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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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1 hour ago, DaveGas said:

Rolled 2 rings for a chandelier project to keep the wife happy. PS: the centerpiece made me happy. I didn't have the capability to roll steel this wide so I used angle rings as a bending jig and with a little heat I think it worked out. Larger is 30", smaller is 20".

 

I like where this is headed. 

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Had quite a productive day today. 

Decided that my new forge needed some decorative touches, so a set of wooden doors was on the menu. 

Started with some flat bar, globbed on a load of welds, into the fire, cross peened, then edges touched up with the grinder. 

Next I decided these doors needed some handles/knockers, so two signature skulls later, a bit of round bar, and that part was done. 

Finally today I threw together four quick hinges, a bit of drilling.... And I ran out of time. 

Have stuck a few bolts through for effect... The plan is to cut them down, and peen over to make the front look riveted. 

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To be continued... 

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Amazing doors for the forge, I love the texture from welding, it's really effective!

The hammer handle looks great, I like to char my handles too, they always end up charred in patches anyway!

 

I finished grinding/polishing my seax blade yesterday, next job is handle and sheath.

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Thanks for the comments, I was pleased when it came out of the etch.  The pattern is simple and easy to produce for those of us with no mechanical helpers as there's no folding involved. There's just a single forge weld on the three patterned bars followed by drawing out to length, twisting two of them and then forge welding them together with a wrought iron spine and in this case an O1 steel edge.

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Took care of a couple of little odds and ends: made and attached a file rack to the side of the work table, finished filing the hardy hole in the adapter for the portable hole, rodded a hot cut, etc. In general, things that will increase capacity and make the shop neater.

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3 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said:

Foundryman - Yes nice indeed. What did you end up with for spine thickness?  What was your materials.. Caught the O1.. 

Thanks, the spine of the blade is just over 8mm at the broken back and tapers away from there, down to 5mm at the handle with a full flat grind down to the edge which is around .25mm at the moment. Blade length length is 185mm (7-1/4") and 36mm (1-3/8") wide.

The spine is some poorer quality wrought iron, I have quite a bit of highly refined wrought from church bell clappers but I wanted rougher grain in this piece so used a piece that I think was probably from a tie rod from a wooden bell frame. The twists are 7 layers of 15n20 and 1095, the laminate is 15 layers of 15n20 and 1095 and the edge is O1.

Location is London, England.

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My father attended the 1951 world jamboree in Austria; they went over by boat of course and the aftermath of WWII was still very present on the continent. His descriptions of that trip were both  moving and hilarious! 

Foundryman; Drat I was hoping London Ohio so I could see it at Quad-State! one sexy sceax!

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Foundryman - Bummer for me on your location..  I was interested in having an anvil poured.. Shipping would kill the project.. :) 

Thanks for the extra info..  Nicely done and the contrast is excellent between layers.. Congrats..   I like the looks of loose wrought iron..

Made a skull pommel cap out of the wrought and it ended being over refined with all the work I did on it.. Not one striation in it even with a 3hr acid soak..  I was bummed..  Looking forwards to the finished product.. 

 

 

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I would imagine shipping might be prohibitively expensive, yes :P.

I was pleased with the contrast, after three 3 minute dips in ferric chloride with 1500grit hand sanding in between I buffed the blade with metal polish (autosol) and then left it in hot, cheap instant coffee for an hour which really boosted the contrast, it's almost blued the 1095. I've seen coffee recommended a few times before and thought I'd try it without really expecting much from it but for me, on this blade, it really worked.

I've read stories from smiths who have spent hours working on wrought items before only to be disappointed by the lack of grain when they etch their work, that's partly what influenced my decision to use the lower quality iron!

I hope to make the handle next weekend but it's set to get pretty miserable here in the UK and I'm a fair-weather smith as my set up is entirely outdoors and un-sheltered at present. I also need to decide between wrought iron or brass for the handle fittings, and whether to use figured ash or bog oak for the handle material. I've also got some buffalo horn for spacers, decisions decisions...

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