Gergely Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Small pair of tongs for 3/8 - 3/4" or 8-20mm square stock. Not everything went as I wanted but all in all I'm happy with it. It works all right. Second pict shows it after testing under PH with a 20x20mm square piece. Bests: Gergely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 On 2/1/2017 at 0:08 PM, JHCC said: Working on a new touchmark. Finished the grinding and filing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 I made my first toasting fork, it's out of 3/8 round. I am pretty happy with it overall but my next one will be better. Also a good lesson in what happens when you don't pull enough material for an eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 So pop it back in the forge and straighten that last bit, (I'd start by running a drift in the hole), forge out a longer taper on it, octagonalize it and do a nice rat tail loop on the end. Not a failure just not finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the iron dwarf Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 nothing at all but tomorrow I have to rewire a footswitch for my press as it dont reach where I have moved the press too and finally get the flue finished weather permitting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Well to be honest I didn't notice that kink until I took the photo. I might adjust the eye, and I need to make a second one so I will make sure I pull more material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 I usually leave mine ending in a hook so you can hang it next to the cook fire with other cooking implements not needing an S hook as an intermediate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 2 minutes ago, Zeroclick said: I need to make a second one so I will make sure I pull more material. Just remember: the diameter of your eye will be a bit less than 1/3 of the length of the material. That is, if you want a 2" eye, make sure you have a bit more than 6" of material before you start bending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 That is a good idea I may try that with a couple. With these two my wife's grandmother has asked me to make them for her brother. I have not seen where they will be stored but thought I would make to small J hooks to mount them anywhere. I went for the method of 0.5 inch eye. So with 0.375 inch, so I did 0.875*3.14 for pi to give me a material length of 2.75. But it just didn't seem to pull round, it was most likely my technique which can only improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Out here for cowboy cooking we usually have two uprights and a cross bar of around 1/2" round stock near the fire to hang pots and pans from. The old cast iron skillets all need S hooks, but the forks, ladles, flippers, etc hang on their built in hooks as does my pots and pans I have modified for camp cooking by putting basket handles on them. J hooks not so useful as in the house with a fireplace. (and s hooks keep getting lost or borrowed in a long campout. Luckily I have a bunch---one weeklong campout I accidently got both boxes of S hooks on the truck and ended up having over 80 in use in a one person camp, *everyone* was envious and I left with less metal and more steel engravings of dead presidents to the good.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 That sounds like a good week camping What would you normally use as a finish for thexample fire tools used for cooking. I have used beeswax on this one but wondered if there was a better option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 54 minutes ago, Zeroclick said: I went for the method of 0.5 inch eye. So with 0.375 inch, so I did 0.875*3.14 for pi to give me a material length of 2.75. But it just didn't seem to pull round, it was most likely my technique which can only improve. Was the 0.5" the internal diameter? I was always told to calculate the centreline diameter plus around 1.5 times the parent bar thickness. The allowance does depend on the ratio of parent bar to circle diameter...your very small circle for that size bar is obviously more critical than if you were making it a Ø24" ring. But it is always difficult to bend the end of the bar to conform to the curve without crushing the section...one way to get around it is to have a longer bit on the end, a "sacrificial handle" wrap it around and then cut off the tip at the appropriate point. Alan 26 minutes ago, Zeroclick said: That sounds like a good week camping What would you normally use as a finish for thexample fire tools used for cooking. I have used beeswax on this one but wondered if there was a better option. I would use cooking oil on cooking implements...keep it food safe. Alan ps have you downloaded the COSIRA books from the Hereford College website? Well worth doing for first rate instruction on beginner to advanced blacksmithing. Every 'smith should have copies for reference. http://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/Downloads/craftpublications.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 23 hours ago, Alan Evans said: 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 Alan, Stahlgestaltung is a really informative book showing many techniques, designs and how they can be put together. If only I could READ it! haha. The pictures in the book do at least tell a thousand words so it is still very informative. Das Eisenwerk has many great images of different styles of ironwork in it. I picked both books up from Ed Claypoole, who unfortunately had recently had his shop severely flooded. Tho the books had been waterlogged they are of good quality and survived. I still have a bunch of pages to carefully peel apart but only the outer edges are stuck and the pictures and writing is all fine. That would be a treasured book. sounds like you have met a lot of very talented people in your travels. I am still in the infancy of my Blacksmithing but these books are Great inspiration. Not sure if that is Fritz, but here is a page stating some of the tools. It might help in translation but I am horrible with other languages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Thanks Alan that is a great set of books. That makes sense I will do that calculation on the next one and hopefully I will get good results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Food safe finishes on cooking tools: You can season them like you would season a cast iron skillet or griddle of or a fast finish I wax them usually using wax sold to seal jelly jars over here known as paraffin wax. Beeswax is tops but tends to be a bit sticky definitely apply to warm metal and wipe down with a clean rag thoroughly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeroclick Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Oh well thank goodness for that I thought beeswax would be ok but really don't want to poison anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausfire Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Das, that is a very handy page with all the tool names. One of my next jobs at our Village is to rearrange our blacksmith shop and I want to make a tool wall with all the old forge tools named. I don't know any German, so I will have to depend on Google Translate to make use of that page. There are so many forge tools we have here that mystify me, so I will probably have to post a pic or two and ask a few questions on this forum as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miller57 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 I actually just made a forge (if you would call it that). I'm 17, and was scrolling through YouTube the other day and saw a smith turn a chunk of steel into a beautiful Viking hand axe, and watched the whole thing in awe. It just tugged at my heart, I wanted to do something like that. So I took a 55 gallon steel drum, chiseled it in two halves, and chiseled a hole in the bottom of the side of it. I lit a good, wood fire, put a steel pipe through the hole, and hooked a blow dryer to the pipe. It melted the paint off of the barrel, burned up all of the wood, but I did manage to get a horseshoe hot enough to bend a little. I bought an old railroad anvil and some Tongs from the local antiques store to start. I literally can't pull myself away from any of it. I'm excited for a long life of smithing, and would take any kind of advice from here. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Poet Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 7 hours ago, Zeroclick said: That is a good idea I may try that with a couple. With these two my wife's grandmother has asked me to make them for her brother. I have not seen where they will be stored but thought I would make to small J hooks to mount them anywhere. I went for the method of 0.5 inch eye. So with 0.375 inch, so I did 0.875*3.14 for pi to give me a material length of 2.75. But it just didn't seem to pull round, it was most likely my technique which can only improve. Measure out the material to the needed length then bend it to a 90 degree angle. Weld a 1/2" rod to a flat piece of plate, put both the fork end and the jig into a vise. That way you can hammer the eye halfway around a circular template which makes finishing the ring around a 1/2" drift much neater. I do something very similar for hinges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 First thing this morning I had to go pick up some new wire to run so I had power in my shop. I then made a v spring for a 1916 made Spanish Eibar/Ruby and also got a billet of bandsaw blades and pallet straps tack welded and ready for forge welding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stockmaker Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 7 hours ago, Alan Evans said: Was the 0.5" the internal diameter? I was always told to calculate the centreline diameter plus around 1.5 times the parent bar thickness. The allowance does depend on the ratio of parent bar to circle diameter...your very small circle for that size bar is obviously more critical than if you were making it a Ø24" ring. But it is always difficult to bend the end of the bar to conform to the curve without crushing the section...one way to get around it is to have a longer bit on the end, a "sacrificial handle" wrap it around and then cut off the tip at the appropriate point. Alan I would use cooking oil on cooking implements...keep it food safe. Alan ps have you downloaded the COSIRA books from the Hereford College website? Well worth doing for first rate instruction on beginner to advanced blacksmithing. Every 'smith should have copies for reference. http://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/Downloads/craftpublications.html Allen, thanks for the link. I think I am going to like going through this. Oopps, Alan, I got your name wrong, sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 5 hours ago, ausfire said: Das, that is a very handy page with all the tool names. One of my next jobs at our Village is to rearrange our blacksmith shop and I want to make a tool wall with all the old forge tools named. I don't know any German, so I will have to depend on Google Translate to make use of that page. There are so many forge tools we have here that mystify me, so I will probably have to post a pic or two and ask a few questions on this forum as well. Glad it could help. Sort of one reason I posted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 almost finished with the roses, and made tongs for a friend just getting started in blacksmithing. they are horrible tongs but hey for free they cant be beat since they all work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sk Bjorn Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Wife went to work so did I. hammered out a knife out of a chunk of lawn mower blade .while the smithy was warming up then got to work making a wine bottle holder for my niece. and got side tracked and made a bracelet for my daughter before I got into making nails to fasten the holder to the section of fence rail all in all not a bad evening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Welcome aboard Miller 57, glad to have you. Keep your sights set on the axe while you're learning the basics. Ig you Google search "55 forge" and include Iforgeiron in the terms it'll hit on a forge design Glenn posted using a 55gl drum. It's a proven design using easily scrounged or cheap yard, garage, etc. sale components. Burning wood in a forge generates a LOT of radiant heat and tends to cook the smith. If you can't build a retort you can have a wood fire out of the way and transfer coals by the shovel full. Be aware, even a blow drier puts out WAY more air than you need for a solid fuel forge of any reasonable size. The easiest way to regulate air flow is just aim the hair drier away from the supply duct some that way you're only putting part of the output into your fire. It's WAY easier than coming up with and making all the various air valves possible. Save those for later more permanent set ups. Pull up a comfy chair, bring some snacks, something to drink and start browsing the archived posts on Iforge. They're arranged by subject in layers: Section, subsection, etc. It's not hard to find your way around once you have a handle on it and most anything you might ask has probably been answered a bunch of times already. Remember the onsite search engine is sketchy to be charitable so use Google and include "Iforge" in the terms. Doing some reading helps us all, first you get a handle on the jargon so you know what words and terms mean and can ask good questions and understand the answers without having to define every word you used or us having to explain every word. It's NOT an exclusionist jargon, it's a technical trade jargon compiled of thousands of years to make communications easier, clearer and more meaningful. To a blacksmith a "shoulder" has a specific meaning as does "Upset" on and on it goes, just getting a handle on things really flattens your learning curve. Oh, I'm not going into those blighters and blokes across various oceans they all talk funny. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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