1 hour ago, Daswulf said:

Now on to fix and paint baby's room and then I might get to relax for a day. Ugh. 

With a baby?! Bud, your days of "relaxing" are over! 

My son's going to be four in about a month, and while he's definitely my pride and joy and I take a lot of pleasure from the time we spend together, I wouldn't call much of the last four years "relaxing." Other than when one of us was someplace else...

Quiet day at the forge. Only two visitors - from Tucson, Arizona.  Just made a couple more troll crosses. The middle one is a horse shoe, the one on the right is light rebar and the other is just 3/8 round. Copper rivets.

On 3/19/2018 at 10:45 PM, Reeltree said:

  Have to get into the right mind set to get motivated.

My mind is being "set" for me lol. Yeah an old farmhouse is a lot of work. 

 

On 3/19/2018 at 11:35 PM, SFC Snuffy said:

your days of "relaxing" are over! 

Still got over a month till she is born. I know it's coming quick but I did say "A "day to relax.   

Very cool!  I’m still working on knives (never thought I would say that).  I just have to post the San mai taco jlpservicesinc made for me. The cold shut is epic and requires a complete re-envisioning of the blade.  The other blades are requests froma good friend and are seriously challenging.  I have to destroy the first one in the heat treat soon!  I think I’ll post a request for input before I take the plunge.

5 minutes ago, Lou L said:

I’ll post a request for input before I take the plunge

Take the plunge vertically, with no side-to-side movement.

I posted my request for succor in the knife making section.  I begged for more insight into the vertical vs. horizontal quench mainly because I don’t want to have to find a new container  

Finished up a wall hanger today. Might do a wire wrap around the joined part to hide the spot weld, but don't have anything suitable on hand right now. Also need to pickup some small bolts and rework the heads rather than using screws 

Lou, I was thinking more "direction of the plunge" than I was "alignment of the blade".

10 minutes ago, JHCC said:

Lou, I was thinking more "direction of the plunge" than I was "alignment of the blade".

Oh!  And I should align the blade with the North Pole too, right?  

 

Nice wall hanger, Viking!

Lou L,  tip first or sharp edge first..  Stick it in quick, wiggle, wiggle..  Water or oil?  If you use water the blade will have no residual heat so if it warps you can straighten it in tempering. 

If oil quenched and you pull it when it loses all color and just after the file test (keep in mind some oil hardened steels though completely hardened will feel stick until completely cold) you can sometimes still straighten then while hot.. 

I'm only 1hr away.. I would have been happy to have you out to work on it.   Keep that in mind in the future..  Always happy to help..  

Well, I haven’t even heat treated the first of four knives.  I have been creeping slowly through the first to get information (there was actually another that offered a serious lesson about heat management when drifting the finger hole).  When I was confident with the potential of the first I rough forged number 2.  I’m basically at the start of this!  If I need help and have the day to set aside I will definitely beg your aid!  Thanks so much for the offer.

Strongly suggest you make one (or more) just to experiment with heat treat on.

12 hours ago, JustAnotherViking said:

Finished up a wall hanger today. Might do a wire wrap around the joined part to hide the spot weld, but don't have anything suitable on hand right now. Also need to pickup some small bolts and rework the heads rather than using screws 

A very nice piece, JAV. Scroll work looks good.

Yes, you need to replace the screws. I like to use those black lag screws and just reshape the heads from hex to square.

Decorative bolt heads, then i'll need to make a custom proprietary tool to sell separately for installation so you don't damage them 

2 hours ago, JustAnotherViking said:

Decorative bolt heads, then i'll need to make a custom proprietary tool to sell separately for installation so you don't damage them 

Custom tool is caled a spanner,

 

and if you put a collar on properly, you don't need a weld.

 

1 hour ago, John B said:

Custom tool is caled a spanner,

You're missing the marking opportunity here for the up-sell, just need to get the marketing on point...
Alter an old spanner to be an exact fit for the bolt heads should it not match an existing metric or imperial spanner to avoid marring the corners if it needs a bit of gentle persuasion... bit of a hammer finish, oil/wax, stick it in a hessian gift bag with the bolts... (not actually meant to be taken seriously )

 

Many thanks for the examples, collars are something I really need to give a try. Any tips for measuring to get a good fit before cutting? Are those forge welded, or just a tight fit?

Haven't had the chance to be on in a little while, so getting caught up. Great stuff everybody!

Did some polishing today and ready for handles. Not perfect, but as good as they are getting. (That's actually a bit of my reflection on the bottom, not any discoloring. Just noticed it.....)

On 22/03/2018 at 12:40 PM, JustAnotherViking said:

Many thanks for the examples, collars are something I really need to give a try. Any tips for measuring to get a good fit before cutting? Are those forge welded, or just a tight fit?

The pictured heads are from a standard square head coach screw, so come in standard A/F sizes.

Collars, need a mandrel the same size as the pieces to be secured together, length of collar is circumference around joining area plus twice the thickness of the bar being used for the collar.

Forge one or fabricate from stock used. Use  double ended calipers to obtain sizes to forge to.

Place on stock for collar at end of bar, rotate on bar each side of mandrel, add two thicknesses of collar stock,

Note this length using dividers in case you have to repeat for other collars if making more than 1 item

 

Mark with cold chisel, so you can find this mark on your hardie,

get hot and cut nearly though with hardie,  and then form into a U,

 

then twist off when hot and forge around the mandrel to finished size, reheating as needed, (Remove collar from mandrel  and just reheat the collar.

 

then open up the collar and slip over the pieces to be secured, close with hammer blows and allow to cool to tighten the whole assembly.

 

I prefer to have the split on the collar on the widest section,

Hope this helps.

Others may have different methods,

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain that, very helpful indeed! 

I shall give it a try tomorrow and hopefully all goes to plan. Might start off making a quick set of callipers while I'm at it. 

Yes, thanks John, very clear and concise little tutorial.

Made a small pair of callipers today for measuring stock, then made the pieces for another wall hanger. 

Started to join the first bar to the plate and had a bit of a falling out with it when peening, after which the piece was dropped out of the vice and booted under the bench with some choice  strong words. 

I now know, how not to join two pieces. 

After that epic waste of time, I went and chopped off a section from a huge lump of rusty wrought iron sitting outside the workshop, and had a very enjoyable 10 minutes of beating it into a smaller profile piece... Not sure what I'll make with it yet. 

Have never forged wrought before, so it put a huge grin on my face!!! 

Can't wait to make something out of it and etch. Really obvious pattern even without cleaning it up, so should be good when finished. 

Made a quick chisel from one of the 48” jackhammer bits:

And hung up some pancetta to cure:

 

Can you call it pancetta before it has cured? 

Now I'm hungry. 

Bacon in the makin’!

Now there's an Idea... Wonder how many seconds it would take to cook a slice over the forge