nelson Posted March 18, 2009 Posted March 18, 2009 Hi Brian, I`m a newbie, and sure appreciate your excellent tutorials on what seems to be very basic for you. Soon I will have a forge (my first forge ever wow, bye, bye O/A torch, that`s very limiting. Congratulations, I love the humming bird, and the octopus is very nice too.Thanks for your generosity! nelson. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted March 18, 2009 Author Posted March 18, 2009 Hi Brian, I`m a newbie, and sure appreciate your excellent tutorials on what seems to be very basic for you. Soon I will have a forge (my first forge ever wow, bye, bye O/A torch, that`s very limiting. Congratulations, I love the humming bird, and the octopus is very nice too.Thanks for your generosity! nelson. You are very welcome, Nelson. I'm sure you'll like using a forge better than a torch, just be careful not to burn your steal. The torch experience you have should help you with that. Forging is very basic, not just to me. Every time you touch a piece of hot metal with a hammer and anvil it does what it does, nothing more nothing less. It does what you do to it. You're in control. The thought behind it all is the difficult part. You need to know where you're going and make it happen. You're in control. You just put your material under the dies, and it practically makes itself. I have had more success getting this across to people who have never done this type of work. I could give specific examples of first time forging experiences other than my son's, but I am very slow at typing. I have done more "banging away" than anyone I know.[what I mean by "banging away" is forging without knowing exactly what will happen and accepting what comes instead of choosing what will happen], and I wish I had more basic information to start with. That is why I am trying to share this information; I expect others to go alot further with forging than I'll ever go with my tme left to forge. Quote
nelson Posted March 21, 2009 Posted March 21, 2009 Hi Brian, As a newbie to this site, and newbie to forging so to speak,I`m sure many like me appreciate your excellent tutorials. That`s very generous from your part, and in regards to the humming bird and the octo, man they`re great ! Congratulations. Nelson. Quote
Bully Posted March 23, 2009 Posted March 23, 2009 Very, very, very nice work thanks for your time. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted March 23, 2009 Author Posted March 23, 2009 You're very welcome. I just started taking pictures recently. It slows me down quite a bit, but I've needed to document these techniques for quite some time. I just learned to get on the computer since the first of this year. That was my New Year's Resolution. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted April 8, 2009 Author Posted April 8, 2009 Here's another forge welded bundle. This one is supposed to be a sea anemone. It is one of the simplest, only 12 one heat tapers out of 1/4" square and 1 piece of 1/2" square in the middle of a 1/4"x1" collar. Quote
andgott Posted April 8, 2009 Posted April 8, 2009 That is really neat... 'Only' 12 tapers? No sweat The bundle method of doing things is ingenious... I just love it. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted April 9, 2009 Author Posted April 9, 2009 My friend's son, David, came to work in the shop this morning. He's on his Spring Break. So I had him make a grappling hook. He is 10 years old. Here it is: Quote
Bentiron1946 Posted April 9, 2009 Posted April 9, 2009 Away all boarding parties! I bet there is more then a few of us that wish we could do as good. Great Job!:D Quote
andgott Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 That's a cool toy- He'll be boarding merchantmen and making the crew walk the plank in no time! -Andrew Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted April 10, 2009 Author Posted April 10, 2009 Yeah, I told him not to be throwing it up into trees because it may get stuck, and it will come down! Quote
Fe-Wood Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Wonderful work Brian- Thanks for shairing... Hope to see more Are you teaching any classes in the nor-cal area anytime soon? Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted April 11, 2009 Author Posted April 11, 2009 Wonderful work Brian- Thanks for shairing... Hope to see more Are you teaching any classes in the nor-cal area anytime soon? I'll be in Placerville the middle of May at the Northern Califonia Classic demonstating. I don't think there is any charge. This event has been going on for over 20 years. It is a horseshoeing competition. If you have never seen one, you should make it a point to come. I think Karen posted it in the Calender. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted May 5, 2009 Author Posted May 5, 2009 I did another forge welded bundle yesterday. This one is made with 1/4"x 1/2" and 1/8"x1/2" with a 1/8"x3/4" collar. This is not one of my best examples, you can see where it didn't weld at the base of the wings and body. The smaller the collar is, the less opportunity you have to secure your weld. I've done bigger ones like this for lamp brackets and sconces. Quote
triw Posted May 5, 2009 Posted May 5, 2009 WOW The humming bird is really nice but the squid is fantastic you are doing some awsome work. William Quote
Ten Hammers Posted May 11, 2009 Posted May 11, 2009 "I'll leave it as is so others can see what not to do." This is my philosophy so that "I " can see what not to do. I have a rather large collection of stuff from over the years. sometimes it really helps in development of other stuff. I keep bolt boxes of misc stuff ( rings, handles etc). Bryan, you do impeccable work. Wish I could have met you at the BAM conference. Seems I stay busy and busy is good. Hope to someday meet you and watch you work. Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 13, 2009 Author Posted July 13, 2009 Here is another forge welded bundle that I've wanted to do for quite some time. It's a simple forged sculpture that I'd like to do life sized with a striker and then larger than life with a power hammer. Quote
beth Posted July 13, 2009 Posted July 13, 2009 thats wicked brian - looks brilliant. i particularly love the wing. Quote
Rodney Skinner Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 very nice work! I love the squid. Thanks for sharing your work. Quote
Chrispy Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 Excellent work Brian, bet your proud of your achievements. And rightly so. Quote
Dick L. Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 Brian, As always outstanding work ! Is The base contained within square tubing for the weld? What is the wide piece in the middle of the bundle before welding? Thank you for sharing ! Dick Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 15, 2009 Author Posted July 15, 2009 I made a collar out of 3/8" X 1 1/2" to hold the pieces together. That wide piece in the middle is a spacer that gets the bird leg away from the cat tails, and it gives me something to hold on to while I'm forge welding it. I nicked that piece with a chisel at its base so I could break it off in the end. I'm glad you noticed! This is a very simple forging but alot of thought and consideration goes into making it successful. Quote
Dick L. Posted July 15, 2009 Posted July 15, 2009 I haven't tried the forge welding yet. Hope to before to long. Do you clean all the square bases with a file before assembling for welding or is just wire brushing enough? I expect you only need to flux the outer surfaces of the joints real well. Is this assumption correct? Wish you were on the east coast. Dick Quote
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 15, 2009 Author Posted July 15, 2009 Dick, you really don't have to clean the pieces or wire brush them. The borax floats the scale away and cleans the surfaces. I flux only once. This is the easiest weld to succeed at because its easy to place exactly where you want it to heat it and the only parts touching your anvil and hammer are where you are trying to weld. Quote
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