What did you do in the shop today?

[Dave51B]

 David, well shoot...I swear we will met up sometime. But 2 hours and 100 miles is a bit much for me right now, with everything going on. I do go to RSMA in Johnson Co. park Kinda regular. Even Elnora on occasion, for the tractor shows.    In due time.......                 Dave       

[Goods]

Dave, I do plan on being at the IBA conference in June, just Saturday though. Maybe, I’ll see you there.

David

[ThomasPowers]

Ran most of the conduit for the penultimate circuit in my "clean shop" yesterday afternoon, scrapyard in the morning or course!

Heading out to visit my Mother, she needs some help getting around places to  deal with some bureaucratic stuff and the Adult kids living rent free can't seem to manage it; It's only a 150 mile drive for me---each way.  Anyway I will be offline for most of the week.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Sorry it’s Not blacksmith related but what I’m doin in the shop today,

My busy season is in full swing, 100+ machines in and around the shop, only one part time helper right now…

just had a customer show up with a $8000 machine, an literally ask me if I could get parts in an fix his machine and get it back to him in a couple days…

in the middle of a national parts shortage…

then asked me if I would cut him a deal on labor…

then asked if I would take the time to research aftermarket parts because he didn’t want to pay OEM prices…

Ugggh.. it’s gonna be a long day…

sorry, I’m eating lunch now an I just needed to set down an vent steam for a minute lol

Ive said my piece, yall can get on back to Talkin bout smithin now! 

[Frosty]

Did you quote him a special price, Billy? Rush work is always prohibitively, exorbitantly, expensive isn't it? I believe mechanic tradition says each silly demand is bill x5. I think he's up to your normal billing charge x5 to the third power. No guaranteed finish time might save him say $25.  

Yeah, that sounds reasonable to me. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[George N. M.]

I set the price of my blacksmithing items or my fee as an attorney based on time, which is the only thing we have a finite amount of in this world.  If someone tries to haggle with me I tell them that they are paying the price for a piece of my life given my education, experience, and skill.  If I accept less than that I am saying that a portion of my life is worth less than I thought.  That almost always stops the discussion dead.

That said, I will offer a bit of a deal on ironwork for a large order, but not much. And most of my legal work today is done on a pro bono basis for friends, family, veterans, etc..  These days I am working for love and friendship rather than money.

Your customer may be one of those folk who have the philosophy of always as for a discount because if you get it you have saved money and if you are refused you are no worse off than if you hadn't asked.  Kind of jerky IMO but you do encounter them.  I would have probably said, "No, and if you ask again the rate goes up."  You might even put up a sign on your wall saying that if a discount is asked for the price goes up 25%.

Most people are a pleasure to deal with but there is always a percentage of jerks in any given group of people.  That is actually the basis of most laws.  Laws are passed for the ten (or fewer) percenters.  Most folk will do the right things but there are always a few who will/can not.  Most people would drive in a "reasonable and prudent" manner but we have to have speed limits for those few who would put the pedal to the metal and endanger themselves and everyone else.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I just told him

my labor is $75 per hr, parts are gonna cost whatever their gonna cost…

an there’s not a high likelihood I couldn’t  even get the parts within 3 days let alone look at the machine in that time frame, 

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

special price

 “special” pricing is usually reserved for people who call me or show up at ridiculous times, like 8-10 o’clock at night!!! or on Weekends, or call me 10 times a day for week straight….

like you say George, 99% of people are a joy to do business with, but it’s the other percentage that really really gets old quick

[Daswulf]

Good, Fast and cheap, pick two. Parts anymore has its own separate category, and it is a big ?. 

[Frosty]

Yeah, you're right, I get carried away and it's even easier when dealing with someone else's gripes. I've rarely run into really unreasonable people but they are the ones that stick in your memory sometimes for years. As a whole people want to get along, it's in our DNA.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol yes Parts and freight have their own category right next to the delivery times category!

which lately could be 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months ect… if it’s not in stock in a warehouse somewhere then good luck on estimated delivery times

[Pat Masterson]

I had such an aggravating weekend forging that it took me till today to even want to post about it lol. It’s amazing how much beginners luck I obviously had on the first basket twist fire poker I made which was a gift. Then my first sale on Etsy was the same type of fire poker - two days late because of all the trouble I was having welding the twist to the shaft. Luckily the customer was very cool and still left a great review. But this weekend I tried making two more so I could lower the lead time on my etsy shop for that item and the forge welding was just not happening. I just can’t seem to make scarfs that fit together the way they should. Tried out the iron mountain flux though and it does have a stickiness to it where the borax just slips and slides. I finally ended up getting them welded but I don’t think they’re going to end up being items I would actually sell. Give it another go this weekend. 

[JHCC]

Practice, practice, practice. If there's one stage of the process that's giving you the most trouble, practice that part over and over again until it's solid. Don't be afraid to waste steel and fuel; it will be worth it in the end.

This reminds me of a couple of anecdotes about learning. The first was my own experience in a drawing class in college, where the teacher had us make a drawing of something that really, really mattered to us and then tear it into bits. His message was very clear: don't get precious about your work. If you're not willing to tear something up and move on, you're never going to get better. The second was from someone who had studied for a while with the Italian blacksmith and sculptor Claudio Botero. (I can't remember who it was, but this was in an interview they gave with Victoria Patti on Blacksmither Radio.) Claudio was teaching him how to forge fingers that would be welded together to make the hand on a sculpture, and after each attempt, he would have him cut it off, toss it in the scrap bin, and start again. It was the same message: if it's not yet good enough, cut it off and do it again. Keep at it until it is. You'll get there in the end.

[Frazer]

I would take pieces out of the scrap bin, scarf the ends and weld them together, grab another piece, weld it on, etc, etc. when I was done I would toss the bar back into the scrap pile from whence it came. The upside of this is not every piece is the same cross section, length, etc. do what you need to do to make the transitions smooth even if the bar itself wont be uniform.

If you're having trouble, especially with smaller pieces, use a pair of tongs to squeeze the two pieces together while they're still in the fire. It helps if the tong jaws are hot as well.

One thing I've said many times is flux isn't magic nor is it glue. If your welds wont stick it probably isn't because your flux doesn't have cockroach killer (boric acid) or metal filings or some other magic component in it. Other than practice it all comes down to 1) fire control 2) patience to let it get hot enough and (perhaps most importantly in the early stages) 3) Restraint to avoid the "just one more hit" urge when you still want to weld but the steel has fallen below the necessary temperature.

[JHCC]

Someone (maybe Latticino?) told me once that if a weld doesn't stick with one proper tap, it's not going to. 

[Frazer]

Makes sense to me. In certain instances you can get the thin toe of the top half to stick but not the rest. Particularly when the bottom half has more mass than the top, but more often than not you know within the first hit if it's going to weld or not.

[anvil]

And then there was the drop the tongs weld i did at a crafts fair. Dropped right into the dirt on the off side of my anvil. Picked it up, rapped it sharply to remove the gradoo and welded it. Lol, I pretended it was a normal occurrence.

Experience is the key.

 

 

[ChiefLittleBair]

Tonight I finished up the shop work on a knife for my father in law for his birthday coming up here in May. Just need to give it a sharpen and make a sheath now. 

 

Blade is made from old Nicholson files and mild steel. I wasn't too sure about this combo for edge retention, but after heat treating and polishing for etch I saw a hamon traveling across the entire blade so I believe I got a good carbon migration with the many heats I took at welding temp. 

 

Handle is Corian for a bolster, bloodwood, and walnut. I also inlaid a cross made from deer antler into the pommel. 

[alexandr]

A bench in the shape of a curved garden path and an outdoor ashtray.

[Donal Harris]

Not much of a demand for ashtrays here in the Land of Round Doorknobs and Parking Lots. Heck, you can’t even smoke in many bars these days. 

[arkie]

alexandr, beautiful bench...nice lines.

DHarris,  ashtrays aren't the only victim of low demand.  Bottle openers, with the advent of "twist-off" caps, have suffered as well.  *Some* craft beers and other beverages still have the "opener required" caps, but not many.  I have a box full of bottle openers that I haven't sold at several demos and tractor shows.

[Dax Hewitt]

On 4/19/2022 at 3:22 PM, George N. M. said:

Your customer may be one of those folk who have the philosophy of always as for a discount because if you get it you have saved money and if you are refused you are no worse off than if you hadn't asked.  

These people exist because people setting the prices will often negotiate through fear of losing the sale. My ex business partner was doing really well, making loads of sales and having our lads run ragged to keep up with the demand, at least he was until I found the time to look in to the pricing. We were lucky to make 5% on some jobs and in a lot of cases when you factored in all the associated costs of employing people plus the cost of the admin we were making a loss. 

For the year that he was with us our turnover went up 50% but our profit dropped by 30%

[natkova]

Got myself nice big  chunk of leaf spring.
I need help.

What tools should i made out of it?

Cold set , hot set, i started with forging chisel for woodworking.

 

[George N. M.]

Natkova, make the tools that you think you will need.  If you are making items that need holes make punches.  If you are cutting things off or putting decorative grooves in, make chisels.  Making anvil tools such as fuller and hot or cold sets usually requires thicker material than common leaf springs but you may be able to design something within the parameters of the size of your material.

If I had to start over I'd probably make various sized and shaped punches and chisels to start off.  I do like handled tools so that I am not holding the tool directly above hot metal or having to hang onto it with a tongs or vice grips.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[natkova]

And i have some hot chisel. DO you suggest heating leaf spring and cutting it with chisel instead of angle grinder becase it eat grinding wheel like mad.
So any tool is good using leaf spring .

Definitly i will be making some near anvil tool like  fuller or some more punches for punching holes or maybe some cold chisel. i will see.

That's good to hear. i might make some froe out of it too.

 

[Frosty]

If cutting leaf spring eats your cut off wheels then cut it with a chisel. Have you annealed or at least normalized it? I don't know the alloy spring steel available to you but here I normalize leaf spring and cut it with my bandsaw and drill it with high speed bits. 

There are a LOT of tools a good impact resistant medium carbon steel like spring stock is excellent for but not ALL tools. 

Here's a thought, if it's not thick enough to make a fuller, forge a shank in one end and fold it over so the other half rests on the anvil face. Viola! Fast easy no weld, no upset, bottom fuller.

I prefer coil spring for punches, chisels, etc. there's a LOT less forging and or cutting involved. Use what you  have though.

Frosty The Lucky.