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Jasen's smithing progression.


Jasent

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I just started smithing a few months ago (feb/17) and thought it would be a good idea to post all my work here and track my progress as I go. Please feel free to give pointers and critique.  I'll start with my first completed project and go from there

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46 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I love that idea!  I've been hunting for a bottle opener I can get beginner smiths to do in a reasonable amount of time. I may experiment with the termination though.

Yeah I wasn't too happy with the end either but didn't know how to do it different. 

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You can drill a hole through the web and slip the chain through well below your hammering level and get it out of the way. The notch you put in the web can be used as a bending fork or other.

Nice work Jason, you have a knack for smithing.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Thank you frosty.  It's in my blood. My grandfather was a smith. Wish I could have learned more from him while he was around.  My uncle called me today and had found some hammers Gramps made and a small post vice. He is giving them to me!  I just hope I can fill those boots some day

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I'll bet your Uncle is a happy man to see his Father's tools working in the family again. Want to bet he has some seriously good Kodak moments in his Father's shop? 

Don't try to fill your Grandfather's boots, fill your own boots. Just go for it with determination and he'll be smiling.

Frosty The Lucky.

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One of my current projects. It's a camp knife made from leaf spring. It's mostly stock removal but I did thin it down by drawing it out a bit. Quenched in cooking oil and tempered over the coals. Spine to dark blue and edge to straw. Needs finial edge and handled. 

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Ayup, looks like a knife to me. I like a progressive temper better than a progressive quench but I'm not a bladesmith guy so . . .

Good plan to get your feet wet with stock removal knives, you have to develop the skill anyway and it's much harder learning to forge the things at the same time. One of the guys in our club makes a lot of nice blades and prefers to use coil spring over leaf. He says it's a LOT easier to shape as he wants. I've watched him at the anvil and it sure looks easier and faster to use round steel for making blades.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Looking good!

My only suggestion at this point would be to flatten the curve on your hot-cut. As it stands, you'll only be cutting on the middle third or less, and anything significantly off-center is going to slide out from under the hammer. Think gently rolling hill rather than Gothic cathedral.

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1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Looking good!

My only suggestion at this point would be to flatten the curve on your hot-cut. As it stands, you'll only be cutting on the middle third or less, and anything significantly off-center is going to slide out from under the hammer. Think gently rolling hill rather than Gothic cathedral.

Thank you for the info. That's just rough forged( first day using a power hammer) didn't have time at David's class to cut and grind the hot cut

 

Frosty I do have a small pile of coil springs. I'll work with that on the next knife which will be a small skinner/ caper. Think pairing knife style to replace one of my trapping knives I'm not too impressed with. 

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Start by forging a point on the end before flattening the blade. Mark actually profiles the blade before he starts widening it. Like all new techniques it takes practice and experimentation to get the hang of it. I'm also not a bladesmith guy so my opinions are FWIW. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Very good video indeed.   Wish I could have put it to use this weekend but my truck had other plans...spent the weekend rebuilding the rearend. On a positive note I now have an axel for hardy tools.  

Ive been invited to a couple hammer in's towards the end of the month. Looking forward to those. 

 

Few more things ive made.  Found a small SS dish that was smashed so I made a shop ladle out of it with my small tinning hammer and a trailer ball hitch in my post vice. 

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Small axe I made from a RR spike. Had planned to forge weld a bearing race in for the edge till I melted most the edge off not paying attention. So I made it smaller as a wall hanger.  Carved out the handle from a broken shovel handle with the draw knife I made earlier shown above

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bbq fork was made from a 12" nail and my 5th set of tongs where I got a bit lazy and didn't draw out the reins

 

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8 hours ago, Frosty said:

Good how too video, WAY better than most youTube how too videos. 

Frosty The Lucky.

One detail about YouTube that a lot of folks don't know: If you're watching an instructional video (especially a good one, like this), you can go to the settings icon (little gear-shape at the bottom of the screen) and change the speed to 0.25, 0.5, or 0.75. You can pick up a lot of details that you might miss at full speed.

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I'm really liking the LB aswell. Lots of control from no air to raging forge fleas. 

 

My my uncle came by with the "hammer" my grandpa made.  It's a very well used hot cut /slitter. Needs dressed badly as you can see but I'm excited to put it to work

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It's a hot cut NOT a slitter. Slitters have thin cross sections to make a narrow deep cut, a slit not a trough. Slitters are more like "I" where hot cuts are "V"

Remove the mushrooming and dress the top and you have a tool you can use for years.

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