I want to say there are 5 forges, so 7 or 8 guys can work there easy.   There is another half with a double forge, a little giant and a steam hammer they've been trying to get working for a few years.  They got the hammer to move ayer hooking up a steam engine to it.   There is either a timing issue or a bad valve.   Noone is sure of the last time it had actually run.

14 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

although I gotta wonder where to get camel bones in south-central Indiana

I cheated and bought them from Esty. I had some beef bone bleached and ready to go, but the longest I had was just over 4” and I really wanted the handle longer. I couldn’t find any locally that was longer than I already had, so I just settled for buying off the web…

Frosty, between the work I already have in this and the work I’m going to put into the sheath (replicating a Birka find), I’m hoping to have a few get out of jail cards!

 

Keep it fun,

David

Oh NO David, I'm disappointed you didn't sneak through the desert, wrestle a Bedouin, tie him up, steal his camel choke it bare handed and pull a leg bone out by the hoof! 

Glad I don't need enough bone to make knife scales!

Frosty The Lucky.

4 hours ago, Goods said:

I couldn’t find any locally

It's not hard to make - grocers sell cut down femurs for stock and soups - you can boil them in  water with a little TSP (found in paint stores) or a similar alkaline. I would add that you might want to split them lengthwise before you boil them to get all the marrow. It cuts well with an angle grinder but wear protection, including good respiratory protection for bone dust fines. It also smells like burnt hair times six.

Don't boil it so long that it takes out all collagen or the bone becomes brittle. You'll also want to stabilize it, similar to the process for stabilizing wood scales. I played with it a good while back when I wanted to do a carved bone handle for a gladius, then as usual went sideways without finishing the sword. I may still have the blank out in the garage somewhere.

First try I boiled mine and hadn't split it yet - looked and felt perfect and left it on my workbench to go work for a few days (was a freight train conductor). Came back to a huge grease spot on my workbench - there was still marrow fat deep inside and it was high summer, so it melted and ran out the cut end of the bone when it got hot.

A band saw works a treat and a skill saw with a vernier blade does well enough but requires GOOD PPE. The cuttings are sharp.

Frosty The Lucky.

I had a couple femurs but maybe they were calves… I couldn’t seem to get a good 1/4” thickness out of them at over 1” wide and 6” long.

I cut the bone with just a hacksaw and it went very fast. Also, all the sanding and grinding was done masked up!

I’ll keep my eye out for better selection in the future.

Keep it fun,

David

I've used hacksaws too - slower, but works well for the crosscuts - of course, they've got that hollow on the inside, so you have to trim/sand down to flat or fill the rounded hollow with wood/resin, or something like.

Speaking of Bedouins - was in Kuwait in 07 near Camp Buehring prior to going up to Taji in Iraq. They had us go to the range, and it was already pretty comical, the sand where we had to shoot was loose and you sunk in every step almost up to your knees. The Bedouins came out to watch us and started circling behind the targets then around behind us on camels - they knew we'd stop shooting when they got near the range and that nobody in charge would know what to do or speak Arabic worth a hoot. Bold as brass - they eventually started coming up almost right on us before somebody yelled at them enough to drive them off. They thought it was pretty hilarious. Looking back, I'm inclined to agree with them.

Was out in the shop when I had unexpected guests.   A family was walking by when the dad realized what I was doing.   I told them it was OK, come on back and talked to them a bit about what is was making.   They had a 1 year old and a 3 year old daughter, which totally snapped me into Dad Mode as well as demonstrator mode.  Made the older daughter an S hook.  The dad has an open invite, he tried smithing in school and had heard me a few times in the area.  Been here almost 5 years now and this is only the second time anyone has asked to come back and watch.   

Tonight I started to work on dismantling the post vise so I could repair the jaw plate that broke off earlier this summer. I soon realized that the bolt which holds the moving jaw has likely not moved since the vise was assembled a good 100 years ago or more, lol. Gonna take a few weeks of daily soaking with acetone/atf mix and patience to get that moving. I could easily put the parts back that I had already removed but I think for now, I'll just work on projects that don't require a vise.

So I fired up the forge instead and made another item for the club table to sell at the Garden Show this weekend. I like this plant hanger enough that I think I'll go ahead and make two more out of the remainder of the 3/8" square bar I have. Last year, I had made a few dozen leaves and attached to cord and to keyrings. They sold out. I haven't made any leaves yet this year and I haven't seen any other members bring leaves. I'll be at the event all day Friday & Saturday though so I figure I can work on leaves then. 

You HAD a couple femurs David!? Sorry to hear that, I know how attached I am to mine. How'd you lose them? 

Thanks David I LOVE a good straight line.

Moose leg bone is large and thick enough it's pretty easy to make scales from.

When I lived in a mobile home in a trailer park is South Mountain view, I'd get out the anvil forge and such from my shed and in no time every kid in the court would be standing on the far side of my little fence watching. They were always polite and generally behaved themselves. After I made one leave for bullying a couple little kids so he could stand and generally be a snot. I told him to behave or leave and boy did he tell me a thing or two. So I 86ed him by opening my gate and marching him to the court street. (wide trailer court driveway) He came right back so I told him I can tell his mother if he didn't watch from the pavement OFF my space.

He was one unhappy kid standing about 50' away with a wall of neighbor kids in the way. I made a point of joking, telling them what I was doing, generally made it a fun time. The next time I got my kit out to do some smithing he asked me politely if he could watch too please. ALL the neighborhood kids behaved really well and told any new ones the rules. 

That's when I discovered how much I LOVE kids at demos. Firm simple rules and clear penalties for violating them and they're always on their good behavior, ask the BEST questions and are generally a joy to have around. Their parents can be a PITA sometimes but just stopping and LOOKING at them is usually all it takes.

Good times, I miss doing demos. Bummer the body is wearing thin.

Leaves are always a good demo item, the audience can watch you turn a piece of square bar into a finished leaf in a short enough time they don't get bored. Sometimes I had people in the audience get in bidding wars over who got the one still steaming from the carnuba waxing. 

Shaina, if you have 6" or so of that 3/8" square to spare bend it in a hair pin that fits the stuck pivot nut with a flat side against the nut. Then when you're at the forge heat it up to red and slip it over the nut. When the "nut heatin iron" cools down put it back in the fire and give the nut a squirt of oil and bump it back and forth with a wrench. Don't try to force it just bump it back and forth a little.

The thermal expansion from the "nut heatin iron" (that should have a bit of western-ish drawl in your mind's ear) heating and cooling expands and contracts the nut, the LITTLE squirt of oil WILL be drawn into the threads by capillary action as it cools the nut faster than the air. Bumping it will further crush the rust and it'll spin off before long. 

And definitely take a wire brush to the exposed threads so the nut has clear running once it breaks loose.

Take it easy, don't force it and your patience will be rewarded. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Finished up a couple of small projects. First, shortened a wooden bench and used the offcut as a base for my old 2x90 belt grinder, all while discussing literary theory on the phone with TwistedWillow. The grinder will be for sale at Quad-State.

Then added a lever to my vise-stand-mounted bending jig, which I will elaborate on in the Stand-Mounted Bending Forks thread.

Over the weekend I have been making pieces to satisfy the ABANA level 1 certification. I am hoping to be able to get certified in order to have a better chance at being an adjunct professor of blacksmithing at a local university. They are already consulting me for equipment and curriculum for their new shop they want to build. 

When Desert Storm ended we were just outside Baghdad, about 100K, on that highway 8 overwatching the highway as POW's were processed. I was watching across the desert some Bedouins with a huge herd of sheep. One of the sheep started wonder off while the lady watching them was on the far side. She hiked up her robe and started sprinting across the desert so fast Usain Bolt would have been jealous.  

 

Irondragon, I'm glad you got to get some forge time in and make something you needed. 

Y'all, good work to everyone. I'm just now catching up on the everyone's projects. I probably won't get back to the forge until Friday night Lord willing. We did get my vise out of the shed though so I can actually use it. I'm going to experiment making nails with it. Also bought myself some Amazon tongs from Caliburn. $42 for two pairs that were a bundle.  I didn't really need the wolf jaws, but they were priced lower for the bundle. They are bigger than the pair I already have so that's good. The bigger bolt jaws were what I wanted. I know I should just make some, but time is a factor that I have very little of. And I've made tongs but it has been a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

I can't imagine forging with an audience. My immediate family will watch and my daughter will run the air for me if she's home while I'm working but that's about it. I get kind of nervous with people around

Those are some good looking tongs; please let us know how they work. I am waiting for the day that the cheap imports rise in quality and drop in price until they're all no more than $10 a pair. I keep thinking to myself that that day will come. 

Ridgeway, I saw good reviews for them in use. I haven't worked them yet, but they seem to hold material very well. I will definitely let y'all know what I think

I haven't been doing a ton of forging lately as the weather has been too hot and I've not been dealing well with that.  But the state fair is coming up (it starts tomorrow) and I'm a little light on things to sell at NMABA's demo trailer.  So I went out to the carport and forged a fork.  I've never tried this style before and it took a lot of fiddling, but I think it came out reasonably well and will probably make a good addition to the sale table.

 

Not in the forge, but I bolted the handles on the pot and found a cast iron fire grate in the resource pile that works, built a little fire to make sure it will draft. Most important is Debi loves it so far.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

21 hours ago, Frosty said:

nut heatin iron

Thanks for the advice, Frosty. If it's not raining tomorrow then I'll give it a try. I assume 1/2" would work just as well? And the inside of the hairpin is what slips over the exposed threads with flat against the nut?

Ridgeway, That's a nice start to your Level 1 items. The piece with the tenon and punched hole had me scratching my head for a second till I remembered. I'm slowly working on Level 2 so that I can be listed as a certified instructor for Level 1. 

TommyVee, that looks nice. A few years back, I watched one of JLP Services videos on YouTube forging the colonial style utensils. Yours looks similar. I should really give that video another watch and try it. 

Tonight, I used the last of the 3/8" square stock and made two more plant hangers for the club table at this weekend's garden show. 

 

TommyVee, I like that fork a lot. Nice work. 

Irondragon, I'm glad your wife is happy with it and that it makes you happy to make her happy 

 

Shainarue, how long did it take you to make those? I'm feeling a bit inspired looking at your work to make some pretty things like that. And I agree with your assessment of TommyVees fork reminding me of Jennifer's videos on colonial cutlery. I was thinking the same thing

Yeah, there's not much mystery to the rough similarity to JLP's fork.   I watched her video before starting it.  I also watched Dennis Frechette's video on making a simple fork, and this one's sort of an interpolation between the two.

CGL, the first one took me 80 minutes last night.

Tonight, I worked on two at the same time and finished in 2 hours. So I saved about 40 minutes by doing two in one session. Or maybe I just got a little faster. What I really need to do (should have done) is keep track of measurements. How long to draw out the stem that wraps, how far in to set down for the mounting plate, where to start the bend. A lot of my time tonight was the back and forth of adjusting the bend to look right.

Last week I lerned it's better to bend metal 90° when it's red and hot. Yesterday I lerned my flux-core welding skills raised enought to fix what I did last week. I love this hobby.

Shainarue, I hear you. I have to remind myself to take note of things for repeatable results. A lot of things I do are one offs.

TommyVee, you're results were good. I like DF in the Shop too. 

Der_Micha, I love it too

Marking the transition sites on the side of your anvil with a paint marker pen makes matching projects much easier. A little paint remover on a rag removes it for the next project with a wipe. Keeping the  important measurements projects you with to reproduce AND any jigs, clamps, tools that improved production in a notebook with a sketch and working notes REALLY speeds up production.  Yes, doing multiples of the same product at a time lowers the per part production time, there are lots of reasons but that's for a different ramble. Better still making multiples simultaneously speeds your learning curve, you get to apply lessons immediately to the next piece and compare the results.

Tommy, you might ask Jennifer who's tools she models her work on. Believe me, she tweaked someone else's preferred tongs, heck everything to suit her. Stealing  ideas, methods, is how  blacksmiths grow out of youngsters.

Frosty The Lucky.