An unforged solution to the problem *gasp!* Looks pretty good and I went through the googles to find your jellyfish, got number 3 - looks fantastic. I also particularly liked the fishing fishing spider.

I've made bowls out of sawblades occasionally, they're annoying to swage, plus I always wonder what to do with the hole. I had been flattening and shaping bits of copper pipe to rivet in over it. Right now, I'm still not steady on my feet yet, so I ain't forging anything for another month or so as the hammer might swing me instead of the other way around.

Does the smith forge the iron, or does the iron forge the smith? Is the hammer the iron's tool for shaping the craftsman?

Graduates of the School of Hard Knocks resonate with the truth of the later!

--Larry

Thanks. I should make another fishing fishing spider. That one sold. "Some" people got the idea. 

Hope you heal up soon NS. Sorry I missed why you aren't steady on your feet but hoping you get there to swing a hammer again. 

Atrophy and ankle surgery - dug out a bunch of scar tissue from the Achilles and the hallux flexor longus (big toe curling tendon) and sewed it all back together after. The type of scar that looks like I should make bolts for my neck.

I've worked up from crutches, to the orthopedic boot, to an ankle brace. I can stand up and walk about for a bit and even work a clutch again but standing in one spot for very long and I'm weak and wobbly - looking for nerve damage on the other side next.

The smith forges the iron; it's the work and the way that he works that forges the smith until he and the tools fit each other.

Ankle boots caused cellulitis for Me twice. Hospital stay required,hospital was full, They kicked someone out to get Me in immediately. Be careful Guys.

Got the new forge in the shop and fired last week. Atlas 100K burner seems plenty hot and well built.  This is a step down in forge size. More usable heat and efficient. 

Not me but other. The small "dulle griet" is almost finished.

All handforged, all rings are forgewelded.

They did a great job.

Could be found on facebook they told me. Probably under "dulle griet"

https://www.facebook.com/Hersmedenvandedullegriet/

 

What did I do in the shop today?

  I managed to ruin yet another blade.  So, that makes four or five on "The Wall of Shame".  Three broken ones, and two with cold shuts.  This will make the fourth broken one.  And it's not only broken, but has several cracks. 

It came out of the quench with a severe hook to the left, so while still smoking, I clamped it in the vise.  When it had cooled to "room temperature, I took it out of the clamp, and it was perfectly straight.  I set it down, and that's when it came from together.    I don't have any trouble with shorter blades. (8"-10") But 20" or more causes me all manner of issues.  

May be the steel that I'm using. 90 year old leaf spring. 

 

6 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

Probably under "dulle griet"

Wow! A hooped bombard? That is way cooler than anything I've done on the weekend in awhile.

And then I went trying to hunt down the name - I only knew it from the Brueghel painting. I was actually thinking about getting a print for my wife's birthday - I got her the Triumph of Death a couple of years ago and Bosch's the Garden of Earthly Delights for Christmas 2024.

That's a perfect name for a cannon. And also for my wife, but please don't tell her I said that...

Yes a bombarde (not a cannon, they explained me, but the 8 year old boy in my still says cannon)

It is also a beer (because what isn't in belgium)

A dulle griet or a femme fatal are not the same, but close related. And yes a good name for a bombarde.

I have put the facebooklink, it is in dutch, but the pictures are speaking for themselfs. 

 

Axe that iam forging in progress 

I had a good day at our local hammer-in! Hadn’t done any forging in three weeks, but I was first at the forge and played around making a strike:

From a file and two pieces of 1/4” mild. Fought some issues with over heating the file during the forge weld, but I start with more material than I should have anyway…

After that was done, I helped finish up our group project:

I made the swivel link and set of three links at our last hammer-in. This time I made another set of three links, replaced one bad link and did a lot of the joining links. The last link was interesting, it was pretty heavy at that point and the anvil was at least three god steps from the forge. It was a bit unwieldy. Then I just hung out with everyone for another hour or two. It was a great time!

Keep it fun,

David

Welded axe then used to draw it out , would be drawn out again later and weld will be fixed.

Made mistake , part for eye was made too small to draw out later Edge for it.

It's made from leaf Spring , then again I welded leaf Spring to it.

Wanted to make it from one piece but made mistake in calculation.

Tool would be functioning this way to, just it's not "proper way to do it " .

 

 

 

7 hours ago, natkova said:

It's made from leaf Spring , then again I welded leaf Spring to it.

Some of the leaf spring steels, especially 5160 forge welds to the same kind of steel very badly due to too much chromium. You can get around it sometimes by forge welding another type of steel in between the two pieces you want to join.

When i was doing a lot of folded axes from leaf spring i used pieces of steel banding between the 2. 

 

13 hours ago, Nobody Special said:

Some of the leaf spring steels, especially 5160 forge welds to the same kind of steel very badly due to too much chromium. You can get around it sometimes by forge welding another type of steel in between the two pieces you want to join.

I will just stick weld blade to it.

 

Punching a bunch of indentations in 1/4” round stock on the fly press. 

What is the piece that looks like a chain link and an L-shaped round bar on the front of the ram?  (At first, it looked like was connected to the punch, and I was more confused than usual.)

That’s the bolt that holds the tooling in place. Here’s a side view:

Thanks!  I guess you put a bar in the loop to tighten when necessary?

A thunk with something heavy usually does the trick. 

Is that a metric thunk or imperial?

Work has been rough.  Had avian influenza hit the farm again and we're in the middle of it.  I managed to get some shop time yesterday and Sunday in the new basement shop working on roses for fair season.  Goal is it have 20 or more ready to go since they take me so long.  Problem with the basement shop it's that's where I keep my home brews.  

What kind of mead is that? Looks like it says "fall golf mead" on the label. Is that a taste of it in the mason jar? If so looks pretty clear. 

I am having a mixed juice mead now. I had a bunch of little bits of juice left over and just mixed it all together. I know there is apple, blueberry, pomegranate, and cherry but there is a couple others.  Not quite as good as i hoped.