@bluerooster
The sandwich idea would fit right at home with Japanese blade construction.  Give a search on the web for details.  

Will it help with micro fractures...  well...  for a kitchen knife you'll maybe get away with it.  heavy use, not so much.

good luck.
 

7 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

How to you finish your work? Hotwax, paint, ...? 

Gray paint, silver patina. Oak gray paint, lighter than on metal.

Your railings just keep getting better Alex.

Frosty The Lucky. 

12 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Your railings just keep getting better Alex.

Thanks Jer, I'll try...))))

1 hour ago, alexandr said:

Gray paint, silver patina. Oak gray paint, lighter than on metal.

I am to stupid to understand your honest anwer.

Regular gray paint? (For use on metal offcourse) and you layer all those colors?

23 minutes ago, gewoon ik said:

Regular gray paint? (For use on metal offcourse) and you layer all those colors?

Absolutely right. Regular gray metal paint and silver patina.

Ok thanks. Looks good.

 

Alexandr, as always superb work.

So, my door latch, made the keeper i forgot and scrolled up the bottom i forgot. I also forgot to put holes in the backing plate to mount it with, so much for finished. I also remade to side pieces for the hinge in the thumb latch so it will sit lower in the slot and give more throw. 

Welded up a bed rail frame to hold half a dozen drawers I picked up at the industrial surplus place. This I welded onto the side of my rolling tool cabinet, where it will hold the tooling for my Hossfeld. 

JHCC, I’m not sure I could bring myself to get that organized. 
 

Here’s my work for the day:

I started with 6.5” of 2.5” diameter 4140. Target was 8lbs, and pictured with an 8lb for scale. Not sure I’ll be at 8lbs when it’s all said and done.I knew this was going to take a lot of work, but even with the power hammer, I’m exhausted.  Not looking forward to the final drift, but have to make an appropriate drift first…

Keep it fun,

David

Rough your drift out a git oversized and drive it HOT into a hammer head to swage it to dimension. A bit of grinding to clean it up and you're ready to drift off. 

The hammer head looks pretty darned good Dave, I'll bet it'll be the best double jack you have when finished. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Made my first copper spoon a few weeks ago and not happy with it.    Today I made a better bowl and will try it with one rivet instead of two.    We’ll see  

 

 

Didn't get any forge time in yesterday. Had to work on cars, so I could get to work today.  So it will be the weekend before I get back to the forge project.

Dave, copper is a really attrctive metal but you have to be a bit careful with it when it is going to be used around food or beverages because it reacts with anything even a bit acidic to make copper compounds which are not a good thing to put into the body.  Traditionally, the way to get around this issue was to apply tin to the inside of copper vessles and utinsels.  Today you can do the same by using lead free solder, melt a bit in the copper bowl and spread it around with a piece of steel or a small wire brush.  If you are only going to be using the copper with water or other non-acidic food, no problem.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Add all the swearwords you like and read on.

I spend a couple of hours making a small hinge. First in making material of the proper size, to realize I don't have quite enough material to make the needed 2 pieces but maybe with some peening it will get there (same halves of 2 hinges)

Than in splitting the piece and getting the lega 180° opposite. By doing that realizing that my anvil is way harder than my chisel (or i was getting quicker throu the material than i was realizing). And than doing the exact same thing on the other split.

Than finding out i made a small calculation error in calculation how much material i needed for the eye (yes diameter*pi, but not the diameter of the hingepin). Some more fiddling to get some more material.

Starting to form the eye. All looks good.

And than I realize the eye needs to be wrapping around in the other direction.

So i shut off the forge.

And while typing this. I realize that i could have enoug material if i did my split differently, because both legs are not the same length in my design en the distance to short, is the difference between both legs. So instead of keeping the eyeparts in the middle of my stock and split from both ends, i needed to do the opposite.

Now i run out of material and gas. Time well spend *cries in the corner of his workshop*

Gewoon, that sure sounds familiar! While not very efficient in terms of time and materials, the thoughts and things learned along the way will certainly make your next attempts that much better!

--Larry

1 hour ago, gewoon ik said:

So i shut off the forge.

That is exactly what I do, step back and rethink things.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.
Semper Paratus

 

And now you know why so many hobby blacksmiths are also into brewing and distillation...

Caveat to the copper warning, copper bowls are prized in the kitchen by the cognescenti for whisking eggs. The copper ions get in the eggs and stabilize the foam. In short, nothing you couldn't do with a mixer, but better and faster. Copper has mostly been phased out due to toxicity issues, but it's still used for that; the caveat is usually to clean the heck out of the copper before using it for whisking.

One of the hardest things i have had to train "kids" at work is to stop, go get a pop or other cold drink, have a smoke, just walk away for 5 mins and come back. That is at work and there is no option to come back to it tomorrow, but it is amazing what just 5 mins can do to get your head back right.  

 

Like we all haven't cut or turned something backwards just because it looked right laying on the anvil. One tip for you, Gewoon. When using a chisel to cut stock on the anvil lay a cutting plate under it so the chisel or anvil isn't damaged by direct contact.

Frosty the Lucky.

I know, i have one. But i put it under when i think i'm almost there. What happend quicker than i anticipated

1 time, can happen. Twice, on the same material. Get lost!

Been there many times, gewoon. I admire the more experienced smiths here that walk away and rethink things. I'm with you, crying in the corner (or more likely, throwing a quiet temper tantrum), lol

I might think on it as I'm tossing and turning later, but not intentionally.

I actually made the same math mistake doing my hooks last night. Forgot to add in diameter of stock for the calculation of how much material I'd need for the hook. So the hooks are 3/4" instead of 1". No biggie. 

 

gewoon IK,  Hows about some photos..   I know your have been working on some projects.. Be great to see them and how your doing..    

Shaina nice twists.  Your pig tail scrolls are getting better too.. 

You do indeed. But it is not on that project I failed. The hinge that fight with me on thursday is scrap. Have another idea that will go quicker, less nice but it needs to get done.

The big project you know, i can mention short.

I don't have good picture of the parts so far, only my rough sketch and some samplepieces (althou the long round tentacles the idea is gopd, i start making them)

Project for school, need to make a hinge. Need to have some complex techniques in it some ornamental stuff, some forgewelding, ...

So i designed my own. Don't like the "traditional" forgings, not my style. So I ended up with a jellyfish (blame the kids, they wanted me to draw some and the idea came from there).

The small tentacles are going to be round of 12mm above the ornamental piece at the bottom. And will taper to 18mm to the body. Lenght of 500mm. They will have dimples in it, quite large to give it structure. The ornamental piece will be bigger than in the drawing. Around 50mm in width. Will have 3 crisp points and a centerridge.

in this picture i need to round it up more and starting structuring it.

the flat tentacles will be tapered from 30 to max 40 to a point over a length of 350 to 400mm. They small end will be scrolled up to give it a tentacle look. It all will be structured with 2 fullers and the same rounding tool (to "hide" the mounting holes). These go quick with a guillotine-tool and heavy hamer.

I have only an example of it

 

the flat tentacles will be forgewelded to the hinge body. That will be made out of 4mm plate, with the start of the flat tentacles.

The round tentacles will be installed with a tenon but the tenon will be 90° to the back. 

The upper part, those lines on the drawing, will become ridges.

So an big project. I can use a power hamer to make all the parts so the drawing of the tapers should go quick. The first long tentacle was my first power hamer use and i did less than 3 hours making it, including a mould for the taper and the ornamental piece (no powerhamer) and the explanation and testing of the power hamer (on another piece)

 

I don't think it will be used as a hinge (to pass the test, it needs to be functional), i need to make 2 and a very big door. Will probably live its live as an ornamental piece on a nice piece of wood.

Coming along nicely. Last we spoke it was still conceptual so it's great seeing it come to life. 

Photos of the failed hinge you originally mentioned would be great too. 

 

I'm a visual creature. I think most Blacksmiths are so seeing things is soo much better than reading a description.