I fought the bad day and I won.

[Dan Crabtree]

Today was one of them days, I go into the shop and the fire is still burning from last night, ill post the method I use to do that in another subject. But I get started and I hammered an old wrought iron wagon wheel rim into 1/4 bar, by hand, Im poor so I dont have a power hammer. Then I started making steak turner out of it. I made a careless mistake and cut it off too short so now I have a handle and half what i need for the rest of it, just then a friend walks in the shop and im thinking great! Ill have someone to hold the mild steel rod I need to weld onto it. well he never worked in a blacksmith shop before and i pulled the sparkling rod out of the fire and it freaked him out and he didnt know what to do so I had to re heat it, then after I reheated I started the weld, it felt like it took, I Lift it up and it falls in two on the way back to the forge, so then I figure o well Ill cheat and MIG weld it, I do that and start to forge down the weld, go figure, I mash it down too much. Then I go to weld in a filler, the welder was too hot and burnt the rod in 2, I said some times ya gotta know when to just drop it so I quenched it and set it on the welding table. Then I took some rods to make a braided handle, I start it get to the final twist and one of the rods breaks and ruins the whole handle. Then I figure well Ill take this WI handle and make some J hooks out of it, ive made plenty and have them down pat. I start it and then after a few swings the fibers split all over the thing. I tried to weld em back together but no luck there. Must have had a dirty fire today. Then as im cleaning up the shop I look over at a billet I never finished. It was 8 hacksaw blades, 1 roller chain, and some cable, My concious kicks in and says are you sure you want to do that? its been a bad day and you have alot of time in that billet? do you really wanna risk screwing it up? ( kinda scary I actually heard a voice in my head haha) Well I find myself throwing the billet in the fire. start forging out a blade, turned out nice, Ground down with an angle grinder because it was late and I wanted to get a preview of the etch.... It looks great... First time I fought the bad day and it ended in my favor... So how about we hear some of your bad day experiences.

[Stephan P]

Perfect practice makes perfect. It'll all come together eventually.

[Shane Stegmeier]

You do know that Wrought Iron is cold short, and will give you nothing but grief if you try and do anything with it below a bright red heat, right:-)

[Dan Crabtree]

Yah, wrought iron does some odd things when you try and work it too cold. If I had a power hammer it would probally be my primary material. Its too much work to hammer down a wagon wheel to 1/4 or so by hand but I love how soft it is and easy to work while hot.

[Stephan P]

you must have quite a stash if you can make it your primary material.

[Dan Crabtree]

I have access to only 3 wagon wheels atm. But they are cheap and always at auctions.

[Stephan P]

we don't have wagons up here let alone wheels for them (too many trees and mountains to make them practical at the time I guess. It was train or pack horse. Sounds like you got a good soure for teh WI then. Good to hear.