Help getting smooth finish

[JK Scotland]

Hi folks, I've just made my first leaf, as I've seen various folk suggesting this as a good beginner exercise. I got on ok, but I'm not happy with the surface smoothness. It's inconsistent and rough. I used a wire brush after the last couple of heats and applied beeswax, but not sure what's causing the weirdness. Overheating, or too many heats maybe?

Thanks in advance.

[John McPherson]

Are you using a propane forge? Looks like excess scale from an oxidizing flame mix.

Best practice is to wire brush if with a butcher block brush every time you take it out of the fire.

If a shiny finish is important for the final product, an overnight vinegar soak, baking soda rinse and a powered fine wire brushing get it ready for a quick fire bluing and waxing.

And you thought being a blacksmith was just hitting things with hammers, hah!

[Goods]

How hot was it when you were forging it? It almost looks burnt.

Enjoy the addiction,

David

[John McPherson]

How many heats did that take? You should be able to do that in just a handful of heats, if not that is your problem.

Basic beginner issue with no one to show you technique. You have to have a plan before you take it out of the fire. If you spend more than one second looking at it sitting on the anvil, drawing out the heat, you have lost a goodly percentage of your working interval before you even strike. It also helps if you lift the work off the anvil face slightly between blows.

Get a magnet and hang it on a wire near the anvil. AS SOON as the steel is attracted to the magnet, back in the fire it goes. Soon you will learn to read the colors to recognize the forging range. If you are colorblind*, that is the only way to go.

If you keep on working ineffectually at a lower heat, it then takes too long to get it back up to a forging temp, and you need to get it out as soon as it comes back up.

More time in an oxidizing environment will degrade the surface. If you keep the work directly under the gas flame, it is worse. You can make what is called a 'muffle' out of a short section of pipe of box tube, and place your item inside that sacrificial shell.

Knifemakers do that all the time, high carbon steels not moving as easily as low carbon ornamental grades, it takes more heats to move the steel.

*Red/green color blindness is actually not that uncommon (about 6%) in European males, so much so that gas torch hoses are red and blue outside the US.

[JK Scotland]

Thank you gents - all of these suggestions could be the cause!! Definitely took a lot of heats for this, compared to tutorials I've seen on line.

Oxidizing flame -- possibly. Yes, it's a propane forge, and I normally just open up the air inlets on the burner pretty wide - maybe too wide.

Colour-wise, yes, I'm red/green deficient but think I can recognise the changes in colour as it cools -- I just don't know what the colours mean! "yellow is mellow, red is dead" is what I had in my head from somewhere on this site.

Thanks

[billyO]

5 hours ago, JK Scotland said:

I just don't know what the colours mean!

Welcome to the addiction, JK. 

If you haven't yet, do a search for colors of hot steel, and realize this is just a representation.  How much ambient light you have in the shop will change how the colors look.  If you can keep the piece over 1600F (870C) when forging, you can avoid much of the scale.

 

[ThomasPowers]

I tell students that you get most of the work done in the first couple of hammer blows; so Strike while the iron is hot!

(Also don't take it out of the fire until you are ready to work it---tools to hand and brain engaged...)

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Ike Doss always would say to me, are you going to look at it or hit it.

[Frosty]

Ah you burnt it a little, good lesson in fire management. Keep it so you can look back and see how far you've come. Less time in the fire and fewer heats will make a big difference. Even if the fire isn't lean, taking hot steel out exposes it to atmospheric oxygen and it WILL scale. 

Think in the fire, meaning the time to plan your next moves, arrange tools, etc. is while the piece is heating. NOT when you take it out of the fire! That's the time to MOVE as Thomas says the first couple few blows will have the greatest effect, the next couple few to dress minor points or prepare for the next heat and back into the fire. 

Hammer skills are learned, reading is a good thing but doing is the only thing that will teach you the skills. 

Other than fire damage that is a good looking leaf. 

About the pitting, I hope you remember how you did it. Just because it's not what you want now doesn't mean it won't be THE perfect texture on a later project. 

Keeping a notebook is really helpful, especially beginning.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

One of the hardest things for me to remember to do, is to brush the piece with a wire brush when taking it out of the fire taking the scale off for a smother finish.