Haha yeah. Wind up in a T shirt, and if ya got visitors they are still bundled up and cold while you are sweating. Well, I guess depending on the size of the shop. I have a natural gas heater tho. I try not to run it so much because gas is way more then electric here. 

I had 50 degrees and rain yesterday. Looks like this today....

 

70 today and breezy, much nicer than the 50's we had last week. 

JustAnotherViking, you may want to make a topper for the beer bottle quench cup, so you don't get any scale in it. 

 

Shoot I didn't get that much ash piled up on my shop roof last time Arizona was burning!

I made my second rail spike knife! Good hammer time and getting a little better! I plan to try some o1 I have in shop soon but feel I need more practice!

 The leather handled Nesmuk Knife next to it was made a week ago. The Nesmuk was made from a very old saw blade! 

With my son’s help, I punched an eye in a big chunk of mild steel for use as a soft hammer. Drifting and cleanup to come. 

Also, rodded a hot set, finished up a WI bottle opener that had been sitting around for a couple of months, and tried out the new rounding hammer on a leaf. 

I needed to make a door knocker for a trade item at our next meeting. Found a large draft horseshoe in my resource pile and knocked out a HSO (hammer shaped object). It's big & loud for the shop door.

Great door knocker! How is the cross bar connected? I'm guessing the back of the holes are recessed and the rod peened over to allow the piece to lie flat. Or a dob of weld? Nah, you wouldn't have done that. Nice creation anyway - a winner with the horse people.

Typical Saturday morning of finishing up bits and pieces of non-forge work: added some welds to stiffen the Andy hammer, spot-welded the handle on the hot-set I rodded yesterday, cut the blank for my soft hammer to length, made some wire hooks for my tool rack, and — after the last straw last night of losing it for the umpteenth time — welded a loop handle onto my touchmark. 

I am making a mounting plate of sorts for this broke sander I fixed so I can put a bevel plate on it. That board goes in my vise.

Few recent projects 

I made me a dagger out of a railroad spike. Well more I finished it from last week. Got it heat treated and sharpened, then I went and trimmed some hedges with it to make sure it was sharp. 

I also managed to fail at making a sheath for it's curved brother, and probably failed at welding up a chain link.... It's currently resting at the bottom on my slack tub where I dropped it when I went to cool it off. At some point I'll fish it out and see how it looks... Didn't get any Sparks so I doubt it welded.

There's the mount for crap sander next time I make it out there I'll make the bevel plate. Cost so far 16$ not counting belts

Behalf of building activities on the shop (new door and windows) I also made some examples for upcoming workshops and show them to the sudents. Give away almost all the stuff I usually have as birthday presents or to say thank you to one of the ‘sponsors’ (air tanks, scrap, materials etc.)

With the plasma cutter I’m able again to cut out raw blanks to forge them and give it a relief shape and texture.

Nice work Hans. I really like the crane, and the (bronze?) castings look very cool too.

On 9/27/2017 at 9:57 PM, littleblacksmith said:

The texturing is done with two tools. I have a bottom tool in the hardy and then a hand hammer. Gergely, I really like those candle holders! A simple piece but fun to look at. Loving it, keep it going. Hope your thumb gets better!

I've been searching for some more info on these texturing tools as I need to make some too. I think that JHCC and Das have mentioned making/using something like this as well. Do you have any pictures of these tools? especially the bottom tool?  Any close up pics of the texture pattern, or further details on grinding the grooves/lines in the tools? Depth, width, spacing, etc? And finally, Do you have different sets of tools for different patterns?

Thanks LBS!

Hans that crane is very nice. 

Shady, I just cut grooves in the face of a junky ball pein, nothing exact or precise. If I remember LBSs bottom tool was a block that fit in the hardy hole with a very similar grooves cut in. I have meant to make the bottom tool and more and different patterns but haven't got around to it yet. 

 

Shady, -bronze indeed my second obsession at the moment (casting replica's of roman bronze age founds) also thanks for the suggestions of texturing tools. Will share my try's on them.

Greetings, Hans

On 3/3/2018 at 4:57 AM, ausfire said:

Great door knocker! How is the cross bar connected?

Thanks, I plug welded it in back.

For the most part I fixed a water line today. Got that done only to discover that a well had quit working. Literally three minutes after that fabulous discovery the boss call and tells me he’s got livestock in bound to that pasture. The one good thing is they don’t show up for a few days so I’ve got tomorrow to trouble shoot and determine wether or not I can fix it or have to call in a pro.  Anyways, took some time to blow off some steam and work on refining my Habermann/farrier bolt tongs. 

This is my first rr spike knife it was mainly for practice and is not even HC but look at it! All done with inferior tools!

Secretary at work asked for a fairly simple angel for her son.  I made the mistake of poking around Google for ideas since she wasn't too sure on what she wanted. Soo.. I saw one and kinda went that rout. Thanks to whoever came up with the ( nicer ) original idea. I have another idea on how I'd make one now which is cool. This one got a square nail for a halo. Still needs a little cleanup. 

I don’t know what the original looked like but I think that’s outstanding! Would you mind showing a picture of the back side, need to know how to copy it. 

Spent way too much time and effort for something that’s going to get hit by the sprinkler everyday. This was a request from my boss to make it easier for his wife, with an above the knee amputation, to get up a tall step. 

The one stair staircase

Nice work with the angel Das, a very nice keepsake.

Thanks. Sure Ben. I cut it from a larger pipe but think I'd start from flat stock next time. Thought the pre curve would save me time but it actually I think caused me more work.