October 12, 20232 yr I'm going to revisit the snitch later, might be fun to have as a decorative wall hanger for Harry Potter fans. I did modify the center a bit and made the stand this evening. It was supposed to be fairly simple I may have over done it a bit on the wings but dialed it back on the stand. It is for a father and daughter that have passed. The customer with his daughter looked at my lady slipper orchid and asked if I could make angel wings like that and he wanted to give it to his wife as a 30th anniversary present. It is in honor of her dad and sister. I'm actually clear coating it with the oxidation colors on the wings and the stand wire wheeled clean. Purposely made the stand tear shaped.
October 12, 20232 yr That's a nicer center. At first glance I envisioned a heart but a little late for that idea. What's it look like on a table? Frosty The Lucky.
October 12, 20232 yr Good Morning, Push a little indent in the big end, it WILL become a Heart. What's it look like on a table = what's it look like on a flat surface? Table, Floor, Bookcase, Marble Counter, Chunk of Plywood or Cardboard = all the same. Don't build the wall of your Box. Neil
October 13, 20232 yr Lots of nice work from everyone. Alexandr, meant to comment on the last railing that the upper floor corner part looks like a butterfly. Really pleasant to look at. Nice work on the wings Chad. I haven't seen much of harry potter so I don't know the reference. I get seeing things I don't really know about in some of my art too. Then I end up having to look it up. One time someone referenced some creepy pasta stuff so that led down a rabbit hole. Think one day I might make a large sirenhead. I have two big old loudspeaker horns that would work with it.
October 14, 20232 yr Chad J.- on the round center wings just hot brush it with a brass brush and it'd definitely be a dead ringer for the golden snitch . As for myself, I made a swage bar for my anvil... It's a bit ugly but, should be functional till I can come up with something better. I made it from the center bar of a 7 ton jack stand it's an "I" shaped bar made of some kind of cast medium carbon steel (that's my best guess). It was 1.5" wide and about 2.5" tall with the center of the "I" being about 3/4" so I filled in the center with a few lbs of 7018 rods to give it a bit more mass to work with, and I cut V's into it to reduce the amount of forming I had to do by hand - and act as guides. I put rounds in of 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, and 1" and two 90 degree V's. I was after 3/4” and 1-1/4” but I screwed up the smaller one at first and ended up going to 1" to fix it. I used various stock I had on hand as the fullers to pound in the depressions. Mostly med carbon bars I hardened to resist deforming under the hammer. And when I was done I did a partial hardening in slow oil... I didn't really do any Tempering, closest was basically me welding on bigger fillets into the hardie shank, and filling some of the gaps on the bottom side - running 165A beads got the thing showing at least straw all over it... My tests on sample pieces showed it would fully harden in water or parks 50 and get glass hard and brittle, but it would get to around 40-45 in the slowest oil I have I and stayed quite tough like that - barely bent a 3/16” strip with a hammer in the vice without any kind of tempering.
October 14, 20232 yr Looks like it'll work a treat. Just a FYI, swage blocks aren't hardened, a missed blow knocking a chip off can be a bad thing. Frosty The Lucky.
October 14, 20232 yr A bit more work on my latest repoussé practice piece: annealed, reset in the pitch, and refined the shapes of the outer elements. Still a lot more to do, but learning a lot.
October 14, 20232 yr Coming along nicely John. It looks like you'll be needing to trim the pitch back soon or it'll start getting in the way. I wonder how a hot wire foam cutter would work. Not a large board type cutter a hand held version with a rheostat for temp control. I don't know how it'd work but I'm remembering having to re-set work into deeper pitch or doing a complete reset because the work was getting too deep in the pitch. My pitch bowl was pretty small so I cut the pitch "overflow" away from where I was with a heated hot rolled mild blade. Just a thought, I can't stop them. The thoughts they're everywhere EVERYWHERE! Frosty The Lucky.
October 14, 20232 yr It's hard for me to imagine you not having many new works in the making, Alex. You have to be one of the most productive people I know of. Frosty The Lucky.
October 14, 20232 yr Started another practice piece, to try out my “repoussé on the road” setup: a chunk of 2x4 with rubber on one side for lining-in and carpet on the other for embossing. Started while waiting in the car for my son to get out of an appointment: Continued while hanging out at the yarn shop: And put it in the pitch back at the shop to work on the details: Still needs a bit of work, but I’m pretty happy with it:
October 15, 20232 yr BOY John, it wasn't till the last pic my head stopped spinning. Depending on the light angle it's really hard to grasp the perspective. You're getting good at this. Frosty The Lucky.
October 15, 20232 yr Well, nothing to show really, didn't do much for the last five years, then got into a conversation with a smith at a "Nordic culture" festival up here on Whidbey Island and went home and got inspired. Tossed a few engine blocks out, cleaned out a carport, moved an old Dodge Dart, modified a fan and got ready to get back into it. I got all my blacksmithing and casting stuff up here from storage in Georgia a few months ago and now I have the itch, the tools, and a place to work. I'm putting together a couple of anvil blocks, may post pictures next week. I missed it, and you guys to boot. Ungodly sorry to hear that Glenn passed.
October 15, 20232 yr Welcome back from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you back on board. One of my best friends is close to you in Port Townsend. George
October 15, 20232 yr Welcome back, good to see your avatar again! My maternal Grandmother's house used to have a fine view of Whidbey Island across Puget Sound. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Remember we LOVE pics? Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.
October 16, 20232 yr Made these cute tongs from 1/2 inch square bar... so I could make these... to chop this. Oh, now I have to learn how to make handles. Ugh.
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