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What did you do in the shop today?


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Jennifer, you are right. If i am going to make them why would i make "genaric" when i can make something that not anyone else will have. Put mu own touch on them and make them fancy. 

Just got home from the Fair at New Boston. It is a colonial period fair, 1790-1810, so all the fair folk are dressed in colonial attire or Indians. We missed the cavalry charge and the battle between the settlers and Indians.

Thought this may be of interest to ya'll.

 image.thumb.jpeg.8a947805570bf4d7c2d23de8078ff11b.jpeg

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In addition to making some more parts for the Hossfeld (detailed HERE), I added a bracket to my chasing stand that was supposed to hold a work light. However, it turned out to be almost completely wrong, which both was an object lesson in not thinking things through and also gave me some ideas about how I can make it work. More to come….

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playing with knives...

this one was made from an assortment of steels.... the spine and tang are cable, the main blade is 80crv2, 15n20, 1095 plain laid and restacked a few times to get about 160 Ish layers. the woods are Bolivian walnut and Paduk, with brass pins and accents...

I worked the cables a bit too much so there is not much for a pattern there...

 

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Billy the smithing community though worldwide is still a fairly small environment.   

Often times meeting and seeing the same people over and over again though from miles away via social media and events. 

Also what I consider to be top-tier smiths are highly accessible so always make a point to introduce myself and let them know I appreciate what they made or shared.  So many talented people out there willing to share. 

Smithing unites us all.   :) 

 

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An odd bit of tool making: a bossing mallet made from bits of HDPE melted together and onto an old handle salvaged from a flea market ball peen. 

IMG_7423.thumb.jpeg.4ad248b148678ea039654499cfa9945b.jpeg

Honestly, I could have gotten one for a few bucks from Harbor Freight, but this was kind of fun. I may make another if this works out. 

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Long time, no see.

Had a first attempt at what will be a wall hook today, tad scaly but rather surprised how well it turned out. No hole punch so intend to drill it at some point. Until then, it's just a hook. Made from a bit of mild steel I used for a drawing out exercise a while back that was somewhere in the region of 1/4" thick. Finished product is around 3-4" long.

First attempt at a hook 04.09.2023.JPG

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I really like the mallet John, at first look I thought it was a stone novelty but now I'm thinking I'll have to collect some plastic.

Scale brushes off John and if you open that hook up a little, it'll be a fine hook, especially for a first one. Drill away, I've drilled lots of screw holes in hooks before I learned how to counter punch them. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Another repoussé practice piece, this one inspired by a photograph of honeycomb. 

IMG_7451.thumb.jpeg.69a704571c64e3fd359ca68ed0de1c74.jpeg

I’m chaaaaasing in the rain!

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(On the front porch. Not actually in the rain.)

 Ran into some problems with the copper tearing. I think I’m starting to get a feel for how far I can push the metal. 

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Beautiful froe Jennifer, how does it work?

Yeah, backgrounds need to be more different from the subject John, just changing the size of the texture isn't enough, it needs to be different. That's a lot of depth across pretty narrow features with pretty sharp changes from the background. How often did you anneal? I think I'd make the "channels" between the raised features round rather than flat bottomed. I always ran into issues cracking copper trying to make features with square-ish changes in depth.

I like the basic pattern but I'm not sure what they invoke, I see something between an octopus / squid and maybe a plant or alien life form. I really like art that stirs the imagination.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I haven't posted anything lately because I've been busy and just taking a couple of minutes every couple of days to scan a few posts, but I'm seeing a lot of great work posted in the last few weeks, too many to address individually, so congratulations to everyone.

It's been too hot here to fire up the forge in the last month, except for two mornings a couple of weeks ago , so I went out early and forged a wrapped eye tomahawk and a blacksmith's knife to put in the auction at the conference our club will have at the end of the month. I still have to make the sheath for the knife, hopefully I'll get a chance to do it today. I enjoy making the tomahawks and I want to thank Jennifer again for the great video on how to make them.

HawkandKnife.thumb.jpg.612ad9fee1ac14d4b3d1de63f513c7dc.jpg

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52 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I like the basic pattern but I'm not sure what they invoke

It's from a photo I found somewhere of a honeycomb some bees had made inside a box hive without its frames. I liked the pattern and saved the photo to my iCloud file of design inspiration.

Honeycomb.jpg?o=AkAABCRmMP1E2jyrHA6dNPaCIZMJsRmUwWhGE3WuMUK0&v=1&x=3&a=CAoghNWSm27zvF2PGY2R9C43pcU5SlXsx_MOOgyibYtknkESbxD7l7f_pjEY-_SSgacxIgEAUgRngPLZWgTOiDyHaiefI1PHA6U7O23ecIOM5zJ2sEqC_23OFxMsCi4Wwy_SP-OmArlAqr9yJyHenL52uJgJrFcpYWKs05s2FVCI1w-8iSAOrp2BbB2c0AP99kABPA&e=1694098569&fl=&r=5665fcaf-ef43-4d65-b9d3-9a73b129b9db-1&k=dHVqAPZkoLxLz0LtBcfO5g&ckc=com.apple.clouddocs&ckz=com.apple.CloudDocs&p=135&s=1V-Q6ByP9LZPDb44ctaI3dNfQOA&cd=i

The cracking was from trying to push the repoussé stage a bit too far, leading to work hardening of some elements in the upper right (you can see the solder from the repairs). 

 

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WOW, so much for my idea of what honeycomb should look like. Coool!

Ayup, that's copper alright. It works beautifully just to fool you, then it changes it's mind and becomes brittle.  You pushed that piece way farther than I've even attempted. 

I'm beginning to want to go cut a piece of that old copper we picked up at a yard sale 20 years ago. I THINK I know where my chasing punches are. Of course I love Wintergreen Altoids and have empty tins aplenty. Small scale like that makes repousse and chasing a perfect thing to tink away on in front of the TV evenings. Maybe I'll let that copper lay.

Frosty The Lucky.

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