alexandr Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 Work days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 MacLeod, I have been trying to figure out how to make them out of pipe so that i can run wire through them to get an electric light. I do not want to weld them or I want to have at least the appearance of traditional joinery. I tried an LED solar light, it was nice for about a month then it just kind of piddled out. I got that same dark problem but it is the front of my house. When i bought the house i did not notice that it did not have a single outside light. So first thing i did was hang a nice HPS lamp outside my shop. Lights the backyard up nicely but the front is still dark. We use the back as the main entrance though so for me it is no big deal. The wife however likes to walk to work a lot and she does not get home till after dark and wants something to light up the front of the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacLeod Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 Hey Billy, that’s got me thinking too. A challenge for that quiet time in between Christmas and New Year I reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 I especially like the head board(?) with the flowers Alex. Beautiful work as always but sometimes you reach a spot in my heart. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlpservicesinc Posted November 27, 2023 Share Posted November 27, 2023 (edited) Alexandr fantastic work as always.. It's great seeing your consistency.. Great work day in and day out.. Today was the first time at the forge in a while. I had a broken strap hinge come in for repair. Also attempted a pair of wing dividers out of wrought iron.. This is some really nice wrought iron but it has a tendency to fracture across the grain. First attempt ever at making this style.. Happy with the process overall.. The wrought iron really makes me push my forging prowess.. I have a video film session on the 9th so I have to dial it in by then. If I can't get the wrought iron to not fracture I'll just make them from mild steel. The tips are tool steel.. I'll make a set and etch them.. should be cool. The dividers were forged to size.. There was no allowance for material to be removed in finishing more than just a clean up. This means all the angles were forged in.. I might have pushed the level of prescision past the point.. With closed dies it's easy.. But open anvil forging.. Well. Edited November 27, 2023 by jlpservicesinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexandr Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 Jer, jlpservicesinc thank!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Fox Forge Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 I worked with some wrought iron today. Big, heavy inch and a half round bolts from a grain elevator that burned down. It moved like butter under my hammer. I found that using a 3 or 4 lb dog's head hammer really aided in keeping it square while breaking it down. I was going to wait until I made my forge press to mess with the wrought iron but I got a little squirrely. I squared the bar up and then drilled a ½ inch hole to start the eye. Normally I would punch the eye but I've had my last few hammers split on me. I drifted the eye to about .7"×.950" which should be enough to fit my handles. Here is where I made my mistake... I welded a bit of scrap jackhammer bit on to the front for a hitting face. (The bit was hardenable). This was mostly experimentation. Both faces were perfectly cleane of scale, oil and grime but somehow still didn't weld. I tried fluxing, getting it really hot and nothing worked. I am wondering if I cooked the HC steel when I was trying to weld it because, if I remember correctly, WI takes a higher heat to weld. Anyway I will try to salvage it but maybe it'll find its home in the scrap bin. I may try welding a bit of 1045 to the face instead of mystery steel. Rookie mistake, am I right? Also I didn't put a HC bit in the cross pein end. Well live and learn I suppose. Cheers! WFF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Special Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Hola, White Fox. Sounds like a fun day either way. Heck, you've probably made more hammers than me, and my apologies if you are more experienced, but if your hammer has been splitting from punching, I would consider the usual slit and drift for regular steel and working the hammer with the drift still in the eye. With wrought's tendency to split though, you might find it useful to drill small holes at the ends of where you want your slit to be to stop it from splitting when slit. If it is a very rough grain, it is even more likely to split and may need to be cleaned up a bit. You're right that wrought welds pretty hot and might get close to burning the steel. Bealer describes a couple of ways to weld a steel face onto an iron bar for a hammer in Chapter Six of The Art of Blacksmithing. If you're having trouble and the steel isn't burnt, you might try the trick he describes of cutting teeth into the corners of four sides of the steel, perpendicular to the face, then driving the teeth cold into the face of the white-hot wrought iron before welding. That might also help with the other problem I've run into with welding steel to wrought; when you quench, even with good welds, wrought sometimes likes to shear off from the steel. It's worse with thin cross sections, but I'd hate to have it happen on a hammer. I'm sure there are people on here who have worked wrought a lot more than me, feel free to correct me. I mostly like to use it for decorative pieces, so I can show off the grain. Last one was a heart I made for my wife from a marine bolt I found on the beach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Way back in 2004 I lit my first brake drum forge full of charcoal the Friday after Thanksgiving and have kept up that Black(smith) Friday tradition ever since. This year, with Becky Schimpf's article in the CBA magazine in hand, I tried a Colonial Style Keyhole spatula according the Becky's method. You isolate a 'pillow' of material, 2 inches from the end of a 1/4 by 3/4 bar. When the blade end of the spatula is peened wide, the keyhole shape just appears. No filing on this! First attempt, pillow was too big. Second attempt, the fullering wasn't centered on the stock. Third times the charm! I've been chasing this shape of spatula for years and years now without success until now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Try a different "KNOWN" steel for the face. I'm betting the jack hammer bit "Mystery" steel contains a healthy % of chrome making it a problem to forge weld. 1045 is a good choice, it's low alloy steel and welds nicely. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Nice spatula Michael. Feels good when something comes together for you doesn't it? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Fox Forge Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Thanks Nobody Special! I like the idea of splitting it. I guess I really didn't think of that. Drilling the holes before splitting would probably work better in my case. I am by no means very experienced with hammer making or with working wrought iron. I've only made a few. I think I have that book by Bealer tucked away somewhere. Thanks for bringing that up! I really appreciate the advice. I looked at the hammer again this morning and I am not certain that it didn't weld. I might have judget it a quickly yesterday. I can't tell if the faint line is a delamination or if I am just seeing the different metals meeting. Some of it for sure did not but I am wondering if I should try to salvage the face or just cut it off and retry. Thoughts? Michael, that spatula turned out nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 Jennifer/jlpservicesinc mentioned in a post a while back that punching a round hole at either end of a slit-and-drift hole in WI helps keep the slit from spreading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted December 1, 2023 Share Posted December 1, 2023 White Fox, you may be able to judge if the weld is good by tapping on it or dropping it on the anvil from an inch or two. My second WI hammer had a bad weld on the face which looked good. It felt strange to forge with and it sounded odd tapping on the anvil, before it cracked and fell off. Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Finally got back in the forge tonight and got the florets done: I like the center form of the one on the left and the petal shape of the other. Best to leave them the way the are at this point! Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swedefiddle Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Good Morning, That is the shape for making 'Jingle Bells'. roll them up and add a steel ball. Neil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 I hadn’t considered that. I did make the mistake of stacking them up rotated 45degrees after showing my wife. They look pretty good that way, but I’m not sure I have enough time to make to more with the other work that’s still to be done. Keep it fun, David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Welded up a stand for the big machinist’s vise I restored a while back. It’s been sitting in a corner gathering rust for the last few years, but the mechanism still works smoothly. A little wire brushing and some oil, and we’ll be good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 (edited) I have to apologize to everyone that's been posting for not taking the time to comment on their great work. I've been running in circles lately taking care of issues that have been popping up and keeping me busy, but scanning the posts every few days and enjoying seeing everyone's work. Been working on a few commissions, in between phone calls that shut me down for the day, but I have gotten some work completed and delivered. Seems like every time I complete a tomahawk and Blacksmith knife I get another order, the interest surprised me and I'm not complaining, I have another order to complete this weekend, plus two more hawks to complete in the next two weeks. I had a customer, that has ordered several items from me, order two hunting knives so I tried my hand at those, plus my first try forging cable. 1 1/2 cable by hand was a little tough, but it was a fun project. Looks like I messed up and posted my work in the wrong place. I meant to post in what you did today. Edited December 2, 2023 by Mod34 Moved to proper section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Les, that cable knife came out really nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 Thank you, I’ve been enjoying seeing the work you have posted lately Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White Fox Forge Posted December 2, 2023 Share Posted December 2, 2023 I agree with Goods. Les your cable knife is pretty awesome. I've tried my hand at cable and failed pretty miserably lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 Cable is challenging by hand but fun and gets neat results when it goes right. Nice work all around. I can see why you keep getting more orders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les L Posted December 3, 2023 Share Posted December 3, 2023 White Fox, thanks for the compliment. This was my first try and I was very happy with how it came out, probably lucky, but I’ll take that anytime Das, thanks a lot for the compliment. Your right about how you feel about the results, when it comes out right I am really surprised about the orders I have received for the tomahawks and blacksmith knives. I made my first for our clubs conference a couple of years ago and can’t believe the interest for them that I’ve had in my area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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