What did you do in the shop today?

[Fire plus Bird]

6 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Fire bird, that is not that weird. It is a penny around here though. As a matter a fact i was just watching a TV show the other night and some did that as well. 

A penny, a nickle, a dime... whatever the market will bear. Or whatever you've got in your pocker, anyway 

4 hours ago, Shainarue said:

Fire Plus Bird - I really like those hair pins. It's another thing on my project list "just because". I only know a handful of people with enough hair to even warrant a hairpin, lol, so it's totally just something I want to do because it looks pretty.

 

Thanks. They are kinda fun/addictive to do when you start thinking of all the little design changes you can make. Luckily, I know a lot of ladies with a lot of hair. Another thing you can do is make them a bit smaller and without so much bend and give them away/use them as shawl pins for knitted shawls. That's what I did for my mom, who is a big time knitter and has thin, whispy hair now that she's in her 70s. 

[George N. M.]

Here are a couple examples by Kopi Smykker, a Danish Company, which does reproductions of Viking and other historical jewelry.  This one isn't an actual archaeological find but is "in the style of."  Translated from Danish they are "hair buckles."  Unfortunately, they are terribly expensive.  I think these are like $US 239.00 each.  Cool designs though.  I have made some similar ones for sale and gifts at SCA events. 1/16" bronze brazing rod is good stock for these.

Anyone may want to brouse their catalog for ideas to filch.  There are some interesting Thor's hammers.

When I first encountered the firm back about 1980 they were pretty reasonable in price but about 20 years ago they decided to have a much higher opinion of their products and to charge what the market would bear.

Prod. no.: 801

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[gewoon ik]

Expencive gifts you all make apparently. 

[Chad J.]

Totally going to try put the hair pin now.  Yesterday I started in on a new hot cut hardy.   Not sure where I put my old one.  It's out of the same piece of jackhammer that I made the first.   It's kinda shocking how quickly I was able too reforge it now that I am starting to get a bit of a clue.   Also made a bending fork hardy.  Sold a set of hoof scrapers, they got a great price since I never made one before.  This wasn't the finished product turns out I didn't get that picture. 

[Arthur210]

Yesterday, made a fork and tried the new touchmark and found out that it wasn't working so well. With the lines and the triangle as thick as they were, it was almost impossible to stamp it with a single hammer blow (that was on red hot steel).

Tried to adjust it by some filing, but the end result was unsatisfactory. So I made a new one, smaller and with sharper lines, from 1/2" coil spring.

Today, made two more forks and used the new touchmark. Works great now. And the forks are getting better. The one on the left is from yersterday.

I was also hoping to make a nail header. Used a piece of high carbon steel, probably from a leaf spring. I must have worked it too cold, for it developped a spectacular set of cracks! More heat next time. 

[MacLeod]

On 1/2/2023 at 9:42 PM, Shainarue said:

Mac, that's an impressive handle on your poker! The head/antlers - is that all out of one piece?

Happy New Year!  All out of one length of quarter inch square bar.  Combination of Ausfires handle design, Frostys methodology and Thomas Powers’ ‘do it better’ encouragement. There’s a full on tutorial from Frosty under the ’Critique my work’ subject. It was printed and on the roof of my shed for a long time!  For the Stags head, to get more meat for the head to antlers and ears transition I upset a section of the bar before I start flattening for the horns. Cooling off an inch and bashing it end on- on the anvil a few times works for me.  Here’s an artier pic. 
 

Happy hammering! 

On 1/1/2023 at 12:04 AM, MaxwellB said:

McMasters Canadian

Absolutely nothing wrong with Canadian Rye!  It’s about the wishes when the glass is raised.  

[Frosty]

I'm a pinup now!? Are you trying to make me blush or something Mac?

Nice stag head finial and I especially love that twist.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Shainarue]

Thanks for pointing me to Frosty's advice Mac! I've followed the thread (so I can find it easily later) and also printed out that section - though I'll need to study it a few times & rewrite it into pictures because I don't do well following written instructions. My brain just doesn't process that way.

[Rojo Pedro]

Amazing amount of detail for 1\4". Very nicely done

 

[Arthur210]

Another day, another fork. Quite happy in how my incised twist turned out, considering I had to adjust it in a second heat.

I also started another attempt for the nail header, using a thick rail anchor this time. Just flattened it for now -- I can only do a little work with the 6-pounder before my arm wears out.

This starting stock is quite close to the shape of the nail-making iron from the Mastermyr chest, so I think I will try to make that. The original is 9" long by 1.5" wide by 1" thick. I may end up with one just a bit smaller.

[JHCC]

I've used those rail anchors for a bunch of different tools. Good stuff.

[JHCC]

Bit of a setback today when I went to paint the parts of the sign that are supposed to be off-white. The paint acted more like stripper, buckling and pulling up the paint underneath.

Fortunately, I discovered this before things hardened, so I was able to scrape off the white paint fairly easily. 

Now to consider what to do next. At very least, I’ll be wire-wheeling this section down to bare metal and repriming. 

[Frosty]

Primer needs more dry time eh, John? Sometimes modern paint volatiles will soften older paints and do the same thing. Been there either way. 

Back in high school days we used to do a "wrinkle" paint finish by spraying the next coat before the first was completely dry. It took some experience to time it right and it was never as regular as real "wrinkle" paint. The cool was to spray the first coat in a contrasting color and after it was all completely dry sand off the high spots sometimes it looked like a lightning storm. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

The problem, I think, was that I used two different kinds of paint, even though from the same manufacturer. After priming, I’d given everything a coat of black paint (on the right in the photo below), and then masked off everything except the signboard and the arrow and painted them white (on the left).

Whatever solvent is in the white paint ate through the black paint but left the primer alone. 

I’ve gotten a can of the protective enamel in an ivory color that I’ll use next time. 

[Daswulf]

Couldn't say what happened if you didn't apply them wet on wet. 

One of many reasons I moved to duplicolor engine paint and VHT flameproof exhaust paint. 

For single colors I will use rustoleum then once dry the vht clear. I have used each you show individually but not on top of eachother. I have used my earlier two mentioned on top of each other practically wet on wet, minimal dry time to decient success. They dry fast but are pricy. 

If you followed dry times I would contact the company about the issue.

[JHCC]

Good idea. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

If I'm not mistaken the Painters Touch has acetone in it as a drier. Probably why it wrinkled the enamel.

[JHCC]

That makes sense. 

The black paint said to recoat within 30 minutes or after 48 hours; I went with the latter. 

For interest’s sake, here are the primer and the new paint:

[Shainarue]

I finally made some visible progress on the tongs! I already know I'm gonna have to make another pair but I'm going to finish these anyway and then work on a few fun quick projects before tackling tongs again. 

Oh, and thanks to advice I found on here, I added some steel walls to the rivet forge so I could build up and localize the heat better for longer pieces. I was previously just bending the bar to fit into the center, then straightening it back. This is much better. 

[lary]

That rust-oleum primer for rusty metal is great. I've been using it on clean metal for I think 20 years now. It holds up really well even without a top coat. For large projects I'll get it in quart size, thin it with Naphtha and spray it with a cheap hf paint gun.

Shainarue tongs can be quite the mental exercise, but its sure great when you get it figured out.

[Frosty]

Shaina: You'll want to use hard firebrick to make the trench on your forge, the channel iron will melt and go away quickly. The trench works much better doesn't it? Get half a dozen 3,000f hard fire bricks, they'll melt and fail eventually but last much Much longer. Until then you'll be able to change the size and shape of your fire as you need to.

Frosty The Lucky.

[M.J.Lampert]

working on getting a bunch of split crosses made, and wondering what the best way to mark the middle is I found it tales me more time to mark them than to spread and texture after their cut

[Goods]

I have a cheap pair of calipers that I use to measure the thickness, lock a half of the measurement, scribe with the caliper points from both edges, the cut between the two scribe lines. (Don’t the the quality guys here that I ever use calipers as scribes!)

keep it fun,

David

[Arthur210]

Finished the nail beader based on the Mastermyr tool. This anchor steel was tough to move! Took almost everything I had to bring it to shape.

Drilled the holes, from 1/8" to 1/4". No way I was going to trust any of my punches to make such small holes in steel that tough and thick.

[M.J.Lampert]

Goods, I've done that lots with wood or nonferrous and thought of that but the fact that all the calipers are technically my fathers, and I want to be allowed to stay in the shop   makes me warry of doing it on much more

Arthur that looks nice now if only stock was cheap enough a penny nail could actually be made for a penny in Canada, actually if only we still had penny's... just looked we are now over ten years without pennies up here

M.J.Lampert