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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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Made a couple of dragonflies. The wings and abdomen are stainless steel knives. The leaves are forged and the rest is scrap. Tried to get a bit of heat colour running in the wings (pic 2)with mixed success. Any clues how to get those vivid blues, purples, oranges? I just waved an oxy torch over and hoped for the best, but there must be a more controlled approach. Anyway, here is the result:

 

 

dragflower1.JPG

dragflower2.JPG

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On 10/28/2019 at 7:46 PM, CrazyGoatLady said:

Hmm I don't have any of that except barbwire... a lot of it. I suppose I should leave off the barbs though...

It won't sip down your hair with the barbs.

Nice dragon flies Aus. Chrome is hard to color patina and get vivid colors. Maybe with a soldering iron or a hot bar so you can direct the heat in small areas.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Ok. So here's some practice work using some exercises Jennifer graciously provided me in rounding and tapering. The heart is scaley, ugly and not refined. But, it is closer to symmetrical and more of the heart shape I'm trying for. Not terrible for practice which I'll continue to do. The S hook was made from a rim shoe. Not really a good choice as I have a cold shut in one of the pigtails from the fuller. And I made a rookie mistake and curled both pigtails in the same direction. Always pay attention to that! I went ahead and twisted it in the right direction, but because it's not a completely round taper, you can see the twist in it. I just didn't want to give up on it. But the good thing is, it's more of the shape I've been trying to get them to. I figure I may as well post the good, the bad and the ugly and try to find the bright spots ;)

20191029_153542.jpg

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Thanks Randy. These are definitely practice pieces. All my shoes are used, so I have all different kinds. Cut in half,  that rim makes a perfect place for the metal to roll over on itself and create the cold shut. I suppose I could file that out, but I don't know how much material I'd lose. File it out before I forge it that is. 

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CLG, for the rim shoes, you could try heavy wire brushing before the fuller is completely closed, then flux and forge weld it. I actually had luck doing that with a trammel hook made from 1 1/2”x1/8” material. I drew the hook out too fast and saw the same type of cold shunt starting, but was afraid I couldn’t work it back out with out ruining it. So I tried forge welding it and it worked out. (Would have been better off if I was paying attention from the start...but at least my forge welding is starting to get better.)

Great for “practice” work.

keep the work coming,

David

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Goods, thank you and that is a very good idea. I've not even attempted to forge weld anything yet. But I will file that in the things to remember folder. I didn't realize it had even formed until I started scrolling the curve and it started wanting to open up. By then, I'd put in too much work to stop! 

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Sure would!  On my way!

Those pieces are also very nice CrazyGoatLady!   You're making some really nice work with those horse shoes.  I would imagine they are fairly easy to manipulate?  (Soft Steel/iron).  

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A friend i have not seen in ages came over. So over a couple beers we caught up. I showed him my FS and was talking about how to clean it up. Just so happens he detailed show cars and gave me some stuff that he uses on rims to try. You can still see a little pitting but it cleaned up nice. 

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Now again i ask for advice. There is a spot in the blade that looks like it hit a grinder. I would like to clean them up. There has been no abrasives used...yet, and i really do not want to however i can not see any other way. I was thinking like a 1200 grit sand paper and a lot of elbow grease. Or would it buff out? 

20191030_173850.thumb.jpg.7acd44ea3615758e4ffa7d1ab8861255.jpg

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Absolutely agreed. Removing metal to get rid of those grinder marks would be terribly misguided. When I was working in the art studio, we saw a lot of antiques that had been spoiled by over-restoration. This is not a new knife; don’t wipe out its history while trying to make it look “better”.

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