Pat Masterson Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 On 4/9/2022 at 7:21 PM, Frosty said: What's ruined, is the stem melted or something? All it looks like from here is you used about 50x as much brazing rod as necessary. Frosty The Lucky. Yeah - I said “ruined” but that was just bc I was mad that I was so close and then messed it up. Plus at the point I had already pretty much completely finished the first one and really liked the way it came out - so again my biggest problem came back to bite me - consistency. I got most of the brazing off yesterday so now it’s just a matter of deciding what process to go with. Macleod that bottle opener is really awesome. Same for those bowls JHCC - really cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Spent the day yesterday teaching smithing at the Fine Arts Metals class at NMT, (8am-6pm) was a bit tuckered last night! Had a couple of Faculty members in the morning class, including the chair of the Mat Sci dept. and his wife. I really enjoyed it when she asked him "Why steel became non-magnetic when heated to the Curie temperature?" The college students in the afternoon were fun. I notice the lack of any hammer experience though. As for hot cuts/hardies: my hardy is the broken off end of a jackhammer bit with the broken end forged down to fit the hardy hole(s). (Students kept using it between different anvils, so I reforged the stem to stick out the bottom in smaller cross section so when they jammed it in an anvil I could tap it out. Found at the scrapyard cost 50 USCents? Been using it 25-30 years now. My favorite hot cut is one I forged from S-1, it was a pharmaceutical "pill punch" that had broken and been discarded. Got it from a fellow that had buckets of them! Picked it up at Quad-State---where I tend to get my high alloy steels. Nail headers: HC RR spikes are at the boundary line between mild steel and medium carbon---around 30 points carbon. I use auto coil spring which is around 60 points carbon and normalize them for toughness as students tend to be rough on them. For small nails; I drill the hole and then drift it from the underside with a cut masonry nail to get a square tapered cross section. John, have you done any of the knitting bowls from stainless? (I picked up some yarn for my wife at the fleamarket, under US#1 a skein for silk and linen still in the original wrappers. It will go to our kids to "play with" as my wife has a strong aversion to unnatural fibers!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 10 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: John, have you done any of the knitting bowls from stainless? Not yet, but I like the idea. Also thinking of doing copper and/or brass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Nickel Silver for the high end? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Copper or bras knitting bowls may discolor yarn left in them any length of time. Natural unprocessed fibers can have odd chemicals in them. Congratulations on the opening, Deb will be sure to stop in when/if we get down your way. Hoping we can afford to take the RV anywhere, cruising the lower 48 was my main retirement wish. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Thomas, i usually would say the "HC" means higher carbon, not high carbon. Yeah they aint ideal but it came down to what i had on hand. I only need to make about 20 small nails that are just for decoration, so far i got 2 made. I drilled a small hole to start then broached with a small square punch, i will definitely keep in mind that masonry nail trick if i need to make a more permanent one though. I got a few more spike that i am going to cut the heads off, drill and tap a hole, clean up any rough spots and finish to make drawer pulls out of. I thought they would be pretty cool especially for a garage or work shop and so did a few other people. A quick question for the gun guys, can chemical blueing be ruined if it gets to cold? I ordered some and it sat in my mailbox in sub freezing temps, then hung out in my shop in a few days of sub freezing temps. Anywho, not much did. Made a nail, finished my chest handle, then made a dangly for a necklace for my daughter. Celtic style dragon. Had some ones old redbone come in for a visit. Came in said hi, look around, took a drink from the cat bowl and went about his way. Just kind of an odd occurance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donniev Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 Got this coat hanger done last week, got some old barn wood a while back and have a bunch leftover still. I don't think it looks terrible but there's a few things I could have done better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 11, 2022 Share Posted April 11, 2022 They look great; but perhaps a bit small to hang a heavy coat on. I dealt with the issue by rolling the tapered end up to make a larger contact point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jobtiel1 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 On 4/8/2022 at 8:50 PM, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said: If the handle has no way to lock it open, it will fold up when dumping the contents. Ask me how I know. I haven't thought about that really, so I tried it out, and it can turn it more than 90 degrees before it flips closed. but I'd rather be safe than drop my dinner in the dirt. I'll have to try some things , thinking about a piece of copper pipe that I can bend over the handle to slide down and lock in the handle. Thanks for the advice! Ill think about it when I use the skillet to cook dinner instead of dropping dinner. ~Jobtiel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazz Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 I have had a bottle of tool blacking (same/similar to gun bluing stuff), I think a Birchwood Casey product in my unheated shop for about 32 years and it still works fine. It can get very cold here in NH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 6 hours ago, Jobtiel1 said: thinking about a piece of copper pipe that I can bend over the handle to slide down and lock in the handle. Keep in mind that copper transfers heat significantly more than steel does. You don't want your hand to be in contact with one end of the copper piece if the other end will experience higher temperatures than you want to hold in your hand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 That's a good point. Also, copper expands more than steel as it heats up, and thus would loosen in use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Thanks Gazz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jobtiel1 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Didn't know about copper expanding more than steel, I'll have to think about how I'll lock it then, or just beware to not tilt the skillet too much. ~Jobtiel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 23 hours ago, Donniev said: there's a few things I could have done Donniev great job on the coat hanger, the only thing I would consider/recommend changing would be changing the screws to something that looks likes the rivets you have on the frame and add some texture to the frame. I think the slick finish on the steel and the screws take away from the great work you did on the project and makes it look like some of that “hand made stuff” you can get from a store Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimaera Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Got a few hours in today, and it went pretty well! While I burned one project, I’d just started it, so it wasn’t a biggie. Other than that, I felt I had really good fire control all day. I got a few knives done. I really enjoyed doing this blacksmith’s neck knife, since the only grinding is in the edge. All profiling and beveling was done by hammer. Cutting edge is about 2.25” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Nice knife Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 That is a nice little blade. Had a of copper and a couple hours to kill so never having done any work with copper i found a use for my doorstop. About 20" of 3/8" tubing i picked out of the trash at work a while back just for this so today i tried it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexandr Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 A couple of new works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Billy, great job on the bracelets, are you going to flame color them?Alexandr, beautiful as always! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimaera Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Billy, I really like those! It's a nice minimalist style! Alexandr, you always amaze me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Still growing my power hammer tooling inventory. I also made the first not tooling item using my new hammer. That cone would have taken my days without the hammer. Still getting used to the power though, it’s not quite an even taper and has a couple “bites “ in it… Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimaera Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Got my second one finished from the other day. This is my first try at something of this style- I was going for a kind of bird and trout thing. Next one definitely needs to be a little thinner with a broader handle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Les, not sure how to flame color, i assume the name kind of says it all. These i just heated up some, put a little wax on then hand buffed with a rag when cooled. Chimaera, I was kind of going for a Celtic maybe a Viking look. Got a new work bench, some assembly required. We got some bar stock at work and it came in a 16' box made from 2" x 10"'s. They were just going to throw it away. Unfortunately i had to cut it in half as it would have stuck out just a bit to far in my truck. So i got 6 8' boards for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexandr Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 Moved the table to its place. Earlier in the same room I installed a chandelier, a firewood basket, a TV shelf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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