What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

Paul: It's much easier to make matching tong halves if you forge them at the same time. Forge the bits, then the necks, then the bosses, then the reins. Doing the same process two times in a row is good practice and what you did on the other half is fresh in your memory.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Paul TIKI]

My first bow came from my uncle who taught me to shoot a bow, the finer points of air rifle marksmanship, and how to handle firearms that were much too large of a skinny undersized kid like myself.  A .308 Winchester has a lot of recoil for a 4'6 70lb 5th grader.

Anyway, I could hit the broadside of a barn, but only from the inside

I'm thinking with so much Osage Orange in the area I might be able to make a selfbow out of that.

[Paul TIKI]

Frosty, I Intended to do just that.  Step one was to beat the material in to roughly a 1/2 by 1/2 cross section back to the boss.  I did that for both sides.  then was establish the curve and the bit.  got that for side one but then the sun went down and I had to start dinner

[natkova]

CAn folding knife be bigger than pocket knife?

 

I have some high carbon steel but i cant make it long enaugh for handle, i can make it long for blade iam thinking to make it like folding knife, and to ignore handle lenght, just to drill one hole to make it hinged .

 

[Leather Bill]

12 hours ago, Paul TIKI said:

I'm thinking with so much Osage Orange in the area I might be able to make a selfbow out of that.

I'm no atthority on bows but I did pay attention when granddad built some for me and my cousins.  A good source of seasoned material is picket fence,split staves and posts in lifestock fence. Just trade the farmer a few steel tee posts for the fence staves.  A piece that has been split reveals grain direction and how to orient the blank.  Don't hesitate using 100+ year old wood,the wood never loses it's spring.  A drawknife/draw shave and shaving horse are perfect for roughing out.   

[alexandr]

It remains to pack and can be sent. Destination Alameda

[pnut]

Osage makes wonderful bows. I haven't made a bow in about ten or fifteen years but there was a point when I was spending all my free time making bows. The only problem I've had with Osage is twisted grain and grain run out but every piece is different. Are you planning on backing it with anything? I've used everything from snakeskin to drywall tape. I've been thinking about making a laminated steam bent recurve from store bought lumber. It's definitely not something I have at the top of my to do list though. 

Pnut

[BillyBones]

15 hours ago, natkova said:

CAn folding knife be bigger than pocket knife?

Yes, yes they can. Look up friction folders. There are some that are upwards of 2' long folded. That forged in fire show had an episode of the contestants making them. If i recall correctly they said they were of French design. I am not a blade guru so i cant say for sure. But the ones they made were more like folding swords. 

But really i would say that you can make any style folder as big or as small as your hearts desire.  

[natkova]

Billy i dont have enaough material for haft , so iam  planing to drill one hole instead of two holes.

This is highcarbon  steel from old plough sahare i had trouble to cut it with hacksaw, i even folded material to break it on its own.

And when you heat it and file it it give some sparks even if it is not grinded, and sparks can be made if striked even in cold state with hammer.

[JHCC]

Finished the Viking-style sword I’ve been working on for a friend. Wrought iron (i.e. display-only) blade, A36 guard and pommel, bone grip. 

There is (naturally) a TON of things I’m not happy about, but for a first sword (especially a wall-hanger) it could be a lot worse. 

[Frosty]

Not bad at all John, it'll be a real show piece on it's wall. 

If you were happy with everything you did in the shop you'd be a keeping the books.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Tangs; you can always use modern welding to add a mild steel tangs; they used to do that with forge welding for swords including wootz blades!

What I did yesterday fitted the set of louvers to my gable---lots of fun hacksawing while standing on a ladder! I also whittled some small oak pieces to fill the holes in my coat rack board and put some glue on them and drive them in.

Today I went for a walk along the arroyo to see if anything "interesting" washed up during the winter and then worked on sanding the oak board. This evening I will be washing and wire brushing the hooks and perhaps drilling the mounting holes on them.  I wanted to oil the board but my wife has hidden the Watco from both of us. I guess we will buy more next week if we can find it locally.

[Chad J.]

Found this while clearing extra "walls" from the hayloft of my shop.  I was really amused.  

[George N. M.]

John, Did you forge the fuller in or grind it?  also, did you ever give us a translation of the runes? Thx.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Chad, I'd trim it and hang it on the wall of my shop.

GNM

[JHCC]

Ground; the top (idler) wheel of my 2x90 grinder has a 2-1/2” diameter:

12 hours ago, George N. M. said:

did you ever give us a translation of the runes?

“Michael’s Sword”.

 Michael is finishing chemo on the 22nd, and his wife commissioned this to be presented as part of the celebration. 

[Arthur210]

Put some legs on the Champion 400 blower that followed be home 3 weeks ago. Pieces of black pipe I had plus some electrical conduit elbows I purchased at the hardware store. I will finish the legs later, but I at least wanted the blower upright before I opened the cover to check the condition of the gears.

Then I took the cover off and inspected the gears. Everything seem to be in excellent condition. 

I will post more pictures of the blower in the relevant section.

Then I lit up the forge for the first time since December. Just a very short session, less than an hour. Enough to make another simple bottle opener.

[Pat Masterson]

Aren’t you supposed to get better at smithing as you go? I made a wine bottle holder a few weeks back - guy at work saw it and decided he wanted one as close to that one as possible so I have my first paying customer. So I thought to myself how stupid I was about the process I used on the first one and this time I would do it the “smart way” and it would be much more simple. First one took me about 2.5 hrs. The “smart way” some how took me 5.5 hrs lol. The new one is a big larger but it’s the same size stock and pretty much the same exact thing. I just had an off day I guess but in the end I got it done. Should have been much nicer but it is what it is. 

 

[Nathan Kraft]

I made a towel bar for my cousin, a project I’ve been meaning to bang out (pun intended) for a month or so. I also learned a very important lesson- don’t grab the coal that falls out of my forge even if I think it’s cold (it was dumb I know but I won’t be doing it again any time soon LOL). 

I also heated a couple screws up to red heat and finished them with paste wax to match the rest of the bar.

[Leather Bill]

"(it was dumb I know but I won’t be doing it again any time soon LOL). "

Oh well,if you don't spend any more time messing with the next one than you did this one you will not have wasted enough time to worry over.

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Pat Masterson said:

The new one is a big larger but it’s the same size stock and pretty much the same exact thing.

It only looks bigger though it does take up a little more space on the counter. If you'd like to know where the differences lay try making copies in soft wire. 

I've always found bending to be more difficult to get right than most other processes. You should've seen the mess I made of my dust pan in light metal 1 in jr. high. 

A rule to remember is pi x d = cir. If you stretched a string around Earth's equator (assuming it's actually a sphere) how high off the surface would it be if you added 3" A bit under 1/2" everywhere around the planet. 

That's your hint. The larger radius in the corners takes 3.14x the length as it increases the diameter. The tighter corners and corkscrew neck ring on the larger bottle opener is where the size came from.

They look nice, well done. The more you do the faster you'll get, don't sweat the time until you're making payroll. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Besides, it’s a wonderful thing to get paid to learn!

[Rojo Pedro]

I took 2-1/2” of coils from a garage door spring (1/4” wire at 2” diameter) and made 5.5’ of stock for leather and repousse tools of which I made a few more. Looks like i have about 50’ in this spring

[Rojo Pedro]

Also started a ball peen hammer from 1” 4140 and a kitchen knife from a file. Lots of fun forging this weekend!

[BillyBones]

I am no conosuire of wine so i must ask, Why are the bottles upside down? 

[ThomasPowers]

Sunday I fired up the forge for 2 hours and did the head and neck of the replacement coat hook and started on the taper that will be twisted and coiled for the coat to go on.  Hot out here.  Had to wear a sweat band and rehydrate!  I also cleaned up and finished the one where the tusk broke to check out how those steps should be done.  I hope to finish off one hook each evening and get the board finished too.  Next weekend I may go visit my mother; but they are still at yellow while we're at "Turquoise" in my county.

Billy; you want to keep the cork from drying out and shrinking and letting air in to turn the wine to vinegar.  It's a nice conceit to assume folks are drinking upscale wines with real corks instead of twist off caps...