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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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I started on my next hawk tonight. 
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Not real happy with the results. The eye is a bit big, and the weld split while welded the bit in. I never thought the weld would break then. I already set the step in and the weld held then! I think I got the weld to take and some of my hawk handles are a bit oversized, so time will tell. Let see if it survives the final bit of forging, but that will have to wait a couple days.

Keep the pictures coming, y’all are inspiring!

Keep it fun,

David

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I’ve been using cold rolled 1018 for the body and forge welding in a high carbon bit. Current batch has 1095 for the bit just because it’s what I have that works. I’d rather use 5160 and have a huge leaf spring lay around that would work, if I could ever get it to forge weld. I swear it’s cursed! (Could just just some crazy weld hating alloy…). 

Somewhere in my pile I’ve got a heavy file that I was using for bits, if I could find that, I’d use it. I’ve got a lot of old files laying around, but I can’t bring myself to sacrificing them, when I could clean them up and put them in service. Don’t know if I’ll ever get around to that though. 
 

David

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David I prefer 5160 on nearly all my working steeled items..   I have recently fell into Lawnmower blades but have no idea what they are made out of.   Super tough steel..  Could be the heat treatment but dang.. I've straightened 1 blade cold maybe 7times before it let go while in use.   I started on the lawnmower blade because it was all I had in the trailer and to lazy to walk to the stock pile for the 5160. 

The dogs head hammer was faced with lawnmower blade and the last knife I did was lawnmower blade as well.  Will get 60Hrc

5160 doesn't really like to weld to itself.. Can be tricky there, but to mild steel or any other metal it's not bad. One of my favorites for sure. 

Are you preforming the eye with the taper or adding it as you forge around the mandrel? 

Twisted Willow, not a huge fan of bent and welded rasps..  The lines are weak points.. cut and added between some mild steel helps some to stabilize the cutting edge..  but find while cool looking and for ha, ha's.. its good but.. 
 

 

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That’s a cool video Jennifer! I may save my rasps to the bits like that,

I haven’t tried forging with lawnmower blades my self, I throw hundreds of them in the scrap trailer every year though, they are usually beat to a pulp an even cracked sometimes by the time customers finally wanna spring for a new set,

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Goods, your tomahawks are looking great! I like how you set the blade down in front of the eye, I haven't tried that yet, but I will soon.

Twisted, Follow the directions in Jennifer's video and you won't have any trouble making them,. I enjoy making them, completed my third a few weeks ago for a customer. When I delivered it he ordered three more and since then I have received 9 more orders from people that he showed it to. I'll be busy the next couple of weeks.

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I dunno what either of those words mean lol

but I literally get tons upon tons of scrap machines an parts every year in the shop, I’ll pull aside some stuff and reuse it in the smithy but the bulk of it I just pitch,

ill give away bucket loads of saw chain, mower blades, spindle shafts, saw bars ect.. to anyone who wants some! I have a never ending supply of that stuff,

infact I think I got a few hundred pounds of spindle shafts an blades right now that need a new home!!! if all y’all wanna make a trip to peavine! Lol

i might pull aside some of the big heavy commercial blades and see if I can use em for tomahawk material or somethin else,

like I said I’ve never forged em, I figured after they pounded rocks for 3 or 4 years they probably wouldn’t be good to work with, kinda like how folks say not to use leaf springs that have cracked and broke,

only idea I ever had to use mower blades for was to weld up caltrops outta them! To defend the yard against invaders, but my wife said no….<_<

 

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Heh, heh, heh, The reverse used to be true for me, I read all the time and knew how to spell and what many words meant I didn't know how to pronounce. 

Another beautiful stair case Alex, thanks for the look. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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JLP, it depends on what you mean by preforming. I’m using 3/8” stock, so I forge the eye down to 1/4”. Similar to how one would do a wrapped axe. I personally like how it gives a defined point for the weld. (But it does mean I have to get the material measurement for the eye correct!) I’ve also been working on getting the shape developed for thickening the transition point at the front of the eye. Honestly, it’s just a looks/preference thing, but haven’t gotten it to be what I want yet. I just keep flattening it out somewhere in the process.

On the other hand, if you mean preforming as putting a little bend in the eye material to setup for the taper of the eye and cupping the same area to compensate for the top and bottom of the eye flaring out when wrapping, then no. I always think about doing that. Then skip over those steps in the “heat” of the moment. I really need to remember that, it would definitely be a time saver on the back end, and I think it will result in a cleaner forging.

When I was getting started, I spent a lot of time reviewing your videos, and was quick to review them as you posted new ones. I really appreciate the time you put into those. I rarely missed one of our hammer-in, and I learned a lot from those, but I have learned more of the fine details from you videos. When you have your school up and running, maybe I could swing getting time freed up for actual lessons. Not sure I can really work it out with the travel time included, but it would be great. (I really should plan to visit my sister in Connecticut anyway…)

Keep it fun,

David

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David,  Thank you very much for the kind words on the videos..  Really appreciate it.. Makes such a world of difference getting feedback..  Once the school is up, I'll start making videos again..    Making them in the trailer is super tough.. Lighting, sound etc, etc.. 

Yes I was referring to the eye portion and taper..  I spent some time trying to get it right as a preform before it was bent in a U but never had consistent success..    I never cut paper to work it all out.. It's  a strange bend.. 

The long pole on this medium beard is an example of what I was trying to do.. 

If I can get the school to be all it's potential can be, it's going to be very, very good..   

20190922_163134.jpg

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8 hours ago, Frosty said:

read all the time and knew how to spell and what many words meant I didn't know how to pronounce. 

Same here, Frosty. I am constantly having my pronunciations corrected, lol! That or on which syllable I put the emphasis. 

Alexandr, the railings look worth the wait. 

And in regards to Twisted's stockpile of metal, if anyone has suggestions of what I could get use from as a beginner then please chime in. I'll be visiting Peavine soon. 

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