Finished up the motor mount for my 12 ton  

Gewoon, I like how you chose to orient the square body of the handle so that the edge faced up. 

Gewoon, when i do BBQ forks i have found that getting the bar to "T" shape is best before bending the forks. I use a vice and upset the center with a few quick hammer blows. As of late i have been putting upset corners about 1" from center to get my forks done. You can see real well what i mean by "T" shape. 

Fantastic work alexanda. Just out of interest, how many hours did you put into the gate?

I would love to make a gate like that one day but a long way off it for my skill level. I will stick to J and S hooks for now.

Shaina, i like it as well. Bit harder but so much nicer

Billy. Thanks. Will try. The opening of my forge is maybe to small (14cm or 5"1/2) so i bend them out of the way as well. But will try your methode.

49 minutes ago, Tap Tap Bang said:

how many hours did you put into the gate?

Thanks! About 5 days if not in a hurry.

Beautiful as always Alex, I look forward to photos of the gate installed.

Interesting way to forge a BBQ fork Billy, it would be easy to forge into a more rounded "traditional" shape. I like to make mine more of a feminine profile. I use an anvil bridge to forge the tines, trim them even lengths and open and shape them and lastly file the tines to finish. I use a hack saw or my band saw to split the tines after forging the uniform taper preform.

I form the inside of the fork over a bottom fuller, using the horn tends to twist things being conical. 

BBQ forks are a challenge and were I to start producing them in any quantity I'd make purpose built swage and fuller. 

Frosty The Lucky.

For a while i did, i guess Colonial style, where i bend the tines back toward the handle about midway, then use an anvil bick to get "bellies" at the base of the tines. They look kind of like a keyhole spatula shape. 

 

Today I roughly mounted my post vice to the wall as I cannot seem to find the piece of I beam I thought I had. I'm sure it will turn up one day and then I will make a moveable set up.

I had my nephew over and he has started to have an interest in making stuff with wood so I showed him how to make stuff with metal.

I made a bending jig for the hardy hole and then made him a J hook which he took home.

Still have a long way to go with the hooks but getting better with each one I make.

Any suggestions on what to coat the hooks in to stop them rusting? Is there any stuff I could make myself?

 

Linseed oil. I apply it nice and hot, not red but a high black heat i guess. On the back i will kind of dab it on a spot and see if it burns off. I keep dabbing it till the oil "takes". It is hard to put into words but when you do it you can see it. I put on a heavy coat of oil, gets a bit smokey, then dab off the excess. When they have cooled for a bit longer, hot but not to hot to hold bare handed, wipe off the excess. 

For some smaller things i will usually "quench" them in linseed oil. Things like screws and bolts. 

I have stuff on my back porch i did like that 5 years ago and they are not rusted. 

Nice hook though. I struggle with the spade kind of finial. 

Edit: I forgot to add i will also use a spray bottle sometimes. It helps to get a good even coverage. 

Edited January 16, 20251 yr by BillyBones
forgot something

Great thanks BillyBones.

I will grab some tomorrow.

I also found a crack on the post vice mount plate which I repaired both sides before I installed it.

I also have use straight boiled linseed oil (BLO), but most often I use a mixture of beeswax, BLO and turpentine. This I a pretty traditional coating. Some make it very thin and brush it on with a paint brush, I mix it more like a paste wax and put it on with a rag.

Keep it fun,

David

I've had good long lasting results using the beeswax, linseed oil (BLO) and turpentine recipe from "The Art Of Blacksmithing," by Alex Bealer but have much better results using "Trewax" a paste carnuba floor wax that leaves a very hard durable finish. I apply both to smoking hot steel, Trewax prefers the steel be about fresh coffee temp. It becomes very thin and penetrating so coats every darned thing and cools hard like lacquer. I keep a piece of cotton cloth in the can to wipe excess off with and that has become the applicator and the rag on top is the one I wipe excess off with. I work them up from wipe off to applicator as they become saturated with wax.

It's less complicated to use than describe.

Frosty The Lucky.

Carnauba is one darned tough wax.

Interestingly, because it's a plant product, it is technically vegan. If you have a client who wants a forged spoon or fork but doesn't want it finished with beeswax (technically an animal product, which is why honey isn't vegan), carnauba is the way to go.

That's a really good point John, I completely missed it!

Frosty The Lucky.

Finished flattening out the gas cylinder sections on the fly press:

And started drawing out the reins of a pair of Ken’s Custom Iron bolt tongs, before my tanks froze up:

A nice hook for a birdfeerder (actually some time ago, but now i finally took pictures)

Nice corners on that Gewoon.  

Frosty, I finally got out to the shop and took a couple more pictures of the modified nippers for the triangle twist tongs.  Not sure what you wanted to see on them. My thinking was to purposely leave them with the ends flat so I could use them to handle a but if flat stick as well.   I need to figure a way out to make them so there's a handle on the opposite side of the reigns. 

3 hours ago, Chad J. said:

modified nippers for the triangle twist tongs

So, if I read the picture right, the triangular space between the bits and the boss is for grabbing the triangular stock while you make the twist? Clever.

3 hours ago, Chad J. said:

I need to figure a way out to make them so there's a handle on the opposite side of the reigns. 

Two possibilities occur to me. 

Option 1 is to make a purpose-built pair of tongs with one very long jaw as the handle. This has the advantage of accommodating some variation in the size of the stock. 

Option 2 is to abandon the tong idea entirely and make a twisting wrench with a sliding bolt to lock the stock in place. This has the advantage that you wouldn’t have to worry about squeezing the reins while you twist, but would be less forgiving to variations in stock size. 

There’s a third option not show here, which is simply a long piece of flat bar with some triangular holes in different sizes. The disadvantage of this option is that it only works if you can fit the wrench over the end of the workpiece. 

8 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

A nice hook for a birdfeerder

Very pretty. I like the spacers between the hook and the mounting plate. A simple detail that makes the design much more sophisticated.

I really like your bird feeder hanger Gewoon. Ditto what John just said above it not only looks very nice it shows off your talent as a smith. 

Slick tongs Chad! The easy way to add a twisting handle without modifying or heck making something is to use another pair of tongs on the bits on this pair so you're holding a pair in each hand.

It won't be like having a purpose made twisting wrench but it'll be much better than twisting from one side. Hmmmm, maybe?

Frosty The Lucky.

Painted. Getting ready to move everything to my smithty and put it all together.

For a decent finish to keep the rust monster at bay, I use old, used peanut oil. It's what I have on hand, (4 gallons of the stuff) and works well as a quenchant, and a protectant.  And it smells like deep fried Turkey when applied to hot steel.

HAH Blue, I used to get mine from the bakery and my shop smelled like donuts!

Donuts Mmmmmmm.

Frosty The Lucky.

Finished my first pair of Ken’s Custom Iron bolt tongs. These are sized for 7/8” square, which just happens to be the proper shank size to fit the hardy holes of my two main anvils. 

Also, an unusual job: replaced the shaft on the clapper of a small church bell. The original had the iron clapper ball cast in place around it, and had broken off just below the ball. 

I had to cut it off, drill out the bit in the middle, and forge a new stem. This turned out to be a total bear, as the original shaft — which should have been made from wrought iron — was some kind of high carbon steel that wrecked a bunch of my drill bits before I finally got it out. Very happy with the result, though. 

The new stem is a nice piece of fine-grained wrought iron forged down to 1/4” round except for the bottom tab, which is about 3/8” x 1/4”. I drilled a 1/4” hole through the ball with a 3/8” counterbore at the bottom; the ball was hammered down the shaft until the bottom tab wedged into the counterbore, so everything’s nice and solid.

(Fun fact: wrought iron is preferred to steel for the shafts of bell clappers, as it’s less likely to work-harden and snap, as happened here.)