John,

Had a similar experience in a FLW house in Rochester years back (Boynton House).  Is still privately owned, and I was only there participating in some form of craft sale (likely my blown glass back then, it was a long time ago).  I remember the chairs being very uncomfortable, the ceilings low in many spaces, cabinets at uncomfortable height, and doorways even worse.  Looked pretty, but certainly form over function.

It took me over a year to finish this project!  It was 25°F when I got home. I discovered I had forgotten to replace the lid on my charcoal barrel and the charcoal is frozen solid, lol. I haven't yet patched the lining in my gas forge. And I don't have the forge built yet for using the rice anthracite coal I have leftover from a few years back. I really didn't want to stand out in the cold with the Oxy torch so I opted for fabricating in the garage instead.

Pic 1: finished. This is a jig to help make mirroring twists on a single bar. I might have to get another adjustable wrench and cut the handle a bit short so it can turn a full rotation in the center of the two stationary wrenches.

Pic 2: all the pieces which have sat in a bucket since November of last year 

Pic 3: screenshot of a reference pic I took on the day I bought the pieces

Those chairs look like the ones that were used in the first Beetlejuice movie dinner scene at the end. 

Shainaru, i used to use that 2 wrench thing to make those twists. What i do not like is that there will be a straight spot in between the 2 the width of your twisting wrench. I do the heat and quench method. Heat your stock and make the first twist, re-heat and quench up to the end of the first twist. Clamp in the vice in the same spot and reverse the twist. They come out with a nice sharp "V". That is provably the most common i do. I like to do 1/4 or 1/2 turns. They turn out looking like waves in the water i think so i call it a wave twist. The reverse twist is also kind of subtle i have found. People do not see it until they really look at it. 

About those wrenches, they look chrome plated. It is quite the bad idea to weld on chrome and not as much but still a bad idea to get it hot. The fumes from chrome are straight up deadly. I would give those a good acid bath to try and remove the chrome. 

Good Morning Shain,

Radius the edges of the Cresent Wrenches, this will stop the little marks from the Jaws. Same thing with the third Wrench.

Neil

Thanks for the tips Billy and Neil. I'll do that before using. 

I have been doing them the way you explained, Billy. I did consider this would have an untwisted portion where the twisting wrench is placed. I thought I might try thinning down an adjustable wrench so it lessens that. Would still be a noticeable transition but less so. 

Who knows, maybe I won't love this after using it. It that's the case, I will pass it on to another blacksmith!

I'd recommend making one or two fixed-size twisting wrenches, like these from Ken's Custom Iron:

Ken's are made from 3/8" thick mild steel, but if you could get your hands on some thin leaf spring (1/4" or less), you could make one that would leave a smaller flat spot. You could also grind down the wrench just at the business edge of the notch, like this:

 Just make sure to smooth out any sharp edges before using, to avoid chewing up your workpiece. 

On 12/4/2024 at 7:14 PM, JHCC said:

Still no photo visible.

Literally it is standing on anvil.

On 12/4/2024 at 2:59 PM, gewoon ik said:

While we had the art nouveau with fluid motions and shapes (whipline, zweepslag in dutch) inspired by japan and nature.

A free style, not very conform in "rules".

Sorry man, but the picture does not want to cooperate

 

 

 

This one 

Edited December 7, 20241 yr by Mod30
Remove excessive quotes.

Thanks.

Reminds me that i also have to make one.

10 hours ago, natkova said:

This one 

 

There we go. No idea why the other one wasn’t showing.

1 hour ago, gewoon ik said:

Reminds me that i also have to make one.

I made a post a long while back over in the "blacksmith tooling" thread of a "simple guillotine" that was made by Mark Asprey. May want to check that out. 

And anyone else thinking of making one. It is the most simple and easiest one i think i have ever seen. 

The more you thin the jaws of a twisting wrench the harder it is to keep perpendicular to your work. 

I started today by taking 320lbs of miscellaneous steel scrap to the scrap yard. I’m working on cleaning up the shop for a hammer-in next Saturday. I also made a quick and dirty temporary  (maybe) stand for my new swag block:

I thought 30” would be a good height, but I may need to cut it down…

Keep it fun,

David

Ok, had a break and some time with my wife. Then I got back to it:

4 kiss blocks for the power hammer. 2”, 1-3/4”, 1-1/2”, and 1-1/4”. Also made a set of tongs for 1-3/4” round. The blank they are holding I forged down last week from a 2” shaft. I should be close to having everything I need together for my demo, a 2lb ball peen. Just have to make an appropriate punch and repair my draw dies (again),

Keep it fun,

David

Love that swage block! 

Secret santa at work. So instead of buying something of 15 euros, lets make something and spend 5 euro on extra candy to go with it.

Have to make the notch a bit more, it works, but hard.

Spent the day sanding wood. I think i have inhaled enough wood dust that i am genetically a cherry tree now. (yes i was wearing face cover, i just did a lot of sanding) 

Pro tip: Before using a belt sander make sure your dust collection bag is closed, both times. 

A couple years ago we were cleaning up the shop at work and we ran across a box full of shop vac hoses of various sizes. Mgmt. was going to throw them in the dumpster but they ended up in the back of my truck. Most shop tools like sanders, saws, etc. the dust exit is the same size as shop vac hose. So i made a dust collection system.  Unfortunately my 3x21 belt sander the exit port is to small.  So having to empty the little bag i forgot to close the zipper a couple times. 

At least i did not make thermite in it... again. 

I was grinding steel, then was grinding aluminum, then some wood with out emptying the dust bag on my belt grinder. A couple months later, still not having emptied it, i started grinding some wood, then steel. The sparks from the steel ignited the wood dust in the bag which led to that igniting the mix of oxidized steel and aluminum dust.  Water would not put it out and i believe it was Thomas Powers who informed me that i had made thermite by accident. 

So pro tip #2: empty the dust bag when done or changing materials. 

Good tip. Don't want to think what is inside my shopvac right now.

 

Finished the work that I started before Covid. Fireplace screen, umbrella, barbecue. Previously made chandeliers, cornices, furniture. The customer started another renovation, I couldn't take a normal photo.

Well,  I was going to post my trivet but it looks like scrap after what Alexandr posts.  Ahh what the heck.  First time I've riveted legs in place, first scarf weld on a ring.  Finally getting the forge welding down in my propane forge. 

Cool trivet Chad

Nice work on the ring weld, Chad. 

 

Chad,

Nice work but if you taper the tails on the scrolls it will look cleaner.  Also, you can eliminate the ring, make the tails longer and rivet them to the next, eliminating the need for a ring.  The next and the next will look better.  Learning curve.

G

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Billy, I would pay to watch a video of what happens when you have a thermite filled dust bag that ignites.  That sounds like more fun than I could stand.

;-)

G

 

Chad-  Nice job on the trivet.  Can be pretty fiddley getting 3 pieces shaped the same.

Bending and forming jigs are the way to go when wanting multiple pieces the same.

George, it really was not all that exciting. It started burning, i pulled it off and out into the dirt. Then tried dousing it with water. I would assume that it was "weak" and just enough to keep the water from putting it out.