9 hours ago, Frosty said:

Nice troll crosses. Have you tried a reverse twist? 

Frosty The Lucky.

Not on the troll crosses, but I have done them on the shafts of fire pokers etc. I can see how it would make for a symmetrical cross.

I'll try one after tomorrow's demo. Might be tricky to get the space between the twists centred exactly at the top of the loop. Aha! I sense a challenge!

On 5/27/2018 at 9:48 PM, Frosty said:

Nice troll crosses. Have you tried a reverse twist?

OK, tried one today. Not perfect, but I think I'm on the right track. The symmetry is better with the reverse.  (The twist is a bit too long, as I like the arms to cross in the plain section so you can bed the two together).

Hey, that's really nice!

That turned out really nice Aus, especially for a first off. The way I fine tune twist lengths and in this case symmetry is to do the twist before forging the tapers. It doesn't always work but the transitions come out nicer in many cases.

I'm thinking a nice counter punch in the center would look well as a pendant, necklace, charm, etc. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for the suggestions Frosty. I think I'm on the right track with these. I made a jig to make the symmetry more predictable.

 

Those are really nice! May I ask what you use as a turning wrench for small stock like this?

3 hours ago, SFC Snuffy said:

Those are really nice! May I ask what you use as a turning wrench for small stock like this?

Sure. It depends how you are gong to do the twisting. When I do this in a vice I use a small tap/die wrench. The adjuster allows you to clamp whatever thickness of steel you are twisting. For those 1/4 inch (6mm) troll crosses in the jig, I use a small shifting spanner (Am. adjustable wrench).  If you get an even heat in the stock and centre the shifter you should get a symmetrical reverse twist. That jig in the picture was made just for 1/4 troll crosses. It works well, so I'm thinking of making a bigger jig using larger spanners and making one end adjustable to suit whatever length twist is required.

So you leave the center square enough for the shifting spanner to get a good grip. Very nice!

I've seen a similar large jig on here where they welded the crescent wrenches to some sort of adjustable collar, which was then fit over a length of black iron pipe or square bar (I don't recall which). With the pipe clamped in a vise, the two supports could be moved back and forth to allow as large or as small an area to be twisted as desired. Rather ingenious, really.

On ‎5‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 6:38 AM, ausfire said:

However, I can't see how  you can make the "north/South cut'  of a Frederick's Cross deeper.

This has been nagging me in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks, there are only two cuts so one had to be n/s and one e/w. I haven't been able to get to the shop lately, but I did pull out the modeling clay when my nephew was visiting and came up with this.

It looks like the cut that comes from the top and separates the arms is the cut that makes the N/S cut. While the one that comes from the bottom and separates the head and feet makes the E/W cut. So to keep from having to draw out while shaping the head, I cut the arm cut almost all the way through, leaving a solid piece a little longer than half the starting dimensions to stretch a bit as it was shaped.

I also did some other variants on the Fredericks cross, but that is for another post

Good idea to try it with the clay. I can see how you can make the loop on the ankh cross as an extension of the north/south cut. But if I'm understanding this correctly, to make the lower section solid you would have to forge weld the split. Quite possible of course and certainly worth a try.  Thanks for taking the time to experiment with it. Let us know how you go with steel.