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I Forge Iron

Some designs for forged letters


JHCC

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I have always wanted to forge the letters of the alphabet.   One day I ran across an artist’s drawing of letters on Pinterest (which was captioned “I Forge Iron”, but I’ve not been able to find anything about it on that website) and that became my inspiration.  A few notes:

-     Letters are 3 inches tall.

-     Each letter was forged from one piece of steel.

-     NO electric or gas welding was involved.

-     Most slitting was done with a chisel (small cuts were done with hacksaw or bandsaw).

-     “B” and “W” are forge welded in the center.

-     “T” was hammered using a slotted heading block, similar to making hand-forged nails.

-     “X” was the hardest to plan and execute.

This exercise was a challenge and a GREAT learning experience!

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2020-04-11_181934.jpg

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Beautiful Ron! Did you do any process pictures? I'd love to see what steps you followed for the more difficult letters.

The images are copied and saved in my "forged elements" folder with credit. Thank you.

Frosty The Lucky.

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On 4/12/2020 at 8:58 AM, slowpoke said:

One day I ran across an artist’s drawing of letters on Pinterest (which was captioned “I Forge Iron”, but I’ve not been able to find anything about it on that website) and that became my inspiration. 

This is one of two alphabets published in Entwürfe Zeitnaher Schmiede Arbeiten* by Christian Zimmerman (Munich, 1959); there are images of both in the IFI Reference Materials section:

On 4/12/2020 at 8:58 AM, slowpoke said:

This exercise was a challenge and a GREAT learning experience!

Great job! I look forward to seeing your work on the second set!

* loosely, Complete Contemporary Smithing Work

 

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Frosty, I've been asked to submit a few instructional write-ups along with photos for my area's newsletter from AACB, Appalachian Area Chapter Blacksmiths, and when I do I will submit the info on this forum as well.  In the meantime, I enlarged the images so the letters were 3" high.  By using dividers and string, I was able to determine almost all of the lengths of material needed.  Most of the letters lend themselves to having the ends left long to be cut to size when finishing. 

The size steel I used for most of the letters was stock reformed to 5/16 - 3/8" to 1/2 - 9/16" (I do not like using mill stock).  Most of the letters allow you to use a side set to isolate material to become the thinner parts of the letters on the viewing side (see the large letter B).  The part I set down was usually brought to 3/16 - 1/4".  I would let it grow to about 1/2" in depth.  You may choose to have some deeper, some shallower.  Note that the A and the H have overlaps that get forged together by alternating the hits from front to back so the notches are roughly equal.  

Good luck with the project!

JHCC, thanks for the info on the reference materials.  Hey - I look forward to seeing YOUR work on that second set!  If I can do it, other smiths can too!  :-)

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