Chimaera I feel the wiring woes. I had a short due to a nicked wire. I should have known better than to use Romex for it as it was in danger of being hit by something. I ended up finally getting around to replacing it with MC cable. Shouldn't have to worry about it now.

On the topic of hammers- my go to is a stubby handled 4 1/2# rounding/hand sledge. It typically takes six or so hours for me to get too tired to use it. Luckily, I don’t forge much longer than that on any given day.

for lighter work I use a 2# ball peen. 

SinDoc- what really confuses me is that all the wiring is covered, so nothing could have nicked it. I guess I’ll figure out what happened when I figure out where it happened.

You may know this already, but I just picked up a neat trick when forging aluminum. According to one of the demonstrators at the last Quad State, if you rub the end of a pine stick on your workpiece, if it:

1. leaves a brown mark, the piece is not hot enough to forge
2. leaves a black mark and starts to smoke, the piece is at forging temperature
3. smokes heavily and bursts into flame, the piece is too hot.

Neat, eh?

Another way is to scratch test it with your hammer head.

To cold won't stick, just right the corner will stick when rubbed. To hot will crumble. 

I’ll have to keep that in mind. At the moment I am just working at it with a dremel, though. 

Got a handle in the 3# maul. 

You can tell that's an old thermometer. No celsius on it.

Got a little squirrel tail finished up out of some leaf spring. I have another one forged out that I need to finish grinding. 

Finished up the Pokers for the neighbors.. We had 4 families move in this past summer.. 

I made these for each family for a home warming present and Christmas.. Figured it would be a nice gesture. 

Will be doing a time trial video on the fireplace pokers..  Takes me about 30min to forge one of these pokers. Figure it might be fun..  3/8" shaft 28" long, 5/16R 7.5" long. 

The Kukri is for a farrier customer who arranged for me to end up with a 200 lb Fisher Norris with stump for the cost of going to get it. 

I have to feel inspired to forge things and lately I've been feeling pretty inspired so when I have had the time.. The other 2 knives, the pokers and now this one. 

The knife was made from a section of leaf spring. 

Jennifer:  Your everyday, ordinary work puts most of us to shame.  I can't decide if that encourages me to up my game or discourages me.

Have a happy holiday season.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

14 minutes ago, jlpservicesinc said:

Takes me about 30min

Wow! that would take me prolly 2-3 hours!

i can forge weld the poker end but I’m struggling with basket weaves… 

Last one I did I got aggravated after fighting it and used the wire welder to finally make it stick.

 

Nice blacksmith knife Chimaera.

Jennifer, nice work. Youll certainly be making the neighbors happy and wow, great deal for the anvil. Great gift for their generosity. 

1 hour ago, George N. M. said:

Jennifer:  Your everyday, ordinary work puts most of us to shame.  I can't decide if that encourages me to up my game or discourages me.

George it's always encouraging.  There are some brite stars on this forum.. Mark Ling,  Brady AKA Fraser (whom is exploring so many facets of forging and doing it well..) .. Goods, JHCC.. You..   I love seeing people coming of age forging and love to see the projects they pick.. 

I'm just starting to find my groove after taking off the 13 years..  It's only been 6 years.. LOL..  

It is funny how it works.. When I was younger I was always in a rush and now will take the time to do a little bit extra.. 

With that said.. I'm still sloppier than I'd like..   

Twisted Willow..  Go watch a few of my videos on the subject..  Make a few links of chain.. It will all come together.. 

Das, Thanks.. When his wife originally approached me I told her outrightly "NO" I won't do a knife for money.. 

I had to take a little bit to find the inspiration..  When I finally found it, I said sure but it has to be free..  She said "NO"..  

So we agreed that it would be a flat amount to cover expenses.. 

 

Wow JLP those pokers are nice. Consistency or symmetry between two or many pieces is one of my biggest problems - those all look very consistent. 
 

Speaking of which…I had some one ask me to make this star candle holder thing. They sent me a pic of an existing one and asked me to replicate it. Came pretty close I think. Luckily the four star parts look very symmetrical when set up the way they are but before assembly when I had them lined up against each other….not so much lol. Had to get creative with my magnets to get the bottom welded up. This ended up taking waaayy longer than I thought it would - should’ve charged double what I did but now I know for next one I guess. I don’t know what’s up with this little welder I have. It’s rated for 3/16 max. but I welded up the stuff for the log splitter press with no problems, pretty decent looking weld beads, good penetration which I know because I did a test piece and cut and etched it and all of that material was 3/8 or 1/2”. But 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4” I can not get welds that don’t have all of this porosity. Really frustrating. My settings must be off for the smaller stuff but I feel like I’ve tried everything. 
Oh and I found this really cool little hammer screwdriver thing in my late grandfathers garage. He has so many amazing old tools. No markings on it or anything - Probably mass produced but I thought it was pretty cool. 

 

Pat, I like the picture with all the magnets! lol I’d have never thought of stacking them up like that, the star turned out great! 

the little hammer kinda looks like it may have came out of a tool kit that came with something, 

I cleaned up a couple more tools for the grandson'  tool box and then started burning off the yard.  Hard to find time when there is no wind out here and the neighbors get fussy about wildfires.  (Had a half day at work too.)

I saw ball peen hammer yesterday at shop

Pitty is it is not wooden handle but fiberglass something like that.

Should i buy it.

For wha ball peen hammer is used ussualY?

 

Not much forging,  but I did finish  my gift for my daughter (and her American Girl doll).  Most items were 3D printed and painted,  and the apron was cut from my old cheapo HF welding apron.  Base was a chunk of black walnut,  and the holdfast is steel.  Anvil stays on the base with pairs of magnets that prevent it from coming off easily. 

Very cool.  I showed it to my wife and she also thought it was very cool and said, "More power to our little girls!"

Does your daughter help in the shop?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Natkova,  while wood is generally better for a hammer handle fiberglass is OK too.  You can always change it out if you want.

Ball pein hammers are useful tin two ways,  first, for spreading metal (the metal will move out equally in all directions when hit with the ball) and , second, for making into other tools such as cutters and punches made by forging out the ball.  I pick up all used, cheap ball peins that I can find.  They are good raw material.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

That’s awesome! 

Great job, HojPoj!!!! 

George, unfortunately no,  she lacks the attention span.   She's got her own toolbox and eye protection,  but since she's 7 she lacks the strength and stamina to be of much use.  Doesn't help that she had a bad experience with some scale popping off and getting her hand. 

21 hours ago, jlpservicesinc said:

 There are some brite stars on this forum.. Mark Ling,  Brady AKA Fraser (whom is exploring so many facets of forging and doing it well..) .. Goods, JHCC.. You..   I love seeing people coming of age forging and love to see the projects they pick.. 

Jennifer, I am deeply wounded. 

You didn’t mention me as a “brite star”.  
 

 I am a pro at starting and never finishing projects. 

HojPoj, that is amazing! Great job. 

15 minutes ago, DHarris said:

You didn’t mention me as a “brite star”.  

Your a bright star in my book Dharris!

of course that’s coming from a dirt covered bent up and tarnished star so take that for what it’s worth lol,