February 23, 20224 yr Dharris that looks awesome. And really nice tongs Michael. I’ve got a question - does anyone know how much twisting square bar will shorten it? I mean, it does shorten it right lol? But the twist in the middle of this fire poker for example? Any educated guesses on how much it shortened? Overall length of the whole poker is about 34”. Thanks in advance for any answers.
February 23, 20224 yr Pat, that has been discussed before. There is a formula that will figure the answer but a lot of variables to plug in. If i recall the answer came out to "not enough to worry about."
February 23, 20224 yr Ok. Thanks Billy. That’s kind of what I was hoping considering I gave an approximate length in the add for the this product anyway but figured it was at least worth asking.
February 23, 20224 yr Lol I’m not a high brow kinda guy but good call. Ok guys wish me luck. Poker has to ship today or it will be considered late. I’ve got the four piece basket bundle finally welded to the shaft. There is a spot that’s thinner than I wouldve liked but it is ok. Going to follow John Switzers steps from Black Bear Forge on you tube for the rest. Draw out the other end of the bundle to a taper so it ready to be made into the hook .then do the twist with the twisting wrench on that taper for the hook make the hook selectively cool the hook and do the untwist from that end Get all of that mostly in line and cooled then pray to god I cut it to the correct size so that when I do the forge weld for the poking end I end up with the around the right length then put the twist in the middle with John didn’t do but that’s fine I really like that part and it’s relatively low risk
February 23, 20224 yr How much twisting square bar will shorten it would depend on the size of the square bar and the amount and type of twisting you are applying to the bar. A coil formed by winding wire around a uniform tube to form a helix would certainly be different from say a pineapple twist or a just a plain twist.
February 23, 20224 yr Yeah I though I stated the dimensions before but I could definitely be wrong. It’s 3/8” with about a 6” twist
February 23, 20224 yr Soft solder a copper band with your personal mark stamped in over the thin section, if it's not structural...dang nabbit I'm giving away secrets again...
February 23, 20224 yr 1 hour ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said: Or if you want to feel high brow use approximately. Or, “according to our considered estimation “.
February 23, 20224 yr No smithy today it’s been pouring down sleet, so mostly working in the shop but today a little while ago I drug a sled on the ice for Max! it’s not deep yet about 3/4” to 1” deep but it’s slick! He had a ball! Infact he was half froze an still through a complete fit when mom took him back in! He wanted to keep going! Lol Which leads me to a question, have any of y’all ever forged one of those old style sleds with the metal skids or skis or runners, whatever you call em, the kind that had the wooden top but metal frame, I just got to thinking that would be a cool blacksmith project!
February 23, 20224 yr I repaired one for a friend. He somehow wore one runner down and I duplicated it from the other one. If I remember right it was the R steering runner of a Speedway.
February 23, 20224 yr I built a sled from a discarded set of children's skis once. My kids were embarrassed the first time we went sledding with it---until they found it went considerably farther than the commercial sleds the other kids had. Back when we lived in Central Ohio and snow was an expected part of winter...Taught my Daughters dumpster diving out there too!
February 23, 20224 yr I was thinking of using forging flat bar and making something along this style?
February 24, 20224 yr Are the runners really flat or do they have a slight curve to the ice side of them?
February 24, 20224 yr Lol, I don’t really know these sleighs aren’t common around my neck of the woods so I’ve never got a chance to really look one over, I imagine there’s at least a slight curve to them though?
February 24, 20224 yr Consider a steering mechanism for downhill sledding. I'm not sure if they tilt the rails or extend one of them. The one I had as a child had a board you could pull back on one side or the other, depending on which way you wanted to go. No fun riding straight into a tree. Pulling around would be fine.
February 24, 20224 yr Sadly I don’t have much of a hill on my piece of dirt so I was just thinking about making one that can be towed i saw pictures of the ones your talking about and they are pretty cool!
February 24, 20224 yr As I recall my Flexible Flyer sled that I had as a child the runners were slightly concave facing down and the steering bar flexed the runners left and right for steering. I have seen photos of European sleds with pretty cool curves on the front of the runners. One of the reasons that Thomas' sled using skis may have worked better is more flotation to stay on the top of the snow because of more surface area. I recall my old sled cutting into deep snow because of the narrow runners. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
February 24, 20224 yr Now thinking more on the runners, If you were putting a slight v curve shape to it, would it be better to start with flat bar and put your v curve in it? or would it be better to start with angle iron and flatten it as needed? George, we don’t get many heavy snows here so it would probably work better to have wide runners,
February 24, 20224 yr If I was doing it I would start with about 3/4-1" flat stock and forge a slight lengthwise groove into it using a fuller and then weld or rivet supports to it for the deck of the sled. And the edges of the runners should be sharp and crisp like the edges of ice skates (which are also concave, IIRC). "By hammer and hand all arts do stand."
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