Not much but I knocked out a few hanging twisted ornaments on Friday. Posted them on my social media accounts and already have a buyer for 4 of them! These are about 4" long. Ashley thinks I should make double the length, tapered top AND bottom, and thinner. Thinner would be harder to taper but worth a shot. I'll look for thinner stock sometime this week.

Saturday & Sunday was spent with the dog club laying a scent track for their Tracking Dog trials and then home to work on another burn for charcoal. I almost have all the logs left from the previous owners of our house cleared out! I think maybe 3-4 more batches and I'll be finished with that pile. And I'll be stocked with charcoal for a long while.

 

I have some stock that's about 5/8" w x 1/8" thick that might be good for these, especially if I take a 4-5" length and split it diagonally. Thanks for the idea.

Shaina, if you were to make a series of twisted icicles of varying length from maybe higher carbon steel, spring works I know but. . . Anyway I'll bet they'd sell like hot cakes as wind chimes. Hmmmm? 

I read about 50 pages each from T-burners 101 and Gas Forges 101.  Found myself asleep in my lazy-boy, drooling down my chin...and this is with Methylene Blue from the Alex Jones Store. 

Frosty said orange around a blue flame could be the new refractory burning off.  I'm hoping that's what I'm seeing and not incomplete combustion.  I played around with the depth of the burner into the shell of the forge.  At 1/2" deep, the flames burned blue but they were detached and basically burning on the floor, not at the burner.  I incrementally lowered them until the flame stayed put, but then I got that orange around the flame.  Both burner flames look the same, even though one MIG tip was trimmed by only 1/8" and the other is a little nub.  The burners are about 3/4" into the hole in the insulation.

I cranked up the PSI although I have no idea how high.  I just cranked it until I got a satisfying roar, brought it up to temperature, and heated up a project I abandoned (failed canister Damascus split cross).  I don't know how long it would take to get to welding temperature, if at all, but it got hot enough to move.

I've attached a bunch of pictures.  Tell me what you guys think.  This is my first propane forge, so I'm unsure what is what, but I suspect the flame is not as hot as it could be.

They are definitely showy enough to make a person not want to build a fire in one without needing to. I'm not sure what to say to that level of wealth, I don't think I know anyone who can afford that level decoration. 

It makes my thoughts for "fancy" wood stoves pretty tame. Many years ago I thought I'd buy a good sized soapstone boulder from one of the mines a little way north of here and carve a wood stove from it. One of soapstone's characteristics is being an outstanding conductor of IR. I've heard it described as almost transparent to IR radiation, some colors are certainly translucent to visible light. I still think it'd be pretty cool to have a big warm flickering boulder in the living room.

After I met a fellow who casts mostly bronze but makes iron look easy. I started drawing a cast iron wood stoves in the shape of a sawn log. Rings in the ends and deep rough bark to make for better heat transfer and a root or branch to connect to the stove pipe. 

If I cast log cabin shaped stoves I could legitimately put windows in it so folks could watch the fire. Smoke would of course go up the chimney. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Looking good Socks. Good job and nice forge

Shaina, those are really quick and fun to make.   I actually use those to teach people how to taper thin stock as well as twisting. 

Got my sconces fininished. Finally able to go somewhere and get a piece of brass sheet. This is actually a kick panel for the bottom of a door i found on clearance at the local Ace. Got home, started to cut the sheet and my band saw blade broke. And of course i did not have another on hand. So i finished with the old angle grinder. I did polish it a bit but the sheet is thin and i did not want to be too aggressive. So just a quick sanding with 800 then onto the buffing wheel. 

The one on the right i somehow got a little ding in that sticks out like a sore thumb to me. 

 

Frosty, I agree - a windchime with these elements in varying lengths does sound lovely. 

Chad, tapering, twisting AND punching! In fact, apparently my punch is subpar because the punching took nearly as long as the tapering/twisting, lol

I need to focus on the gate again for a few sessions before I go back to a 'fun' project. So maybe this Saturday I'll try to make some more. I had some other sketches for hanging decorations that I also want to try out.

Nah Billy, that's a beauty mark, every artist puts one in their work as a reward for people who look closely at their work. They came out nice, just enough variances to make them a set. Hand forged shouldn't be identical you know. 

Shaina. Did you punch the holes first? Even tapering tends to cause the stock to twist and if it doesn't lay flat on the anvil / bolster it's hard to get a good blow to start the punch. 

Do you have a bolster plate? They're a real time and sweat saver for punching holes.

Tuning wind chimes is a fun process involving grinding a little of the ends till they strike the right tone. 

I have no idea how well or if twisted tapers will work for wind chimes. Heck if they don't chime tell folk their wind clinkles or clatters.

Frosty The Lucky.

I would try the chimes personally before offering to make for anyone else. I am obsessed with wind chimes so I'll very likely do this one. 

Regarding the punching, I rounded the hanging end and tapered the other end. Flattened, then punched. I do have a bolster plate but couldn't find it, lol. And maybe the lack of bolster plate was the problem because it punched through the top just fine. It was when I flipped it to punch through the shadow that I had problems. I thought maybe the punch was dull so I filed it but still had the same issues. So yeah, bolster plate probably would have helped. 

I did work on the gate tonight but since I had to wait for the thicker bar stock to heat, I figured I would try these again in between heats. First batch was 3/4" x 1/8" x 4" long. Tonight's batch was 3/8" x 1/8" and I like them a lot better. I also doubled the length to 8".

I drilled the holes. I don't have a punch small enough and didn't want to take the time to make one.

Edited November 5, 2025Nov 5 by Shainarue
Measurement corrections

DRILLED THE HOLES GASP!!! I'm shocked, SHOCKED I SAY! 

Punching with a tapered punch to drift them wider will round the end and depending on the actual hanger work well and might look well too.

You can also draw the end to a thin taper and bend it for a hanging hook.

The trick is making sure the chimes aren't hanging metal to metal or it'll damp them.

I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing a video of your chimes in action.

Frosty The Lucky.

If you can shape your punch with a file, it’s probably too soft. Of course it’s easy to overheat a punch and thus over temper it, so it might just need a new heat treat. 

Good point. That seems obvious in retrospect, lol

Just to clarify though, I wasn't filing to shape. I was just filing along the edges to sharpen. I didn't see any noticeable bulges or mushrooming. But it did shine up when I filed. 

Not been in the shop for a while. Bit sick, lots of works and feeling tiered.

 

Get well soon, Gewoon we miss you!

Frosty The Lucky.

I added a gauge to my forge.  This is the burner flame just after lighting at 10 psi.  How does it look?  Frosty, I know you're dying to comment on it. 

 

 

Best wishes, hope you feel better soon. 

This is why we use gloves or at least a folded up rag when handling stock in the shop i work in. It has been a while but i have seen some pretty nasty cuts requiring many stiches from flaws in stock. This is from some new bars of 1/2 x 1/8 flat i got.

The first flaw is what we called a mill defect and the second is a gouge / shaving. I like roping or other single ply unlined leather gloves when handling stock. A layer of leather will stop all but the worst from flaws like Billy posted. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Billy I ended up with a bunch of bars from china that were completely hideious to work with, burrs, delams, etc, etc,  Your not kidding about wearing gloves..  

My worst stock story is a length of 1" square that I am nearing the end of. 

All was  normal until I began to upset it. There is a seam that runs the length which opens up if upset. The downside is that this is a deeply flawed piece of metal. The upside is that I have metal that "looks" like wrought if handled the right way. 

No pictures but back in the shop.

Working on the coffeetable with the mechanical hammer. 2,5 legs are done. And a quick set of tongs to hold a 10mm round so I can weld stubs to my material to use on the hammer. 

Almost al 10mm round tongs are flimsy at the shop, so something more beafy.

I've been fairly productive this week. I found a nice balance of working on the gate vs working on fun stuff. The winter ornaments heat quickly and are easy enough that I could work on those while the gate piece was heating. So I've made a little collection of ornaments. 

I've finished all the pieces for the gate. Here's just the frame pieces laid out. I was checking the fit of the top bars I had just finished shaping. 

Then today, I made an 1/8" monkey tool and trued up the hole on my 1/4" monkey tool then used them to clean up/upset the shoulders of the pieces with tenons. Ran out of oxygen in the torch setup so switched to using charcoal. A few of the tenons appear frighteningly close to easily breaking. Guess I'll just have to cross my fingers for those since I don't have more stock to remake. If needed, I will buy more but I'd rather not unless necessary. 

Tomorrow I'm hanging with a buddy at his shop to learn how to make a knife. I'll also be hauling all these pieces over there where they'll stay for the remainder of this project for layout, welding, and painting.

 

Smoothing the edges of a yarn bowl, in the yarn shop!

Very nice John, I assume you cut the spiral after you shape the bowl? It must be very smooth not to catch the yarn as well I imagine.