New member here. Howdy all!

[acfarer]

Good day to all,

New to the smithing game. I have a hobby machine shop and want to try a alternative way to turn good metal into scrap.

I've been doing for some time in my machine shop, (that's how I know I'm done with the project), so I thought I'd branch out, expand my horizons and such.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome from the Ozark mountains.

[George N. M.]

Welcome aboard from 7500' AMSL in Wyoming.  I think you will find that black smithing has different "feel" than machining.  Moving hot metal around with a hammer is a different way of doing things than removing everything that doesn't look like what you want in machining.  There is a similar difference between sculpting and pottery.

It has been a good and satisfying hobby/semi-business for me for the last 43 years.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[SLAG]

Mr. Acfarer,

Greetings from a tad east of the said Ozarks. (Saint Louis).

Welcome to the club.

Regards,

SLAG.

[swedefiddle]

Good Morning Acfarer,

Machining is removing material, Welding is adding material, Cutting is removing material, Forging is moving the molecules of your material. Pick-up a container of Play-Doh or Plasticene or Modeling Clay, put the container in your Tool Box!! Play-Doh works identical to Hot metal. Play-Doh you can manipulate in your hands, exactly the same as with a Hammer & Anvil or whatever tooling you want to play with. When your material is hot, it is in it's Plastic State. It will move the same as your Play-Doh, almost to the Hammer stroke.

A saying a friend told me (yes there was Beer involved). "You Machinist's are allowed to be within .0002" two tenth's. Us Carpenter's have to be right on!!!". Yes there was laughter as well. Another saying is;  "A Blacksmith measures with a yardstick, Cuts it with an Axe, Heat's it and Beat's it, until it fit's perfectly, is functional and looks good" My point is, Don't think like a Machinist, Think like an Artist, Think like a Blacksmith, Make it look good. Yes your scrap pile will grow, then you will realize that you can take something out of your Scrap Pile and make it into something useful and looks good!

Enjoy the Journey and welcome from the 'Wet Coast'

Neil

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you.  Once you have a handle on the basics you  no longer have a scrap pile it becomes an assortment of preforms, AKA resource pile. I got into the craft because Dad was a machinist and metal spinner who did a LOT of aerospace work, holding a ten thousandth was slop on his lathe. Seriously, make a pass, check the temperature of the part and adjust to account for the COE. 

I blacksmithed to escape the uberstressfull atmosphere of his shop. I also like to play with fire and hit things. Win win! 

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

Herr Frosty,

What is a COE?

SLAG.

[Geding]

Привет всем! Я из Санкт-Петербурга но родом я из Выборга! Рад вступить на данный форум. Кузнечное ремесло для меня, нечто больше чем просто диформация горячего металла!))

Hi all! I am from St. Petersburg but I am from Vyborg! I am glad to join this forum. Blacksmithing for me, something more than just a deformation of hot metal!))

[JHCC]

Coefficient of Expansion. It's the rate at which a material expands or contracts with changes in temperature.

To give a simplified example, suppose the machinist is making a piece that has to be exactly 3" at 60° F. He's using a metal that expands 0.01" per 1" of thickness per 1° F. If he machines the piece to exactly 3", but the temperature of the piece is 65° F, then it will shrink down to about 2.95" when cooled to 60° F. On the other hand, if he machines it down to 3.05" at 65°, then when it's cooled to 60° F, it should be at 3" exactly.

(The math is actually somewhat more complicated than that, but this should give you an idea of the general principle. Sound good, Frosty?)

[Frosty]

Ayup, that about covers it. It's complicated alright. Drove Dad nuts. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Welcome Geding;  have you seen all the marvelous work Alexander is forging in St Petersburg and posted pictures on this site?

[Geding]

3 минуты назад Томас Пауэрс сказал:

Добро пожаловать, Гединг; вы видели все чудесные работы, которые Александр ковит в Санкт-Петербурге, и разместили фотографии на этом сайте?

Thank you Thomas! I don't have many works, but I'll post them in the gallery on occasion.

[ThomasPowers]

What types of things do you like forging?  What equipment do you currently have?

[Frazer]

Geding, here is one of Alexandr's more recent posts.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/66519-what-did-you-do-in-the-shop-today/?do=findComment&comment=752766

 

[Geding]

7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Какие вещи вам нравятся? Какое оборудование у вас в настоящее время?

What kind of things do you like? What equipment do you currently have?

I am attracted of course by artistic forging, as well as forging household, small utensils, etc. My equipment is currently at the assembly stage; I'm cooking a forge, I bought a vise (for which I want to collect as much information as possible), I bought an anvil, in excellent factory condition, I was lucky enough to find it for a little money - a successful purchase!) I started to assemble my own forge, one in which I will start forging products for home, relatives, as a gift, etc. When I discovered the blacksmithing craft, I worked in conditions as close as possible to the Middle Ages, the era of the Varangians.)) I mean - a forge made of stone and clay, manual furs-two-chamber, etc. Several years have passed since then, but the craving for this craft has not disappeared for a moment!)) Now I am approaching the reincarnation of my place! I am very pleased to be on this forum, there are many interesting topics and people here!) I saw Alexander's works, I really liked them. This is his main type of zoobrabotka, as I understand it, he brings to life quite beautiful products!) Saoi small works that I made for the house, some of them, I will attach below, under this post!

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

A nice range of items.  I do some Y1K historical stuff and quite a bit of 16th century renaissance cooking gear for a friend----I've had peacock cooked over an open fire on a campout twice now!  (I forge reproduction cooking gear for her and she feeds me renaissance recipes on week long campouts.)

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Welcome from the desert outside of Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada.

You have some nice items that you have made.

[Geding]

10 часов назад Томас Пауэрс сказал:

Хороший ассортимент предметов. Я делаю некоторые исторические вещи Y1K и довольно много кухонного снаряжения для возрождения 16-го века для друга --- У меня был павлин, приготовленный на открытом огне на кемпинге дважды! (Я выковываю для нее репродукционное кухонное снаряжение, и она кормит меня рецептами эпохи Возрождения на недельных лагерях.)

)) To make products, in exchange for dishes of medieval cuisine, a good barter!) A well-fed blacksmith, a good blacksmith!))

[LeeJustice]

Very, very nice works!  Welcome from upstate South Carolina, USA.

[Geding]

18 часов назад BIGGUNDOCTOR сказал:

Добро пожаловать из пустыни за пределами Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada.

У вас есть несколько хороших вещей, которые вы сделали.

Hello Biggundoctor! Thanks!

4 часа назад LeeJustice сказал:

Очень, очень хорошие работы! Добро пожаловать из северной части штата Южная Каролина, США.

Hello LeeJustice!) Thanks! Greetings to you from the northern capital of Russia!)

4 hours ago, LeeJustice said:

Very, very nice works!  Welcome from upstate South Carolina, USA.

Thanks! Greetings to you from the northern capital of Russia!)

[Frosty]

Nice work Geding, I like your style. 

A word about forum etiquette. A lot of members don't have high speed connections and have to pay data rates so as a courtesy we try to keep bandwidth to a minimum. Replying to everybody individually uses more bandwidth than necessary, especially if you quote them. A general, "thanks everybody" in the thread without a quote says all that is needed to get the point across.

This isn't to be critical, it takes a little time to learn to use the forum, it has around 50,000 members in 150 countries around the world so it's impossible to observe all the traditions, speaking styles, word and term meanings, etc. The best we can do is have an Iforgeiron, custom and tradition so once a person learns it everybody understands what's being asked and said without having to make long posts or use translation programs. 

I'm only trying to smooth the trail for you, you're going to fit right in here once you get a handle on how we do things.

Make sense?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Geding]

Thanks Frosty! I will take these points into account, I will try to be shorter!))
Спасибо Фрости! Я учту эти моменты, постараюсь быть короче!))

[Frosty]

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Howdy from eastern Oklahoma! To both acfarer and Geding! Glad to have y’all both!