January 30, 20179 yr 2 minutes ago, PVF Al said: Railroad spike to shoe horn. Practicing basic skills. Nice and clean.
January 30, 20179 yr Finished her and have her twin still to be put together. A single rivet ties everything tight.
January 30, 20179 yr I worked my design a little bit and made my previous candlestick into a snuffer while I made a larger one to go with it. I also made a forge-welded cross, twisting it was a huge pain though probably because I cheaped out and only used two rods for the bar
January 30, 20179 yr Wow! You're not called Iron Poet for nothing. Those are some excellent flower candle holders/snuffers. I really like how you improvised on a theme.
January 30, 20179 yr 7 minutes ago, Ridgewayforge said: Wow! You're not called Iron Poet for nothing. Those are some excellent flower candle holders/snuffers. I really like how you improvised on a theme. The key to creativity is laziness. I realized that the small flowers I made didn't fit the candles I bought so I turned them into snuffers since it was less work than enlarging the cups. But it's all just practice, I plan on making more elaborate flowers after I get comfortable with forge-welding sheet metal.
January 30, 20179 yr Somehow, that adds to the beauty of the creation. Well done, and I look forward to seeing more flowers. Candle Holders I could never quite get the hang of, but I only barely delved into them before I had to pack up the shop.
January 30, 20179 yr 1 minute ago, Ridgewayforge said: Somehow, that adds to the beauty of the creation. Well done, and I look forward to seeing more flowers. Candle Holders I could never quite get the hang of, but I only barely delved into them before I had to pack up the shop. I'll probably show more if I don't forget about it. The trick to fitting everything together before you forge weld, bending the leaves so they snuggly grip the stem, or making sure the cups have enough material to grab the stem properly. I unfortunately work by myself so I've had to slowly develop techniques to do stuff like this with only two hands. If you do open the shop back up don't be afraid of trying to forge weld some plants together, sheet metal is a little finicky but it is totally possible and it looks much better than electrically welding them on.
January 30, 20179 yr Author 1 hour ago, Iron Poet said: I unfortunately work by myself so I've had to slowly develop techniques to do stuff like this with only two hands. I completely know what you mean! I think its kinda fun, as it creates a challenge, and makes you have to think every now and then on how to complete a certain task with only two hands and your legs. Littleblacksmith
January 30, 20179 yr 38 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said: I completely know what you mean! I think its kinda fun I think having a couple unpaid interns to do all the grunt work would be funner, but that's just me. I am trying to trick one of the local colleges into doing just that, so far none have taken the bait.
January 31, 20179 yr On 1/22/2017 at 0:08 AM, JHCC said: Well, I'm back in CT this coming week.... Sorry I missed this post. I saw you got to witness the glory of the Bargain Barn though!
February 1, 20179 yr Vaughn, I like that. Nice design. Here's mine, a coat rack WIP. Needs more hooks and a bunch of finish.
February 1, 20179 yr Greetings Judson, Beautiful work.. I might suggest rather than a wrap around hook design the same hook a little longer fixed to a position with a rivet with some embellishment to the face . This IMHO would complement your center element.. Again well done. Forge on and make beautiful things Jim
February 1, 20179 yr 4 hours ago, Judson Yaggy said: Vaughn, I like that. Nice design. Here's mine, a coat rack WIP. Needs more hooks and a bunch of finish. LIkewise, friend. That is a truly stellar design! I don't know what's better, the joint or how you spooned the hooks so they won't rub on a jacket lining! Really impressive all the way around!
February 1, 20179 yr working on 6 roses, a chair, and other fun stuff., A cool book I found a while ago that was in a flood too.
February 4, 20179 yr Author On 1/31/2017 at 6:15 PM, Judson Yaggy said: Here's mine, a coat rack WIP. Needs more hooks and a bunch of finish. I REALLY like the joinery used to connect the two pieces in the center. I would ask to steel the idea, but even if i did and you said yes, it is still a little above my skill level. Haven't tried any collaring yet. Littleblacksmith
February 4, 20179 yr Then try collaring at your next opportunity. Just grab two pieces of metal and go at it. The intent is to fail the first time so you know what to change the second time you try. From there it is just being creative with a new (to you) technique. A hundred or so collars later, you should make it look easy.
February 4, 20179 yr Collaring is easy if you know a few tricks. Length of collar stock is calculated by measuring the periphery of the pieces to be joined and adding 2 1/2 times the collar stock thickness. Put a short flat taper on each end of the collar stock and the ends will overlap slightly, no gap. Make your first 90 deg. bend in the vise, then go back to the anvil and straighten the legs. Make the second bend either in the vise again (if it fits) or around a template held in the vise. Result should look like a sharp cornered U. If just working out of the forge set the last 2 bends in the same heat (work quick), if you have torches you can be a little more leisurely and do one bend at a time. If torch heating keep the heat closer to bend 1 or 2 while making 3 or 4 and the material will stretch a little more tightly around the work piece. There are other ways of doing it this is just what works for me.
February 4, 20179 yr I thought I would share this with the group. I sometimes have to make a spring for a firearm, pictured is a flat V spring for a German made double rifle. I broke the original while disassembling the gun, the German's are very good at making things fit together tight, this time things were a little too tight, the original spring gouged into the main bolt stopping it from being removed. The metal is 1075 which is a very forgiving alloy for spring making, easy to forge, quench and to temper.
February 4, 20179 yr On 01/02/2017 at 4:43 AM, Daswulf said: snip... A cool book I found a while ago that was in a flood too. An extremely cool book find. Finding illustrations of Fritz Kühn's work was a revelation for me. He was the first artist blacksmith I knew of that was not working in the 18 century/baroque idiom. His work gave me permission to explore. Makintosh, Horta and Gaudi were all architects designing for others to make...and I did not discover Mazzocutelli, Gonzalez, Benneton, Smith or Chillida until much later. I never met Fritz Kühn but have spent some happy times with his son Achim, another fine artist blacksmith/sculptor, at various blacksmithing events over the years. Talented family. I was honoured to receive an inscribed copy of "Fritz Kühn 1910-1967in Memoriam" from Achim. One of my treasured possessions. Alan
February 4, 20179 yr One of my "finds" from a 90 day business trip to Germany was a copy of Fritz Kühn's "Geschmiedetes Eisen" The 1939 edition. I thank my highschool German teacher for allowing me to ask about blacksmithing books at fleamarkets in German. The book is in reprint these days but with slightly different content due to the changing times.
February 4, 20179 yr 13 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said: One of my "finds" from a 90 day business trip to Germany was a copy of Fritz Kühn's "Geschmiedetes Eisen" The 1939 edition. I thank my highschool German teacher for allowing me to ask about blacksmithing books at fleamarkets in German. The book is in reprint these days but with slightly different content due to the changing times. A magic find and honourably earned! I have a 1985 copy of the English translation "Wrought Iron" first published over here by Harrap in 1965. The first one I saw in the mid seventies was in German. Alan
February 5, 20179 yr 10 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: The book is in reprint these days but with slightly different content due to the changing times. Ya don't say
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