What did you do in the shop today?

[anvil]

Jen, you covered a lot of ground, and nice right angle bends too.  Hitting that third dimension is pretty addicting!  Thats where the horn really shines. 

[Goods]

I got three blacksmith knives and a 3pcs tripod forged out yesterday. Then, today did cleanup file work on the knives. I’ll post the tripod once I have a chance to wire brush it up and coat it.

Starting stock on the knives was 1/2” coil spring forged down to 1/4”x3/4” the 9” length. I’d prefer wider blades on them, but that will wait till I track down some 5/8” or 3/4” coils springs…

Keep it Fun,

David

[jlpservicesinc]

David, nice work. You can use the peen of the hammer to gain width..   Just plan a little longer bar for the length knife desired.. 

What is your plan for heat treatment? 

[Goods]

Not sure I can get much more width without upsetting the stock first. I calculated the volume first and 1/2” round and 1/4”x3/4” is close to the same. I’m sure I lost some volume to length increases though, the corners were a bit round in a couple places…

My thoughts on heat treatment are one our two normalizations, then quench in oil (canola, it’s what I have), and finally temper in the over for 1hr at 400F. I’ll try to avoid getting the handle portion above magnetic before the question. I’d rather the handle end up normalized than hard.

Keep it fun,

David

[Goods]

Ok here’s the picture of the tripod:

(Forgive the mess that is my shop.)

Also hardened the blacksmith knives and they’re now tempering:

Not sure if they got a hard as I would like, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s quite a bit of decarbonization. Plan on just sharpening them up, leaving them pretty “rustic.”

Keep it fun,

David

[Les L]

Great work Goods. 

[M.J.Lampert]

Goods do you have a holder for your stamps or how do you keep them all aligned so neat?

M.J.Lampert

[Goods]

Never heard anyone say it was nice and neat… Here is a picture of a set similar to what I use:

I usually hold this in a set of tongs. I really should have a custom stamp made. I could use this tool for other marks, but never want to take the time to reset the”type”. If I had one just for a touch mark, I’d be more likely to change this to a date, or material type (for marking tools).

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Made a sleigh bell turned out lookin more like a acorn but it has a nice ring to it!

[Frosty]

I like the bells Billy it's a different shape and different is good. You can make them more spherical by working them from the outside towards the center. 

A little variation in the pattern you chase on them and you could turn those right into Halloween MONSTER bells. Little Eel monster mouths. Eh?

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Thanks Jerry,

that’s the first one I ever tried

I’ll try workin em from the outside on the next one,

i kinda felt the suggested ball size was to big so I dug around the shop an found a jar of ball bearings and took a smaller one an welded it to a pole saw drive shaft (unknown steel type) an I started on a second one an got about half way through when ash got home so I got caught up talkin an then the sun made it over my canopy and Blazin right in my firepot so I can’t see my color so I guess I’m done till sunset, 

anyways this second one is already lookin more round usin the smaller punch 

But I’ll try your idea workin from the outside on my third one

When I get a little more fine tuned on these imma thinkin bout buggin the ag teacher up at The high school, I found out the ag class has a fancy CNC plasma cutter table setup, and I already fix stuff for both him an the school so I’m gonna ask for a favor an see if they would use their machine to cut me out a hundred or so of each size sleigh bell blank, 

never heard tell of a monster bell, I wonder if there’s a market for Halloween themed bells? 

[Dewnmoutain]

On 9/26/2022 at 9:29 PM, Goods said:

 

How do those handles feel in the hand? 

Ive been making these russian roses. I have 1 month to make minimum 36, but the plan is to make 50.

Im donating the roses to the local High School musical program. The plan is to raffle off a bouquet (12) roses each night, and the remainder to be sold individually.

Music director loves the idea.

[Rojo Pedro]

Nice work everyone. Cool pictures TW

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

I love makin rolled roses! 

yours look great! Only thing I’d suggest is using a straight peen when their still flat to give ‘em some texture on the outside of the petals,

thanks Rojo! Sleigh bells are new to me so it’s gonna take me a few days to tune em in,

 

[Shainarue]

Great looking stuff everyone! I'm kinda excited about the bells, which sounds weird but it's true, lol

I'm looking forward to trying the rolled rose. I've seen it in a few books and it's more accessible to me than finding a plasma cutter to cut the templates or hacking at it with tin snips. 

Today was Day 1 of 3 for a beginners blacksmithing class in taking. 8 hours each day. Here are today's finished projects. I also started another 'S' hook since I finished before the others in class but I didn't finish it before we moved on to the next project. 

"Warm up" exercise, going from round to square. We actually used this same piece later on the 'S' hook. 

'J' hook with wall spike

'S' hook with twist in middle

Square nails so we could see just how bad our hammer control was at the end of the day, lol

[Goods]

Dewnmountain, they feel pretty good, but not as nice as a good wooden handle.

Shainarue, looks like you had a good first day!

Keep it fun,

David

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

1 hour ago, Shainarue said:

I'm kinda excited about the bells

I’ll have to send ya some bell blanks when I get a big batch cut out! 

looks like you had a ball at class today! I really like your S hook! You did a really nice even twist on that dude!

[Frosty]

I'm thinking you need a smaller swage to drive your bells into it'd make it easier. Still using the smaller ball die should help. With practice you could use a V swage but you'd really  need to keep the blows moving around to prevent dents.

The votech instructor can assign drawing and cutting the bell blanks as a CNC project. A win win. 

Shainarue: pretty good hooks, you're off to a good start. The "J hook with a wall spike" is called a "Drive hook," you Drive it into a post, beam, wall, etc. More pics please.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Justor JeiGallo]

Great work on this page guys! Keep it up!

 

[Pat Masterson]

On 9/25/2022 at 4:26 PM, anvil said:

Pat, if hitting all the details on a 3 dimensional project is beginners luck, then you need to buy a lottery ticket.

I was thinking about getting that lottery ticket…then we had two family tragedies inside of four days - my 70 year old aunt which was totally unexpected- complications during a surgery. And my 95 year grandmother on the day of my aunts funeral two days ago. This one was at least somewhat expected as we knew she was on her way out but doesn’t make it any easier. 
Anyway - not being at work and needing to keep my mind occupied I got some stuff done. These commemorative pieces for my two cousins. And I realized that to get to the next level I really need to be able to use a coal forge. Getting the meridian straight in line after the bend for this globe for example. So difficult with what’s basically a coffee can forge and then all the other benefits (localized heating yada yada) Today I’ll try my first coal fire after making the saddest example of a coal dump you’ll ever see lol. But I don’t care for now. I think it will some what work and I can finally try my hand at coal. 
I keep a large first aid kit in the truck and small one in the passenger door - ya never know. 
 

[anvil]

Sorry for your bad news, but like a great smith once told me,," Isn't it nice that when things get bad, We can spend some time making beautiful things"       Francis Whitaker.

 

Nice first forge. Lol, you should have seen mine! The bottom of an old cast iron hot water heater with the same twyre setup and metal tee posts for legs. The air source was a 12 volt car heater fan. One lead to the battery and the other I tapped on the forge at different rates to get the needed heat!

[Shainarue]

Today was Day 2 of 3 for the beginners blacksmithing class I'm taking. Here are today's finished projects. I also started another leaf since I broke the first one and there was still time left in the class but I didn't finish it in time. 

Today we started with practicing to punch holes. I suck at this, lol. But after 7 struggled holes, I finally decided to move on to the next project.

We also learned how to upset to get more mass on one end. Then shouldered that end, flattened, and rounded. A bit of thinking to figure that last part out but now it seems second nature. Then punch a hole into the flattened circle-ish part. 

Then add a hook to the other end and twist the middle section. I rushed this part and clamped too far in, so it was a tiny twist in the middle. So I reheated it and cooled the already twisted part and tried adding more twist above. It's not quite even. 

I tried another nail because I really want one good one to go with this hook. It didn't happen, lol. I keep hitting the top a bit off center which causes the nail head to go to one side. I'll try again tomorrow. 

Then we had a lunch break. I had a really bad blister on the tip of my pinky and another on base of my index finger of my hammering hand. When we went back to work, I started compensating for the blisters in an attempt to keep them from popping. They popped anyway, I got them taped up and then continued compensating because it was otherwise quite painful. Needless to say, the second half of the day pretty much sucked, lol, but I still learned. 

Worked on leaves using tapering, shouldering, flattening, peening, and cold chiseling. I'm pretty sure I'd do better without a gimpy hammer hand. Or maybe that's just an excuse. 

[JHCC]

Welding project: a broadfork for the garden. Rather rough, but effective. 

[Mothman_c3w]

Today I finally finished up a stand for a set of fireplace tools I made a while back. I'm pretty pleased with how it looks. I messed up the tenon on the vertical bar, so I plug welded it on from the underside.

The baseplate is 6.5" x 10" x 3/8", the vertical is 5/8" bar, and the feet are 1" cubes squished down to 3/4".

[George N. M.]

Shaina, coming along nicely.  Blisters are one reason, IMO, to wear a glove on your hammer hand.  Also, you may be gripping the hammer too tightly.

Getting the head of a nail a square hit takes some practice but if the anvil is a bit too high or low for you it makes the problem worse because the hammer face is not parallel with the face of the anvil when it strikes.  Try hittin something soft like a piece of wood on the anvil and if the hammer is leaving a crescent shaped mark it is too high or low for you.  If the horns of the crescent are pointing away from you it is too high, if they are pointing towards you it is too low, and if it is a nice round impression of the face of your hammer it is just right.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."