Wow. Lots if work in that one. Love it. I like the height adjustment. Those leaf legs are great. Hows the handle attached?  Nice job.

Thanks Kevin, the handle is held on with 2 small flat head screws. The heads are in the barrel and are filed off smooth, the treaded ends are filed flush with the handle surface and can not be seen. I've done several of these over the years, tried riveting, and silver shouldering, but was never happy with the results.

Finished up this wrought iron key chain leaf

I learned these from another smith, Monica Coyne, at the last Hammer In.  Half inch bolts and nuts, the balance can be tricky. Fun to do

13 hours ago, ausfire said:

Found a couple of old wheel braces in the scrap while looking for something else. They made good simple candelabras after a bit of bending in the forge. Had to adjust the holes a little to make them suit a standard candle. Found some heavy bases, essential for things holding burning candles.

 

Very cool. I can see tbem on the office shelf in a auto shop.

Mel

Ranchmanben---Those are real nice roses! I cut up 55 gal. drums for my stock, some are much harder than others but there is a lot of metal there. Keep up the nice work.

                            Jerry

Thank you Jerry. I haven’t made one in quite a while but it just so happens that a buddy was helping me work on the lead up to my squeeze chute and when we got do he said he’d like to make one for his girlfriend. It was Friday afternoon, the drinks were cold and I didn’t feel like building the gate I need so we set up the flower shop. Here’s what I did near the shop today. The rose was build by largely by him. 

21 minutes ago, Ranchmanben said:

a buddy was helping me work on the lead up to my squeeze chute and when we got do he said he’d like to make one for his girlfriend.

He wanted a squeeze chute for his GIRLFRIEND!?!?!

It would make a better story if he was dating Temple Grandin but alas, he only wanted to make the rose for her. 

Found some scraps of 5/16 stainless steel rod and forged a couple of leaf hooks for the bathroom wall. That stuff is hard. Do you guys charge more for stainless work?  Not just the expense of the steel if you're using new stuff, but the extra time in getting it hotter, punching etc.

The bottom one is not burnt ... just a slip with the wire wheel while brushing. I'll rebrass it.

 

Yes Stainless has an upcharge as it's more expensive to buy, more expensive to work and more expensive to finish!

Finally got around to trimming the legs on my anvil stand. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed that it was significantly out of horizontal until I turned it around and started forging horn-to-dominant-side (right, in my case). So, shimmed it level, marked it all around all three feet with a block of wood and a sharpie, and cut off the extra (up to 1-1/2”!) with the Portaband. 

Nice and level:

@Lou L was right: once you get a Portaband, you start looking for more projects for it!

Made a bolster plate/cutting plate. Going to try it out for a while and see how it works out. It slides on the anvil for the holes to lign up with the hardy hole if needed for a pass through. My old cutting plate was 1/8" thick and warped on me. This is 3/8" thick. 

I've been thinking about doing similar with some leaf spring I have. 

While working on a small axe head (motivated by a post on here a little while back) my favorite tongs for 1/2" square came apart. When I bought the tongs the woman said her husband (recently deceased ) bought them 20+ years earlier from a man who had them for 40+ years. Looking at the sheared rivet I see what looks like a worn spot that caused a stress riser. 

Before I go on, I want to ask how others would proceed. Would you immediately fix it and go on with your current project? Or would you instead take the opportunity to see and handle the halves so as to reproduce your favorite tongs?

I grabbed a new rivet and put in place and then stopped. I decided to do the latter of the choices I gave above. I brought one half in the house and weighed it on my postage scale (3.5 oz) and did the math to see just how much coil spring is need to make an exact copy (10" of 3/8" coil spring should be adequate). So now I'm back out to try to reproduce them. 

Were it me, I'd just get good pictures and measurements if not a tracing too and re rivet and get back to work. No harm whatsoever in reproducing them now tho.  

The wire proof-of-concept back rail of my motorcycle chain hold-down gave up the ghost, so I made a new one from 1/2” round:

Close-up of how it’s attached:

The tabs are a bit thin, because I accidentally made them too short and had to draw them out a bit more than originally planned. Still nice and solid, though. 

Also finished up my Andy hammer. 

And today, in addition to a doorstop for a coworker and a cross for Lisa’s office (new job — yay!), I made a knife for a friend who’s been badgering me for one. He did my mother-in-law’s memorial service, so I owe him big time. 

(Forged, hardened, and tempered; still needs to be sharpened.)

Greetings all,

         I spent a little time at the forge today on our first snowy day in northern Michigan. I staggered the twist on a pineapple twist to a new look.  The yield was larger diamonds in the center and smaller on the ends.. Kinda cool.. Great for a handle where you want a smother section for a easier hand grip.. Have fun...

Forge on and make beautiful things 

Jim

JHCC.  "Andy" hammer. Is that an inside joke or was my search here faulty?

I got the idea from Andy McKenzie/ @Everything Mac: it’s a heavy metal holder for a wooden mallet head. 

lessons in talking and forging. Lesson learned is no talking and forging. Be that social media or whatever. Yesterday I started a fancy spoon and while checking out IFI and replying to a post I burned an almost done spoon handle off. Today I was doing great and of course I got a reply about an inexpensive plasma cutter I've needed and will be purchasing and BAM, unfinished spoon nub is gone. I twisted the stock anyway as practice. 

Last one, I made sure to watch. Spoon part isn't my best shape but I got done with what I was shooting for. Not great but nice and good practice for future utensils. ( as in future attempts will be smoothed out more on the eating side) figures the first spoon was the better. I know what to do now tho. 

Hammer, chisel, too much sweat on my glasses. Just a reminder. 

 

Well, that's way worse then burning off a lil steel. Heal up there hawk. And remember, be safe.