What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

I remember your shop now, I forget stuff all the time.

Frosty The Lucky.

[lary]

9 hours ago, JHCC said:

I like that look, lary. Very cool. 

I’ve never had much luck with the heated drift method; my last few hammers got tempered with the oxypropane torch. 

 

Thanks, I was trying to get a Viking Mastermyr cross pein hammer but didn't quite get it. I'll try the torch tempering method next time. Just want to be clear I haven't given away traded or sold any of these hammers.  Want to play it safe for now and use them myself, figure out which one(s) work best.

 

Army that's a nice set up. Moving outside under the awning as the summer temps start climbing sounds like good plan.

[Pat Masterson]

This is awesome. I would’ve never thought a ship would have a smith on board but it does make a lot of sense when you think about it. 
I picked up ten ball peen hammers and 4 old rasps off eBay - about 30$ for everything shipped. Hoping the rasps are good steel so I can try some knife making. Brands are Heller and Blackmaster. After getting around to making a little stand for this small axe made from another ball peen hammer I want to try again. This one cracked during heat treat. 
I want a straight and diagonal peen hammer on the rack and I thought this would be a good way to get them instead of buying new. 

 

 

[Rojo Pedro]

Nice hammers Lary. I want to make a set hammer next

Nice score Pat. You can make all sorts of punches and fullers from those hammers

[JHCC]

My first diagonal peen hammer was forged from a large ball peen. In the end, I decided I didn't like it and twisted the peen from diagonal to straight. Gotta love the ability to reforge our mistakes into something better.

3 hours ago, lary said:

I was trying to get a Viking Mastermyr cross pein hammer but didn't quite get it.

Once you get that, you can take a stab at copying one of Thomas Latané's hammers!

54 minutes ago, Pat Masterson said:

This is awesome.

Full marks for the proper quoting of an image!!

[Scott NC]

   Jobtiel, your chest is coming along nicely.  I await seeing it with the hardware and finished.

[George N. M.]

Pat, just in case you don't know, files and rasps can make pretty decent knives BUT the problem is getting the teeth out of the way (unless you want them for the look of the thing).  I have seen folk anneal a file or rasp to get it soft and then grind the teeth off before they ever start forging.  The best use of rasps I have seen are Thomas' "rasple snakes" where he forges them out to a snake and the teeth are the scales.

I think folk are drawn to files and rasps for knife stock because they are decent steel and because they already have a tang.

This has been going on for a long time.  I have seen frontier and fur trade knives that a smith made from a file.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[ThomasPowers]

The teeth will also help hold a piece of rasp in place when forge welding it in to make the cutting edge of an axe.  It may also promote some cold shuts in a weld too.

Yesterday was the coolest day this week, cloudy even so I went out and worked on more stuff to sell at the state fair; 2 wind bells and more work on another rasptlesnake---until the 100# propane tank went dry. Took 23.4 gallons to fill it today at US$3.15 per gallon.  Sure glad I can still manhandle the tanks and take them in for filling!

I'm trying to figure out the use for the parts of the carpenter's squares I cut off to make hook rules.  I need to spark test them and see if any would make a wood working knife with a scale on the upper section of the blade... Any other suggestions?

Met a young fellow, late 20's?, at the Library who is interested in blacksmithing. As I recall; after talking with him awhile about my smithing background; he told me "I want to be just like you when I don't grow up!"   My wife gave a big laugh when I told her that.  Wrote the URL for IFI on my card when I handed it to him so he may show up here to correct my memory...or not.

[JHCC]

51 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Any other suggestions?

Fish scaler?

[JHCC]

The customers who commissioned the archway brought it to the chapel to set up for the wedding. I took the opportunity to take some photos of the finished product. 

[BillyBones]

Quite nice.

I rearranged my shop not long ago and still have no hung my hammer rack up. I now have a forest of hammers growing from my tool box.

Made a couple more throwing knives and started upsetting a piece for another hammer. Need to grow the forest...

Knives still need ground and heat treated.

[M.J.Lampert]

thomas can you please re-share the rasple snake pics or a link to them

thank

[ThomasPowers]

Billy, you don't have to worry until you get an "old growth" forest! I have 8 hammers sitting in a baking tin of BLO on my workbench right now.

MJL:  the trick is that when you shake the tail correctly the bottle caps rattle quite like the real thing. (Yes I have personal experience.  Once when I was living down by the Mexican Border I came home after dark and parked in the carport and when I opened my door to get out I head a rattle and was thinking "That sounds like one of my rasptlesnakes!"  I pulled my leg back in the pickup and proceeded to move it to a different location...)

 

 

[Chad J.]

Being the impatient person I am,  I decided to encourage the clay on my coal forge to dry by building a small fire in it,  then decided to reshape my coal rake for it.  Yesterday I used some E6000 to glue a new leather belt together and I needed to test that too.  So the coal forge came back to life for the first time in several months.  Oh and the neighbor kid came over and I helped him make an S-hook.  Turns out he was supposed to be mowing the lawn.   I was able to explain to his mom in my best spanish that he asked if he could make something for her.  

Thomas, is it welded on the bottom?

[JHCC]

Upset the head of a small mushroom stake (an oxypropane torch and a twenty-five-pound sledgehammer coming in very handy) and hammered it to finish. Just needs a touch of the grinder. 

Remember, the section to be upset should be like a hobbit supermodel: short and hot!

[Anachronist58]

I prefer fresh mushrooms, but that one looks mighty tasty.

[JHCC]

Roasted!

[gewoon ik]

Thomas very nice rattlesnake. The touch with the bottlecaps for the rattle is sweet.

[Chimaera]

Pat- that sounds like a good deal. What weight hammer do you think works best? I’m wanting to make a hatchet/ tomahawk and am having limited success in the wrapped eye department. 
Thomas- that rasptlesnake is awesome! The scales really make it pop!

 

While I’ve only had a couple hours at the forge, I was able to knock out this little kiridashi. Probably my cleanest knife yet, mainly because it was mostly grinding. Scale finish on flats, satin finish on handle accents and file work, polish on bevel and edge. 

I also made a blacksmiths knife that I’m too ashamed to post here. 
 

Yesterday I visited my cousin, who is a master cabinetmaker. While I was there, he gave me almost 20lbs of beautiful hardwood, cut to the 3/8” (my go to knife scale thickness). The small yellow pieces may be Jatoba, but he’s not sure. The medium red brown pieces are all cherry, and the long ones are sapele (a kind of mahogany). He also gave me some walnut and a few knife blades. As they’re some unknown tool steel, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to use them, but I’d like to. 

 

[Pat Masterson]

Thanks George - annealing first and then grinding is definitely the plan. I really like the look where the teeth are left at the top of the blade and then fade away into the bevels. It’s a look I think would be hard to recreate if not starting with a rasp. 

Thomas - I saw a video of a demonstration where a rasp was turned into a snake just like that one…maybe it was you I was watching lol. 
 

Chimaera I think it depends on what you’re going to use the hatchet for. The one I made was very small - couldn’t have been much more than a pound and the result really wasn’t practical. But again it depends on its intended use - I made that one from my late grandfathers hammer for my brother as a display piece so size didn’t really matter. I think anything in the 2-3lb range would do just fine and actually be useful. 

[Goods]

Made a calla lily today at our hammer in. Yes, I took some artistic license on this, and still working on improving these. Drop tong weld failed, but the flux core helped with that. (Not happy about that at all.) Overall, happy with the piece though.

Made from 4” of 1/2” round and 5/16” square out of the bin.

I also forged out some test pieces of the forklift tine I have. Both water and oil quench showed really tough results. (Sorry, didn’t take pictures of the break and left them at the shop.)

Keep it fun,

David

[ThomasPowers]

No the bottom is not welded, that would mess up the belly scutes anyway according to the State Herpetologist who examined one in detail...

I'm working on a write up on making them; but...

 

I tighten it up a bit more near the end and dress as necessary after making the S curves with the post vise.  (Note when I first started making these I didn't have the swage and used the cutting step to trough the body with my crosspeen to start.)

[JHCC]

A make-and-mend kind of day. Made a bunch of improvements to my forge, starting with shifting it over on the base to make it more stable; this necessitated reshaping the guard that keeps anything dropping from the forge from hitting the blower or the gas supply.

Reattached the power cord to the blower and welded up a much more solid (and much less leaky) connection between it and the air curtain.

Cut some notches in one of my dishing forms so that it will fit snugly in the base for my small swage block. Also welded up some divots in the hollow (originally some stamped numbers, I think, but deeply corroded) and ground the whole thing smooth.

On the spur of the moment, I took three of the resulting curved offcuts and welded up a little forming saddle that fits in the vise.

The curved stem allows it to sit in the vise at a couple of different angles.

I just got an idea for beefing up that stem, but since I’ve cleaned up and packed the shop away, that’s going to have to wait until next time. 

[Les L]

John, your archway came out great!

I’ve been watching everyone’s work and getting ideas for projects, but I haven’t been able to get into the forge since March because I messed up my shoulder, but I was able see the “Little Blacksmith” demonstrate again at our club’s Saturday meeting. If anyone’s club is looking for a great demonstrator for one of their meetings, or conference, I would suggest contacting him. Just be ready for the “Energizer Bunny” to arrive. If he can arrive early and stay on site it’s not unusual for him to be in a forge until 4:00AM the morning before, do his demo, then work open forge with everyone until everyone else gives up. 

[JHCC]

I envy him his skill, his energy, and the strength of his lower back!