JHCC: yup that seemed to fix it.. Nicely so.. 

Ben, please don't take the comments as an afront..  Pictures only show a 2D image with a great lacking in both sense of weight and depth.. 

They look great.. I'm sure they work great also..  So, did you find a new market vs tool making?  

Ted,  those are really cleanly done..   Well done.. Nice to see and look elegant.. 

10 hours ago, Ranchmanben said:

...they’re very comfortable in this format and can be used the same from either direction.

Sounds like the ergonomics are fine...and they're great looking.

Al (Steamboat)

On 10/2/2018 at 8:12 AM, littleblacksmith said:

Body is a rasp, edge is a peice of cable Damascus.

I think it looks great. Interesting combination of the rasp and cable damascus patterns.

11 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Ok, I swear, last scorpion before freaky fair.

Das, you've made another very cool critter. I hope your sales adequately support your scorpion habit.

10 hours ago, Ted Ewert said:

I made a hook and glued a small neodymium magnet on the back.

Ted, nice smooth work on the hooks, and I like the embedded magnet idea. 

On 10/1/2018 at 3:39 PM, 4elements said:

I finally finished a towel bar for my wife.

4Elements, that is an elegant-looking piece. Your wife should be pleased with that.

Al (Steamboat)

Al, my scorpion habit is driven by demand. I have so many things I'd like to work on but have to have some smaller merch. for the sales table. 

Don't let that fool you, I like making these little critters. Lol

Oh, I know, Das. I was just ribbing you a bit. If you can make and sell 50 of them, all the better to finance your other projects.

Al (Steamboat)

So I made my first tool yesterday.   I followed the plans for the easy tongs in the blueprint section here. I think mine turned out almost as good as the ones that the 10 year old kid who wrote the article made. 

It was cool to take a couple of peices of metal and turn them into a functional tool. My favorite part was making the rivet...it just looks so awesome.

It also makes all the work that I see posted here that much more impressive. It's a lot harder than it looks to make the steel do what you want it to do.

Now comes the good part. Few things feel as good as using a tool you made with your own two hands. 

Just one problem Beav, where are the pics? If we can't see it it didn't happen you know. 

Frosty The Lucky.

JLP- I was at school, and I realized, I reckon i do draw a little. Maybe not at times when I should be but I do draw some. Here is a page in a packet we got in english about the state wide writing test, I did some drawing. That's how most of my notes and papers look haha. I do like the cross pein style I drew and wanna try it out sometime soon.

Thanks Steam boat!

                                                                                                                                          Littleblacksmith 

I second Frostys request. Beavers, we want a picture!

Littleblacksmith, I do the same thing. I end up with projects sketched out on a post it at work.

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

Just one problem Beav, where are the pics? If we can't see it it didn't happen you know. 

Haha...I tried to post pics but I have a really bad cell signal tonight. It won't even upload the pics. I'll get them posted tomorrow. 

Just didnt have the energy tonight. Got part of 3 roses done. , got the three stems. As you see I made the bud and shank first, then tapered down the stem. Next is more leaves then trimming and making thorns from the trimmings. Also cutting out the pedals. Lots of work. 

Here's my tongs.  I had a tough time putting the groove in the jaws, and kinda knocked the alignment of them off a little.  They do seem to do a pretty good job of holding onto 1/4" round stock. I want to do some more practicing bending and shaping things before I start on a bigger set of "real tongs".  I just picked up a copy of the Complete Modern Blacksmith from the library.  He has some practice drills that I want to run through before tackling any bigger projects.

Also upgraded the anvil.  It's a "blade saver". They use them on them on the big DOT snow plows in the high wear areas like the outside ends of the blades.  It's a bout an inch thick and is much more solid than the I-beam.  I'm planning on building a stand for it this weekend. The bolt holes are 3/4".  I was thinking I might be able to use them as hardie holes.

Sounds like you're on the right track. Make sure you mount your anvil plate vertically, to get the greatest mass underneath the hammer blow. If you haven't seen the thread on improvised anvils, check it out:

 

Thanks JHCC.  I have looked that post and found a lot of good info there.  With my plate being only an inch thick it seemed pretty thin to mount vertically.  Would you still suggest mounting it on end?  

Now that I think about it...I probably won't be forging anything thicker than 1/2" for a while.  An inch wide plate would give me plenty of working surface right?

Can’t hurt to try. Report back here on your results. 

You can use it either way, you got the whole thing there, get your moneys worth. Yes, you could use those holes as hardy holes. Make a hardy and some other hardy tools to fit. When/ if you get another anvil you can just make spacers to still use them if the hardy hole is bigger. 

I've managed to snag a 50# chunk with 1" bolt holes for the more common 1" shank hardy tools. NOT worth trying to expand those to 1" that stuff does NOT like to be abrasively worked at all!

I did a little experimenting today with finishes.  

I was not happy with the amount of scale I've been getting.  I adjusted the propane pressure as well as the air inlet to get as little scale as possible.

The silver leaf I had too much air and the scale was thick.  The last big leaf, I had the air inlet opening closed more and scale was thinner, giving a smoother appearance.

I also wanted to bead blast the pieces to see the effect it would have.   The silver leaf was bead blasted and allowed to cool where I could almost hold it before I brushed some wax on it.  This gave a silver/gold appearance.  The larger leaf I bead blasted, then heated up to a straw color, then brushed wax on.  It gave it a greenish hue to the metal.  The arrowhead I bead blasted, then heated it up a little hotter than straw, then brushed some wax on.  That gave a more slate look.

Pretty interesting so far.

Forged by Andrew Marjama, on Flickr

Colorado cj- the leaves are looking good, and the stems are looking very good. Good job. 

Mod note: the discussion of the effectiveness of JHCC's treadle hammer has been split into its own thread:

 

I finally proved to my wife that I CAN finish a project, then she mentions cleaning out the gutters! 

That looks really good but you have broken the compact that all men have had since the dawn of time. Never let her know you are capable of finishing a project. She will come to expect it and she will tell her friends, the next thing you know it will be expected from all of us. 

This could be bad.

I confess my faults and submit to my punishment. I'm sorry. 

Nice towel rack, though.