Frosty Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Nah, Glenn is just being nice, none of us are reading and commenting on your progress, especially NOT such a tidy little shop. TIDY blacksmith shop? HAH! Okay, enough joshing for now. You're getting better at your bottle openers and the twists are coming out well. God on ya! A good way to keep the punches, chisels, etc. you're using at hand is to drill holes in the wooden anvil stand to hold them. I have a piece of 4" x 4" with holes in it for my ready struck tools and a number of yard sale cake pans to hold the bulk on my table. I put my ready tools working end up so don't have to look for the right one. Just remember to keep a can of water handy to cool them off BEFORE dropping them in the wood block or next time you grab it you have the HOT end in your fingers! That's the worse thing about this kind of tool holder the hot end is UP. . . WAIT, same thing with your can holder! Looking good Jon. I'm following you. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 2, 2020 Author Share Posted January 2, 2020 Sorry gents wasnt meaning to complain! I was more concerned that I might be driving people nuts with updates that arent interesting. The tidy shop is your fault Frosty! I took your advice re/fire safety and am regularly brushing and keeping the area clutter free. Nice tip re/ tool holders in the anvil stand too. I might do just that for my "in use" tools as you say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 I aught to show this to Deb, she could use a good New Years laugh. We (or should I say I?) didn't think you were complaining and the chance you could drive ANYBODY here more nuts than we already are is vanishingly small. Nope, I look forward to your posts and am rewarded every once in a while with something I can tease you with. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Happy New Year Jon, there are a bunch of us following your progress. I have to admit you are doing better than I did when first starting out. 17,856 views and over 300 replies yep I would say quite a following. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Happy New Year, and, yes, keep it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Another tool holder for things like that is to take a piece of angle iron and weld a bunch of short pipe lengths to it leaving space on each end to drill for a lag bolt to attach it to the wall/stump/etc: two grace notes: Once you learn your punch order you can keep them working end down so the cold end is up, the second is to not weld the pipe against the "floor of the angle". Leave a gap so that trash doesn't build up in the tubes. Are you doing the "opposite sides add to 7" on your dice? (The most common one.) A fellow in the NM Artist Blacksmith group used to sell forged dice that always rolled 7 by simply making all sides of one die 3 and the other die 4---did not guarantee the buyer's continued health if he used them in a game... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 TP- im about to buy a welder so a tool holder like you described might be possible soon.... thanks. Also yes I was careful that the dice opposites added to 7. My gamer mates would never forgive me for a mistake like that.... id never hear the end of it. That said.... one of my gamer friends is very lucky, and the another very unlucky. I might make their bottle openers to be all 5s and 6s, or all 1s and 2s, for a bit of a joke. Today was a HUGE success. I wanted to have a go at a set of viking style tongs, similar to those found at Mastermyr. I also wanted to try shorter handles than my other tongs to see how that feels. Im incredibly happy with these. Easily the best thing Ive forged so far. Took me around 4hrs although that inluded making my first rivet and making a nail/rivet header. (Note- they look enourmous in the photo- they were still to hot to put in my hand for scale. They're not that big because the reins are fairly short, but theyre nice and chunky. Reins are approx 8-10mm square for scale). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Great looking Viking tongs, I love mine for blade work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal the smith Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 What’s more important is that they work well and feel good in the hand, and after our session on Sunday I can confirm that they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Thanks Neal! Neal and I had a good forging session on Sunday- he gave me some tips on forging leaves and hooks while having a go with the coke forge (Neal uses gas). Here he is modelling my new "bike-chain-foot-powered-hold-down", which he loved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 A friend of mine wanted to see my forge in action, as he hasnt visited since the forge was "a box of soil in the garden" (his words!). .... well I wasnt just going to let him watch so he got handed the sledgehammer. He did a fantastic, tireless job and we succeeded in making a new coke spoon for managing my fire. Unfortunately, I burned the steel on the handle while we were chatting, and then tried to twist it with a tapered handle. Both these errors resulted in a crack in the twist which ruined the handle. The handle is also shorter than I'd have liked, anyway. Im planning to cut it off at the damaged section, then do some more work to untwist, reforge square and draw out much long and thinner, then recreate the twist and hook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Pudding spoon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Tough on the spoon. Well, if you do get a welder you could weld a new handle on, or fire weld one on if you're feeling lucky. I always warn people visiting my forge and more so that take up a hammer to pound something out that it only takes seconds of not paying attention to ruin hours of work. I have to remind myself that as well, sometimes the hard way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 "Talking and cranking the blower" is a bad thing to do. I try to train myself to let go of the handle if I open my mouth. The SOFA shop forges have electric blowers with foot switches where they are off if you are not stepping on it---helps new smiths a lot! (They also have an override switch for things like forge welding.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Yeah, having an electric blower does not make it as easy as letting go of the blower handle. I do have both an on off and deadman foot switch but don't use them. Tho, I probably should use one at times. I also have an on off switch built into the variable speed router controller I use for my blower, and usually utilize that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 14, 2020 Author Share Posted January 14, 2020 My blower has a foot pedal, but I'm finding with coke I need it on all the time so I've basically rested a hammer head on the pedal so it's always on. I control the air flow with the valve on the Iron Dwarf forge. (my blower is noisy as hell though unfortunately!) I'm learning about burning stuff the hard way. I was excited to have my friend in the shop, and I got caught out once we'd drawn the steel down to a smaller size and the heating times went down accordingly. The handle is too big anyway. For now, its structurally sound and I can use it as-is (its better than the rubber handled garden trowel that I was using before!). There's enough material to cut off at the burn and draw out much longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Spoon fixed. Confession: there are, or course, massive cold shuts running the entire length thanks to the chisel line from before..... but its hardly going to effect the functionality of a spoon handle. I need some help and advice on another project, please... I'm trying to make a cross for my wife's grandfather who recently passed away. Its a temporary grave marker for the 9 months till the ground settles and headstone can be placed. He was a carpenter, so I wanted to do a nice job, hopefully something he would not be ashamed to have on his grave. He was also a proud Irishman, so I figured a celtic cross with a ring would be nice, and I could forge the pieces of the ring. I'm happy with them so far, but I'm worried they do not form a perfect circle. While working I was matching them to a chalked line to try and get the correct curvature but they're not perfect. Any tips for getting the curves perfect? Or do you think they look good enough as is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris C Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Take some chalk and trace around your cross on the concrete floor of your shop. Then take a trammel point and draw a circle from the center of the intersection of the cross members. Make the circle a little larger than you have in the picture. Simply re-bend the arcs on the circles to come close or mimic that circle. (you'll need to slightly "flatten" their arc) Then heat and re-bend the "feet" that attach to the cross. Shouldn't be a difficult process. Would be easier to show you how than it is to explain how. Oh, and you're probably going to have to remake the cross because the larger circle will make the feet "miss" the upper leg of the cross. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 18, 2020 Share Posted January 18, 2020 Chris has it for making all match. One thing I do is to make one I'm happy with, then match the rest to it not a drawing. If you want to use the ones in the picture, I think they will be good if you fill the open sections with some scrolls or circles to attract the eye, like my pitiful drawing shows (an artist I'm not). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anvil Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 One thing thing on your cross parts is that the twists don't match. You can do this using a can of water and a torch. With the can of water you can cool small areas and add heat with a torch. Cool it where the twist is good and add heat where the twist needs to be opened or tightened up. Then twist till you are satisfied. This works with a forge and can of water only, but adding a torch to get a "localized heat" is very precise and saves time. You have flat spots on the non twisted sections where the feet are. The easiest way here to correct this is by using bending forks and scrolling wrenches, all easily made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 The lay out on the floor is a good idea. That way you can draw a perfect circle. Mark the length of the circle segment and practice to find where and how long you want the twist to be. Clamp the segment in a vise. The metal is small enough to try twisting the metal cold. Make 10 segments and then choose which 4 match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 21, 2020 Share Posted January 21, 2020 I've used wagon tyres as bending forms when trying to match up curves, I have a number of them of differing diameters in my WI scrap pile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 23, 2020 Author Share Posted January 23, 2020 Thanks for all the advice everyone! My error here was a) not drawing an accurate circle as a guide..... really silly! b) as anvil point out, my bending method left flat spots at each end of each curve. I hadnt really notice this initially. As suggested I drew a much more accurace circle on the floor, along with a trace of my cross.... then I bent the straight sections. THEN I used light taps of the hammer to actually evenly UNBEND each curve. I personally found this gentle unbending to be easier to control than the bending... at least, with the tooling available to me. The result shown below speaks for itself- still not perfect but certainly now circular enough for me to be proud of it. I'm not concerned with the uneven twists......controlling this was beyond my skill level, and I personally think they look close enough to not matter. (Also, if I'm careful which twists go in which place, I can match them almost symetrically. The picture below is close. For example, if I flip the top-left piece end to end, then the whole thing will be close to symetrical where some twists are tighter or closer to the ends etc.) In other news.... I started a kitchen knife. I hadnt planned to try this prior to my course with Owen Bush (Basher) in April, but I wondered if trying it at home first (following tips on one of Owen's online videos) might actually be beneficial prior to the course. Next step is to finish grinding before heat treating. I'm not in any rush and will probably work on this in between other projects. What I REALLY want to start doing is making hammers....... and hopefully my next few projects will be to forge the tools I need to make my first hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 The cross looks much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Kerr Posted January 24, 2020 Author Share Posted January 24, 2020 Thanks Irondragon! Thanks also for your suggestion re/ filling the open sections, that became my backup plan if all else failed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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