It is my understanding that it is the extra high carbon content that makes sparks, not so much the hardness. Could be wrong about that, though...

 

Naw, it's the hardness. Make a fire steel, anneal it and see how it works. The energy required to shave a bit off a piece of hard steel is enough friction to make it glow. The white sparklers have been heated above ignition temperature, both the steel and carbon ignite but it doesn't last long. I like fat orange sparks, they are plenty hot and last a long time in the tinder. 

Frosty The Lucky.

We used magnesium pucks that we shaved off little bits, & ignited.

Doesn't take much to get it started.

 Burns like all get out with a very hot flame.

A great fire starter.

SLAG.

I.P. and Frosty, thank you for the kind words. I really like the marble idea. I will give that a go once I become more proficient at the twist. 

Spent the whole day in front of the computer learning FreeCad. My head is about to explode, this was tougher than a good day at the shop. I need a cold beverage...

I'm not sure that this software is totally suitable for sketching my ideas but it does some things real cool.

Bests:

Gergely

49 minutes ago, Gergely said:

Spent the whole day in front of the computer learning FreeCad. My head is about to explode, this was tougher than a good day at the shop. I need a cold beverage...

I'm not sure that this software is totally suitable for sketching my ideas but it does some things real cool.

Bests:

Gergely

I gave FreeCAD a try and it takes more time than other commercial Products to learn. I use it for fabrication and sometimes to get dimensions for forged pieces but I would never attempt to fill a frame with scrolls or anything like that in FreeCAD.

If you do a lot of similar parts and create a Library it could work, kinda...

Only thing I did today (this evening) in the shop was clearing a hole in a new old swage block

 

9 hours ago, KRS said:

but I would never attempt to fill a frame with scrolls or anything like that in FreeCAD.

 

That's exactly the feeling I got, too. Can't see how the "free hand" sketch could worked into a 3d model. I have got some thoughts, though, and gonna try exactly the scrolls. I'm just not sure it's worth the effort.

Bests:

Gergely

For 2D work Draftsight is in my opinion the best free software available - the toolbars are almost identical to classic AutoCAD.

For 3D work Sketchup is pretty decent - not on the same level as the big names but it doesn't cost £7k a year either!

Just like in Blacksmithing the best way to learn is by doing - decide on a project and look up some tutorials for the techniques you think you need to use - Youtube is full of useful videos. 

One thing I would say is you could spend years drawing and redrawing scrolls to fit into different frames, so unless you get smart with the initial sketch creation, it may be worth only drawing up the frames and sizing scrolls the old fashioned way.

On 3/5/2017 at 4:06 PM, flux_lalonde said:

Sandra Dunn here in Kitchener.

Sandra's a great teacher - 7 of us in the workshop, and we all got piles of well-targeted, well-leveled direction.

Flux.

Small world I also got taught by Sandra, but up in Haliburton.

    Working on a prototype champagne "sabre" design. Burned this handle onto the through tang and finally got my guard bent and roughly profiled so it fits the handle and tang nice and flush (yesterday). Quench and temper successful late last night with no warps (yesssss), working on blade, handle and guard refinement today!

I've wondered a few times about putting a marble in the basket twist, but was concerned about it breaking?? I'd imagine you get the hook or whatever is on the basket twist 100% done, take one last heat to open it and insert the marble, then close it and it's done? 

Do it cold and it'll spring back of it's own accord. I can never remember the name but there is a twist tweaker tool that works a treat for adjusting twists. It's basically a long pointy flat bar on a T handle. You slip it into the off kilter part of the twist and twist the T handle or pry till it suits you. 

Frosty The Lucky.

5 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I can never remember the name but there is a twist tweaker tool that works a treat for adjusting twists. It's basically a long pointy flat bar on a T handle. You slip it into the off kilter part of the twist and twist the T handle or pry till it suits you. 

Frosty The Lucky.

See this IFI comment for a picture and instructions.

A bright steel bearing ball looks good in a basket twist.. No chance of shattering!

Roughing out newell post parts today.  2 1/2" od pipe for the hollow bits, 1 3/4 solid tapered over 34 inches.  Fun.

23 minutes ago, Judson Yaggy said:

Fun

Silly question, but wouldn't it have been easier to heat fit or forgeweld everything together?

4 hours ago, Judson Yaggy said:

1 3/4 solid tapered over 34 inches.  Fun.

Oh, my! Those are real nice and long tapers! Me like 'em a lot.

G

Fired up some kindling in the JABOD to test the gate valve. 

 

On March 7, 2017 at 11:15 AM, Mitch K said:

    Working on a prototype champagne "sabre" design. Burned this handle onto the through tang and finally got my guard bent and roughly profiled so it fits the handle and tang nice and flush (yesterday). Quench and temper successful late last night with no warps (yesssss), working on blade, handle and guard refinement today!

Nice work, Mitch. Glad to have ya.

On 2017. 03. 07. at 9:28 AM, RobbieG said:

For 2D work Draftsight is in my opinion the best free software available - the toolbars are almost identical to classic AutoCAD.

For 3D work Sketchup is pretty decent - not on the same level as the big names but it doesn't cost £7k a year either!

Just like in Blacksmithing the best way to learn is by doing - decide on a project and look up some tutorials for the techniques you think you need to use - Youtube is full of useful videos. 

One thing I would say is you could spend years drawing and redrawing scrolls to fit into different frames, so unless you get smart with the initial sketch creation, it may be worth only drawing up the frames and sizing scrolls the old fashioned way.

Sorry, I forgot to answer this. 

Thanks for the suggestions! I tried Sketchup, but can't afford to buy it right now. I'm definitely gonna check on Draftsight - never heard of it before.

Also trying to get my hands on Adobe Illustrator for an enhancement of my hand drawing abilities. Will see if it's working or not.

Bests:

Gergely

5 hours ago, Gergely said:

I tried Sketchup, but can't afford to buy it right now.

The free version of Sketchup is sufficient for a lot of design.  And once you figure out a few tricks is not terrible to use.  I just taught myself in order to layout my propane forge design - needed to figure out the shelf for the firebricks I will have instead of a door,  and the support for a little hard firebrick shelf out front, and the frame supporting this all.  It helped in the visualization process, vs. just starting to weld stuff together...  -- Dave

9 hours ago, WoodnMetalGuy said:

The free version of Sketchup is sufficient for a lot of design.  

Yeah that's what I was aiming towards - I have recently started using Onshape too and can recommend it. The main negative with the free version is your files are all public but if its not something you plan on selling probably not a concern. Also its cloud based so you can use it on tablets and smartphones too (note I have no affiliation with Onshape - just excited with modern technology! )

A little job today lol but i got a few orders for them and a couple of differant variations.

So here is some pictures of the fire steel and some other stuff that I've been busy with. it had been years since i used rebar, and was interesting. I think that i can somewhat use it as a selling point, to show people it used to be this, and now it is this.

                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

I don't think you will have any issues selling any of them, very nice