Desmond Redmon Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Visited the Maumee Valley Blacksmiths today, great group of very knowledgable folks. I walked in with some steel and a bit of time and received a good bit of information, a heap of humility, and perhaps a thimble full of wisdom. They were all great at helping me to learn hammer control, flame control, and ingenuity. I spent a lot more time watching others and listening and made a small project stopping to talk about what I was doing at each step and (more importantly) why I was doing it. Cannot thank these volunteers nearly enough for all of their time and help. So Tada my first wall hook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Ling Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Looks great for a first, good start! One thing I will recommend, is on the next one to taper the tip down a bit finer, and put a small curl on the end, and also to make the bend a little more "organic" (more graceful). You can see that it is flat, flat flat, and then all of a sudden it bends sharply, and curves, and then is another bend. just next time try and not make it not as "choppy", but make it one full bend. Now, the back of the hook should be flat, which you achieved, and also you have a nice square taper .Reason I recommend the curl on the end is so you don't poke a hole through you favorite hat, or worse, you wife's coat! Littleblacksmith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond Redmon Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 Thanks for the input, I thought about the point a bit after I left the meeting. Second project started, but not finished had trouble lining my body up to use the edge of the anvil to form the shoulder at the top of the hardy. Since I don't have any hardy's at all yet I set to work on making a hot cut off (had to cut this project off with a hacksaw due to vertical design of my temporary forge). Then the makeshift blower died and I had to quit before finishing drawing out the cutting edge (which is small 1.25"). Upset a 3/4" round rod into a 1" sq with a taper, drove it into the hardy 1/4" to set my size and form a bit of a snug fit. Then cut the end of the rod off (too long since it sticks up way farther than I wanted to). Then reheated and started to draw out the hot cut blade. And the hair dryer blower failed... Went to the local scavenger's house and rooted through piles until I found a damaged but potentially repairable Royal Western Chief cast iron blower with a broken shaft. By the time I repair it hopefully the ground will be solid enough to move the forge into place and start using a real forge... Please by all means comment on with things I should work on, or seek to improve. I am new to this so I don't even know what I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 What alloy is the hardy you are making? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond Redmon Posted February 13, 2017 Author Share Posted February 13, 2017 I needed a rod with minimal delay (between work and home) so I cheated and bought a 3/4 a510 at tractor supply, equivalent to AISI 1018. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 Well truck axle would have been a better choice,1018 is about as soft an alloy as you will generally find. I made mine from the broken off end of a jack hammer bit so 1050 and it's worked fairly well the last 15 to 20 years...just taught a beginners class so it's time to regrind the edge...Often tool rental places will sell worn or broken jackhammer bits cheap (or even free) is there such a place on your way home? Mine was the broken off chisel so all I had to do was to forge it to fit my hardy holes. (long enough to provide a bit projecting on the bottom of the anvil to tap it loose on slightly less worn hardy holes---the projection is about 1/2 the cross sectional area of the stem so students don't jam it in place and then rivet the bottom trying to remove it. (I used to have different hardies for every anvil when I taught but found that college students couldn't deal with such complex systems...so I modified one hardy that fits 4 different anvils in the class) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kailey Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 On February 12, 2017 at 7:23 PM, Desmond Redmon said: Since I don't have any hardy's at all yet I set to work on making a hot cut off (had to cut this project off with a hacksaw due to vertical design of my temporary forge). Desmond, Proper Forge......... Don't let anything stop you. I have met a lot of people who know so much about smithing its amazing. But they have never struck a single piece of hot steel. When ask why......Well I dont have the right stuff. You don't need a proper anything to forge steel. get some brick dig a hole, line it with the brick around a pipe and get a hair dryer from a thrift store. I used this as a forge for several month and beat steel on a chunk of rail road track...... your work looks fine, but honestly if you want to learn and get better you need to keep forging. good day my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 5 hours ago, David Kailey said: good day my friend. David Kailey, when you're quoting comments with photos in them, please delete the photos from the quotes unless absolutely necessary to illustrate a point. They eat up bandwidth and make it harder for our members using dial-up to load pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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