November 9, 20232 yr Made a few changes in the way I make small split cross pendants. New batch took me half the time of the last one. Still experimenting with the size of the split and general proportions.
November 9, 20232 yr Looking pretty good Arthur, I like the top row, 1 & 4 are my favorites. Yeah, it takes practice getting proportions you like. I make them longer and trim but how much to overlap the cuts is the trickiest. I like a small-ish negative space myself and I've been experimenting with filling it with slumped glass. Split or Fredricks crosses are great projects, they're tricky enough to be challenging but not really time consuming or difficult. Well done. Frosty The Lucky.
November 9, 20232 yr Split crosses are also called Christoph crosses or Friedrich crosses because the technique was popularized by a blacksmith named Christoph Friedrich.
November 9, 20232 yr Ahh HAH, That's it I remember now! I'm happy I'm a minute or two behind you this morning John, I just deleted my incorrect answer! I was thinking two different people. Frosty The Lucky.
November 9, 20232 yr Just happened to be sitting at my laptop in my hotel room; if I’d been out at meetings, it would have been a different story. And speaking of hotel rooms, here’s this trip’s version of Repoussé on the Road:
November 9, 20232 yr Hit a bit of a bump in the road with my knife; it was supposed to be 1085 steel, but halfway through, I had it spark tested when the quench didn't work, and it turns out it is closer to 40-point carbon! After I found that out, I tried to water quench it to see if it would harden, but still no. I might try a super quench just for fun.
November 9, 20232 yr I have hardened many tools made with 1040 and they get quite hard. Never tried a thin section like a knife though. might be something else like improper temp or procedure, maybe de-carb. ?
November 9, 20232 yr i checked with a blacksmith by the name of Robb Gunter and he said i had the right heat, but im going to try a super quench with him later
November 10, 20232 yr 9 hours ago, Frosty said: Split or Fredricks crosses are great projects, they're tricky enough to be challenging but not really time consuming or difficult. I'm hoping to run some short classes at a staff community building day where I work, getting the participants to make one out of 65mm of 10mm copper square bar (~2 1/2" of 3/8" sq.). Also, out of curiosity: In general, do U.S. Americans need/want metric users to convert mm to inches when giving dimensions? A lot of youtubers from the U.S. often convert inches to mm for their international viewers and I know I find it handy, but I'm also able to do at least a rough conversion reasonably easily. Cheers, Jono.
November 10, 20232 yr GTF, you are going to the original well and spring of knowledge re super quench, Robb Gunter was one of its inventors. I saw him demonstrate it back in the early 90s and it is magical for certain situations and steels. Also, he is one of the great smiths around. Listen to every word he says and take lots of notes, you will appreciate it years from now. If he says black is white, believe him, black is white if Robb says so. Years from now when that you say that you learned X from Robb Gunter knowledgable smiths will say, "Oooo." and their eys will get big. Not quite "may I touch the hem of your robe" but it is a very heavy weight name to drop. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Hefty, if I am using measurements in something directed towards someone in a metric using country I will usually conver Imperial/English measurements to metric as a matter of courtesy. I'm pretty comfortable in both systems for length and weight and do not have to do any mental gymnastics when you say 10 x 65 mm. However, not everyone in the US is as comfortable with metric as I am and it is probably courteous to do what you did and give it in both systems. Sometimes I kind of mix an match with not rhyme or reason. I may say, "I've got to shave down that 2x4 a couple of millimeters." "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
November 10, 20232 yr I'm good with either thank you, Hefty. I worked too many years for AK DOT highways, first in the soils lab, then as a driller. Everything is calculated in metric in the lab and half the time we had to use metric shooting in drill locations. If I can't convert in my head I have a calculator handy. Converters are easy to find online if it's a conversion I'm not familiar with. But I'll never discourage a person showing courtesy to others. You're my kind of guy, mate. Frosty The Lucky.
November 10, 20232 yr I am guilty of not mentioning conversions when I post for the most part. As was mentioned it is a courtesy of the poster or video creator. It Is easy enough to look up the conversions online or phone. But I applaud anyone taking the time to do so. I have many times looked up conversions as well as language translators when interested.
November 10, 20232 yr I’m good with either metric, fractional inches, or 1/1000”. Everything at work is in metric, but a lot of the machinists I deal with all think in 1/1000”. I’m converting in my head close enough for blacksmith work all the time. keep it fun, David
November 10, 20232 yr George, I have DEFINITELY learned so much from Robb Gunter. I got the incredible privilege of being able to take an informal class from him. he is an incredible smith and a whole lot of fun to learn from.
November 10, 20232 yr I get the best of both worlds, decimal feet. Every civil engineer and architect knows that 1.26'=1' 3-1\8"
November 10, 20232 yr Uh John, Shoe sizes are neither, they have a scale of their own and it varies from country to country. Good point David, I forgot machinist's 0.00001" and I grew up in a metal spinning / machine shop. That brought to mind drilling while much was decimal it wasn't metric, all our rag tapes and drawings are to 0.01'. It's at times like this I really miss Thomas, he could've told us how they divided Cubits. Frosty The Lucky.
November 10, 20232 yr The standard cubit was six palms of four fingers each. The royal cubit added an additional palm.
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