What did you do in the shop today?

[jlpservicesinc]

I tried teak a few times from broken bench rungs. 

that was a really long time ago now. 

I barely remember but I did not like it for handle material.  it was something weird..  Brittle or left my hand dirty or extra vibration..  It was a very long time ago now. 

So with this said I will be interested in how you like the handle..  

So post back feedback once you get some hammer time. Please.. 




 

[JHCC]

As mentioned elsewhere, I picked up this interesting rack from the industrial surplus place, with the intention of using it for a hammer rack. 

It turned out to be too big for the existing available space:

 So I rearranged the storage on that wall out the shop to make more room.

 Trimmed the spokes on the front to a more reasonable length.

Which gave me a nice bunch of bits of round bar for future projects. 

The next step is to add a solid deck to the bottom, so that I can use the back half as a rack for long bar stock, as suggested by Frosty. 

(Not show: I also fished a dead and somewhat bloated chipmunk out of the slack tub. Ick.)

[pnut]

12 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Pnut, i used to use the nibs when i was younger and could still draw

I have a set of nice rapidograpgh pens that are excellent for stippling and pointillism drawing but they're a pain to take apart and clean. If you don't use them frequently you have to take them apart and clean everything or you'll destroy a forty dollar pen. I don't draw as much as I once did so nibs are easier to deal with. 

Pnut

[George N. M.]

Pnut;

Do you have the Rapidograph pens with the plastic reservoirs or the metal ones that just have the metal point with a pin in it?  I speak from experience that it is hard to go back and forth between the two types.  With the reservoir type when there is a clog you can just shake the pen and clear the clog.  With the ones with a pin you are supposed to just manually move the pin up and down to clear a clog.  The problem is that if you are used to shaking to clear a clog you forget and shake when you are supposed to do it manually and send ink and the little pin flying around the room and usually having ink land on you and your work.  I have had to do major cleaning up on a number of geologic maps in my day.  My late wife, who was also a geologist, learned some new words and combinations of words on those occasions.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand." 

[Frosty]

I ever used Radiograph pens, we used Leroy pens with the reservoir though there was a well and old dip them nibs in a drawer. I still have them in the basement, when they went to Autocad at work they told me to throw out the old drafting equipment. I saved everything but the drafting table. I don't know why though, I'd gone CADD at home a couple years before they did at work. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[671jungle]

I hope I got the pictures edited correctly. Kinda hard to navigate in my phone.

Have not been forging much lately. Really hot and lots of garden work. First attempt at a hidden tang blade I started at the beginning of spring. Not sure what to use as a pommel yet, maybe some mokume gane. Wood is apple, guard is stainless, accents are a quarter and a dime.

Also started messing around with a log that I fell last fall. Using a straight edged hatchet by Gerber. I can see and imagine why a carving hatchet Is called such. It will be a short totem pole thing for the yard. I will carve wings that will be tenoned into the side. The top will have a cavity with windows I will fill with glass so the sun shines through. Some of y’all have really progressed in the craft. Congrats to you! One of these days I will be graced and taught by a real blacksmith and maybe cut this learning on my own curve shorter.

[Jaegers Forge and Foundry]

the totem pole is cool and i like the dime pommel

[Glenn]

All radiograph pens were cleaned every Friday as the last thing done that week at work.  Finally found a brush that would fit inside of the pen body and the ink reservoir that made cleaning so much easier.  Every Monday morning we reassembled the pens, added ink to the ones we were going to use, and started the day. 

[Panik]

12 hours ago, pnut said:

I have a set of nice rapidograpgh pens that are excellent for stippling and pointillism drawing but they're a pain to take apart and clean.

I was just listening to a friend's lecture yesterday on scientific illustration and he mentioned the exact same benefits and issues with radiograph pens for the professional illustration work he does. While he's mostly switched over to digital illustration (Photoshop, etc), he does still occasionally use scans of work that he inks as a base layer in the final digital version. He recommended using Sakura Pigma Micron pens as an alternative to radiograph pens, and is apparently well please with them as an alternative. 

[671jungle]

Thanks Jaegers. I am thinking of forging a couple chisels to cut the tenon holes and some detail stuff like the feathers and clean up.

I have never carved anything before. It is extremely satisfying and easy to get into the flow zone. 

 

[Donal Harris]

Not technically the shop, but changed out a GFI outlet by the pool.  The reset button had broken and popped out. Found the original owner had not understood the power in must go to the LINE side and the power out to other outlets on the circuit must be wired to the LOAD side. 
 

Now I am wondering what else he wired wrong. 

[Chris C]

Finished forging (I hope) my Dogs Head Hammer today.  I'll pull it out of the vermiculite tonight and soak it in pH reducer and get all the scale off of it. 

Also finished my flatter................well, not completely finished as I'm going to take it to someone to weld the handle on.  I can "make stuff stick" with my stick welder, but it shore ain't purdy!  I want this makeshift flatter to be "plumb purdy". 

I'm repurposing a 3 pound engineer's hammer head to make it a double ended diagonal cross peen.  Wearing out all my 36 grit belts and am going to have to wait for an order to arrive.   I'll post pictures when I get everything finished.

Soaked my motorcycle chains in gasoline to clean all the gunk out of them.  They are both practically brand new, but were still dirty.  One is nice and loose.  The other is "tight as 'ol Dick's hatband".  Not sure if that's going to work out or not.  Disappointing part is the one that's tight is the heaviest and the one I was hoping to cut in half and use.  We'll see.  I'm leaving it in the gasoline to see if it just has gunk in it..........but I don't think that's the problem.

[pnut]

2 hours ago, Panik said:

He recommended using Sakura Pigma Micron pens as an alternative to radiograph pens, and is apparently well please with them as an alternative. 

Thanks, I'll have to take a look at them. Technical pens are great. I have Koh-I-Noor rapidograpghs. I had some pens that were disposable that sound similar to the ones you mentioned. I can't recall their brand off the top of my head. Prisma maybe? Anyway thanks I'll check it out. 

Pnut

Speedball may be the brand but I think mine were made by prismacolor. 

[Panik]

I wish I had the skills to be able to get some benefit from using technical pens in any manner..... but my skills don't lay in that direction. I'm pretty sure my friend Mark also mentioned Prisma pens, but I am so brain fried from listening to lectures this weekend that I can't recall the specifics. In any case, I hope the suggestion bears fruit for you. If nothing else, my understanding of the Sakura's is that they are relatively affordable.

[Glenn]

Technical pens usually boil down to the following, based on the Koh-I-Noor rapidograpgh pens.

Tip material being metal or plastic, and the end of the metal tip point being metal or jewel tips. 

The drawing media such as linen, paper, velum, tracing paper, sepia, mylar, etc. is a large factor in the tips being used.  

The opacity of the ink is a real concern for reproduction of the drawing.  The higher the opacity of the ink (the blacker it is) the better it is for reproduction as it blocks the transmission of light.   Some inks are poor at reproduction while others are great.  A high opacity ink can be used on most materials.  The ink base being a shellac or latex base makes a lot of difference depending on the media.  Being able to erase mistakes (depending on the ink and media) is a game changer.

The new style pens tend to be more for light, or occasional use, where the old style technical pens are for heavy, and continuous, long term use.  New pen points (metal) come with a factory edge which I find sharp and drag on the drafting media. After use this sharp edge wears and the pen is much easier to use.  In time you can wear out metal end points due to the amount of use and the abrasiveness of the media.  The jewel points have a jewel at the end of the metal to contact the media.  They smooth out quickly and glide very smoothly across mylar and some other medias.  They last much much longer than the metal tip points.

The cleaning solution for the pen points is very important.  Some solutions sort of get the points clean where other solutions really clean the points.  Add the brush mentioned above and you actually clean the points back to the new condition. 

The points come in different sizes 6 aught (000000) 0.13mm to #4  which is 1.2 mm.  The largest I have seen is a #9.  Each is designed to lay down a specific line width of ink.

[George N. M.]

Jungle:  Is that a quarter of half dollar used as a spacer in the center of the knife handle?  If so, that is an imaginative use.  I recently watched a video on how to make mokune gane out of a stack of US quarters.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Frosty]

Jungle: Nice job on the knife I like it. Sure they'll get better as your skills improve, what doesn't? 

On this one rather than a plain hex nut holding the handle, an Acorn nut would look nicer. 

You're coming along pretty darned well, keep at it. I'm expecting to see some real eye candy from you before too long, your imagination and problem solving style is creative. There is a LOT of potential there.

Frosty The Lucky.

[BubbaNash]

I made my first pineapple twist today! I cheated and used a grinder to make the grooves... I dont feel bad about it though.

 

I also made my first hair keeper and pin.

[George N. M.]

The discussion of technical pens really takes me back.  My late wife and I had contracts to prepare compilation geologic maps for the Department of Energy on 2 degree (1:250.000) quadrangles.  On some the geology was very simple but some were extremely complex.  They were all hand drafted on mylar by us (this was the early '80s and pre-CAD).  We ended up doing the geology of about 10% of the continental United States.  We became experts in the care and feeding of Rapidiograph pens.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Donal Harris]

Bubba, is it heavy?  I made one from copper a while back. Looked cool, but the surface was too smooth and the entire thing was too heavy. My wife was never able to wear it because it would quickly slide off. 

[tom_ET]

Hi there. 

Was out again and had half a day on the forge. 

When I see your great works, i don't feel like showing anything but hey. at the end, there sometimes come some nice comments that help one further.

I think I am going through a lot of charcoal. I have to figure out yet the right way to manage it better.. I tend to not like keep pilng it up high enough as I have the feeling i am using too much. but I guess there is no good in using less than the right pile of coal on the forge. --> I think it makes the (less) coal burn even faster and with too much oxygen?!  (figured at the end that this time i had far more clinkers than last time)

 

The metal gets so quickly cold after taking it out.. But then it has been pretty thin material so far that i have been working on. 

Anyhow, so although i take forever and although not really such great achievements, here a small pic. 


The chinese wheelbarrows we get here are such a crap... the last 2 ones just lasted 2 weeks. Then I made 1 working one out of the 2 broken ones and figured the best would be to make an own under-construction.  Used the anvil to form the 2 brackets holding the wheel axle to fit my crooked eucalyptus.  So far only 2 hammers, the anvil and the forge.. and used the axle-pin itself as a help. 

Have to drill and attach them still. 

[Marc1]

That is what real blacksmithing is all about Tom ... fabricate, improvise, repair, make what is not available with what you have at hand. Well done!

[Glenn]

You will need a couple of cross braces to keep the rails at the same distance apart. 

Grease the wheel and axle early and often.

[tom_ET]

Marc: i guess that is the main reason for getting into. While generally i like "old techniques",  it is just simply possible to do so many things with relatively few tools/machines. So much can be faster and easier done by modern metal work but you need this pool of machines and the right starting-material to make that work properly.  

Glenn: true. they were just "held in right position" being temporarily bolted to the tub. bracing will come. 
Greasing: good point. will do.   The wheel, btw. has its own bearing and with the weight on the wood  on the axle-pin, it will probably not move much itself.

[Chris C]

Finished up my Dog's Head hammer last night.  Now to start looking for some Hickory for the handle.  Well, it's been an interesting journey.  but this is my first hammer head. 

Not real purdy, but kinda cute.  Here's my Dog's Head Hammer Head in all its shining glory. 3 1/4" long.  Butt end measures 1"x1 1/4", head upset to 1 3/4".  Weighs 1 1/2 pounds.