I am wondering if you could do the chisel work  and then do the scroll.

 

No, it would distort and ruin the chiseled groove.

On 3/16/2018 at 12:02 AM, Howling dog forge said:

I am wondering if you could do the chisel work  and then do the scroll.

John's spot on the money.  You can get away with reversing the order of operations if the work is large enough and the carved lines are deep enough into the field, but that's a rare combo to find.

Generally speaking, the piece doesn't look right if you reverse things because the carved lines are never a consistent distance from the edge.  Or, you spend a gob of time filing the perimeter to try and get things spaced right so they look right.

 

Reminds me, I need to make up a new set of chisels.  The 1070 alloy was pretty easy to work with, but this 1095 I'm using now is really wearing things down quickly!

My nephew wanted to make something for his girlfriend, so I offered to show him how to do the chasing.  I already had the dish mostly formed, so all he needed to do was give it the texture, draw up the design, cut it into the steel and put on the finish.  He did amazing, in my opinion, and really concentrated on the tasks once I showed him how to do things.  Just goes to prove that guys haven't changed in millions of years -- if there's a chic needing impressed, we can hunker down and get things done!

 

If the girl isn't impressed with that work he needs to find a more worthy girl.

That's a fine job. Tell him Frosty says well done!

Frosty The Lucky.

nice job; but:   SAFETY GLASSES!!!!!!   (when you think you don't need them is when you need them almost as much as when you know you need them!)

He did a fine job and yes safety glasses. Use them when not needed they become second nature.

8 hours ago, VaughnT said:

My nephew wanted to make something for his girlfriend

There was a girl I had a crush on in high school, and I made her a toasting fork for her Sweet Sixteen. Last May was our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary. 

Thank you, gents.  He might never decide to work with his hands, but at least he has a story to tell.  I thought the best part was when I asked him if he wanted me to go over it and clean up the lines to smooth it all out.  "No thank you.  I'd like to do it all myself so I can honestly tell her I did it myself."

The only time he asked me to step in was on the date, and only because he'd screwed up the initials.  He couldn't get squared away because the surface was uneven, so he asked me to take the helm just so he wouldn't double-stamp again and make things worse.  

As the wise Mr. Eastwood said, "A man's gotta know his limitations!"

 

Mr. VaughnT,

Quotes Mr. Eastwood's wise aphorism to wit.

"a man's gotta (sic) know his limitations"

The SLAG responds with this observation. "Ignore the limitations and get on with the job".

Just sayyin.

SLAG.

I had a conversation with my chair this afternoon about the difficulty of getting a clean finish on a knife.  It was all the chair’s fault that I had to do most of it by hand and was out of my depth.  My chair told me that I just had to get up and start.  We politely agreed to disagree.

I thought that I was the only one to have conversations with inanimate objects. My leg vise has heard some really colorful language.

Nah, I have conversations with everything, usually frustrated angry muttering. I discovered coaxing and cajoling doesn't seem to work for me.

Frosty The Lucky.

When children learn their letters the next thing is usually drawing. Axes have a nice size space to work with, and maybe a nice keltic knot. Blacksmithing is a lot of fun, teaching just adds to the fun!  Glad to see your having so much.

Thanks Duck.

Got to do some chasing on a dish the other day.  Sadly, when I was stamping in the date, the #1 stamp flew off to parts unknown.  Now I have to hunt down either a single stamp... or buy another set.  I was thinking about going up to 3/16" numbers rather than the 1/8" that I currently use.  Not sure if that'd be a good idea or not, but...

Did anyone ever post pics of their tries at this?  

I believe I will give making a bracelet for my daughter another shot.  When I do I will post it here. 

It was just a flattened length of copper ground wire. I put all four of her cats’ names on it in runes. 

I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I took nail sets, small chisels, and punches and reshaped the ends using a file and an angle grinder. Somewhat similar to yours, but just different enough to make them fairly useless. 

It was just a couple of months ago. I wish I had gone into this section and read your posts before I wasted all my time trying to work everything out on my own. Thanks for posting this. I can see now why I failed. I can’t wait to give it another go. 

Loki, Missy, Grey, and Rooh are their names by the way. 

Happy almost, Dee

A simple concrete nail will take a different grind and become a great engaving tool.

Wear your "Eye Gear", the pieces that come off are tiny, but blindingly fast.

Neil

On 12/30/2018 at 2:17 AM, DHarris said:

Did anyone ever post pics of their tries at this?  

Please post some pics of your next go at it.  I've had a few people send me private messages, but I think people haven't wanted to clutter up this thread for some reason.  As long as things stay on track, I'm more than happy to see how others are doing things.  Maybe I'll learn a trick or two!

Next up, I'll do a bit about inlaying copper wire.

I think perhaps it would be more not wanting their work to be so easily compared to yours. I know my one attempt at it before seeing your thread was terrible. My kids’ artwork we would hang on the fridge would probably have been better. That runs through my mind the few times I have posted a photo of things I have forged. 

One problem I have run into is my penmanship is bad. How do I overcome that?  Just transfer a printed image onto the metal?

Edited to add: I am interested in how you do wire inlays. I’ve never done it, but would like to see how your method compares to others. 

Edited yet again to add: Crap. I forgot you explained how to overcome hand scribbles in an earlier post. 

Edited January 22, 20197 yr by DHarris
Add sentence

8 hours ago, DHarris said:

Edited to add: I am interested in how you do wire inlays. I’ve never done it, but would like to see how your method compares to others. 

Edited yet again to add: Crap. I forgot you explained how to overcome hand scribbles in an earlier post. 

Whoever it was that invented that cheap spray-on adhesive is a godsend!  

The hardest part, honestly, is finding a font you like.  Most of the artsy designs you might want to use are available online through an image search for "line art" or similar.  It might not be perfect, but there's a good chance it'll get the job done or be easy enough for you to modify slightly.

The wire inlay is super easy, but it does come with its own issues.  My trusty Canon G10 camera bit the dust just after Christmas and I haven't picked up a new one yet.  It'll be awhile before I do, but rest assured that the inlay will be one of the first things I work on when the new G10 gets here.

Thank you for this post...

I am also very interested in your copper inlay process.

now I have even more stuff to do/try and less time to do it in....

Thank you for sharing. Very nice to learn.

 

Finally tried it. In copper though, not steel. Crude, but not bad I think for a first try. 

Not bad D! A little experience and you won't get your thumb between the graver and hammer. 

It's not easy to get even lines and smooth proportional curves. The right kid of wax on a half bowling ball on a lead shot filled ring lets you drive the graver in the same direction at the same angle with every blow. 

If you can find one a "headache ball" of 50-70lbs. beats a bowling ball all hollow for an engraving vise. Headache balls are what you see above the hook on crane cables. They're in 2 halves that bolt together and clamp on the cable and make really stable engraving vises.

Keep at it D, you have a good eye for engraving and it's a well paying craft. Hmmm? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Forgot to add this, but here are some runes I carved into the blade of a (display-only) Viking-style sword I made last year:

The inscription reads "Mikkels svirt", which is (kinda) Old Norse for “Michael’s Sword”; the runes are Long Stem Younger Futhark. This was a commission from an old friend for her husband, to celebrate his completion of chemotherapy for bone cancer.