What did you do in the shop today?

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Now to convince the rest of them to let me approach them...

Get the smelliest tuna you can find, I swear if I pop a can of that out in the shop every cat for half a mile shows up In seconds lol,

on the spike topic, 

4 hours ago, BillyBones said:

So i proceeded to tell him that is not a good idea and could get him into a lot of trouble. Said

One thing to add to that topic, the railroad workers are usually pretty friendly and always say sure grab some

but I was told that technically they don’t have the authority to actually tell you that you can have it, and even if one gave you a note that doesn’t matter, if law enforcement shows up your technically trespassing on railroad property and stealing, 

I have a regular customer who’s a truck driver and was driving for a company last year that had contracted to the railroad to haul off metal, tools, machines ect… he told me that they had to haul perfectly good stuff to the scrap yard and even they weren’t allowed to resale it, 

of course… sometimes stuff fell off the trucks before they made it to the scrap yard… lol 
 

I have two or three rust pitted old spikes that are setting around (no they didn’t fall off a truck lol) I don’t even know how They got here,

I don’t have any real interest in knife making but I’ve seen others make knives with them, but it seems for every spike knife you see there’s also some other cool project that could be done with them too, 

[Randy Griffin]

Get a metal detector and find some of those old logging spurs in the woods. Permission from the land owner and you can dig all the spikes you want. Old home sites from the early 1900’s also have an abundance of metal in the ground. Some of it is wrought.

[Les L]

My 230# Soderfors anvil I bought in November came from a man that was told to clean up all the scrap that had been sitting outside the RR shop for a few years, his supervisor told him he could have anything he wanted, just as long as he got rid of everything. Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. 

[JHCC]

Practiced torch cutting for a while, then fired up the forge and made some rivet sets and chasing tools. 

[Les L]

Looking good John, you’re going to learn that the torch is a valuable tool in your tool box 

[Les L]

I had a special request today , for a vegetable soup, from my wife because she is coming down with a cold. Yes, i I did do this in my shop, because I have a stove in my shop that I cook meals for the family. I cooked a 12qt. pot so we can share with friends and family. Most of the vegetables came from my, and my neighbors, garden. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I worked most of the day getting our antique Aladdin Blue Flame kerosene heater going. Probably been over 10 years since it was lighted. It will keep the shop warm unless the temp drops into the teens. We used to use it in the bunny barn decades ago, before We converted the barn into the smithy.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That’s pretty cool! Err I mean hot! Lol,

I think Saturday and Sunday we are supposed to have lows of 12 and 15 so you may wanna forge with a extra big fire those days lol,

ive got all my stuff shut down an put away since we are looking at a few more rains this week, 

it’s a bummer because I wanted to forge this Sunday after all the storms pass but with a high of 33 and a low of 12 out in the wind I probably won’t feel like getting outside, 

[BenW]

First blacksmithing project that my 7 year old son has helped with.  He was able to do most of the hammer swinging, while i held the tongs.  It was exciting to see him so exciting to get to do some smithing! It is a clothes pin that we will use to hold washcloths on our fire iron cook set that I made a few months back.  just stick the corner of the cloth through the loop, and pull it down into the pinch point.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

That’s pretty slick BenW! 

I can’t wait till my son is old enough to come play in the smithy! 

[BenW]

Thanks, it sure is a blast getting to hang out with my boys out there!

[JHCC]

Forgot to mention: added a (fairly low-tech) shock absorber to the back of the treadle hammer, to absorb some of the recoil on the up stroke.

This should help alleviate the walking-across-the-floor problem. 

[Donal Harris]

On 12/26/2021 at 2:57 PM, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

That’s one solid piece!? Lol I’ve always got one or two but never bigger than half dollar coin, 

That little bit of clinker ain’t nothing, Twisted.  I’ll take a pic of some “real” clinker tomorrow.  

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol, I can’t wait to see DHarris! 

[Chad J.]

Been focusing more on my tool making and smithing small items.  The other day I made a fork and spoon, made the fully finished fork last night. and spoon.  Today I knocked out the knife, a pair of forks,  and a scribe.  My current goal is to make a set of 8 place settings including the knives.   Maybe I'll pull it off,  maybe the sub zero temps coming will sidetrack me. 

[Daswulf]

Nice set of tools John.

Les, that's good of you and looks good. Even better using your own locally grown produce.

Ben, you might want to run some sand paper through it in progressively finer grits to smooth where the cloth runs through to minimize damage to the cloth.  It is a brilliant idea and I love the friction hold. Also Great getting the little ones involved. Like TW, I can't wait to get my daughters in the shop helping. My 3 almost 4yo. might be ready to come start this spring. She is getting good at listening and following direction. Might be short bursts at first but that's how they learn. Happy for you and excited to get mine in the shop. 

 

[Donal Harris]

That welded star candle holder from 3 or 4 pages ago is very cool, especially how it was held together with magnets during fabrication.  It and all the other things people have posted over the past week are much better than my work.

What I did this afternoon after work was start on a hook for my daughter. She needs one to hang a wooden cutting board she was given for Christmas by the BBQ place where she works, one of the Van’s Pig Stands. The pieces of the hook are WI and I will secure them together with either copper or brass rivets. I got a little lazy with the hook part and worked it at too low a temp, so it has several splits in it. They don’t really weaken the hook much, so I may or may not redo it. 
 

The bottle opener is what one of my employees wanted for Christmas. When finished it will have a copper plate riveted to the front of the handle. The plate will have a Bible verse engraved or rather “chased” into it. I have not decided which verse to use yet. I am not quite happy with the opener. Like the other two I have made, it is not symmetrical. I just used some flat bar from my scrap pile to make it. The copper is scrap tubing I split and flattened out. 
 

Something both the hook and the opener have in common is pitting from not brushing during forging. I have a block brush, but it is hard to use. I want one with long bristles, but can only find blocks with the short bristles. 

[Chimaera]

Had family in town and a cousin wanted to forge a knife- mainly for throwing, but still with a blade. Here’s a quick and dirty one we forged out of some leaf spring. 3/16” leaf spring, oil quench, with a heated block temper and a concave grind. A simple leather wrap gives it enough bulk to use as a knife but doesn’t impede throwing. While it’s tricky to get a good throw (like any throwing knife) it will embed up to an inch in pine logs. It was really fun making it, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. One more step towards making a halfway presentable knife! 

[Daswulf]

DHarris, I think both are great. The hook will be fine and if the opener opens bottles it is a success. 

Chimaera, its all about the experience and coming out of it with a useful tool is a bonus. 

[Chimaera]

Useful tool, AND fun toy- all in one!

[Michael]

Lit the first coal fire in the new smithy in the back yard! Made a bracket to connect the "building" frame to the woodworking shop next to it.

New space is 8x16 feet, tucked into a corner of the yard after some significant drainage work was put in place. The spot was/is, in the path of water flow from all the houses uphill and had to be accommodated.

Old space was a covered patio with rusted out roof panels and intact wall panels. The panels were swapped for the new space, with the walls making up a nice corrugated roof and the rusted roof making workable walls. A bit of a squeeze getting stuff in there, coal and propane tanks may need to be housed outside of the perimeter but the new space works, in the rain especially.

[HondoWalker]

Finished the pizza cutter. It'll take a finger too if it gets under it. Can't wait to try it out. 

[ThomasPowers]

BenW; great idea, you might think of doing the next one out of stainless and cleaning up the grab area and passivating it with citric acid.

First feral cat to the Vet.   Seems to have scared the others off a bit.

Going to help the "Friends of the Library" move their book sale to a new location this morning.

Railroad anchors are about twice the carbon content as the HC spikes.  I get stuff like that at the scrapyard with a receipt.

Current status of the NTM forge: cast iron firepot with firebrick table. 

[Donal Harris]

Thomas, what is that old tool about the anvil silhouette on your wall?

 

[BillyBones]

So i am looking a these RR spikes i have. Some are marked HC, from what i gathered means "high" carbon (yes i know it is not high carbon but higher than a regular spike) but i have a couple that are marked "MC". I assume that would mean "medium" carbon, but we all know what happens when we assume... So am i correct in that assumption or could it just be a mark from the factory making them? 

Not off to the handy RR spike thread to figure out what the heck to do with these things.