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I Forge Iron

pineapple twist?


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Hello,
I had a reenactor in today, that asked if I had heard of pineapple twists. I think I have but I"m not sure how to make one. He was looking to have me make some blackpowder related stuff for him. He does a lot of trading at meets. This was one of the things we talked about. Anybody know how to do one of these?

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Meco- If I remember correctly (and that is at best a WAG :wink: ) you chisel a line down the center of all 4 sides for the length of the area to be twisted. Then make a full twist, then hammer it back to square, then chisel your lines again, and twist in the opposite direction. As I said, I am working from memory here, your mileage may vary. Good luck.

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Here's my way:

Take a piece of 1/2" square. Chisel down the middle of all four sides. Make sure the cuts are centered and run for the same distance - I use center punch marks on each side to help while it's hot. Not much depth is needed, just a clean straight groove. Heat and hammer back to square because it will have deformed.

Now, you will have a piece of fairly square material with a small thin slit on each side. Heat and twist 1 time for every inch of slit area - in other words, a 4 inch slit area gets twisted 4 times. Hammer the twisted area flat so the piece is square again, then reheat and twist in the reverse direction half of whatever you did the first time - the 4 inch example would be reversed 2 times. You will now see the pineapple effect.

You can twist tighter or looser on either first or second pass but take note of the process so you can repeat it. I use the 2:1 ratio because it's easy to remember while I am demonstrating.

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