What did you do in the shop today?

[Frosty]

Uh, I alternate between positive and negative, it's a sine I'm a waver.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Boy this has gone off on a tangent!

My copy of Das Eisenwerk, Höver,   came this week from Germany!, and I have been puckering most strongly to avoid drooling on it.  One of the interesting things is that I would look at a design and think "hmm 1920's" and then read the caption: *centuries* earlier.  Just more fuel on the we are generally not inventing as much as re-interpreting things.  (works the other way too some of the Neo-Gothic work of the 20th century does match the original stuff.)

So this book is 90+ % black and white photos from a wide range of western European times, "from the middle ages to the end of the 18th century", and places focussing on grillwork for gates, fences, well surrounds, doors (and door knockers), windows, etc.  It is a GREAT idea book but be warned they concentrated mainly on the *good* stuff!

My thanks for being informed of this books existence here in this thread!

[Daswulf]

You mean I actually mentioned a book you didn't have? Wow. Unfortunately I only got it because it was in a flood that made another persons time difficult. So I guess Mother Nature works in mysterious ways. 

Dont forget some pretty neat candle holders and andirons. Yeah, very inspirational ironwork. 

Great book. It even survived a flood and still works  

[Gergely]

Now I have to look around on the German used book sites, thank you.

Some things came out of the fire yesterday:

Wall mounted poker holder for wood stove:

Starting stock and result:

And two pokers, no finish yet:

And I still havent finished the Brazeal tongs, but I use them anyways. They work great!

Bests to All, keep the resistance alive!

G

[Daswulf]

Gergely nice work. Yeah that will go in my inspiration folder. 

This might help finding that book. 

[JHCC]

2 hours ago, Frosty said:

 it's a sine I'm a waver.

If you sine the waiver, I'll cosine it for you. 

 

I made three things this evening. A hook to hold an antique pair of fireplace tongs:

I cut, bent up, and shaped a bick on the anvil bridge I made the other day:

And I made my first blacksmith's knife:

And then I ran out of coal.

[Alan Evans]

3 hours ago, JHCC said:

And then I ran out of coal.

Don't you just hate black outs.

Alan

[Gergely]

6 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Gergely nice work. Yeah that will go in my inspiration folder. 

This might help finding that book. 

Thank you and thank you!

 

6 hours ago, JHCC said:

A hook to hold an antique pair of fireplace tongs:

Oh, my!!   If I could come up with something this simple I shouldn't have to spend four hours to make one piece for the same function!

Okay this supposed to be a joke, but I really like this and if you don't mind I steal adapt it to my purposes.

Bests

Gergely

[JHCC]

Steel away!

[Gergely]

Burnt the heck out of my hammer hand, so let's call it a day!  Hopefully tomorrow I can work again, cause Sunday is craft fair day,

One more check sign in the "don't forge when you're too tired" list. 

Bests:

Gergely

 

[JHCC]

24 minutes ago, Gergely said:

Burnt the heck out of my hammer hand, so let's call it a day!  Hopefully tomorrow I can work again, cause Sunday is craft fair day,

One more check sign in the "don't forge when you're too tired" list. 

Bests:

Gergely

I typically only burn my tong hand, but almost every forging session. One of these days, "Not Red doesn't mean Not Hot" will get burned into my brain; for now, it's only burned into my left hand.

[Daswulf]

25 minutes ago, Gergely said:

 

One more check sign in the "don't forge when you're too tired" list.

 

Ouch. Yeah that's when mistakes happen weather painful or time/ money wasting. 

Hope it heals quickly. 

[Tubalcain2]

hope it heals up fast. only time i burnt my whole hand was when i accidentally got lighter fluid on it, than lit a match (which also had lighter fluid on it)  with the same hand to light my forge. Oh, the dumb things i've done......

[ausfire]

4 hours ago, JHCC said:

I typically only burn my tong hand, but almost every forging session. One of these days, "Not Red doesn't mean Not Hot" will get burned into my brain; for now, it's only burned into my left hand.

I have assign in my forge with he old saying: All that glitters is not gold ... and all that's black is not cold!! 

It keeps me aware.

[Mark Ling]

I recently burned my hand pretty good.

So, the coke I get comes in the plastic 50lb sacks, and to open them I typically heat up a piece of 3/16" round to a dull red, and basically melt through the bag. I would use a knife, but that leaves a very frayed edge, that the shovel then gets snagged on, etc. but the way I do it doesn't fray it at all. Anyways, I was working on a seahorse made from 1"X11/4" flat bar, and I needed to open the bag. So, I stuck it in the forge, kinda forgot about it and so it got to a bright yellow, and used that to melt through the bag. Typically I don't use a piece of steel that large, or that hot that gives of so much heat for doing this, but I did this time. Ounce I did that, I took care of the hot steel (took me about 10 seconds) and went to the bag of coke. It had been melted shut a little, and so I proceeded to open it like I usually do. Well, since the bar I used gave off so much heat, the bag was still BURNING, and when I did that, my hand was covered (well not covered, but I got it good) with molten plastic. An instant trip to the slack tub, and the joy of peeling of the plastic with some skin. One thing I learned, was that when that happens, peel of the plastic as soon as possible, because if you wait too long, it will really pull of you skin with it!

                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

[Tubalcain2]

that don't sound like fun.

[JHCC]

Well, I had to do something even though I'm out of coal, so I drilled a small (~3/8") pritchel hole in the anvil bridge.  Should be good for those small punching jobs.

[Glenn]

Always keep a bucket or two of coal hidden in case of emergency. (grin) 

[duckrunner]

Stayed home sick from work. So naturally after a nap, half a bottle of DayQuil and some emergen-c I wandered out to the shop... Did some handle work, made a display stand and welded up a new pistol target. Got a feeling I'm not done fiddling around out there.

[Mark Ling]

I like the target.....

                                                                                                         Littleblacksmith

[Gergely]

6 hours ago, littleblacksmith said:

I recently burned my hand pretty good.

So, the coke I get comes in the plastic 50lb sacks, and to open them I typically heat up a piece of 3/16" round to a dull red, and basically melt through the bag. I would use a knife, but that leaves a very frayed edge, that the shovel then gets snagged on, etc. but the way I do it doesn't fray it at all. Anyways, I was working on a seahorse made from 1"X11/4" flat bar, and I needed to open the bag. So, I stuck it in the forge, kinda forgot about it and so it got to a bright yellow, and used that to melt through the bag. Typically I don't use a piece of steel that large, or that hot that gives of so much heat for doing this, but I did this time. Ounce I did that, I took care of the hot steel (took me about 10 seconds) and went to the bag of coke. It had been melted shut a little, and so I proceeded to open it like I usually do. Well, since the bar I used gave off so much heat, the bag was still BURNING, and when I did that, my hand was covered (well not covered, but I got it good) with molten plastic. An instant trip to the slack tub, and the joy of peeling of the plastic with some skin. One thing I learned, was that when that happens, peel of the plastic as soon as possible, because if you wait too long, it will really pull of you skin with it!

                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

Ouch! That sounds nasty! Hope you're better now.

11 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Ouch. Yeah that's when mistakes happen weather painful or time/ money wasting. 

Hope it heals quickly. 

You hit the nail right in the head, Das: I was making a war hammer from a regular scrapped cross peen. It went really smooth and fast when I just decided to "costumize" the eye. I srewed up all my work - have to throw out the hammer head. AND while correcting the eye I burnt my HAMMER HAND with the eye punch, which was left backwards on the anvil. Why on earth was that tool backwards and why was I grabbing it with my hammer hand?? - That's where the tire factor comes in. Tried to go on as I had much work undone, but 20 mins of trying was enough. (Note: if I grab it with the tong hand it does no harm, I wear glove and that hand feels not that much anymore.)

Anyways it's better now, I go and try to work - mainly cleaning and finishing. Maybe some nail hooks if I have the time

Bests:

Gergely

[Glenn]

12 minutes ago, Gergely said:

Ouch! That sounds nasty! Hope you're better now.

AND while correcting the eye I burnt my HAMMER HAND with the eye punch, which was left backwards on the anvil. Why on earth was that tool backwards and why was I grabbing it with my hammer hand?? - That's where the tire factor comes in.

Any time you get burned, even only enough to say ouch, put the hand, or whatever, under water for 15 minutes. This removes the heat from the meat, and keeps the meat from cooking. Use room temperature water.

When your tired, you hammer will miss the metal and hit the anvil. Second time, stop and rest for 20 minutes. Third time, quit, shut down the shop, and go home. The small amount of time you miss by going home is always less than the time it takes to recover from injury.

[Gergely]

6 hours ago, Glenn said:

Any time you get burned, even only enough to say ouch, put the hand, or whatever, under water for 15 minutes. This removes the heat from the meat, and keeps the meat from cooking. Use room temperature water.

When your tired, you hammer will miss the metal and hit the anvil. Second time, stop and rest for 20 minutes. Third time, quit, shut down the shop, and go home. The small amount of time you miss by going home is always less than the time it takes to recover from injury.

I usually do both things you mentioned.

Right now my slack tube is winterized (upside down) so I use a bucket that had pretty warm black water in it. I put my hand on the other anvil's face to cool it. 

After the early morning session I realized I'm too tired to continue so I went to sleep a couple hours, but some costumers woke me up after 40 mins. when they left it was too late to go back and rest so I started to work. Not long though...

 

But enough of me whining. I have forged today from the morning, hand's a bit tense but works. Luckily I managed to save the war hammer! 

Bests:

Gergely

[JHCC]

8 hours ago, Glenn said:

Any time you get burned, even only enough to say ouch, put the hand, or whatever, under water for 15 minutes. This removes the heat from the meat, and keeps the meat from cooking. Use room temperature water.

Good to keep an aloe plant on hand, too. 

[Daswulf]

21 hours ago, Gergely said:

 Why on earth was that tool backwards and why was I grabbing it with my hammer hand??

IFI sells a shirt, " Hold the cold end and hit the hot end, Get it right next time!"  I know I have been guilty of grabbing something that was hot before. I've got better at letting go quicker.