I've not been in the shop as much,  the weather was getting nice and had to go fishing.   But in the last couple weeks I cleaned my shop,  put a handle on a new knife and pumped out a few more coal rakes and bottle openers.  Hope everyone's been doing well.

I have a prototype chandelier for cheap solar lights hanging in the shop and my wife asked if she could use it to light up her garden as it's getting too hot to work on it during the daytime.  Not a problem; but I wanted to open up the basket on it as the prototype didn't get finished off.  So I fired up the forge and did some basketwork...it's hanging in her garden soaking up the sun.  We will see how well it works tonight!

Remember, pictures needed or it didn't happen 

Made an eye drift from some 1 inch medium carbon.   I'm looking to make a couple small bearded hand axes.  It fits to almost round up top. 

Nice eye drift Chad! You know axes often have a droplet shaped eye? You can make a sufficient sized drift from one inch stock in a teardrop shape as well, this one looks great as a hammer eye drift!

On 5/27/2022 at 12:28 PM, Dewnmoutain said:

i made (dramatic pause!) a sprinkler can!

Finally got sick of using a plastic bottle and holding my arm over the flames

Hard to beat a soup can rivited to a handle.  That's how I made mine.

Well I opened the roll up doors and got some tools to check on the house's swamp cooler.  Then took off both of my wife's van's flat tires; nice that I had a spare jack in the shop! Dropped them off in town and came back and sweated a bit during the heat of the day.  Just before closing I went back and picked up the patched tires and came home and mounted them.

Now I'm too tuckered to do anything in the shop and it's one of the coolest days of the next 10 days! 

Supposed to be throwing knives. Burnt the handle end of one so it is a bit smaller. 1 1/4" x yeah thats about right, 5160 1/4" thick. Found that since changing the orientation of my anvil and my stance at the anvil i am much more efficient at drawing out over the horn. Got a bit tired and hungry so i still need some clean up and grinding on the handle end, especially that one loop.

My little smithy needs a few things and one was to have a leg vice mounted and functional.

 

I welded a little piece of pipe to a plate, which got welded to the bottom of a pipe cemented deep in the shop floor to hold the foot of the leg vice

I drilled holes in another piece of plate (which were too small for the bolts)

I found a piece of steel rod in my scrap bucket which is about the right size so I turn it into a drift.

 

 

And it worked perfectly.

 

That was welded to the top of the pipe.

And Then I took another piece of scrap, drilled holes in it as well for the table.

(used a hand drill this time and reamed the holes to fit)

My LEG VICE is in its new home!!!

 

Note: (My plan is to cinderblock that opening to the left,

And build a new wood door (reclaimed wood) for the opening to the right)

 

ARMY

 

So i started the day with finishing my throwing knives then built a target. I either cant make throwing knives or cant throw knives, i am going with cant make. Notice how many are stuck in my target.

My striker then came over and done some work.

Then i got some schooling from the master smith.

I had to make some hooks for the wife to hang her pots and pans from. I made 3, then ha help with the 4th, top left, and my granddaughter made the 5th, top right with just a smidge of help from papa. 

 

 

It's a good master smith that lets Pops add a smidge for his feelings. Great pics Billy they put a big happy smile on my face. Thanks.

Frosty The Lucky.

Billy, have you thought of making the loops bottle openers?   When I was throwing I tried to do at least an hour a day and threw a wide range of things to try to lean to throw rather than to throw a particular knife. I also threw into the endgrain of a supported log and had scrap plywood as a backstop.

Brilliant getting the kids into it Billy. Most are wrapped in cotton wool nowadays.

Glad yall liked that. When she is around she is my shadow. Her sister is the more girly one and would rather play with dolls. 

Thomas, bottle openers are a great idea. I actually got them to stick quite a few times, bounce right off and stick in the ground. My target was just a quick throw together from scrap lumber in the barn. An hour a day practice?!? Think i will stick with it was the knifes fault... it cant be mine, wait, i made the knives. 

Chad nice looking bottle openers, and very nice drift. 

Billy, nice throwing knives.  Are you sure it was not just a windy day?  or that sporadic heavy breeze that pops up just as you throw?  8-)

Very nice hooks, glad to see young folks enjoying the old world craft. 

ARMY

The Coriolis effect is what messes me up when I throw knives, hatchets, spears, etc. it keeps things from going where you want or flipping at the right rate. 

A pervasive thing the Coriolis effect, it's everywhere!

Frosty The Lucky.

Three weekends of re-lining the ribbon burner with an extra inch of refractory cement all the way around. First fire at 1# of propane, will bump it up to forging temperature sometime this week if everything looks good.  I put one half an old fire brick at the back to give it some size reference  

Getting your distance just right makes a difference too.  I've surprised folks at a competition by backing up from the throw line to where I know my throws will stick.

Did another drift today.   This one is a teardrop shaped, next to the one from the other day.   I think I have a few more shapes and sizes to make.  I have more than enough 1 inch plus steel. 

Yes car/pickup/truck axle is easily available in 1"+ sizes.

I made a key ring hook. It turned out pretty much as I visioned and I am happy with it. 

I like the key hook thing!

Well my wife collected cotton wood "cotton" in my shop yesterday.  She's investigating what she can do with it as a spinster.

I reset a couple of hammer handles and have them soaking in BLO; had a student lately that was upset that the BLO didn't tighten up the hammer handle.  I told him it doesn't, you have to reset the handle tight and then soak it to keep it from loosening up again.  I did the 100+ handled tools when I first moved out here from wet Ohio and now 18 years later a few of them need to have their wedge tapped in a bit and another soaking.  Which will probably last longer than I will smithing!

Today I've started out jacking up my wife's van and taking a tire off to be fixed; again. High's these next 11 days are supposed to be---in degF: Mon 100, Tue 100, Wed 100, Thr 96, Fri 101, Sat 102, Sun 101 Mon 101, Tues 101, Wed 101, Thr 102   I guess I should be firing up the forge some before the summer starts and it gets hot!

Love the design Rojo. Nice work. 

Thomas, my late wife, Martha, tried the same thing with cottonwood "cotton" and had little success.  She said the staple was to short, slick, and weak.  She got some yarn spun but it was low quality.  I suspect that milkweed would be the same.

GNM