What are the dimensions of your cone mandrel, JHCC? Nice work!

Nice cone mandrel and flatter, guys. 
 

Technically my wife’s kitchen before work, but I tempered my scrap knife project this morning before work. 400 degrees F for an hour. I will do another hour the next time I am alone in the house for an extended period. She believes her oven is not a shop tool. 
 

The area where the bolsters will go are still not flat. Still working on that. Without a disc sander it is tough. I need to make a clamp for my vise to hold blades in place for filing. 
 

I didn’t do all that well with keeping the file in the middle of the WI sandwich, but other than that I am not unhappy with it. It sharpened and will cut. My plan is to make a sheath for it and use it as for EDC.  Being short, it should be less spooky for people when I whip it out. 

Went to the flea market and then the scrapyard today.  Finally got home and in the shop.  Moved the workbench with my bader over near the new plug and installed a light just for the grinder.  Started looking into converting the motor to run on 220 and noticed that the Capacitor is marked 110 so back into the house and online trying to find the correct one for 220 use, (got queries into both Baldor and Bader!)

My first successful forge braze. I have tried off and on a few times and failed. Kind of happy for that today.

And then my spring fuller failed. 

George N.M.,

Thank you for that. I'll keep it in mind. 

18 hours ago, Arthur210 said:

What are the dimensions of your cone mandrel, JHCC? Nice work!

Thank you! The height from the anvil face to the top point is just under six inches. The working section (that is, above the base plate) is five inches high and 1-1/2” in diameter just above the weld bead. 

On 3/17/2022 at 9:33 PM, JHCC said:

And finished the forging and grinding of my new anvil cone:

John - Did that cone have a previous life as a sorting hook? (straight billed hook used in pairs on slings for pipe) That's really good steel for that application, I would think.

No, this was forged from the thick end of a torsion bar. It had been part of a doghead hammer experiment that didn’t work out too well, so I cut it off.

This got welded to an A36 base plate and a stem made of schedule 40 black pipe, pre- and post-heating in the forge.

And then forged as shown above. So, the cone itself is probably 5160 or thereabouts. 

 

Just as good, if not better. The sorting hook would be less work though, but where's the fun in that?

Now you tell me. 

2 years ago I made an arch for a climbing rose. Finally made a video today.

Is not downloading.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CbS3bsXjXUK/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

 

It looks Very nice Alexandr!

Put the cone mandrel to work and made a pair of bottle openers from an old wrench. 

Finished forging a bowl and did some cleanup on the edges:

And started work on a trammel:

Ahhh days where I'm not interrupted in the shop.   Finished a fire poker, chisel cut the baskets and point,  made a broach for the first time,  made a little heart, made another fastener for the leather journals,  and a poker for a smoke. 

 

Edited March 20, 20224 yr by Chad J.
Doubled a picture

Nice little brooch there. I love making them and have some friends who do the renaissance thing so i have a market for them also. Little tip on them, get the pin as small and smooth as possible. That way when it is used it will go between the threads of a garment and not tear or snag the fabric.  

For fine fabrics; I advise penannular brooch users to put in small round  "button holes" to avoid tears.  For my coarse wool brat that weighs A LOT, I use a large pin, no sewn hole needed! 

I've made several where the pin is a sword, even soldered on the guard for a proper claidheamh-mòr

Speaking of bowl projects I finished off this hammer. Sometimes you have to make a tool to make a tool. 

Pushed submit too fast pic goes with post above. 

Had another idea bouncing around the head. A towel bar. Was trying for a Roman kind of thing i guess. One end turned out like i wanted the other not so much. 

 

 

Billy, I think they both look great.
While I’ve been out of town the past couple weeks, I had some time today. I finally started using one of the pieces of wrought iron JHCC so kindly sent me several months ago. It needs a bit more work at the neck, then I’ll facet it with a dremel. I’ve got some ferric coming on Tuesday, so hopefully itll etch up nicely. I plan on making a whole set from different materials and then making a nice little case for them all. I’m thinking WI, mokume, ebony, chert, obsidian, Damascus, and timascus if I feel expensive. Maybe a couple other plain metals like copper, aluminum, and bronze. Might take me all summer but I’d like to make it happen. 

You could also go with different styles and shapes of points such as Eastern Woodland, Folsom, Sandia, little bitty bird points, etc..  Are you enough of a knapper to make them out of chert?

One of the coolest points I have ever seen were from the Great Basin and were knapped out of clear rock crystal (quartz).  They looked like they were made of clear glass.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Unfortunately not. After a few tries I can typically knock out an acceptable chert side notch head, but nothing exceptional. I’m also very out of practice. I have a small collection that includes some beautiful points, all made by people far more talented than myself.

Nice towel bar billy. 

BnF I dig the hammer. 

Good stuff Chad.

Chimaera, I made one out of mild steel a few years back. It lives on my keychain. Look forward to seeing yours done and etched. 

Doesn't seem to rust being in my pocket most of the time. 

 

That’s very nice das! I got it mostly ground before the grinder caught and shot it across the workshop. I’ll try to find it and finish grinding tomorrow. Speaking of which, the dremel takes a very long time when using one of the little alumina oxide grinding cylinders. Do you have any recommendations for a different grinding method for future ones?

I used sanding cones. The rolled up cone shaped sand paper that go on an arbor to hold it. Don't know if dremel makes them but I wouldn't doubt they do. Forget the brand name I used but they went in my pneumatic die grinder. 

Cool, I’ll have to try that on my next one. Little sanding drums worked great but then the sandpaper would explode. The cones look like they wouldn’t have that issue. 
 

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It could be better, but this is my first try (except prototypes). Now I just need to etch! Are there any tips for etching WI? For example, how do you need to clean it before the etch? Thanks!