Yesterday I made a new mainspring for my flintlock since the old one had been broken and riveted back together. It had some good snap to it and threw great sparks, but nay have been a tad stiff. Gently worked it back and forth about 50 times until I got it to full cock then worked it back and forth from full cock to all the way down. Felt comfortable with it so I fit the lock back into the gun and on about the 5th test fire the spring broke.... so does that count as making 2 springs?

I got some time Friday evening and Saturday to dink around in the shop. Finally got a chance to weld up a simple little tool shelf/strike table for the bottom of my guillotine tool. I think it will make a handy little tool all that more handy for those times you want to fuller or cut into only one side of your stock.

 

I also played around with, ugh, a RR spike knife that I started recently the first time I went to a local weekly hammer in. I'd planned to use some RR spikes to make RR spike tongs, but the pro blacksmith who helps out with advice at the hammer in was pretty sure there isn't enough material in a spike to do what I wanted, so in order to have at least something to work on that evening I make into a blade. Now I need to decide whether or not to make up a batch of Superquench to attempt hardening it or to just chalk it up to forging practice and move on. 

I also tried to harden the two kiradashi blades in the pic below. Unfortunately, neither hardened at all in my gass forge, quenched in Parks AAA. The steel for these is a thin bar my pops gave me when I was visiting to steal an anvil and post vice. He thought it was some 5160 someone had given him, but he could have mis-remembered. His shop is utter chaos and the steel could have been switched around by him or my younger brother. It does spark like decent steel.

I'm going to cut a piece from a bar of 5160 I bought from my local steel yard, spark test it against a chunk from my dad's bar and then test harden the known steel. If I can harden the known steel appropriately, I'll repeat with the mystery piece and go from there.

I'd have done more forging, but I also got my Spring tom by surprise... er roadkill. I'd just told the wife last week I wouldn't be doing any Spring turkey hunting because of all the landscaping/remodeling we need to do around the place. Not that it's easy to even find a place to hunt toms (on public land at least) in Western Oregon. So I'm sleeping in Saturday when she leaves to visit friends out of town. She calls right away to let me know there's a freshly hit bird about three block from the house, so I bolted right up and got there in time to find a neighbor bagging the bird to landfill it. He was happy to hand it over, so I spent a good chunk of time plucking and butchering it. Had time to make a little diorama too... er, chuck the meaty ends the tail fan, feet and beard in my ammo can of borax for the moment while I find a container to dry them out in. The wife titled it 'Murica: An Art Installation.

There is enough material in rr spikes to make tongs. One spike per half. Not sure what you wanted but you can make tongs from them.

Depends on the size of the tongs...

Yeah, that's what I thought. I think he likes really big tongs. I figured I might as well get the kind of stock he likes to make tongs from and learn his style from him and make tongs from rr spikes in my own shop. Can't have too many pairs of tongs, can ya? Or learn too many ways of making them. My local steel yard has a pretty good rack of cut-offs and end pieces sold by the pound pretty cheaply, so it's not a problem to find a few short lengths of whatever size mild bar to play with.

With 41 years of forging under my belt---must be why I have let it out a bit..., I find that for hand forging I prefer light springy tongs with short reins for most projects.  Long reined tongs encourage folks to stand away from the anvil and bend towards it---bad for your back!

A pair of pick-up tongs is a good companion to short forging tongs, for taking your workpiece out of the forge and putting it back without burning your hands. 

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

A pair of pick-up tongs is a good companion to short forging tongs, for taking your workpiece out of the forge and putting it back without burning your hands. 

I actually used my short handled pick up tongs for 99% of the forging on my spring. The fine pointed bits on them made handling very easy and the short reins made for very fine control of the hot steel. I used my 1 pound straight peen for drawing out the stock from 5/16 round, but the rest was an 8oz ball peen. Very delicate work and I really learned to appreciate short handled pick-up tongs 

Chieflittlebair, to bad about your spring.  How do you temper your springs?  I have had good luck using the procedure from the Brownells catalog.  Wrap the formed spring in iron binding wire tightly enough to hold the quench oil well,  heat it all until cherry, then quench.  Remove from the oil and light the oil on the wire wrapped spring and let it burn until its gone.  You either have a spring or you don't.

CLB, what does the grain structure look like on the broken pieces?

I have used the Brownell's method of tempering springs and for me the failure rate was about 40%. I have also used melted lead to temper after quenching. I prefer the molten lead method because I have a lead pot for casting round balls & bullets and the failure rate is about 10% using lead.  The melting point of pure lead is 600° F so the tempering makes the spring a little softer but still springy. I leave the spring in the molten lead for about 5 minutes.

The other problem I see with the broken spring is there is no gap where the back bend is which makes the pivot point farther along the main leg. There should be a gap making the pivot point closer to the rear bend.

This is a good discussion regarding spring tempering.

 

8 hours ago, Gazz said:

 How do you temper your springs?

To harden, I heat to what I see as a bright red/dull orange. It is at that point that it is non magnetic. A blacksmithing buddy of mine sees it as more of a cherry red, I just see glowing metal differently I guess lol. Quenched in warm motor oil. It passed the file test. Shined it really quick with some paper and tempered it with my little propane torch to a bright peacock blue. Set it on my anvil and let it cool down slowly. 

8 hours ago, Frazer said:

CLB, what does the grain structure look like on the broken pieces?

The grain was really fine. I couldn't see any cracks that would have developed during the quench. I'll see if I can get a closeup of the grain. 

5 hours ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said:

The other problem I see with the broken spring is there is no gap where the back bend is which makes the pivot point farther along the main leg. There should be a gap making the pivot point closer to the rear bend.

Very good point. I actually noticed this while comparing the two springs and made another one but this time left a gap where the spring folded on itself. Heat treated the same as the first one and it works great. Just waiting on some new flints to arrive. This was actually a really fun project that required a lot of tedious hammering and careful attention to detail. I'd like sometime to make an entire lock. Maybe wrought iron and case harden it.....

On 4/5/2022 at 6:04 PM, BillyBones said:

Capt. Krinklebein

You can’t help smile at that fella! 

I’ve added an improved pair of coal tongs to my to do list, thanks for all the feedback.  
 

George, the Lamps usually Weigh approximately 2lbs depending on the leaf springs I start with. I do enjoy making them and they’re not difficult.

My brother in law was recently showing me his new wheeled steel tool cabinet, a thing of beauty that cost a small fortune.  Rather than dwell on why Santa saw fit to give him one and not me, I made my own last night. Also on wheels. 

18 hours ago, ChiefLittleBair said:

Just waiting on some new flints to arrive.

Aren't there flint deposits in Indiana? Flint, nodular and tabular is found almost everywhere from the east coast to California. Oklahoma and Michigan have some beautiful flint deposits. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Where do you look for the flint deposits? I have heard people talk about creek beds and even on the sides of dirt roads.

There are a number of online sites, "The People Of The Stone," is a pretty inclusive site for deposits, ancient quarries, stone type, quality, etc. 

I learned to knap obsidian some time ago and have always wanted to try flint. It's hard to come by here and I don't really want to pay rock shop prices for a stone I'm going to break to pieces. Soooo, I did some looking before Covid when Deb and I were planning to snowbird in her RV.

Flint Ridge Mi. seemed to be crazy loaded with different grades and formations. I was more interested in nodular for knapping for it's smoother less fractured consistency. Nodular and tabular form differently, the same chemical process but different conditions.

I just searched "Mid West Flint deposits" and got several pages of hits, all over the place.

Watch out though, for some idiot reason even "experts" will use ridiculous terms like "Flint knapping obsidian." It's getting to where everybody is calling any kind of flaked stone work, "flint knapping," even if no flint is involved at all. Drives me nuts!

So, you'll see lots of hits on flint knapping that talk about chert and agate knapping. Totally different thing and I doubt either would work for a flint lock. However I seem to recall quartz being used when flint wasn't available.

There are places where most of the round river rocks are flint nodules and not rounded by water. 

Frosty The Lucky.

This is an area of pretty confusing nomenclature.  To me, as an old geologist, anything in its natural state is "chert" while if it has been knapped or otherwise shaped it is "flint."  If it is red it can be called "jasper" if it is banded, "agate." It is all amorphous (non-crystalline) silica dioxide (SiO2).

Anything that is fairly brittle can be knapped, either percussion or pressure.  Quartzite and quartz are not uncommon materials and some basalts have been made into points.  Most materials will break with a "conchoidal fracture," a curved, shell shaped fracture surface.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

Aren't there flint deposits in Indiana? Flint, nodular and tabular is found almost everywhere from the east coast to California. Oklahoma and Michigan have some beautiful flint deposits. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Yes. "Technically" the "flint" we have here in the states isn't actually flint but rather chert. It is workable and will throw sparks, but I'd like the higher silica content of true flint that is found over the pond. I started flint knapping about 15ish years ago. I got pretty hard core into it and would knapp anything from glass, to old porcelain thrones. Unfortunately I set aside knapping when I got married as I've had waaaay too many other things going on, (like blacksmithing), but I still occasionally pick up my tools and work rock a little. The "flint" in the lock right now is actually some chest I knapped out of Keokuk. Just wanting to try some English flints and for the price of flints, I'd rather be lighting up the forge while they are shipped to me lol. Now to find where I put that dang broken spring so I can show the grain.....

I guess my mineralogist, rockhound Father's influence is showing, eh George? I grew up KNOWING there are only 3 types of stone, igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Yeah sedimetamorphic, don't be a smart Alec Butch. What about meteorites Dad? I SAID don't be a smart Alec!

Frosty The Lucky.

I vaguely remember a story somewhere about someone randomly picking up rocks to see if they would throw a spark and making musket flints with them, and ending up with some made of jade!

1 hour ago, ChiefLittleBair said:

some English flints

That is what I use in all my flintlock's. The French flints are pretty good too. The only knapping experience I have is to sharpen them occasionally.

Jade would be very hard to knap because it is very tough due to its fiberous crystal structure rather than brittle.  However, it would make pretty good sparks with a firesteel or frizzen if it were sawn to shape.  It would have a sharp, tough edge which would not need to resharpened very often.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

A diamond EZ lap might work for sharpening jade strikers. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Finally got some time again to make some stuff inbetween these past few weeks, and I've tried to make my first knife from an old file.

it even has somewhat of a distal taper going on.

I also did some sheet metal forging for the first time and made a skillet. The handle can be closed into the skillet for easier storage.

~Jobtiel

Nice knife - what’s the handle material? Folding handle for the skillet is pretty clever lol I like that. 
My cousin is making some kind of display in one of the corners of his apartment. I didn’t get details of exactly what but he asked for two forged poppy flowers. Black Bear Forge once again had an awesome video on it. I didn’t use the links he had for patterns - I kinda of just free handed onto some 1/8” plate and went for it. Probably should’ve used the pattern. Been having fun with these though. Got the first one almost totally forged. I have to do some clean up and more upsetting on the middle part - called a stamen I believe. I wanted to do a couple leaves on the stems but the pics I’ve found show leaves that look very complicated so I might just leave the stems alone. A while back I also got a couple of what I think are some kind of bushings from work. I cut one in half and was planning to use as drawing dies for the log splitter press but instead I threw one half in the forge and closed it a bit to substitute John Switzers awesome swage block. I used it in the vise and it worked great to put some curves in the petals so now I’m thinking about keeping the other half the original size and welding some hardy shanks on them to use at the anvil or make using at the vise easier. Not really happy with the texture of the petals but I think once there all put together, cleaned up and have a little brass brush going they’ll look ok. I found some bernzomatic brazing rods - was thinking about trying to use them to connect the stem and petals but I’ve never brazed before. I’m assuming that bernzomatic brand brazing rods can we be used with a bernzomatic mail torch. And my custom touchmark is supposed to arrive today - so excited. I really need a good hot cut. I have so much trouble deciding on which tools to buy when there’s 25 different good choices for one single tool. Right now I improvise with this giant chisel haha but it works.