What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

Setting up field expedient smithies is simple when you reduce it to what's actually necessary. A HOT fire needs a forced blast and fuel. Something to beat on, anything hard, smooth and able to take the shock will do. Something to hit with and something to hold short work.

I never set up a forge if there was a fire danger but I was drilling test holes for bridges and foundations and could usually find a fire safe place to set up. Seeing as we were usually tenting it and sitting around a camp fire is something to do after work we usually set camp where I could set up a forge. Forge being the "Fire place."

There are lots of ways to build a wood fire to "self draft" meaning draw enough air to heat steel to welding temp. My favorite was the Resurrection River camp. We were on a river bank with a wide sand bar to the river. My draft was a steady constant wind blowing down the river from the glacial ice fields not that far away. Draft was as easy as laying a piece of pipe for the tuyere iron aimed upwind and using found tin to make a funnel to collect wind. I adjusted the blast by how much of the funnel I covered with scrap tin. (Tin being random steel sheet metal from earthquake debris. See, 1964 Good Friday quake, Alaska USA.) The town of Valdez not far from where we were working was almost completely wiped out by tsunamis and when they cleared wreckage a lot ended up dumped and the river did what they do and changed beds so there was always scrap washing out of the old dump pits.

Sorry, I have some really good memories of that set up. My anvil was a rear axle out of something fairly large, I buried and drove it into the sand so the bolt flange was at a comfortable working height.

I won't get into the forge it was wind powered and a pile of sand, rocks and random salvaged rod driven into the sand to hold it together. From there I had my 32oz. Drill hammer and a pair of tongs, about all the kit I packed along.

Of most anything you can use for an expedient anvil my preference is a piece of shafting on end, RR rail is good too but best on end. The more steel between the hammer and far end of the anvil the better. It's called depth of rebound and has to do with compression waves returning from the far end at the speed of sound through steel. Laying down or on end mere human senses can not register the time difference it's decimal fractions of a millisecond. 

What makes the difference is how the impact energy returns to the impact site. On end the steel compresses like squeezing a spring and bounces back. Just like a spring. Laying on it's side the steel bends instead of compressing so the impact energy from your hammer is dissipated over it's length as it vibrates like a strummed guitar string. 

Anyway, I really like shafts, especially axles on end. Axles have that handy bolt flange with handy bolt holes, 4, 5, 6 or 8 those holes will serve for tooling, you can forge a hardy that fits a hole, use one as bending forks, a bolster to punch holes, a dish to sink a spoon or dipper cup, etc. With a little practice you can hammer horizontally on the axle shaft as an anvil horn. 

It doesn't need to be long, I've forged sitting on a plastic bucket using a smooth boulder anvil. Cutting an axle and forging a point on the cut end makes a FINE stake anvil, you just drive the spike into the ground an old log, etc. 

A portable forge is as easy as a JABOD which once the dirt is dumped can be used to stow your other tools. Provided you can find dirt to replace the old stuff in Australia that is. 

Something I wanted to try years ago but never did was two pieces of around 14ga steel sheet maybe 10" x 18" connected with piano hinge. It would fold flat and be held open in a V with a couple rocks or spikes driven into the ground. Add a little dirt and you have a forge that packs away almost anywhere. Since then I've learned the folder forge needs a hole in one side to mount a tuyere pipe aimed across the "trench".  

You can make a bellows from a paper bag, open end over the tuyere pipe. You open the bag to lift and inflate it then clench your hand around it sealing it to the tuyere pipe and push the bag down to force air to the fire. 

A good place to look for field expedient smithies is the 3rd world. There are professional smiths making a good living with no more kit than they can pack in a shoulder bag. Hammer, chisel, a file and maybe a spike anvil. The canvas shoulder bag doubles as the bellows. Local children fetch fuel, water, food and advertise for the privilege of maybe working the bellows, handing him things, etc. 

It's really educational to watch an old man stop at the edge of a village, scoop a depression in the dirt and send the village kids out for fuel, dry dung works surprisingly well but sticks, whatever. Then villagers start coming out with things that need repairing, or made with scrap and food to trade. It'd watched a number of these videos before I realized the smith carried almost NO stock, he took it in trade returning finished products. 

I still cringe when I remember a smith burning the chrome off a bumper to forge into a number of pans, shovels, hoes, etc. Do NOT put chromed ANYTHING in a fire! The fumes are very toxic and will not flush from your system without doing serious damage. I imagine none of the folk in that part of Africa enjoyed a long life but YOU need to avoid EVER putting chrome in a fire! 

If you can find damp soil, some sticks a smooth hand size rock and a smooth boulder you can set up a working smithy. 

I can't recall the title but Alex Weygers was an artist who traveled the world on foot, hitched rides, whatever means of travel he could wrangle. Packing carving tools wasn't practical so he scrounged and forged his knives, chisels, hammers etc. when he found something he wanted to carve. He sold the carvings and tools when he moved on. Then made good money writing a book about his expedient smithies, what he scrounged and gorged for tools ad equipment.  I HIGHLY recommend it for people doing what you wish to.

I'm sure someone reading this remembers the title of the book, I sure can't recall it now, that's a TBI issue ad the harder I try to remember the more determined the memory will be about hiding in a wrinkle in my brain and laughing at me. <sigh>

I have a lot of trouble not turning this conversation into a long drawn out ramble. It'll work a lot better if folk ask questions and start bouncing ideas now. I've done a LOT of this kind of smithing and it always changed by location and what I could find.

Sooo, I'll stop rambling now and let the games begin. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Billy, your work has gotten so clean over the last few years..   So great to see..  That candle holder is gorgeous.  Very classic style. 

[George N. M.]

TTB, also, look up scythe anvils, aka peening anvils.  These were used to realign the edges of scythes in the field and were just driven into a log or the ground.  Many medieval smiths had nothing larger or better.

Frosty mentioned paper bag bellows.  Bags of any sort can be used. Leather bags were common. Two squeezed alternately give a more or less constant blast.  You mentioned you have 2 kids. One or both of them may be old enough to be a bellows boy/girl.

All you need is a heat source, a pounder (hammer), something to pound on (anvil), and a grabber (tongs, vise grips, channel locks, pliers, etc.)  I bet you could put together a very workable kit that weighed less than 5 kg. and would fit into a shoe box.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

[Tap Tap Bang]

Thanks Frosty for the insight into how it was done back in the day. I often think of how people had to make do with what was available at the time. We get a bit tied up in needing this and that to do a job that simple tools will do.

This is the fire pit where I am camped now. It's 2mx2m and if I added a blower I reckon it would heat up 5'' stock no worries

In Tasmania where I am it is rare to be able to have a fire as there is a lot of Forrest here so in Summer they are on edge as it's very dry.

I am inspired to try and forge something on a campfire just to test it out so I will set myself a challenge to do it over the next few months.

Using the kids on the blower is a good idea. I have an 18v Makita blower which will work for the job.

 

 

[BillyBones]

Jennifer, thank you. It was you among the many others on this site that have encouraged me, challenged me, and inspired me. With out you guys here my skills would still be rudimentary. 

TTB, using that for a forge you should be able to heat 5" diameter stock. My whole forge would fit inside that. 

Using a campfire is still the same principle as using a forge. Good hot coals, supply air, stick the metal in. I keep a pipe in my backyard firepit for when i need to get a really long even heat or to melt metal, mostly lead for shot but i have not done that in a long time now. 

[Frosty]

I understand, Lots of places in Alaska have serious fire restrictions  with established fire pits being the ONLY legal option. Fines for violations can be mighty stiff and if you start a wild fire prison and possible negligent homicide charges. 

I'm afraid the pictured fire pit would make a horrible "forge" there will be so much air it will mostly scale the stock before reaching a working temperature. A blower would make it many times worse! Soooo, if you lay a piece of sheet steel on part of the grate and build a trench forge on it from available soil. Or unfold the V trench forge. 

Be aware that any park official, we'd call them Park Rangers, will freak out if s/he sees you hook a blower up to a wood fire. You don't want to be remembered for showering sparks in an electrically powered blast.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Another repoussé tryzub (Ukrainian trident) competed, this one with the background textured with the heraldic patterns that indicate the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

[Donal Harris]

You have gotten very good at that repousse’. 

[JHCC]

I learn a bit more each time!

[gewoon ik]

A long overdue project.

It was eating valuable space on my worktable.

And i had everything laying around to make it.

[Frosty]

Getting better all the time John.

I thought I posted this half an hour ago and now 2 hours ago, dang submit button! grumble grumble.

If the submit button doesn't work this time I'll have to take it up with Foo!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  Better all the time is right.

  Nice stand gewoon ik.

  Frosty, I thought your new super computer was to fix all those problems.

[JHCC]

They made a mistake when he ordered AI. Instead of Artificial Intelligence, they gave him Aggravating Idiocy!

[Donal Harris]

I have a truck rim I plan to use as a base for my grinder, but until I get a grinder with more hp, there is little reason for me to do so. I really only use it to sharpen my shovels in the Spring. I never noticed its motor was only 1/5 hp until I tried to use it with a buffer wheel. Anything other than a light touch to the wheel will stop it. 
 

I haven’t done much at the forge lately. My last two things I’ve finished are a cane for my mother-in-law and a divot repair tool for my father-in-law. 

[JHCC]

Put in a couple of hours at the forge, at the opposite end of my range from the repoussé. Before I started to run out of propane, I got some forging done on the mounting brackets for the current railing project:

And made some progress on upsetting and shaping the top end of the 1-1/4” round shaft for the stake anvil project:

I also knocked out some long hook-ended stakes to help keep the patio swing from blowing over in the wind.

[Chad J.]

I'm getting a bit better at the hair pins,  started wrapping marbles up in them but one seems to have cracked.  Not sure why but it looks good. 

[George N. M.]

If you are wrapping the marbles up in with the metal hot the cracking is due to thermal shock on the glass.  You might heat the marble some or do the last bit of wrapping cold to avoid the cracking.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Chad J.]

I was wondering about that,  thanks George.   I haven't really worked with glass before.  Could it also be done contraction of the steel around it?  Not gonna lie,  i may do that on purpose a few times. 

[JHCC]

It's certainly possible, if the steel is wrapped tightly enough. Might be a combination of both.

[Goods]

My mother was very involved in the women’s group a church and did many different types of crafting for there fairs when I was a child. (I have fond memories of working on different crafts with them…) I can remember her putting cookie sheets full of marbles into the oven to get this same effect for various projects. (I don’t remember any ever breaking though.) I imagine the effect was caused just from the heat. I’ll have to talk to her about the actual process.

Keep it fun.

[George N. M.]

If you want to go down a rabbit hole regarding thermal stress in glass look up "Prince Rupert's Drops."  Very cool and amazing.

GNM

[Frosty]

Figuring out how to wrap marbles in steel is a good way to lose them completely.

Iron and glass have very close COEs so as long as you work them together at close to the same temp and observe a suitable temper time it works nicely.

However steel has a different COE because of the carbon content. To pull off wraps like yours Chad you need to pre wrap the steel, leaving enough to either open it up and insert the marble cold or gently heat marble and spike to the same temp, close it and temper both, letting it cool S L O W L Y, AFTER it's tempered!

Thinning the rod so it's say half round where it wraps will really help, it won't exert as much pressure as it cools. 

ORRRR, you can buy torchwork glass, ribbons, frit, etc. and cast your own marbles. Torch work glass doesn't require nearly as demanding a tempering process or the guy at the carnival wouldn't be able to make glass horses, gnomes, butterflies, etc. and send them home with the customer.

George is absolutely right, the science of glass is truly mind bending, not quite as bad as quantum physics but it will make your brain hurt.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rojo Pedro]

No time lately but did spend a couple hours chasing. I dont think it is repouse because I use no pitch just go back and forth on my sand bag. Going real well until I split the end of his nose. Oh well, so I thought I would try some flame color. I think he turned out good regardless of his broken nose. 

[Daswulf]

Nice work Rojo. Yes that is still repousse work and working the top side is chasing. It's how you are working the metal, not what backer you use. 

[Frosty]

Beautiful piece Pedro! Repousse means, "Push from behind" and "chasing" means to work with chisels, punches, etc. When you stretched the sun's face out is the "repousse" part of the project. All the beautiful detail you worked in is chased in. 

It doesn't matter what you back with, modeling clay works well if you keep it cold enough you can get some pretty good details. The finer the detail the harder the backing you need.

Beeswax is a good place to start, you can warm it till it's soft, press it into the piece and let it cool or stick it in the fridge or freezer. You can mix goodies in the wax to make the stiffness you need. 

John was mixing his own, I'll bet he has some recipes he'll be easy to talk into sharing. 

Frosty The Lucky.