sure just what they remind me of but insectile was my first thought but it's not quite right. then I really liked your solution to the second one when it wouldn't stand properly. Drive it into a piece of wood! Oh you are SO going to fit right in here. B)

Getting consistent twists in strip stock isn't the easiest exercise so giving them a nice kinky inconsistent twist is the way to handle it. If it won't do what you want make that a feature, been doing that for a long time.

The one finger thingy broke off, yeah, that happens, someday I'll find out how it feels. LOL

My only critique is to put a smoother finish on the hangers or they will mar the rings. Even if they feel and look smooth gold will find anything to scratch on. Perhaps a little clear rubber coating. I believe you can get it as a paint like stuff, maybe at jewelry maker suppliers or craft or somebody here will know.

All in all nice work.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

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Thanks for the ideas guys, now I know what I'm going to change next. Time to learn to taper. 

Rubberized hangars is a pretty good idea, I'm sure that will have to be afeature that I add once I'm happy with the design, and maybe it can just be a dip sort of method, like making candles.

Is this burner I'm using your design, frosty?It's working like a champ. I had an issue the first day with it losing the jet after an hour or so running, but i figured out that I had the pressure a bit low, and it would just lose it once the tank started to cool.... Then I would crank it up to full open, reestablish the jet and turn it back to where I wanted it. 

 

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So, I hammered out what I feel is an improvement, and I'm fairly satisfied with it for now, mostly because I want to move on to something else for now. 

The only issue with it now is the rust. I read that a thin coat of poly eurethane will help a lot. I'll try that next. 

Fortunately though, our rings are tungsten, so they're fairly difficult to scratch. I will be adding a rubberized bit too the holder spot if I make some for other people. 

I'm in Central Minnesota, btw. 

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Edited by Xaiver
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Those look much nicer, the hangers are smoother though it could use more file and sanding work for the jewelry table. It's been a long time since I've seen the clear rubber coating and I don't know how it's applied, maybe like Dipit in the can for tool handles.

I don't know what kind of burner you're using. Is it made up from black iron plumbing parts namely a T mounted like a letter T? If so it might be one modeled after what I cobbled together a while back.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Yeah, it's a black iron T with a... I don't know the name of it. It takes the jet end and makes it wider. 

In the top is a mig tip cut in half, threaded into the iron T.  Then it runs back on a copper tube to a ball valve and a flash suppressor, then to a propane hose to a regulator control and then into the tank. 

I built the burner a year or two ago and itsat on my bench until I got around to finding that soft brick. 

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By jet end do you mean the flame output end? If so hat would be a flare. It sounds like a version of what I winkled out back when. Glad it's working for you, if you have problems let me know we'll get it squared away.

Frosty The Lucky.

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