Did a little scrolling practice and a lot of drawing out and rounding practice. 1/2"sq bar to ~3/8" round. The one on the left was my exemplar. I didn't have time to smooth out the scroll today.

Also made my first spoon. It has two ends. Why? because the first end wasn't quite what I was looking for

Lastly I finished reading The New Edge of the Anvil. That was a pretty good read. I think I learned some stuff, and the metallurgy chapter was enlightening. 
 

JHCC. boy nice tongs.. Love the design..  

Thanks! As always, the intention exceeds the execution, but I’m pretty happy with them for now. I may eventually make another pair in the proper size,  and then adjust these to fit something smaller.

Here’s the finished hammer, by the way:

JHCC, tongs look good. How's your forge welding? You could add some length if you want to. I'm still struggling with drop tong welds myself, but some people can do it.

Bryan 

I haven’t successfully forge welded in years. Of course, I haven’t tried, either.

I’m really good at dropping the tongs, though.

punched out a cap lifter to try out my new touchmark on.  

3 hours ago, JHCC said:

Here’s the finished hammer, by the way:

JHCC, that is a sweet hammer.  Love the touchmark.  Do you use a press to set it?  Or a 20 pound sledge?

 

 

Looks a tad over 20 pounds

 

The head weights 36 lbs. Beaucoup thump.

Nice bottle opener, by the way. Touchmark looks good.

Didn't do much the past couple days, too hot for me. But I did get some unexpected mail, touchmarks from buckeye engraving. So I did some test pieces before heading out to work. Quite pleased with these.

 

 

Made some micarta today. It's not fancy or pretty, and a 90 degree shop wastes a lot of resin because it sets way too fast in that heat, but I managed to get enough for one set of scales.
Hopefully I got enough resin to soak in and I won't have dry pockets in it when I shape it.....

 

Looks pretty clean sfeile. I think you did good. 

Thank you Mudman! It was my first attempt, so I wasn't expecting awesomeness, but I was hoping for useable.

So I made my first set of tongs yesterday after shying away from it a bit.

I started with 16mm square and set them to hold 8mm round, I want to do a bit more tidying up on the handles after looking at the pic.

But they are good and solid and hold the stock really well.

Lot better than my first pair!

Thank you,

I have waited just over a year to give them a go building up to them and I'm glad I did but can already see how to improve the next pair hopefully I will start them tonight.

I may now be addicted to making tongs.

If you haven't yet tried making split-rein tongs, give them a serious thought, especially if you have a striker or some kind of powered heavy hitter (I use my treadle hammer). For example, check out jlpservicesinc's video:

and this one from Craig Trnka and Chris Madrid:

 

I have seen that technique and will be giving it a go, really just wanted to push myself a bit. I was going to make a few pairs the hard way so I can get a better technique.

But it got really hot it looked like I had been in a pool in my clothes.

Mostly a cutting-and-welding day today. 

More tool holders on the vise stand:

A chiseling fixture, also for the vise:

Also cleaned up some rusty frying pans from a yard sale:

Alas, the nicest one fell and broke at the very last moment. I will not repeat on a family-friendly forum my utterances in response. 

Oh, well. It only cost me a buck. 

I love that for tool holding. Will steal!

Built a set of titanium tong myself today! Starting size 5/8” round and I didn’t bump up enough material for for a suitable sized boss so I sized them for 3/16” flat. They should be handy for working on bottle openers. Not my best work but now I know how this material works and am looking forward to the next time I can snag some. 

Nicely done.. 

JHCC, is the one frying pan a Wagner or a Griswold?

As to your chiseling block. You may want to trim the real leg to make it less of an angle then the 45 you have now. It makes it easier to see the project.

Ranchmanben, Titanium does forge nice. I have some 3/8 rod that came from a shop I worked at.

Neither; the big one is a Wapak, a short-lived (1903-1926) Ohio manufacturer that mostly made copies of other manufacturers' wares. The smaller one (the one that broke) is a no-name, but really nice. At least, it was.

Regarding the block, I think you're probably right. I'm a bit reluctant to change it, though, because the welds came out so beautifully!

(Actually, now I'm starting to get an idea how to do it while keeping those welds. Stay tuned....)