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I Forge Iron

Made my first drift


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I needed something to open up the bottle openers I've tried.  I didn't have a big drift and had no luck finding one reasonable.  went to the scrap yard and picked up a piece of steel that is about 1.25 inches.  Not sure what it was had an eye in it and an amateur welded foot on it.  It was about 9 pounds at 25 cents a pound.  a total novice, but the grind test showed it to be between mild and tool steel.  here are a couple shots.  would have worked it longer but the weld on my handle broke and I was getting worn out anyway.  I need to get a striker

 

 

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You don't really need a long tapered drift for bottle openers anyway. Good job. 

Moving larger martial sure is some work by yourself. Lately I had some 2 1/4" torsion bar that really made me work for it with 4# and 6# hand hammers. Good strikers are tough to come by and usually not a steady thing. <_<

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That’s a beast!  I don’t even have a hole in my entire shop that I could drive that through.  Kudos for the hard work forging that thing.  It looks straight and true.  Keep your eyes out for some barrel drift pins used by iron workers.  I got my hands on a bunch of them cheap and use them for drifting bottle openers and for forging the rounded lip on the opener.  I recently saw a Brian Brazeal video (he’s started posting to YouTube again) and he uses them as well.

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