Recent projects

[Blast]

Thought I'd share some stuff I've made lately. Can't remember what I've shared and what I haven't. Anyway enjoy.

[Burn1dwn]

Is it more difficult to make the rose or the wrench looking things? All of those are pretty cool but I think you should do more artsy fartsy stuff.

[DiverTexas]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

[Blast]

The rose took me 4 or 5 hours but I hadn't done one in a couple years and had to figure out what I was doing and modify a a small ball peen hammer to help with texture. The next couple will likely be faster and I may put a small washer in the bottom to help hold it tight. If it gets banned around the peening I did to attach it to the stem can get loose. The wrench bottle openers are pretty quick, maybe 45 minutes but I can have several in the forge at once. Split an old wrench then punch and drift the eye for the opener.

[Animal]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

the more i have used that skinning knife of yours the more I love it. That may be my favorite knife now. And I have a shit load of knives. Prior to that one, I had resolved to using those disposable blade knives with the exacto type blades. Sharp as hell and you just toss and reload when they get dull.

But that knife of yours holds an edge for longer than anything I have ever had.

[Blast]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

Thanks. I slowed down the grinder and was able to get better pressure on the blades. It also helps to have a year worth of experience under my belt on that grinder now.

[Animal]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

Thanks. I slowed down the grinder and was able to get better pressure on the blades. It also helps to have a year worth of experience under my belt on that grinder now.

is there any money to be made in wrought iron decorative stuff? Like gates and railings, etc? I would think it would be interesting to build those decorative driveway gates. A mexican showed me a trick to laying out the curve along the top of a large driveway gate that I had my mechanics build several years ago. Of course I'm using math to give them all of the lengths of the metal pickets that form the curve, and this guy gets a long 1/2" pvc pipe and has someone hold it at both sides and then lifts it in the middle to form a curve. Which was perfect.

[Blast]

There is and there are some professional smiths that are set up for that. I'm in my barn so large gates and fencing is out of the question. Also cost is an issue as well. It would cost twice as much, at least, to make the same gate as a commercial operation as you well understand.
As an aside, decorative iron work is referred to as wrought, but wrought iron itself has not been commercially produced in over 50 years. You can see it in older iron that has started to rust and it rusts away in bands, almost looking like wood grain. It is almost pure iron with silica inclusions that when worked form a grain. You have to work it high orange to yellow heat to keep it from splitting. It's these inclusions that helped doom the Titanic, it made the rivets weaker because some of them had a higher silica content.

[Animal]

There is and there are some professional smiths that are set up for that. I'm in my barn so large gates and fencing is out of the question. Also cost is an issue as well. It would cost twice as much, at least, to make the same gate as a commercial operation as you well understand.
As an aside, decorative iron work is referred to as wrought, but wrought iron itself has not been commercially produced in over 50 years. You can see it in older iron that has started to rust and it rusts away in bands, almost looking like wood grain. It is almost pure iron with silica inclusions that when worked form a grain. You have to work it high orange to yellow heat to keep it from splitting. It's these inclusions that helped doom the Titanic, it made the rivets weaker because some of them had a higher silica content.

yeah, i knew that wrought iron was the wrong word when I was typing, but that's what everyone calls that style of metal work.

[Blast]

I figured, I was more putting it out for others. If it isn't fashion, ducks, dicks, or drums Hawk would be clueless.

[rule34]

There is and there are some professional smiths that are set up for that. I'm in my barn so large gates and fencing is out of the question. Also cost is an issue as well. It would cost twice as much, at least, to make the same gate as a commercial operation as you well understand.
As an aside, decorative iron work is referred to as wrought, but wrought iron itself has not been commercially produced in over 50 years. You can see it in older iron that has started to rust and it rusts away in bands, almost looking like wood grain. It is almost pure iron with silica inclusions that when worked form a grain. You have to work it high orange to yellow heat to keep it from splitting. It's these inclusions that helped doom the Titanic, it made the rivets weaker because some of them had a higher silica content.

Don't argue with animal about rivets.

[saltydog]

There is and there are some professional smiths that are set up for that. I'm in my barn so large gates and fencing is out of the question. Also cost is an issue as well. It would cost twice as much, at least, to make the same gate as a commercial operation as you well understand.
As an aside, decorative iron work is referred to as wrought, but wrought iron itself has not been commercially produced in over 50 years. You can see it in older iron that has started to rust and it rusts away in bands, almost looking like wood grain. It is almost pure iron with silica inclusions that when worked form a grain. You have to work it high orange to yellow heat to keep it from splitting. It's these inclusions that helped doom the Titanic, it made the rivets weaker because some of them had a higher silica content.

Don't argue with animal about rivets.

[disco.moon]

I figured, I was more putting it out for others. If it isn't fashion, ducks, dicks, or drums Hawk would be clueless.

He might remember this come Thursday.

On a side note I have the stuff you sent me set up in a dollhouse vignette I have set up. It looks really cool.

[Blast]

I figured, I was more putting it out for others. If it isn't fashion, ducks, dicks, or drums Hawk would be clueless.

He might remember this come Thursday.

On a side note I have the stuff you sent me set up in a dollhouse vignette I have set up. It looks really cool.

He'd only remember me if I were a bottle of vodka.
I'm glad you like the stuff I sent. It's really fun making it all and there's a huge and constant problem solving aspect to working the metal. Basically analyzing it blow by blow to decide where to hit, how hard, what angle, which hammer to use what part of the anvil. All with a split second before the next hammer blow.

[DiverTexas]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

the more i have used that skinning knife of yours the more I love it. That may be my favorite knife now. And I have a shit load of knives. Prior to that one, I had resolved to using those disposable blade knives with the exacto type blades. Sharp as hell and you just toss and reload when they get dull.

But that knife of yours holds an edge for longer than anything I have ever had.

Glad to hear that it's working well for you.
Cryogenically treated steel seems to be the key for longer edge retention.

[CentralTexasCrude]

That's some nice work, Blast

[Blast]

Looks like I'm going to team up with a guy that likes to do live edge timber furniture. He has a couple pieces that have huge voids in the middle, not like CTC'S brain hole, more like RD's lack of personality. I'm designing a couple of centers for them. The one I'm excited about is trying to do a bonsai tree from steel cable.

[stonedmegman]

Kudos!!!

I have a ticket for precision metal fabrication and have often thought of expanding my skills into this field, but I feel i would be too picky and my worst critic,

[Blast]

That's always my case, I look at something and say, I can't let that go, it's got issues. So I end up keeping and using it.

[Blast]

A new, errr,steak knife... 21 inches long overall, 15 inch blade, oak handles, a brass guard soldered on. I guess it's yet another sharp object laying around the house until I find a buyer. Actually, I'm making a second for a matching set.

[Animal]

do you ever watch that forged in fire show?

i love watching those guys work, but that is one craft that I know absolutely nothing about.

[Blast]

do you ever watch that forged in fire show?

i love watching those guys work, but that is one craft that I know absolutely nothing about.

There's a lot to it. Thanks to that show I get asked if someone can make some absurdly complex project in an afternoon. I have one person that is going to be coming for a forge day package that wanted to make a bearded ax. That took me multiple days to forge and finish. I talked him down to a rail spikes tomahawk and matching spike knife.
That being said I like the knives and the historical blades. I started to learn what I needed to do by watching and researching. Forging the blade doesn't take long, getting it nicely finished takes forever.

[disco.moon]

Wow! That knife is awesome!

[stonedmegman]

Nice grind lines on the knife.

the more i have used that skinning knife of yours the more I love it. That may be my favorite knife now. And I have a shit load of knives. Prior to that one, I had resolved to using those disposable blade knives with the exacto type blades. Sharp as hell and you just toss and reload when they get dull.

But that knife of yours holds an edge for longer than anything I have ever had.

Glad to hear that it's working well for you.
Cryogenically treated steel seems to be the key for longer edge retention.

We used that for the punches and dies on the CNC machines. Lasted longer between sharpening thus extending tool life.

[Animal]

do you ever watch that forged in fire show?

i love watching those guys work, but that is one craft that I know absolutely nothing about.

There's a lot to it. Thanks to that show I get asked if someone can make some absurdly complex project in an afternoon. I have one person that is going to be coming for a forge day package that wanted to make a bearded ax. That took me multiple days to forge and finish. I talked him down to a rail spikes tomahawk and matching spike knife.
That being said I like the knives and the historical blades. I started to learn what I needed to do by watching and researching. Forging the blade doesn't take long, getting it nicely finished takes forever.

I am still a little bit confused by that "quinch" process. It seems as if a huge majority of the blades are ruined in that step (warped mostly). I saw one guy one night that was attempting his second quinch and he said to insure success, he was going to heat the oil he quinches it in up to nearly the point that it has to be to work. Which, I assume, is much less of a shock to the red hot steel going into it and is a slower process.

If a method like that is safer, leading to fewer mistakes, why isn't it used more often?