Christmas 2020 is headed this way

[Glenn]

Christmas 2020 is only 112 days away.

Covid 19 has given you the summer to catch up on things and now it is crunch time to get those gifts finished before the big day.

Let us know what you have planned as gifts this year.  We need the help. (grin)

[Chris Williams]

Haha! COVID-19 gave my wife and I additional kindergarten/1st grade teacher and daycare provider responsibilities in addition to full time jobs that have not slowed down any (my wife gained several new responsibilities due to COVID). I hope to catch up on the Christmas presents that I meant to make last year!   We're blessed to have our jobs, so no complaints! 

My plans are to make two types of ornaments:

-Icicles with a modest amount of brass brushing while hot for accent color, and

-Trees chiseled out from lawnmower blades with chisel/fuller/punch indents for tinsel, streamers, ornaments, and stars. Deburring would be accomplished by chisel/stone of sharp features followed by tumbling to smooth everything. 

Longer term (next year and the year after), I want to make tool sets for all of my kids, nieces, and nephews. One set would be the standard hammer, saw, chisel, etc. tool kit, and the other would be a set of garden tools. 

[ThomasPowers]

When my kids were young I would buy old tools at the fleamarket and yard sales and then modify them for smaller users.  Cut the saws down in size using my beverly shear.  Rasped the wooden handles to fit small hands, etc.  I though real good tools were safer for them to learn with than the "toy" tools they make for kids.  As they grew older I would give them tools for birthdays and Christmas. They still talk about the year they both got 3/8" VSR drills for Christmas as teenagers...

Now I'm starting to do the same with my grandkids;  more expensive when you buy ratchet sets for *8*!

[Red Shed Forge]

My Mother-In-Law has some old stoop railings that she took off of her late granny's soon-to-be razed house. She says they are wrought iron but I have not had the chance to get a good look at them yet. Granny lived to be 100 and a few months, but I don't think the house shared the same run. Anyway, she says she wants me to do something with them for her... hasn't said what that something is yet haha. But if she never says, I am sure I will think of something nice to make with them as a Christmas gift.  

My wife wants a larger sewing table for her birthday in October... told her I would forge the legs and frame 

[ThomasPowers]

Probably not real wrought iron.  I tell folks that it's like "linens"---you go into a department store and go to the "Linen" department---you won't find anything made from linen, all cotton or poly cotton but they are still called "linens" because they used to be made from linen and so the material name was applied to the type of item.  Same thing for Wrought Iron, it used to be made from real wrought iron and the name stuck even though in recent times it's all made from mild steel or A-36.

Now I've seen real wrought iron from Cemetery fences and from fences in a historic district---though when those are damaged they are being replaced with A-36 replicas...(I've got some of the original WI stuff from the ornamental ironwork company that does the replacements.)

[Chris Williams]

I agree about the quality of modern kids tools. I remember having a wooden toolbox with a good variety of reasonable (although not great) quality kid-size tools that I got one Christmas; this is the kit that I want to reproduce. I found a more modern but lower quality version at a thrift store that I bought to remind me of what all was in the kit and how to build the wooden toolbox.  I just checked to take a picture, but I've apparently reorganized it into a hiding spot.

Thanks for the idea of resizing tools. I wasn't looking forward to filing that many saw teeth, and cutting old ones down is a great idea. Several other tools are good candidates too. 

[Red Shed Forge]

Good analogy. Yeah, it seems to be more of a buzzword nowadays. Even when you see advertisements for contemporary ornamental railings and the like, they call the work wrought iron. I mean, it is wrought. Just likely not iron. 

[Frosty]

I'll probably make some spread crosses for the in laws and a few friends, some will get Stars of David. 

I might make something else if I get an idea of a special interest. Dan, my son in law will get something squirrel. Hmmmm, I have at least one grand niece in law who has a horse and I have some horse shoes, cool, she's is covered, she'l get horse shoe hooks for tack. 

Not too early to start thinking and tinking.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

[TastefullyPeenedIronWorks]

I gave my wife her gift a bit early. I decided not to take pics of the work, I like it being a private piece just for her. I made a pocket sized billet/coin of Mokume-gane and put my touchmark on one side. It’s polished and you can see the laminations quite well - at least on the edges.  I had some mild difficulty forming it as it wanted to keep separating/delaminating but, with some heat low and slow I got the job done. She carries it now, I suppose as a type of keepsake or ‘worry stone.’  No matter how you view it, Happy wife, happy life. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

My wife would use it as a challenge coin.

[Fowllife]

Friendly reminder that Christmas is only 3 weeks away.

Last years theme for me was bottle openers.

This years theme is going to be a assortment of wall hooks. I have a decent start but still more work to go.

[BillyBones]

On 9/3/2020 at 1:54 PM, Red Shed Forge said:

My wife wants a larger sewing table

Bet she would drool over my moms. It was a dining room table, 4 x 8 at least, that my dad cut and put an adjustable shelf under so that the machine would fit flush with the top. Other special add ons as she needed. My mom is a quilter. Now she has my aunt, her sister, into quilting so for Christmas it is stuff they can use for making or hanging quilts. 

[Red Shed Forge]

That sounds really nice! I offered to make that adjustable shelf for her too.... she doesn't want it! I have seen them done and thought it was a great idea. Says she doesn't like the flush-to-the-table feel when sewing. Can't convince her otherwise. One less thing to build, I suppose. 

I do have the legs forged out for it... but with how high lumber prices have been lately and being bogged down by other orders, she has been very gracious in letting me finish it at a better time. Still made sure she had a great bday though 

[Frosty]

30 minutes ago, Red Shed Forge said:

Says she doesn't like the flush-to-the-table feel when sewing.

There's less resistance to moving the fabric if the machine isn't flush with the table, my Grandmother used to lift her singer off the shelf and slide out the one so her machine sat on top of the stand. Yeah, the original Singer treadle sewing machine stand/table could support the machine recessed to be flush OR on top with little divots for the machines feet so it wouldn't move. I wish I remembered how it was set up, it' was simple easy. I'll have to ask my Sister, she has it and is an excellent seamstress. I'll have to be careful though or she'll send it to me.

Her husband "Pappy" bought the Singer motor W/speed control, kit for her birthday one year. If you just pressed the foot switch the motor would just hum and get hot, you had to give it a bit of a turn to get it moving. You could turn it forwards or back and it'd turn. 

Must be nice to have room for a sewing table that size. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

[Cannon Cocker]

I'm making these gnomes for my wife. I like the way the bigger one turned out but I'm very dissatisfied with the smaller one. I was wanting it to be a"child gnome" but the face needs a lot of help!

I also forged some key rings from a small coil spring. A knife for my brother-in-law. And some lantern hooks for my mom. 

 

[BillyBones]

The young gnome looks mischievous. I like it. 

My dad is retired Army so they moved around a lot. They would almost always buy a house where they were going. My dad looked for a big garage and my mom looked for a huge room for her sewing. When they lived in LA they had a mother in laws apartment attached to the house. My mom used the whole apartment. The kitchen cabinets were filled with fabric, batting, and what not. The living room was packed with cabinets and racks full of thread and bobbins and other stuff and of course her sewing machine. The bedroom also. She also collects sewing machines. I bet she has 30 of them old treadle machines. 

[George N. M.]

Redleg:  I have a question about the serrations on the knife.  They appear to be blunt.  So, they obviously are not saw teeth. Are they for increased friction/grip if you have your thumb on the back of the blade or are they just for the look of the thing (coolness)?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Cannon Cocker]

It was supposed to be a "rope" filed spine. 

[Red Shed Forge]

22 hours ago, Frosty said:

the original Singer treadle sewing machine stand/table

We have one of these in our living room that was passed down to her a few years ago. She doesn't use it for sewing, but I will have to look into what you are referring to. Interesting to know that it allowed for both preferences.  

[ThomasPowers]

I have a friend who used a treadle to sew leather tubes to slide wood glue covered wooden sheathes into; once dry then he would mount throat and chape usually made from sheet nickel silver.  (Both my wife and I had treadle sewing machines when we married; we still have hers.)

[Frosty]

Cannon Cocker: I like both of the gnomes. Children have larger eyes in relation to their head and perhaps rounder faces and cheeks. I agree it has a mischievous twinkle. 

Nice Christmas product spread. The elves are pleased.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[Cannon Cocker]

Thanks guys for the encouragement. I know I can be a little too judgmental on my own projects (as most Craftsmen are). I'm fine with the eyes and nose. It's the mouth that I'm not satisfied with. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I think the mouth looks fine, a childish grin comes to mind.

[Frosty]

The mouth is good for me too but MAYBE a little more lift on one corner. A bit more of a mischievous smirk maybe. I think it's good as is.

Yeah, we're all our own worst critics. At least you're normal that way.

Frosty The Lucky. 

[elmoleaf]

Before the cold weather hit (I don’t have an indoor shop), I made a little creature from rebar for a relative.