On 5/23/2026 at 2:15 AM, LarryFahnoe said:

Always impressive to see your installations at your customer's homes Alex!

--Larry

Thanks Larry!

I finished the trellis for my friend and brought it to her last night. She loves it.

I edited the photo to lighten the background so the trellis is more visible. Black trends to blend into green backgrounds!

I built a JBOD and ran it with wood. I sed an old double barrel shotgun barrel I had picked up along the road for the air supply. For management is different, but it got hot enough to make a leaf which I burned the stem enough to have it break off when I was cutting it off the parent stock. Now I just need to find coal.

The chandelier took its place. In the winter, I sent it to Moscow.

As always, there's a lot of work in the garden this spring. I've updated the paths and rebuilt the outdoor plumbing.

Shaina, your work looks good on the bottle rack. As to the welding of the burner gizmos to your forge. Could you have used your torch rather than the stick welder? I think it would have made a nicer job, because you could work a bit slower, and not have to use as dark of a lens.

Alexandr, your work is impressive as usual.

After switching in a new (unburned) propane hose, I added a foot pedal to the bowl forge, for easier movement of workpieces in and out:

Basic forging of the current batch finished:

Dramatic photo of heating workpiece, with dragon’s breath:

Better video link:

And with their yarn holder spirals punched, awaiting filing and finishing:

Tonight I finished my first ever feather J-hook from angle iron. This is for a trade item for the June FSBC meeting.

That feather on your wall is quite the feather in your cap!

On 5/16/2026 at 1:09 PM, LarryFahnoe said:

Pretty neat John. Lucky is the son who has a dad that would make him such things.

--Larry

When my son was five, I made him a compressed air-powered bazooka that shot racket balls.

Nice Nate! But then that's likely something that only those of us of a certain age appreciate. I'd guess younger parents would more likely be aghast... Guessing further that those racquet-balls probably left a nasty mark on the "enemy" & hence nasty phone calls from angry parents...

--Larry

Tonight I practiced square corners while making brackets for the new gas forge I'm building. 3 of the 4 finished.

From right-to-left:

• "Lee Sauder" method, first attempt. I did something wrong and ended up with a fold on both sides when I worked the upset down.

• "Lee Sauder" method, second attempt. Better. Both attempts have crease on the inside corner that I couldn't get worked out short of filing (tried fullering and using the cross peen, even tried hammering into the soft edge of the anvil knowing it would thin that area). Not sure if that's something I'm doing wrong or just a thing that's expected with this technique.

• The 1st way I learned, through a class teaching techniques for ABANA curriculum level 2. Basically, bending just short of 90 and then upsetting into the bend from each side. Most work done in the vise. Repeat and periodically clean up any twisting or bulging on the anvil. Took longer, but the inside corner is cleaner.

I meant to hit send on this Sunday but I was a bit tired. I spent three days at a small music festival demonstrating and selling my stuff. First day I met a lot of people that were going to be there all the days, second day things started selling. Third day, almost all my higher priced items went to their forever home while people chatted, a few guys asking how Ib kept going in the greatest after 8 hours, I hit the anvil to the beat, and even worked after dark with no lights just for the fun of it. I was a bit cautious with expectations but it was fun as hell and I'd do it again.

Finished up box jaw tongs last night. I had started them last week during the demo but was interrupted by custom requests every time. I had attempted these once before and didn't quite make them big enough and they were not lined up well. These are sized for a good size piece of leaf spring or the eye section of a wrapped eye ax. Going to make a few more I think. Took a picture of it with my first 2 sets of tongs I made.

Very nice! This style is one I really need to make soon - as I keep starting projects that work with flat bar which I don't have a set of appropriate tongs to hold, lol.

Good Morning Chad,

When I am making Tong blanks I use a rule of thumb, start on the near side of the Anvil, then quarter turn counter clockwise (to the left) and move to the far side of the Anvil at about 45 degrees, to start the forming of the hinge area. Then it is another quarter turn counterclockwise (to the left), on the far side of the Anvil, to set the back end of the pivot area.

This means, turn left, left, to make right handed Tongs, or Right, Right, to make left handed Tongs.

On the Tongs in the picture, you turned left, right, or right, left. I would leave a little more strength in the reins and the bits. It is all part of Learning. Good Start.

Neil

Hey Swede, thanks! I do use the same technique for my tongs, this particular case I beleive when I was working the necks on the tongs I moved the metal around with the occasional errant blow and got the wierd boss on them. Also when I was doing fit up I changed the angles a couple times.

I started another set last night and I'm paying a bit more attention to that as I'm donating them to the shop where we have Thursday night hammer ins. The beginners had beaten up the tongs quite a bit over the years.

Yesterday I finished up tongs for the auction tomorrow at the IBA state conference:

One is sized for 5/8” square stock, the other is sized for 3/8” square stock. Both made from a 30mm tie rod from a scrapped hydraulic cylinder.

I feel a little bad about going to conference this year. I normally have more significant items prepared for the fund raising auction and have items for the show and made-at-home contest. This season has been so busy, I’m just lucky I don’t have a conflict.

On a high note, one of the demonstrations is a smelting and they’re saying we can participate. I may even have a chance to forge some of the bloom for an auction item! This is a huge opportunity that has untested me very much. I’m really looking forward to it.

Keep it fun,

David

I know probably note the best place for this, but the experience at the IBA state conference Saturday with the smelt demonstration was amazing! Andrew Welton was the demonstrator and he was fantastic! Very knowledgeable and giving of that knowledge. He invited volunteers to help charge the furnace, and work the bloom. I was blessed with the opportunity to do both (a little greedily). When the bloom (22lbs/10kg) was split, I was able to get a group of guys together to forge a piece. Our goal was a small axe. That didn’t happen. This stuff wasn’t low carbon. It forged like 1095 and didn’t was to move under a 10lbs cross pein sledge. We got it consolidated, cut once and forged into a bar that went into the auction. It went for well over $100/lbs, to rich for me unfortunately…

Here are some of the pics.

Shorty after lighting the furnace:

Here it is a while after the frames burst out of the top:

Here I’m adding more ore:

Taping the furnace to lower the slag pool:

Initial consolidation of the bloom (5 strikers and I’m shown in mid blow):

Here’s the smallest section cut from the bloom, the one my group forged out:

Here’s is the largest piece of the bloom next to a 12lbs sledge:

And finally, here’s one of the other groups forging the largest piece:

No one got a final item forge from the bloom, but we brought in a lot of funds auctioning the billets!

I’m hooked and can see myself doing this again in the not too distant future!

Again, I can’t say enough good things about Andrew. I learned an incredible amount from him and hope to work with him again.

Keep it fun,

David

Andrew Welton is a great guy. I got to work with him at Petersvalley at my TA and he was all about knowledge.. Congrats David on being so heavily involved..

That looks like a LOT of fun, and educational as well!

I wanna do that so bad but my yard has turned into a botanical garden and a bloomery takes up space I don't have, unless I build it on top of my fire pit...

What did you use for the ore to charge it? Was it powdered or pieces?

He brought magnetite purchased from Spain in powder form. He purchased from them to have very consistent certified chemical content for demonstration purposes. He also reprocessed the powder into clumps so it wouldn’t blown out of the furnace.

I did talk to him about using magnet collected black sand and he said that would work good at the same fuel ratio in this type of furnace. I didn’t think to ask about collecting forge scale to supplement the black sand…

Also, I just received this picture of us working on our piece of bloom:

Keep it fun,

David

Is that you on the right?

25 minutes ago, Goods said:

...collecting forge scale to supplement the black sand…

Black sand and forge scale are both mostly magnetite (Fe3O4), so you're probably okay. Very much not my field of expertise, though.