What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

I haven't played any RPGs in I don't know how long, only got started one to one must be 2 years ago and nothing for the last year of course. We're using some parts of Runequest, roll resolution for the main. I have to have a little sit down around shot placement. I'm blessed by Odin + 110 to hit. my spear casts don't miss. However even from 10' a called shot has to be rolled on the hit location chart.

We're still smoothing things out.

Agreed the player has to play the CHARACTER, it's what makes it roll play. An old friend of mine couldn't get it through his head he couldn't bring his knowledge from modern mundane Earth into play. My universe existed in post nuclear apocalypse earth, it made for lots of dungeon type places and easy monsters. A hack we typically applied as DMs was to allow a light source so the players didn't have to carry torches, lanterns, candles, etc.

Mine glowed green anywhere there was moisture for that particular moss to grow. He assumed it was radiation and kept trying to apply anti radiation tech to his character. I finally allowed him to cover himself in tallow, wax not being available. Bummer about catching fire like that, if he'd run the right direction he would've solved the light problem. Alas.

We round tabled as DM, everybody did 4 games and it was someone else's turn. 

Sounds like you're a third John!

We really should take this to a thread of it's own, we're so far off topic there's not even a fantasy connection.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Arthur210]

Those blanks look good! What are they made from, plain mild steel?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Those tong blanks look very consistent too, good job.

[Jonnytait]

Thank you. Just plain mild steel, my favourite material for tongs

[Frosty]

You made those very consistent, I call them excellently done. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Chimaera]

Frosty, TP-

You are two of the most active guys on here. Obviously you are saturated with knowledge, even outside of forging, but what do you guys make? Most of the people on here have distinct regions of expertise- Alexandr does huge, mild steel pieces; teenylittlemetalguy does mokume; I make garbage. I hear about your projects, eg frosty’s dragon heads, but it seems inconsistent, there’s no theme. Are you two just so experienced that there are no limits of expertise? Just something I was wondering.

[Frosty]

I haven't been very active at the anvil since the accident. My eye hand coordination isn't so good, the nerve damage to my left eye makes my depth perception questionable at best and I'm not so hot physically. I've made a couple dragon heads in the past but it's not a thing for me. When I was more active I taught and just made general stuff mostly decorative and a little architectural but no real specialties. I made tools as needed too. I'm a generalist.

Of course there are limits to expertise, mine or anybody's, I  know a number of smiths that are WAY better than I am. Mark, "Metalmangler" is truly masterful at the anvil. He can turn out most any kind of tongs by hand in under 15 minutes, closer to 5 on his power hammer with tong tooling. He does animal heads, mostly Alaskan animals but he does others as well. He's fast, good and in demand. 

I'm just a guy who reads a lot,  has a near eidetic memory for the written word and excellent reading comprehension. Sure I've been beating hot steel for better than 50 years but hardly every day, I was lucky to get a couple days a month when I was working in the field. More when we were in town or after I transferred to road maintenance  but still a long way from a full timer.

Nobody very special.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Chad J.]

The conversations here never cease to amaze me.   I've been living near Lake Geneva, Wi most off my life and played a bit of DND as  a kid.  I personally liked the Palladium system that gave rise to Rifts and Heroes unlimited.  A friend of mine is the daughter of Jeff Perin, creator of the Chainmail system and friend of the Gygax family.  It's a fun escape but I also don't have a group to play with. Chimaere no discussion of Munchkin can be had without the warning of BEWARE THE DUCK OF DOOM!

Anyway, I've been in the shop most nights after work playing around and since it was nearly 50 degrees yesterday I spent the day cleaning and pulling out useless cardboard walls.   I have a lot of work to do to get my shop where I want it but that's a never ending goal.

 

[ThomasPowers]

I tell folks I do everything but horses.  I got into smithing wanting to do damascus---back in the 1970's it was going for US$100 per inch of blade and being a poor college student I thought it would be cheaper to make my own!  Now I realize I could have bought the most expensive damascus blade out there and still be ahead moneywise; but the joy of smithing far outweighs the cost.  I've been a member of the SCA for 42+ years and so making historical items is a big thing for me and trying to get them as accurate as possible really has sparked my interest in historical ferrous metals technologies and so I have a library with new to 100+ year old books on smithing and ferrous metals technologies.

My last projects have been bottle openers, barbwire basket icicle christmas tree ornaments,  chandeliers, tooling and I'm working on a coat rack each coat hook with a different dragon head and made from 1/2" sq stock 22" long; oh I'm also rehilting a Patton Model Cavalry sabre as a renaissance rapier.  I'm working on making the swept hilt components by forge welding them together leaving a gap for the tang.  Did my first go and getting ready to do a second.

Meanwhile I have reread "The Sword and the Crucible"  "A history of the Metallurgy of [Ferrous] European swords up to the 16th century". Selling off the dregs of the hoard and trying to figure out how my shop needs to be rearranged to get it wired. I also picked up some steel to make triphammer dies for when I get power to my powerhammers.

I also spend way too much time on IFI!

[JHCC]

Got out onto the shop for the first serious forging session in quite a while. Having two paying orders will do that to you. The first of these is a punched hatchet with a forge-welded bit. Since I’ve not made one before, the first step was to make a drift out of a piece of car axle. Here it is:

(This as-forged with just a bit of filing. I later ground the leading edge a bit thinner.)

Then punch the blank:

And drift the eye:

Lessons learned: I didn’t really punch the hole for the eye big enough, which made drifting difficult. I also think I may have made the taper on the drift a bit too abrupt.

That’s it for today. More to follow. 

 

[JHCC]

Oh, also knocked out a split cross by way of warmup. 

[MT Hammer]

Total newbie here... Up to this point I've been consumed building a gas forge, burners, etc, then getting an anvil stand fabbed up.  I had yet to actually heat and beat any metal!

Today I finally produced my very first smithy project--these flat tongs.

Now, most of you can see they're not terribly refined, but I couldn't be more chuffed. I hope to refine my skills as I make more and more things in the future.  Seeing all the amazing works on this forum is very motivating. 

[JHCC]

Good tongs are critical. If you can’t hold it, you can’t hit it!

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

4 minutes ago, MT Hammer said:

first smithy project-

For a first pair of tongs, you have done an outstanding job and should be proud of them.

[pnut]

6 hours ago, JHCC said:

first step was to make a drift out of a piece of car axle. Here it is:

I've never seen a drift quite that shape. Did the struck end being off center cause any difficulties? 

Pnut 

On closer inspection it is in line with the point so you can disregard the question unless of course there was a problem

 

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by pnut

[JHCC]

Seemed to work fine. 

[pnut]

After looking at it for a second longer I answered my own question. We were typing at the same time.   Thanks 

Pnut

[Daswulf]

Very nice first tongs MT Hammer.

[ThomasPowers]

Saturday: 5 smiths got together to work on building propane forges: 1 lined and rigidized and the burner tuned and working great!  1 Lined and rigidized, they still need to work on the burner. 1 kaowool cut and bagged, they still need to work on welding legs and a door on.  The "class gasser", terribly abused, was patched and plans to redo it started with suggestions on how to "student proof" it discussed.  (1/2" inner liner of Inconel was suggested...)  I scheduled the first into to smithing miniclass, 3 weeks after my second shot, with masks and social distancing---more anvils to lug---ugh!  Finally we discussed how to repair the treadle hammer that students had broken through abuse---the treadle made from light tubing had torn in two places. We're thinking of making a tight fitting solid steel insert for the tubing.

Sunday, after Church & lunch: I finished dragon headed coat hook #4, only 2 more to go and I can switch to wood working and finishing the hooks.

I also mounted a small wind bell and hung it on the Mesquite next to the shop and started working on the hanging system for a much larger one.

[BillyBones]

Working on my doors still. Was going to strip them and stain but i discovered i have doors made of 2 different woods, and i have spent the better part of 3 weekends trying to strip them, i asked the lady of the manor what color paint. 

They will be double doors and there is nothing in the middle, so to keep the not used as often side closed and give a little more rigidity i decided on a locking mechanism that goes top to bottom. Still needs brackets to hold it to the doors, and i am not real happy with the twist so i may take those out and redo them or just leave them out all together. Also that door kob is not what i am using. I will forge "L" shaped handles for them. The knob is just holding everything in place. I also have not set the one tenon yet. That is just so it is easier to move around the shop instead of 6' of articulated bar.

Next i switched gears. Seems we may have a some what normal spring and summer which means festivals and farmers markets. Dug out all the old camping stuff, S-hooks, trammels, squirrel cookers, fire pokers, etc. A bunch got pitched into the scrap pile. Started making a garden rake. I will give this one to the wife provably but if they are worth doing may try and put a few of those out this season. Made from 3 pieces of coil spring. Still need a little work but i almost scrapped the whole thing trying to set the rivets. man what a PITA to keep all that aligned and together. 

[Paul TIKI]

interesting door design.  I like it.

I conducted an interesting experiment today.  I used feed corn as forge fuel along with my normal charcoal.  TL:DR  It works, but is finicky

A while back, I came across a thread suggesting using corn as a fuel and how it would behave.  It occurred to me that I might combine it with charcoal to extend how long it lasts and to increase the amount of heat.  I have been having troubles with managing the fire in my forge, probably due to inexperience.  In addition, the charcoal I have been getting has been coming in very large chunks.  I have to break it up into smaller pieces, but it often shatters to powder, or give me a chip and a slightly smaller but still way too a large chunk.

Today, I didn't spend as much time breaking the lumps and then mixed in an equal volume of corn.  I got the fire going as normal and then added the mix some way back from the fire to let it 'coke up'.  As the fire got hotter, I pulled the mix on top of the fireball.  I got some sweet smelling smoke, but not an increase in heat.  I increased the airflow and suddenly it got a lot hotter than just charcoal, but it didn't last too long.  A bit more tweeking and I got it to where I wanted. 

I had to add fuel more often, but less of it was charcoal.  I had to poke at it more often to break down the clots of whatever the corn breaks down to under heat.

The biggest problem with corn was the fire fleas!  It was fairly windy today, but every time I moved the fuel or added more I would get a cloud of sparks.  I would not use it inside a closed shop unless you are using a high voulume, well designed hood.

I'm still re-thinking the shape of my firepot.  It's too deep, I think.  Fortunately, it costs nothing to shift some bricks and sand to change it around.

[Pat Masterson]

Made a little pen holder for my mother this weekend. I like it but my leaves always come out long and thin like this. Having trouble getting that real short taper before I isolate the leaf part. 

[ThomasPowers]

One method of creating a short point on a bar is to heat and place the end even with the edge of your anvil and hit is so that 1/2 of the hammer face is actually off the anvil. You are trying to squeeze the very end in the > formed by the hammer and anvil.

Flip it and raise the holding end of the workpiece up as you go so that the area being worked remains in full contact with the anvil face.  With practice you can make short, blunt points.

For a very short taper, try isolating the stock near the end with a fuller or rounded edge of the anvil *first* leaving only the small amount you want to taper to be worked. It may help to then work with the workpiece off the anvil face, except for the blob on the end that is being tapered.

Hammer control, which comes with practice, is the real trick!

[BillyBones]

Pat, dont know if this will help any but i find it easier when doing a leaf to upset the bar first. This will put more mass on the end and is easier for me to pein it wide. I also just break the corners rather than taper. Once i get it started flattening i will start the point on the end. 

I like your leaf, specifically the way the chisel lines pushed out the metal to give the edges some contour. Almost looks like a holly leaf. 

[Glenn]

This is where modeling clay shows you exactly what is going on.

If you hit the metal end away from the stock, it gets longer.  If you hit the metal end toward the stock, it gets shorter.