What did you do in the shop today?

[Helena]

Aww, thanks TJ. I'm flattered

[Frosty]

Glad they patched you up Helena, hope it doesn't give you trouble. I hate cut off wheels in disk grinders, an instant's inattention and they'll bind and take you for a ride or just shatter at high velocity. An adage my Father relayed till I was sick of hearing it is very true, "Familiarity breeds contempt." I've been bitten more than once by familiarity. 

A 9" Milwaukee disk grinder got me once though only for about 6 stitches and about $75 in repairs to the grinder. 

I like your key ring a lot, a fitting demise for a tool that did you a bad one. I'll have to think of something I can make from the chain saw I was using when the tree kicked back. Hmmmmm. No WAIT! The chainsaw works fine and didn't do anything but what I told it to. It was a thought. <sigh>

Oh, how about posting now and then, there's no need to do yourself a serious mischief you know. You do nice work and we like looking at it.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Helena]

Thanks so much Frosty. Good to know you didn't lose any limbs. And thank you for the kind words. I'm really critical of my work because I know it's not as good as it could be yet. I'll get there, it just takes awhile. 

[Frosty]

I just calls em like I sees em. It's attractive work I think would be easily marketable. Have you done any enameling? Copper takes enamels, torch or oven, very well. 

Any of us who care, are our own worst critics. I've never made anything that my eye didn't fall on the flaws first. Our own work is NEVER as good as it could be! I get a kick out of you saying "yet", we all had those fantasies early on, it can ALWAYS be better and you are the person who will see the "lack." Normal normal, join the club.

Good enough doesn't mean: rough, sloppy, shoddy, etc. but functional. Good enough means it's good enough for the maker to pass to the customer. Have you seen pictures good enough, from JPH's shop? His blades are exquisite but he can see the flaws and intends to not make that mistake again, or try something else. He doesn't talk about it, he's aware he's the only person who can see them and explaining the flaw would lead to really long threads explaining every detail. There's "good enough to work" a shop or field expedient tool. Then there's good enough to pass muster at a high end master's judged show, "good enough."  Hmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[natkova]

Made one  hook, ans fixed broken file, forged new tong to it .

Burned some steel

[alexandr]

As usual, too much work.

I finished one chandelier, and now I'm going to start the next one.

[Arthur210]

Five months since the last time I lit up the forge, so I took it easy and made some simple things. A dozen tent stakes and a pair of bottle openers from small cuts of 3/8" square.

The top one took a lot longer to make. Chiseling those lines before the twist was time-consuming, but it was good practice.

[Benona blacksmith]

A couple more axes forged today.

 

 

[Goods]

Not today, but yesterday. I finished up a tomahawk and made a few s hooks for a neighbor from some very old pitted 3/8” round. Also, not picture, but I welded up a bending jig with some angle iron, and little 1/2” square stock to use a set of flea market 1/2” drive sockets. Worked well after re-welding one of the 1/2” studs. Funny, my forge welding is now better than my MiG welding. (Of course that doesn’t really say much.)

Hawk is not really what I planned. It is just rough filed, leaving some deep scratches. I was checking for hardness after the tempering and had to file pretty far before getting to the hard layers. Then, just got carried away and had to see the edge polished and etched. The 1095 I had for the bit seemed a bit thin so I wrapped in piece of 1/16” thick band saw blade (originally 8” wide blade!) and welded that up before welding in as a bit. Looks like I lost some to scale, but what’s left stand out well. 

Over all pretty pleased. I was able to get it welded without fighting with it, and I’m getting better about moving the metal where I want it without too many corrections. 

Handle needs work yet, but I think I’m going to let the rough scratches there. Looks go in a “get ‘er done” kind of way. I even forgot to touch mark it...

David

[ThomasPowers]

I've found that using a good hold down and a high alloy hot chisel with a nice curved "walking" blade makes incising go a lot faster!

[Arthur210]

That is why this morning, before making another one, I made a simple hold down from a piece of 1/2" square and a sharper chisel. Took me half as long as the first one. 

[ThomasPowers]

Yup the best is when you can have a minion hold the workpiece for you and so keep it off the anvil face until you are ready and also turn it to another side if you finish one and still have heat.

Having a good hold down is second best, and worst  is chasing it around the anvil face with hammer and chisel.

If you are trying to make equal length incisions marking the ends with a center punch while the stock is cold is a good idea too.  I recently had a prick punch made from a engine valve stem to use on hot work pieces.

[Virusds]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:53 AM, ThomasPowers said:

Since you really don't want to heat more than a couple of inches of a sword up to forging temp at a time; how small is your forge?  A hot spot the size of your fist should be plenty!

Thank you for the advice Thomas. I was going to fire up the old charcoal forge because it was bigger but now I know my propain forge will work just fine. Of course, I will need to fire up the charcoal forge for quenching. At I have a hard enough time evenly heating a long knife in that small propain forge.

 

On 8/17/2020 at 8:24 AM, Frazer said:

 And you learn from the failure right? 

Definitely, I learned that you should make I knife that is designed for chopping if you are gonna chop with it.

Quote

But once you pick a style, see if there are any books you can rent or buy that give you all the critical dimensions you should be working to.

I've researched both of those different designs thoroughly, and I think I've settled on making a sidesword. I know I want a relatively short version so I'm thinking around 3 to 3 1/3 feet long, so on the shorter end of the spectrum for this particular type. Thank you for all of your help, I will be really careful and make sure I spend plenty of time on it instead of rushing through it. 

[Helena]

Wow everyone's work looks so good. I needed a better way to store my hammers. I was just keeping them on the bench so I made this thing out of bits I had laying around. Not perfect, but serviceable. The one side is smaller than the other so different size hammers can fit. 

I also made an over-the-door style hook out of some flat bar I had laying around and came up with a slightly different way to store my punches, chisels and drifts. 

Then I made a quick little bottom swage. It works, so I can't really complain. Lol

[Glenn]

Try putting the chisels and punches into the holder working side up and in order of type.  Just be careful that the working ends do not bite.

[Goods]

I like that use of expanded metal for the punch holder. Creative reuse...

David

[Helena]

Thank you! 

Why would I put them in the other way? I don't mind doing that, but I'm curious as to why. They're resting on wood, so they're not gonna get damaged I don't think. 

[Arthur210]

Helena, it makes it easier for you to locate the one you need for a specific use. Otherwise you need to lift each one until you find the right one.

Thomas, I did mark the ends of the inscribed lines with a center punch before chiseling. 

[Helena]

Oh! I can see that being a little useful. Fortunately, the base is lower than my eye level so I can still see them just fine. But I'm a tall woman. Shorter people may suffer. 

[George N. M.]

Helena:  The more punches and chisels you acquire the more confusing they become. When you have a center punch and a round ended punch made out of the same stock it can become confusing.  If you can see the business ends there is less likelihood of grabbing the incorrect one when you are in a hurry. Color coding with paint can help too.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Helena]

Lol! Alright, good points. You've convinced me. Thanks for the great tip ☺️

[Frosty]

You keep making things from steel you have laying around and that's a properly blacksmitherly attitude. I salute you for using expanded metal for a: punch, chisel, etc. index, good idea. I'm thinking using two rows rather than one would carry  more weight without sagging. That's just a thought though. Nice hammer rack, a hearty well done on that one. 

Do you enjoy making shorter people suffer? Is that an invitation or something?

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Fixed the new (to me) auto-darkening mask, and took it and the new (to me) welding jacket for a spin, welding a pair of brackets to hold my big shears on the end of my hammer/stock rack:

Auto-darkening masks are AWESOME!!

[Jealdi]

Nothing fancy. Fired up my forge for the second time ever. Working on what I hope will eventually be a coal rake and a handle to put around a sprinkle can.

 

 

[Glenn]

Why do you need a sprinkle can ?

Your fire is contained in a box as shown in your photos.  If the fire gets out of control and out of the box, your using too much air.  With only two fires so far, be more concerned with the size and shape of the fire, where the sweet spot is in the fire, and where to put the metal into the sweet spot that will heat the metal best. 

You only need enough air to get the fuel hot enough to heat up the metal you want to work.

I would like to see a photo of the inside of the fire box empty, and a photo of the fire in use.