A quick tutorial on twisting

[anvil]

Ever heard the old saying, "there's a new twist?". Comes right out of the Blacksmiths craft. Fabrication and cold twists are pretty limited to one type of twist. Depending on your power you can twist square bar with very limited number of twists. Doing it hot, the above one liner means the number of twists are nearly unlimited and the types of twists are only limited by your imagination.

Here's two examples from a candelabra. Round twists. Can't be done cold. The little duhicky on ch-1 is a shadow. All done with my Lil giant and simple spring fullers made from coil springs.

so here is a quick way to do a twist and keep it straight for the least possible cost and time to do. To qualify this, I assume you are here to learn blacksmithing and have, from simple to sublime, a forge, an anvil, a post vice, and a twisting Wrench. The basic tools of a blacksmith plus a twisting Wrench. Hope this works, a picture tutorial is a first for me.

Basic twisting Wrench: each wrench is set up for two sizes. In this pic, the material goes in the top opening. Push down on the top handle to lock it in place. Because the openings diverge, you can do tapered stock. A general rule is make each twister for a specific crossection. Use 1/2"-5/8" for 5/8"-3/8". Use 3/4"- 1" etc. Can't beat the cost.

How to twist and straighten your twist simply and quickly. No other tools needed than what's mentioned above:

This is a test piece, so you can see my center punch marks. Clamp in your post vice on the center punch mark and place your twisting Wrench on the other. Take an even heat  in the section between the two center punch marks. You can correct if needed, but if you get an even heat, no twist tightening/loosening needed. In this pic, twist top handle down and do as many twists as your imagination wants.

How to straighten your twist:

clamp your twist in your post vice ad above. Clamp on the diamond and clamp about half of the non twist to act as a guide.

Rotate 180* and clamp again. This section of your twist is now straight and in line with your parent stock.repeat and repeat again til you are the same as last pic. Done. Depending on length of your twist, you can twist and straighten in one heat.Done this way, you will offer your client far more for less time and money, other than my champfered edges, than any fab job with the extra bonus of being hand forged.Quite frankly, we smiths need to share these techniques with the new guys in order to debunk the myth that, purely and simply that We Cant. 

Admin: please don't delete any of these pics. They represent a step by step process for straightening a twist done hot. 

 

 

 

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I don't know none of your links work for me. I get file not found.

[JHCC]

Are the photos not showing for you?

[Jobtiel1]

I can only see the first two photos.

~Jobtiel

[Nihil]

Quote

I can only see the first two photos.

Same here

[ThomasPowers]

Ditto.

[Mod34]

MOD NOTE: There was an issue with the photos uploading when this post was moved over from the other thread. They have now been resized and re-uploaded, which should fix the problem.

[ThomasPowers]

Thanks, I can see them now!

[anvil]

I noticed that the scrolls in the second candelabra pics looks out of balance. They are all the same. There are actually 3 scrolls, and the offness is due to camera angle.