Hello there! I'm a Swedish apprentice blacksmith. I'm currently making a project about blacksmithing twists. I'm trying to gather knowledge about twists but i find it difficult to find history of it. So it would be appreciated if i could get some help. (not sure if I'm in the right thread). 

Here is some of the Twists I've done.

 

 

 

Some interesting twists there. I've posted this pic before somewhere, but here are a few of my twists. Nothing that hasn't been done before, of course. It would be cool to invent an original twist.

This is where modeling clay becomes your friend. You can play with all sorts of twist designs quickly to see which you like. You do not have to only use solid material, you can get some interesting patterns with angle iron, angle iron plus round and or square stock, and twisting pre-twisted elements together. Let your imagination run wild with clay, then take it to the forge and make them in metal.

I think finding a history of twists would be almost impossible because there wouldn't be any way to prove (without first hand primary evidence) that one was invented before the other. And as you've proved by chisseling the centre, or cutting into the corners, or welding multiple bars together...just add a new little feature and you've got a new twist. I think it would be impossible to have original dated documents of all the variations tried.

Might want to look at some done in bronze age jewelry

Welcome aboard Aushin, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised at how many members live within visiting distance. Telling us in one post won't stick in our memories once we start reading another message. In the header it will remind us every time we see a post from you.

I'm thinking twisting metal is as old as refined metal, humans have been twisting fiber since Neanderthal times.

Sounds like a difficult and very interesting project Aushin, some of the guys here have posted some pretty spectacular twists. 

I'll be watching for the eye candy pictures sure to be posted.

Frosty The Lucky.

Hmm, Frosty, now that's a new twist if I've ever seen one... 

Here's some more twists I've done. 

Is that last one the "ouch twist?

I remember seeing a sword guard that was twisted and barbed to look like thorns.

Just now, ThomasPowers said:

Is that last one the "ouch twist?

I remember seeing a sword guard that was twisted and barbed to look like thorns.

Yeah you wouldn't want to use that as a handle. I like it because it kinda looks like scales. It would be really cool to have lika a dragon head at the end of it.

2 hours ago, anvil said:

Hmm, Frosty, now that's a new twist if I've ever seen one... 

New? Naw, I'm a frayed knot.

Frosty The Lucky.

Lol,,,

The spiky one totally looks like a head of wheat

If you show that to any of my Doctors; we will have words and the moderators will run out of X's and I will banned for life + 4374 gigayears. (And it will be worth it!)

1 Week to my next invasive Medical test...

Nobody has posted a twist in a round bar,,, yet.

Black Bear Forge over on u-tube had a session on round bar twists a while back.  Kinda neat.

how would one go about creating the 'ouch twist'?

Create it similar to a rubics twist except, instead of cutting into the bar at 90 degrees cut into it at a sharper 45 degree ish cuts.  Then twist to align.   I made a similar one and back cut the sharp corners off before the twist.   It made a handel of raised diamond shapes.

I was experimenting the other day and at one stage landed on this, it was pretty simple to produce:

2 full twists, hammer the twists flat, 2 full twists again in the same direction. I'm not usually a fan of twists but I thought this one was kinda interesting.

Hey, I like that. 

That is nice.  It’s funny, I just posted a link to a video by John Bennet in the thread on reverse twists.  He has a great jig for that purpose.  However, he also does some videos on other interesting twists.  He even did a very cool twist with angle iron. 

Managed to have a bit of a play today, and ended up with this

 

Question is, which one is the reverse twist?

On 8/5/2018 at 2:17 PM, John B said:

Question is, which one is the reverse twist?

Excellent!

Depends on if you are a left handed smith, or right handed. 

I would give the inside ones a full twist clockwise, and leave the outside ones straight to start out.. Then open up a half twist counter clockwise.

That should leave two half twists(180*) each in opposite directions.

12 hours ago, anvil said:

Excellent!

Depends on if you are a left handed smith, or right handed. 

I would give the inside ones a full twist clockwise, and leave the outside ones straight to start out.. Then open up a half twist counter clockwise.

That should leave two half twists(180*) each in opposite directions.

That would work, but not appear the same as the one pictured, less of a helix which then feels different when held if used as a handle.

Give it a try, and let's see the results for comparison.

I will. Give me a few days.

Lol, nothing beats a new twist!