Yes it is that time of year again. We have less than 90 days to have everything made, cleaned, finished, and wrapped for Christmas.

We need ideas for gifts (with photos). What are you making as gifts for Christmas this year?

The heart on the left. Ignore the other things, they were experiments.

Just for ideas sake, last year it was roses for my mother and brothers wives. 

I'll have to think something up for this year. I'm bad at being a last minute shopper let alone maker.  

 

here's ideas for if you might find them useful.
-blacksmith puzzles
-kitchen tools(spatulas, forged and riveted skillets, that sort of thing)
-yarn bowls (basically bowls a scrolled gap in the side to allow for easy unrolling of yarn balls while knitting or crochetting)
-braziers for people who like hanging out in their yard
-keychains, letter openers, or bottle openers that tie into a theme of stuff they're interested in. Like musical notes or plants or horses or whatever.
-gardening tools
-chainmail christmas stocking (why not?)
-jewellery, like bangles or pendants
-fancy door knocker (everybody likes those, right?) 

I guess it basically comes down to stuff that helps their current hobbies, general use items that are decorated with stuff they like, or sculptural stuff that are well done or themed to their preferences...might not be as much help as I'd have hoped when I started typing I suppose.

I'm planning to go the bottle opener route but I need to get my butt in gear. a treble clef, leaves or just a modified rail spike are the route I'm going since I think it'll nail 99% of the people I want to give gifts to.

7 hours ago, MrDarkNebulah said:

The heart on the left. Ignore the other things, they were experiments

In the point of the heart, you can do what I think is called a hobberman (??) bend. basically using the edge of you hammer, or a cross peen to draw it out into more of a 90 degree "point".

                                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmith  

I've been in a bowl-making mood lately and will likely continue that through Christmas.  They make wonderful gifts because everybody seems entranced by them.  I'm using one for myself, conscripting it into desk organizer duty, but they work well for holding fat candles or just setting on the mantle as a decorative piece.

On 10/6/2016 at 7:54 PM, littleblacksmith said:

In the point of the heart, you can do what I think is called a hobberman (??) bend. basically using the edge of you hammer, or a cross peen to draw it out into more of a 90 degree "point".

                                                                                                                                           Littleblacksmith  

My Google-fu is turning up nothing in the sense of a hobberman bend. Can anyone help shed some light here? Thats one of the things I wanted to address on my hearts, I didn't like the bend that much.

I'm actually not a 100% sure it was called the Hobberman bend, but I thought that it was named after Alfred hobberman. anyone out there that knows?? anyways I did some searching, and found this video of Brian forging a heart. you can see him doing the bend towards the begging, using the edge of his hammer to draw out the corner. Of course you could also use a cross peen or straight peen to do the same thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=921EKZK5IBA

                                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JirnBrxWthI

Brian talks about Habermann bends.

 

Thank you for posting that! I had never watched that before!

                                                                                                              Littleblacksmith

Here are some of my intended gifts for Christmas 2016.  The fork is my first attempt at a basket twist and a fork.  The horseshoe and S-hook are for hanging a cast iron pot over a campfire.  The bell is a whimsy piece just to see if I could make a bell from a piece of 3/4" black iron pipe, and I decided to decorate it with my first attempt at a leaf. I also made a clapper for the bell, so it actually rings. The oven rack push/pull was made as practice for a demo with the club, and the herb choppers are this month's club project.

Pictures?

the horse shoe hanger for the over the fire cooking, sells really well here! people seem to love them!

                                                                                                                                Littleblacksmith

Got some extra flat bar laying about? Why not use it to make ribbon candy?

You could leave the top part open a bit and make a holder for letters, mail, or Christmas cards. Cut it on the diagonal and then fold forming a Christmas tree. Properly sized folds and you could put a candle in every other fold or both sides using every 4th fold to have two rows of candles.

The idea is to take a seasonal standard and make it useful as well as decorative.

Of course, please post photos of your work.

Or these, to continue the candy theme.

 

Hard candy for sure. (grin)

I had that idea last year! I was going to try using black pipe to make them, but I forgot all about it!

Thanks for reminding me.

I have a habit of putting great forging ideas in a book I keep, and then forgetting all about them!