New old guy.

[Smifman]

Hi folks. I've been lurking around this site for a couple of years, and decided to take the plunge and join up. Thanks for the opportunity.

I've just about finished my third decade of smithing, and, man, there is so much to learn. I hope to gain some pointers from you folks, and in turn, hope I can share some bits I've learned while doing things wrong, trying to get it right.

Looking forward to participating.

-Lester 

 

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Lester, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many members live within visiting distance. 

So, what do you make? What's your shop and tools look like? Pictures, we LOVE pictures. We believe what we see you know.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Smifman]

Thanks Mr. Frosty.

Most of my career I've made household hardware and such, (curtain rods, brackets, fire screens and tools, window hardware, door locks etc.) but like most metal shops, I done a lot of other stuff, from welding mufflers to making small parts for repairs. 

I've had a passion for folding knives since I was very young, (I've collected around three hundred of them so far.) and so I make simple clasp knives, for fun and profit. Though profit has never really been a goal. (Do you know how to end up with a million dollars while smithing?...... Start with two.) I have four variations of the folding knife,

 and two versions of fixed blade. The two knives posted here are my 'Kneck Knife', and mushroom knife. The 'kneck knife' is "quick release", with just a tug. I also make a lock-back version that still has just three parts.

Recently I made a batch of bicycle head badges for an outlaw bicycle club, 'The Others'

My forge is a heap. The scrap pile is mostly everywhere. My Companion Animal (wifey) tends to stay away. She doesn't feel safe there. And rightly so. I am generally motivated to clean up after I trip over something.

[Frosty]

I grew up I the San Fernando Valley, it looks like we took the same home ec class. We certainly have the same attitude about flat surfaces. Deb stays out of my shop if she can help it, calls me on the cell from the house, she can't usually yell loud enough from the door to get my attention. 

I'm not a bladesmith guy but I like the neck knife's profile, it's attractively graceful. 

Uh . . . Mushroom knife? For cutting mushrooms, or?

Is your forge solid fuel or gas? I run propane, smithing coal isn't available unless you collect it yourself from the mine that was decommissioned right after WWII. Since tinkering a working naturally aspirated ribbon burner I can listen to the radio or hear Deb shout. . .  IF she get's close enough.

I'm mostly a hobbyist, I like playing with fire, hitting things with hammers and climbing the learning curve. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Smifman]

The mushroom knife is for foraging. Some mushrooms are best identified if you can get to the bottom of them. Hence the folding trowel. Some 'shrooms leak a milky substance when cut. Also used for identification. If you're going to eat them is best to know what you've collected.

My blades are made, start to finish with a hammer, and just a bit of filing. No grinders. 

Here is a pic of the lock-back, and a copper head badge. O.F.F.O. stands for Others Forever, Forever Others.

Oh, I have both Coal fired forge and propane. Mostly I use propane for the convenience and cleanliness, but a coal fire is hotter than my propane unit. I've been using 'Elkhorn Smithing coal' from Lazzari fuels in South San Francisco. It is the best smithing coal I have encountered. Super hot, really clean, and very little ash or clinker. It's wonderful stuff.

[Frosty]

Got it, Everybody should have a mushroom knife in the glove compartment or survival bag in the bush plane. I just buy mushrooms eve though there are some primo ones growing wild. 

Repousse and chasing too eh? Nice badge, good balance between clean detail and the rough nature a bike group wants. Well done.

I'm afraid my hand crank blower was killed last summer by fellows who cranked harder when the gears started binding. It hardly turns now and doesn't move air at all. My bad I was there and didn't stop the damage when I should have. Heck I had a 12v blower, mattress inflator we could've used instead too. Nobody to blame but myself, I'm such a bonehead sometimes. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

[Smifman]

The badge is hot forged into a die. The rough texture is from the rusty flat bar I made the die from. I was motivated to join your forum after looking at treadle hammer tooling. Thought I might blunder around that section, and see if I can't embarrass myself.Thanks.  Sorry if my intro is a bit much.

[Frosty]

Ah no need to blunder around any particular section, please feel free to embarrass yourself anywhere. We do. 

It's a great intro Lester, pleased to meet you. You're going to fit right in here.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Lou L]

Welcome aboard, Lester.  I love your work already and love your shop more.  I hope that, one day, I have enough useful tools to create that clutter.  I’m no slouch in the clutter department, but your clutter has soul.  Can’t wait to learn something from you.

Lou

[contraption maker]

Welcome Lester, good to have you here. Really nice work on the knives as well as the copper badge. As far as the shop goes in mine if it is not cluttered I`m not getting much done.   

[Smifman]

Thanks folks I appreciate the kind words-

The clutter isn't necessarily an asset, but having all that stuff means fewer trips to the hardware store. I kinda know where things are. There are, however, places and things in my forge that I haven't seen for decades.

[ThomasPowers]

I used to know where everything was; then I had a couple of concussions and now am surprised at what lurks in my shops "hidden nooks".

[JHCC]

Welcome. Looking forward to benefiting from your experience.

[pnut]

Glad you finally made it

 I really like your work. I've seen variations of the O.F.F.O slogan from some of my friends who are m.c. members. Do you ride also? I have a bike that my dad left me when he passed away. I can't ride it much it's a hard tail and I have back problems. 

Nice shop and again great looking work

Pnut (Mike) 

[Smifman]

Thanks again.

I guess I didn't mention 'The Others' is a bicycle club. I'm just finishing the second run, of ten head badges, for bicycles. 

I still commute on my bicycles. It's about five miles to the forge.

 I've had a number of motorcycles. Still have a Kawi 250 dual sport. I haven't ridden it lately, I prefer bicycles.

I also have a couple of Whizzer bikes, one factory, and one I built, but they're buried in the barn. They haven't been out for a long time. Summer is coming, though.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I like your work bench, looks like mine. My wife always says organized folks are just too lazy to look for things.

[pnut]

Hey, I just checked out the website for your club. Pretty cool. I chopped a beach cruiser about twenty years ago. It wasn't anything special just did it for grins.   

I had an old Kawasaki gsxr -1000. It was set up like a drag bike. it was a 1980 iirc.  That was the only bike that scared me. It was crazy fast and I was still a teenager. I rode it on the street like an idiot. Never got pulled over on it though.  I have a Frankensteined pan head that my dad left me when he died. I've had it since I was two.

Do most of your brothers ride like lowrider type stingrays and such? I seen a pretty good mix of styles on the website. They were all nice and clean. Do you do your own mods? I used to have an assembly business and put bikes together everyday. I miss it. I also had a garage full of frames and parts back then. One of the Walmarts I contracted with would give me all of the returned or damaged bikes that they didn't want me to fix. If it was going to take me two hours it wasn't worth them paying because it was the same price as a  new bike .

There's a scooter club with the coolest name ever. They're called the Mopagans. I think it's a great name.

 Anyway  enough rambling. Take it easy and post some more pics of your work. If you work on your bike post some pics on the thread what did you do in the shop today

  Pnut (Mike) 

[Smifman]

I don't belong to the club. Maybe I could join, if they'd have me. I do agree with their principals and practices.

I made a prototype head badge that I thought to put on my Whizzer, but never mounted it. After years of sitting around the shop, (It would surface every now and then.) I gave it to a friend who was into lowrider bicycles. He ordered badges with the lettering for the club. He's figuring ten runs, of ten badges. The club is world wide.

Several careers back I worked in bicycle shops, and now I'm a blacksmith, so yeah, I do my own mods. I've been making stuff and modifying things since I was wee. My exposure to forge work was a blessing. Custom parts needed were suddenly very available. It's easy for me cause I prefer the 'rat' look. I don't spend much time grinding and polishing.

My passion is simple; I like pushing the metal around. The challenges drive me now.  You know, make a tool, to make a tool. Or I'll make something just to see if I can.

My fastest motorcycle was a Kawi H-2. I was about twenty-three years old. As I remember, it would lift the front wheel in third gear. Scared myself a couple of times.