My birthday was today. I was given some amazing gifts! An Oak Lawn BS mini swage, a set of antique top tools, a hardy swage, horseback riding boots, and an Andrew Larson rounding hammer (not in yet). Very grateful for these gifts! 
 

 

Happy Birthday Asa!

I'm sure you'll make many wonderful things with those gifts.

 

Nice Asa!  The top tools can be a pain to come by used.   

I, in my Neverending Quest to organize my shop,  got a tool stand from Harbor Frieght.  I slightly modified it into a hammer stand. 

Thank you, guys! I like the tool rack idea!

Happy birthday. 

Nice haul. I went to a gathering of a gaggle of blacksmiths this past weekend and they auctioned off a 4# Andrew Larson cross pien. He makes very nice hammers you should be quite pleased with it. However i do not like the handles he puts on them, i would put my own handle on it. 

Not today, but this past weekend (Thursday ~ Sunday) I setup my Viking forge demonstration kit at the Whitestown Viking Festival. I had a fantastic time. Worked on several projects, had one failure with a drop tong weld, made a few need repairs for other reenactors and made a few custom requests on the spot.

For more information I put a little more info here:

Keep it fun,

David

Happy belated birthday Asa! That's a pretty nice haul!

Chad, good thinking on that hammer/tong rack. I made a similar style recently but used a grill rack in the center and store tongs in the center, hammers on the outside - but the tongs like to pinch as I pull them out. I like the grid option better and then I could switch tongs to the outside and not get pinched! 

David, that setup really worked out! (other than the wood stump falling apart, lol) Regarding the forge welding hot spot - I struggle with the same thing on my trench style side blast so I'd be curious to know if this gets resolved and what the changes were.

Last night was a night. Oof. BAM Conference is this weekend and I've been trying to get the trellis finished so I can bring it to display in the gallery. Doesn't look like that's gonna happen. Last night, the recently repaired vise jaw broke again (bolt sheared off) and then the recently reset handle broke off from the largest hammer I have - which I need to start the bird I'm working on. I'm borrowing a friend's shop tonight to use his power hammer but I still don't think I'll get this done by tomorrow, lol

I received advice from a KS club member for attempting to remove the sheared bolt and also advised that I replace the bolts with black hex drive screws which are tougher than standard bolts. I'll work on that after conference. I'll also work on making a few more hammer handles & wedges after conference, lol

 

Part of your problem with the vise jaws is that all the downward force from your hammer blows is focused on the bolts. That will eventually fail, even with bolts with greater shear strength.  You might want to consider making some new inner jaws that aren't simply flush with the top of the main jaws, but have an overlapping lip that transfers that force away from the bolts and into the main jaw. 

Jaw liners like this are fine for machinists vises that just need to hold a workplace solidly for filing or grinding, but they generally won't stand up to pounding.

Even my cheap machinist/shop vises have the liners let in so the bottom rests on a (part thickness) shelf that forms part of the jaw itself. 

I'm at BAM Conference this weekend and a couple people have suggested jaw plates and didn't even bother repairing the piece that broke off. And honestly, I'm leaning in that direction at least for now because I have stuff I want to start on, lol

I will keep your recommendation in mind though, when I get to addressing it. I could cut a groove into the good side so the bolted side has something to sit on.

I don't believe I've ever seen another leg vise that had bolted-on jaws.  I'd give at least even odds that some had a brainstorm and added them on (or that they were intended for a special application).  Taking them off will change the degree of opening at which the jaws are parallel, but that might be either a plus or a minus depending on the stock you work.  

The biggest possible issue would be if the jaws themselves are soft, but using jaw plates would help protect them even then.  If they're hard, there's no reason to use jaw plates unless needed to protect your stock

Monday night the blade bug bit me again after a rough day at work. Started with 24 inches of leaf spring 1.5 inches wide 3/8 thick.   Currently at an overall of 36 inches,  7.5 inch tang,  28.5 inch blade little under a 1/4 inch thick.  I was going to do a bastard sword but alas,  not enough metal.  I should have left it at 2 inches wide and drawn it all out.   Not sure what I'll do for guard, handle,  and pommel yet but it was nice to just blow off some steam.  Going to try to make some profiling tools to help get the blade bevels more efficiently.  Maybe a hardy tool to use with my flatter.

The friend whose shop I work out of sometimes requested some of my jumbo desk paperclips to put in his retail shop in time for a big event he's having soon. Up until now, I had only made 3 and each time was as a one-off mentality but his request spurred me to make a jig. I made one on Tuesday night but phone died and I didn't get a picture. That night, I also tried forming one cold with the jig. It's 3/16 round and apparently that's just barely too big to get nice graceful bends. Maybe if I had two small bending forks - but the one I have (and I'd consider it small) is too beefy to fit inside the jig bits. I went ahead and cut the remainder of the 12ft bar into 18" lengths since that test piece (while a bit rough looking) proved that it worked well with that length. I also chiseled on the underside of the jig to indicate the length and diameter rod intended for the jig.
Last night, I heated up all pieces and wrapped using jig. I ended up with 7 total finished (plus the one janky one making 8). I was running really low on paste wax so I decided to try an experiment. I coated three with the last of my Johnson's paste wax, two with boiled linseed oil, and two with canola oil. The event he wants these for isn't until the 15th so I'm curious to see if any of these finishes will show any differences between now and then. At some point, I need to attach them to bases as well. My phone died last night while applying the finishes (the live streaming sucks that juice right out, lol) but here are some screen grabs from the live stream I was doing while working.

 

Making a trunk for my daughter. Had yesterday off work so i got some shop time in and got the 6 hinge eyes i need welded (1 hasp, 2 lid hinges). The other 3 are on the other ends of the bars. 

Our BOA meeting is this Saturday and the trade item is a door handle.

So yesterday, I went through our extensive resource piles of steel. Surely, I can find something to make a door handle from.

What I came up with was an old rusty large curved double open end wrench and 2 large matching bolts which measure one inch across the flats.

I used the coal forge and the Star power hammer to draw out the bolts for mounting brackets, finished with the hand hammer and hot punched the holes, bent over and welded in. Please excuse the mess on the back of my work bench.

Today I coated the handle with Marc Rust Away. That stuff is magic it converts rust into a very durable polymer coating that is weather proof. What looks like blood on the paper is dried Rust Away.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~ USCG 1964-1970

I forgot to add this picture which I mounted it to a display board. Gives an idea of size.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~ USCG 1964-1970

4 hours ago, Shainarue said:

jumbo desk paperclips

I should try making one of these with the Hossfeld!

Cool paperclips!  3/16 is quite likely cold rolled; if you annealed first, it might bend smoothly cold.  

You have to allow for springback when bending cold, too. A jig for hot-bending might not allow that.

Nice work on the hinges Billy! 

Irondragon, that's a nifty use of materials for your door handle. Rust-Away sounds like Ospho? If you've used Ospho, can you speak to how it compares? 

I have made considerable progress on the boot scraper. I'm pretty happy with the rivets and tenons. All that remains is to attach the little sasquatch, clean, and apply a finish. 

I also remembered to grab a pic of the paperclips with their various finishes.

 

Those paper clips are pretty cool. I may have to make a couple for work. We have paper clips everywhere for some odd reason. I am thinking a torch with a rosebud tip would have been handy with your bending. 

Ooooooo... put eyes on one like the paper clip guy microsoft used to use.

I have made one boot scraper and that was for a challenge. I gave it to an old guy i work with. I did not have enough 1/2" square bar to make it so it sticks in the ground so i mounted it in a rock. An old foundation rock form a building that was tore down here dating to the mid 1800's. The foundation, not the building. The original building was tore down long, long ago. Anyway i drilled holes into it and used lead to set it in place. 

I used another rock from the same place as my dog's headstone. 

Today I welded the paperclips to 2x2 plate bases. I cut some 4x1 board into square blocks, ran them through the router to fancy them up, torched them and coated with blo. Tomorrow I will paint the plates and affix them to the blocks.

I finished the boot scraper. I decided to heat paint and clear coat. I gave the Sasquatch a good brass brushing. 

 

All looking good. Jaleous of the time you spend at the anvil.

I spend my hobby time also around an anvil, but it is to fix up a hobby car.

At least it is metal

Made this table for the wife to have on the porch. One of the barn cats peeking out from behind. 

I feel you gewoon. I only get 2 hours each night and if I'm lucky, up to 8 hours on Sat/Sun but that's assuming we don't have any other plans. It seems it's never long enough, lol

Billy, I like that. It's simple and clean.

Last night I tried my hand at brazing. I didn't want to clean the spatter of flux core and I don't have mig. I also thought my friend would probably appreciate the little splashes of "gold" throughout. I practiced on some scrap of similar sizes before taking a run at the actual trellis. Could be better - for sure - but it's definitely holding! 

Next up is to use the torch to spot heat the stems and wrap them along the structure, give everything a good cleaning with degreaser, then Ospho & wax. I would love to have this done by Saturday but of course, this is the week that I have appointments after work 3 of the 5 days, lol. So probably won't.

The only full size pic I have - complete with a messy shop in the background, lol