November 16, 2025Nov 16 Progress on the current batch of bowls. On 11/13/2025 at 9:54 PM, JHCC said: an idea I have for the fly press And here we are so far: a crimping tool to simplify preforming bowl blanks before forging: Needs some more tweaking (I’m thinking about alternatives for the base), but the concept appears to be sound.
November 16, 2025Nov 16 Is it adjustable? Or do you do other items than yarn bowls? Frosty The Lucky.
November 17, 2025Nov 17 Except for a little touchup, I'm done with the pivoting mount for my propane forge. I'm not installing a kitchen next week, so I'd like to spend a few days in the smithy. It's been awhile. Weather is perfect this week, too. I want to see if my DIY forge reaches welding heat.
November 17, 2025Nov 17 9 hours ago, Frosty said: Is it adjustable? Or do you do other items than yarn bowls? Frosty The Lucky. It is indeed adjustable: the two bottom pieces can be moved along the angle iron base to increase or decrease their spacing. However, while I’m still experimenting, I’m not convinced there’s any practical benefit to adjustability. In other news, I finished up one of the pairs of slot-jaw tongs, fitting them to hold 1/4” x 1” flat, 1/2” square, and 7/16” rounded bars. I think I’ll follow John Switzer’s example and drift the slot larger on the next pair, to hold 3/8” flat bar.
November 17, 2025Nov 17 I like this setup. I also like being able to do a little forging after work without being covered in black coal dust.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Nice setup! 20 hours ago, JHCC said: I finished up one of the pairs of slot-jaw tongs Forgot to mention that this was my first use of the multi-divot riveting tool I picked up at Quad-State from Blacksmiths Supply: This has a 1” square stem, and so doesn’t fit in the hardy hole of either of my anvils. However, it works just fine in the striking vise.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Nice Alex. I wish I'd known you wanted one, I know the artist and might have been able to get you a deal. 5 heads are better than one eh, John? Frosty The Lucky.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Was asked how to forge a 1 piece rose. Started out with some wrought iron silo hoop. 3/4" Last one was 35 or so years ago. Sample 1 was a bust but it brought back a lot of the memories on how to do them.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 10 hours ago, MeltedSocks said: I like this setup. Important safety question: How rigid is the arm under load? While I like the idea of being able to move the forge around as needed (my own forge is on casters), it still has to be able to support both itself and the workpiece(s) without flexing. Have you considered adding a fold-down leg for additional support? Also, is the forge simply sitting on the stand, or is there anything to hold it down? If not, some clamps or mounting bolts would help make it a lot more secure and therefore safer. On 11/9/2025 at 7:18 AM, MeltedSocks said: I'll add a set-screw so it doesn't move around unless I want it to. Maybe it’s me, but I can’t see this in the latest photo. Do you have anything that keeps the arm from swinging like a fireball thrown from a horizontal catapult in a historically inaccurate action movie? Sorry to nag, but we really do need to consider safety first and convenience second, especially when we’re (literally!) playing with fire.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 9 hours ago, Frosty said: 5 heads are better than one eh, John? Indeed! I’d been considering getting some rivet heading tools from Ken’s Custom Iron at Quad-State, but they weren’t there this time. Then I found this beastie at the Blacksmiths Supply booth, and I’m happy I did. I think I’m going to add a holder to the striking vise stand, to keep it there permanently.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Finally got around to making this years holiday serving fork. Also made one for the set of utensils i will be giving my granddaughter. To go with the pot hanger she asked me to make for her to put in the new house. Needs cleaned up and shaped but the forging is done. 3/4"x3/16" (for some reason lately 1/4" thick has been hard to find locally but 3/16" is pretty abundant) about that long, no idea i just forged it till it looked right. Poplar handle.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Nice fork Billy, I like the tines a lot more on this one than the other and a wood handle always rules. I haven't been to a steel supplier in a couple years but 1/4" anything was special order so folks had been changing to 3/16" or 5/16" for about 1/2 the money so I have a couple sticks of each in round still in the racks. Frosty The Lucky.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 A bunch of tea light holders, two finger-hole candleholders (I don't know what the proper thing to call these is), a pull handle, and a pair of hooks for hanging a pair of ukuleles.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 JHCC, the pivoting arm is very rigid and strong. I could probably hang my entire 185 lbs on it with no issues. The forge feels like it's 30 lbs or so. I don't see the need for a leg at this point. The foot of the forge is a heavy C-channel with the flat side down. It fits down into the rectangular box welded to the pivoting arm. As far as securing it when not in use, I decided to just use a rope instead of a set screw. I wrapped the vertical axle of the "bearing" with electric fence wire to make a bushing. That took most of the slop out of the arm, and a set screw would have damaged the wire. I did sketch out a steel fork that would pivot down over the top pipe and lock it in place. That'd be a fun little project. As far as the other scenarios you mentioned, I don't plan on forging during a hurricane or severe thunderstorm, so I don't anticipate this thing becoming a horizontal trebuchet. It's pretty sheltered from the wind: cargo trailers on two sides, wall on the third. Two story workshop on the fourth side. But yeah. Safety is paramount.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 1 hour ago, MeltedSocks said: As far as securing it when not in use I'm more concerned with securing it when it IS in use. Things fall over, people trip, unexpected stuff happens, and now you've got a very hot, very heavy mass swinging at the end of a yard-ish-long pole. It's got enough mass that it's going to generate some serious torque if it swings through its entire arc, maybe even enough to splinter the pole it's mounted on. Even if you don't use a setscrew, something that locks it in position will significantly increase your safety margin and reduce the possibility of damage to yourself and others. A telescoping arm to one of the other posts is an option, as is some kind of bracket with detents every 30 degrees or so.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 Tim, those candle holders are a version of a "Courting candle" holder. The simpler version just has a point in the center to hold the candle. A suiter would light his way to his sweetheart with a single candle to show frugality but needed to prevent wax from soiling his sleeve. A single candle wasn't as much of a beacon to those who would gossip. That's what I recall of the story but it gives you a good base for the story board. Hmmm? Frosty The Lucky.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 20 minutes ago, Frosty said: "Courting candle" holder. These are a bit more prosaic, I'm afraid. When candles were the primary source of indoor light after sundown, everyone would carry their candle with them as they moved from one place to another within the house. These wouldn't generally be used out-of-doors, as they would most likely blow out. For that, you'd use some variety of lantern. The "courting candlestick" that I'm most familiar with is the kind with a spiral stem and an internal support that can be raised or lowered, presumably for the paterfamilias to show a suitor how much time he had left. However, I strongly suspect that both this kind of candlestick and its romantic associations are modern inventions.
November 18, 2025Nov 18 I worked on finishing a set of pickup tongs that I started back before I built my propane forge. However, I started with a couple of pieces of coil spring that weren't quite thick enough, so these will just be for lightweight things. I do believe these are my first from scratch. I've made quite a few of Ken's tongs, but never from scratch. I've got some 3/4" 4140 round bar that I'll use to make a set suitable for picking up and maneuvering a hammer blank. That's my Holland anvil I got earlier this year. Sad that they're going out of business. Those are cool, Tim.
November 19, 2025Nov 19 Started in on another wrapped eye ax. It's drawn out but I marked and filtered the wrong sides. Easy enough to fix but annoying. I keep making the same mistake on these. Also, while that was between heats, I started in on the 100 nail challenge. I got 14 done with everything after the 5th nail only needing 1 heat to taper. Last night gave in to temptation and made a farrier rasp 15N20 billet of 7 layers. I got it drawn out square last night and I decided to try hand twisting it tonight because I am, apparently, a glutton for punishment. Also put the finish on a towel rack for my bathroom. The piece of wrought I was using wasn't long enough so I forge welded another chunk on in my first sip the tongs weld. It was nit straight, but that's nothing a little heat and hammering couldn't fix.
November 19, 2025Nov 19 Pretty nice job on the towel rack, a few more and they'll be marketable. Give twisting longer pieces horizontally a try sometime. It has definite advantages. Frosty The Lucky.
November 19, 2025Nov 19 You'll want a shim on the other end of the vise jaw if you use your leg vise so it will hold solidly and you don't wrack the jaws. One of the advantages of twisting horizontally is the scale tends to fall straight down and you aren't near it's path to the ground. Sure, some scale pops off and flies a little way but it's not at shirt pocket level with your arms up and spread. Even when I wore my welding jacket I used to catch scale in the sleaves. It's counter intuitive but it's actually easier to keep twists straighter and more even horizontally. If you're twisting long pieces like fence pickets you can use a pair of helper stand and a piece of channel iron or half pipe to lay the stock on and keep it from turning into Christmas ribbon. The call it "tray" also lets you slap the stock down, and slide it into the vise jaw FAST so you don't lose heat like you do fussing with it vertically. You can use a weed burner to pre-heat the tray to improve your time limit. Some of the best non powered twisting setups I've seen are vertical with the stock hanging from a cam lock type clamp in the rafters and the twisting wrench another cam lock centered in a round weight you spin. The weight provides inertia and really helps keep the twist going. Nothing beats a proper twisting machine though. Frosty The Lucky.
November 19, 2025Nov 19 I made a floor lamp. I decided to screw the base together, which took me a month and a half to figure out.
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