That's a fine looking rooster. Next up a dragon. I'll have to take a picture of one my wife made to go in front of the fireplace.

Finished that knife i made the other day. Pattern did not come out quite like i hoped but hey it was basically a piece of scrap when  started. The handle is blood wood with brass pins. Nice coat of teak oil and you can see why i do not make knives. 

If you ask me, I say it's a good looking knife. How is the edge retention?

thanks Pat and your work looks great. those dremel bits look nice for the price.

john love the rooster.

next mission find some steel to make a hardy tool and anvil stand.

Billy I think the knife looks great too.

Go to a tool rental place and ask if they have any worn-out jackhammer bits. The thick ones with the collar are perfect for hardy tools.

A lot of places will just give them too you for free, but be ready to fork over a few bucks if necessary.

1 hour ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

That's a fine looking rooster. Next up a dragon.

This is for a place called the Blue Rooster Bakehouse. Maybe I can get my friends who are opening a brew pub across the street from the bakery to name it the Green Dragon....

JHCC very nice rooster..  

Billybones nice looking knife with great pattern..  I love it. 

Frazer:  here is a photo of the bevels on the hooks

John, when torch or plasma cutting out by hand go a little over size on the little parts when you'll be cleaning up the details anyway. The beak may wind up a little small depending. Luckily with a welder nothing steel is usually ruined. (If need be). Honestly that is some good cutting with a torch. 

Frazer, nice looking chain and hook. Especially the lil anvil. I was curious to make one after that video but lack the time. 

Thanks for the clarification on the hook Jennifer, I wasn't sure what you meant but that makes it clear. Now to get some forge time to try it myself... 

Thanks, Das. Yes, I cut a good bit oversized and then trimmed the edges down with the grinder. I think with practice, I’ll be able to get closer, but I’m quite happy with how it went this time. 

Since my earlier post (i.e., after dinner), I welded on the center supports and some filler to bulk out the feet, all in 1/4” round:

And here’s everything so far, with the frame and the bird together for the first time:

JHCC,

Beautiful work!

SLAG.

Looking good John!

Love it JHCC

JHCC, how will you do the joinery on the scrolls? 

Thanks y'all. I just do not have the patience for fit and finish work. That and the weather took a turn, woke up to snow on the ground yesterday and the temp was in the high 30's - low 40's. So i was kind of rushing it to come in and have a beverage in the warm house. 

As far as the edge retention i do not know yet. All i have done is ran a file to get a basic edge on it, today i was going to put it to the stone, maybe, it is cold and snowing again. I have no idea what metals were in the billet when i found it. I do know i added a piece of a big clock spring and a small piece of 15N20. 

Guess that time of year to get propane for the torpedo heater is upon us. Was out in short sleeves friday, breaking out the long handles today. 

thinking about forging outside myself home again with sick kid, but a lot colder today and not sure what to do for project yet.

19 hours ago, Pat Masterson said:

not sure if it’s a good thing that you can kind of see it glowing through the bottom though..?

No Pat, the outside of your forge should NOT be glowing. Did you put a layer of rigidized and KOL covered ceramic blanket in the bottom for the floor? Having an extra inch of INSULATION where the flame impinges keeps the outside cooler at that point. 

The break looks pretty grainy. Bringing the steel to critical temp FOUR times appears to be too many times. Next time try normalizing ONE time or annealing it instead.

Were you cutting hot or cold when the chisel bent? If it bent hot cutting You could be making it too thin or taking too long to cut. If cold cutting you drew the temper too far but it looks too thin for a cold cut anyway.

John: I don't know if that spring configuration will do it but I'll be watching. It's a lot simpler than what I was envisioning.

I thought of something a little different but it probably wouldn't fit this project. A later version maybe. Hinge the rooster at the bottom of the foot and counter weight it with a bell below. Heck the "bell" could just be the shape, it could have an LED light in it. Or be a lantern.

The lower surface area and more streamlined shape would allow the cock to move and relieve wind forces against it.

Hmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

2 hours ago, BillyBones said:

JHCC, how will you do the joinery on the scrolls? 

Probably plug welds. The mounting brackets are going to be riveted and welded. 

Plug welds, that makes sense. I would be on my 4th trying to set rivets before i thought of that. 

Made the bracket to hold my fire set to the wall today. Bit chilly but the torpedo got the shop up to about 65*. 

I like the bracket Billy. Nice work. 

I was toying with ideas for combining welding with forging today. I tend to try forging to help with welding projects but much more rarely try welding to help with forging elements. (Other than some tooling.) 

Had some ideas to weld elements on to forge to shape after. We'll see where this line of though goes later. I got my engine in my jeep and running. Still a few things to check and clean up but with some cleaning up soon i might actually get to fire the forge. Been missing it even tho it is right there, and have a ton of work to do before Christmas.  

nice bracket Billy may I ask what it started from?  it was to wet of a snow to try and stand in today and forge.

On 11/13/2021 at 5:53 PM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

I'll have to take a picture of one my wife made to go in front of the fireplace

Great looking dragon 

That’s an awesome dragon! 

agreed excellent dragon

Billy, I like your knife and bracket. Great job on both 

Nice bracket Billy, I like it.

Really cool hearth dragon IDFC. Can't sneak up on a dragon like that. No sir!

Frosty The Lucky.