Finished flower themed pencil holder

That's very nice work 58er

irondragon forge & Clay.   Thanks looks like it was a double layup  exactly what I was looking for..  

Mudman, nice bottle openers.. I have never made one..  

duckcreekforge.  Wonderful work..  I love making rulers or measuring devices..  They are gorgeous..  How thick.. 

yup. bunch of great work there 58er

Thanks, Jennifer and Mudman these are the first i’ve made. I measured them at .058”, would that be 18 gauge?

In which gauge system? There are several out there and non-ferrous metals traditionally used a different system than ferrous metals.  It's really best to go decimal inches or metric is you need to nail down a thickness!

if you search on sheet-metal-gauge-chart you will find a number of examples, the  Metal Supermarkets page has a specific ones for brass, copper, several types of steel; but doesn't list what system they are using. exp  for Brass on their system 18 ga   =  .04030

another example to show how different gauge systems can differ:

Gage No. 18                    Size in Inch

Steel Gage                           0.0478

Birmingham Gage (B.G.)    0.0495

Galvanized Sheet Gage       0.0516

Zinc Gage                              0.055

Learned about differing gauges from being in the SCA where one requirement for a helm (Armour) to fight in used to be just listed as 16 gauge till folks ran into differing thicknesses.....

thanks guys

In the autumn I made a chandelier. I began to make the decor of aged pine on the fireplace in the same style. The work is very dusty, worked on the street. Today frost -15. I had to dress warmly.

1 hour ago, alexandr said:

In the autumn I made a chandelier. I began to make the decor of aged pine on the fireplace in the same style. The work is very dusty, worked on the street. Today frost -15. I had to dress warmly.

Alexandr,

Congratulations on another beautifull  work.

I know you cannot send me, somehow, your very enviable skills. However, could we come to some agreement with regards to your boots ? This morning was -27 Cº  over here.

Thanks!

This is the best Russian shoes for winter. Called valenky . Did not find the English name.

Meteorologists promise a further cooling.

The boots look like thick felt to me, it's very warm & water proof wool material.

Yes, “valenky” is usually translated as “felt boots”. See, for example, Max Hayward’s English translation of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Yves,

Minus 27 C  is minus  16.6 F.

SLAG.

A couple of weeks ago I posted some twists and an overhand knot in a railroad spike.  I was challenged to make a figure 8 knot. 
Challenge accepted. 
A figure 8 retrace. 
Why do something simple when you can overdo it. 
This was mostly work with the tongs and pliers/visegrips. That was good since I had aggravated an old tendon injury in my forearm using a heavy hammer to taper these. This was a chance to get in the shop without much hammering. 
I still need to dress it up a bit and tighten the coils.
 

My favorite knot is a Carrick Bend for visual effect,  I use a Bowline a lot at work.  I keep thinking about the Scouts in my Troop asking why they needed to know all of these different knots..

I was a hard hat diver and the Carrick Bend is always on the front of the old fashioned helmets.

Alexandr,,Im always at aw with your creations, I am curious if the chard beams have a noticeable smoky aroma in the room area

I would think Chard beams will have a vegetation scent and not have much strength, perhaps charred beams?  (I'm betting autocorrect on that one!0

Hi All,

New to the forum today.  Today, I wheeled out the tools for working tomorrow.  Thus far I have only created my own tools, propane forge, and a few art pieces from mild steel.  Tomorrow I plan to attempt my first blade from a piece of leaf spring.

Excellent..  Freezing rain, and super cold here today.. 0 by tonight..  Looking forwards to your knife.. 

18 hours ago, psacustomcreations said:

A couple of weeks ago I posted some twists and an overhand knot in a railroad spike.  I was challenged to make a figure 8 knot. 

The easy way to do it.. Is you start out with large knot..   Open.. 

then you grab a come-along and a 2 wire pullers or a solid loop.. in other words some way to grab both ends of the knot.. 

With a good even heat on the knot..    Pull it closed..    This method is by far the fastest and most accurate why I found..   the only problems is the metal has got to be where you want it to start because once you start pulling you'll have a hard time stopping to re position any of the rods.. 

That is similar to the technique I was using to tighten my overhand knot. 

For this one, the first knot was not too bad to make. It was trying to weave the second knot and fit the pieces in the forge at the same time that made it challenging.

  I was going to break out the OA torch for some localized heating but wanted to try this using only the forge. 

That probably made it harder on myself but I still have a lot to learn. 

It’s too cold to do any forging today, but I did take a minute to siphon the water out of the bosh, to keep the tuyere from freezing. I knew I was saving that old CPAP hose for something!

What do you call the "bosh", please?

The bosh is the reservoir for the water-cooled tuyere on my forge. It’s the vertical part on the left in this photo:

If it were to freeze, the ice expanding could easily pop a weld and make the tuyere leak. We don’t want that. 

Thank you for the quick answer.

My water drum beside the forge is steel. I had installed (too mechanicaly chalendged to do it myself …) a block heater. Took me years to think about it and the village mechanic. No more  winter long emptying a (too) small water bucket and carrying a new supply every morning. It was the emptying that got to me the most ! This  block heater idea might be possible for you as a solution for the colder periods. I have mine on a timer. It heats the water drum (November to April more or less) for 1/2 hour every hour and 1/2.

Since I do not like my steel drum and would prefer a wooden cask, I'll have to see if a block heater can be installed on this. I'll ask the village mechanic who is mechanicaly gifted …

I know folks who’ve installed water trough heaters in their slack tubs. 

I’m not worried about mine as much, as it’s a former beer keg in stainless steel and built to withstand pressure.