6 hours ago, Rojo Pedro said:

Good idea on the shear.

The scrap of I-beam I used for the bracket is actually uniquely suited to the task, having some extra plates welded onto the vertical member about 1-1/4” below the top. 

Because the jaws are trapped between the top edges of these plates and the underside of the top, there’s tremendous resistance to them twisting, which makes the whole thing much more solid and controllable.

Nice. I spent a few hours with a rr spike yoga pose the wife wanted, a specialty hook out of some sort of stainless that will hold a shower head and turned a piece of 1/2” coil spring into billet. My arms are toast.

Also spent about 4 hours over the last 2 days with some copper for new piece based on Scotts suggestion. This one is a little bigger at about 8” across.

thanks for looking

John, of course you know that not that you have made 12 tap handles within 6 months they will add a few more beers on tap and you will have to make more.

I'd give them a few of your business cards to pass out to folk who comment on the tap handles.  It can't hurt.

GNM

Having the mount it lock into the vise beats just relying on squeeze. Good one John!

I really like your yoga spike figure Pedro, really well done.  I do have to wonder what your moon is so angry about, or is it just grumpy?

Frosty The Lucky.

I won a hammer class from a fundraiser auction I bid in back in July for the St Louis maker space Arch Reactor. It was in St Louis which is a little over 3 hours drive so my wife and I decided to make a mini vacation if it. Apparently, the money I donated funded a portion of the hydraulic press they added to the blacksmithing shop. I'm very grateful for that since we definitely used it to our advantage during the class!

Day one was punching and drifting the eye then forging to shape. We started with about 5-1/2" of 1" square 4140 and used the press to upset it to about 4". Day two was rough grinding, heat treating, finish grinding, making the handle and mounting the handle. Day two was harder than day one. But now that I have the concepts, I can play around with making handles from scrap wood at home and when I feel like I've got a good grasp of the skill then I'll make some new handles for my other hammers. 

Mine is the curvy one in the pics. The other one is the instructor's (Gideon Reese).

 

Wow, lovely job and it looks like a very handy size, what did it end up weighing in it!! If you don’t have one already you now need your own stamp if you’re going to make more

I haven't weighed it yet and now it's in my car, lol. I'll try to remember to get it weighed tomorrow but it'll have to be a guess because it'll include the handle weight.

I don't have my own stamp yet. I keep trying to make it and failing, lol! I'm getting closer though. I also got a quote from a company to make it for me - but that's money I'd rather spend on something else so I haven't gone that route yet either.

Nice job Shaina! I like the pein, it has a radius wide enough to move metal without putting sharp divots in it. I've become fond of longer whippy handles, yeah, been hanging around farriers I know. A whippy handle lets me hit harder with a lighter hammer by cracking it like a whip. Accuracy is more important but it works out well for me.

I guess what I'm saying is I think I'd like to use your hammer as a regular. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Thanks, Frosty - and I agree, when I want to move metal - usually stuff larger than 1/2" - I've come to prefer the 2lb ball peen I have with the longer handle and whipping it. When I need more accuracy, I grip closer to the center/top and lose the whipping motion. I haven't compared yet but I think this handle might even be longer than the ball peen I prefer. I'm probably going to cut off the bottom portion about where the 'N' is. Then shape that back to a rounded bottom. But I'll try it for a few sessions as-is first.

Gideon also gave me some instruction on striking - even though we ultimately didn't go that route. I feel like I have a good grasp of the concept - but not enough confidence to join a striking circle. I'm going to see if I can convince Ashley to hold a bar for me while I practice striking. First though, I need to either get a new sledge or try my luck at handling the one I have because the handle broke on it during the move back in June. Obviously hasn't been high on my priority list, lol

17 hours ago, Frosty said:

I do have to wonder what your moon is so angry about, or is it just grumpy?

  Maybe it is a curmudgeon moon.  I happen to like it.  Perhaps if he follows up, the stars will be bright,  happy, and twinkle good will beams upon you.  Full circle.  It's an artists perogative.

On 10/27/2024 at 8:12 AM, Larks said:

if you can get tea-tree or tea-tree oil solution it seems to be kinder to leather and leaves an anti fungal residue 

I can get it, but it's sold in pharmacies around here as a therapeutic product and thus a bit pricey. Maybe I'll get a small bottle, mix it with mink oil, and apply after a good saddle soaping.

19 hours ago, George N. M. said:

John, of course you know that not that you have made 12 tap handles within 6 months they will add a few more beers on tap and you will have to make more.

That's a risk I'm willing to take.

19 hours ago, George N. M. said:

I'd give them a few of your business cards to pass out to folk who comment on the tap handles.  It can't hurt.

I don't have business cards for the smithing, only for the fundraising.

19 minutes ago, JHCC said:

I don't have business cards for the smithing

I was in the same situation and was OK with it, but my wife was not. She had me pick out a design and had them printed up without our address, but with her cell number. (My only cell phone is company issued and really didn’t want to take personal call, particularly calls the could involve money on a company phone…) I really appreciate the support I get from her!

At the demo/festival the other weekend they came in real handy. I hope she doesn’t regret put her number on them.
Keep it fun,

David

I give out business cards like they are candy but I'm still building the shop up.   My phone has yet to blow up from all the calls.  It sucks cause some people asked about some really fun potential projects.   

Anyway, tonight I did some nautical themed stuff,  sailmakers hook and a fake hook hand.   They both turned out great and I completely forgot to take pictures of them.   Maybe I'll run out in a minute and take one. 

Here they are. 

11 hours ago, JHCC said:

I can get it, but it's sold in pharmacies around here as a therapeutic product and thus a bit pricey

JHCC, see if you have someone close that sells herbs. We have a store here called "Village Herb" that sells, well... herbs. Also oils and other herb supplies. That is where i bought it at and it was pretty inexpensive. IIRC a pint was $30. Like i said we suggested using it on new piercings so the lady that owned the shop sold small vials of it. That is why i bought bulk. 

5 hours ago, Chad J. said:

It sucks cause some people asked about some really fun potential projects. 

Get used to that. If i had a nickel for everyone that said they wanted me to make something i could have retired 10 years ago. 

Everyone wants something special and handmade until they find out your hourly rate.

People (non-knitters) are always asking if they can buy the shop samples at Lisa’s store, not realizing that the cost of the yarn alone is more than they’re used to spending on most mass-produced garments, let alone what a fair price would be for her time. Then when she tells them that she’s happy to sell them the yarn and teach them how to knit, the sticker shock isn’t so bad!

True enough.  People ask why my knives are so expensive and the look on their face when I tell them how many hours they can take is usually pretty amusing.   The guys asking about swords usually deflate pretty quick too when I tell them how many hours they can take for a simple sword.

I could also complain about some smiths seriously undercharging for wares but I think that is a Bussiness side of blacksmithing topic.

 

Back when my wife was making a lot of quilts, she had some family & friends asking to have one made (for free, of course, lol). If she didn't want to do it, she would tell them if they bought the materials then she'd make the quilt for free. She'd give them the materials list and never hear back from them. People don't think about what all goes into a handmade item.

I've had it happen just a few times with blacksmithing where I'll post a pic of something I've done and someone will say they want one. I'll message them with the price - a very low price in most cases because they're friends or parents of friends - and it's always "oh, nevermind but thanks for getting me that info." lol

It's hard to compete with the expectation of pricing that Amazon and Walmart have created. 

I'm not trying to turn this thread into a business thread - I just wanted to chime in with shared experience with what John posted about.

It is part of the hobby.  My older brother keeps asking me for a claymore and I continue to ignore him. 

4 hours ago, Shainarue said:

 

It's hard to compete with the expectation of pricing that Amazon and Walmart have created. 

Yes absolutly. But also crazy that people don't see the difference between a "forged" steel booksupport and an actual forged one (the first one could be forged in the non blacksmith way as well). Sp for them it is hard to see the extra money.

My family in law are that kind of people. But is looks the same. Yes if you squint your eyes after cutting up 2kg of onions in a dark room at 25m away from the objects, they are the same. But in every other aspect they differ day and nights.

It is also funny that sometimes some people will pay 10x the amount because handmade and it looks like something ikea sells (i have a brother in law who is an interieur designer, he sometimes wonder why they need him and pay him because it is a job he does not want to add in his portfolio except when he gets hired by ikea).

 

Toot toot the threat derailment train is underway!

29 minutes ago, gewoon ik said:

if you squint your eyes after cutting up 2kg of onions in a dark room at 25m away from the objects, they are the same

  Don't even get me started on the hack reals and the videos of people making cheap stuff from really good starting material.  Oh just get an angle grinder and repeatedly spot weld this until you're done.  Then use a grinder.  The worst I think I saw was someone cutting up a really nice anvil,  I think it was a Peter Wright, to make a super heavy version of Mjolnir from the avengers movies.   The comments were thankfully brutal to the person who thought it was a good idea.

Getting back to shop work, I started fabricating the shell for an Eric Thing-style armor forge. 6” across the top, 11” across the bottom, about 10-1/4” tall. This will get lined with 2” of ceramic wool and 1/2” of Kastolite and will be powered with a NARB running a 1/2” Frosty T-burner. 

More to come….

(For those not familiar with Eric Thing’s armor forge, there’s a page about it on Anvilfire. I plan to use it for forging bowls.)

By the way, in cutting up the 16ga. sheet for the shell, I discovered a few problems with the shear: (1) the blades are a little too wide, so you can’t adjust the gap between them, (2) the upper blade has a broken screw, so it moves around a little during cutting, (3) the bottom blade doesn’t sit down solidly on its bed, and (4) the clamp that holds the bottom blade down is too long and sticks up above where it should, getting in the way of the workpiece. I think I should be able to fix all of those, though. 

Those sound like maintenance issues and probably why it got shelved until hubby's shop got cleared out and you rescued it. 

Frosty The Lucky.