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I Forge Iron

What did you do in the shop today?


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I started on a laminated knife with wrought iron and an old file today. It's still very thick, but I was worried the file was too thin to begin with. I think I'm going to grind of some of the wrought and then continue forging in the bevels and maybe make the knife a bit longer too. But the welds took beautifully so that's a big plus! There is some cracking in the tang but I'm going to weld those a bit and since it's the tang I don't think they are that significant. Forged the tang a bit too cold I think.

IMG_20220804_202930.thumb.jpg.7e63b3d1e06739dbc71a538d2f0dd593.jpg

~Jobtiel

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Uh . . . well Billy my feet have smelled like a moose's rear end many times. I don't know how you'd keep the yard clean if you wanted to try. Maybe vacuum it up, anybody know a vacuum cleaner salesman? Have him give me a call, we'll talk.

Frosty The Lucky.

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That’s easy! 

Forget the vacuum if ya wanna clean up the yard!

just let all the moose pies dry out in the yard

then cut em up into little chunks, and put em in little jars an sell em to tourists as

Genuine, authentic, all natural, organic, non gmo, 100% Alaskan, domestic, Native moose pie souvenirs! 

you could sell em for $10 bucks a jar! 

don’t believe me?

There was a dude who sold a million “pet” rocks in 1975 for four bucks a piece an he became a millionaire!

after taxes now days you outta make at least $100 bucks! And you’d have a clean yard!

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Jobtiel1, are you going for San Mai?  If so you did need a fatter file, or several layers of it stacked in the middle.  That old rusted rasp I found yesterday at the scrapyard would work great, it wound be about 3/8" thick after grinding clean---why I picked it up.  Also the WI will be way softer under the hammer and so will tend to move a lot more than the file, might help to thin down the thickness if you can keep the file centered.

Today I went out and trued up a piece of scrap for my 25# LG motor mount project and started drilling the holes to clamp it on the cast iron frame.  (Also while the forge was hot and I was not, I started another cooking tripod.)

Made the mistake of going in to the house for a break and fluids and when I got back I couldn't find the clamp bar I was working on; grrr.  Finally I broke down and started to make another and found a bar that was thicker and predrilled, 3/4" holes that aligned with the other side!  Of course as I was doing a trial fit I found the "lost one"---threw it out on the scrap pile.  Now to take it down and clean it up and paint it safety red as it will be holding a 1.5 HP TEFC motor and should be avoided in use.  

I also found that sometime in the unpowered decade my drill press had thrown it's key on the motor pulley.  Went to my odds and ends collection and found a key and installed it---drills 3/4" holes in 3/8" steel a lot better now.  Getting all my power equipment powered up is a task both tedious and fun.

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My writer at work loves throwing knives and stuff. 

One night out of the blue I forged him a throwing knife from rebar. He absolutely loves it so I told him I'd make him one from better steel. Tonight I forged him one from coil spring. Will clean it up tomorrow. Rebar on the left and coil spring on the right. Will have to match the balance in the grind. 

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I couldn't help myself.   I had a railroad anchor and I watched a couple episodes of forged in fire with my daughter and her boyfriend.  Someone made an oversized tanto that I liked the design of and I had to try to copy it.  Blade is 16 inches long  1 and a quarter(ish) wide, and balance point is around 4 inches in front of the handle.   I'm also working on some of my horse shoe projects but I didn't get pictures of them.  I also started the bonsai tree project.  I started with 1 inch rebar and hot cut some branches in the top.   I had been folding the others out of the way of the branch I was working.   I'm planning on 2 more sets of three branches spaced evenly down the trunk.  They'll be shaped and split before I weld them on. 

 

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Thomas, i was trying out a San Mai knife here. I was debating on the thickness of the file before I started, now I know to get a thicker one for the next time. I'll have to see what my eventual knife thickness will be before I decide if i need to forge more or grind it all down. I am happy that the welds took really well, another step in the journey to become good at forge welding.

~Jobtiel

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Finished rebuilding the arm on my fly press. 

As received:

FB0F3161-9784-4FD3-B37C-851DCA75466F.jpeg

The broken end of the arm:

30319D0A-8CA9-4DA5-B7D8-3D4F33520149.jpeg

The rebuilt arm, bottom view:

881FEA89-827D-497B-962C-535C4A9163C7.jpeg

Top view:

259DE6EF-E111-41E1-99BD-DBE7E1FC9FEA.jpeg

The new steel adds 19.4 lbs to the weight of the arm. It balances pretty well with ten pounds of additional weight (in two 5-lb barbell plates).

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Installed on the press:

E768D603-2613-4CA9-B29E-74CE8ECA91EF.jpeg

And my first bit of pressing: cold working a piece of heavy sheet (maybe 12 ga?) with a ball tool and a ring. 

22C7EA03-31DB-4999-A86E-1496F95D1B3F.jpeg

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11 minutes ago, Goods said:

John, is that going to speed up yarn bowl production? Looks good!

David

I certainly hope so!

A couple of years ago, John Switzer of Black Bear Forge posted a video of a fly press demonstration at a gathering of the Rocky Mountain Blacksmiths. The demonstrator made the very interesting point that he did as much press work as he could cold, since that meant that he was neither losing time waiting for pieces to heat up in the forge nor spending money on fuel. Since my own amateur operation doesn’t have to be quite as focused on the break-even point, I’m still planning to do a lot of hot work. However, the idea of speeding up bowl production (the most commercial part of my operation) without increasing fuel costs is intriguing and appealing, to say the least. 

And thank you!

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On 8/4/2022 at 8:55 AM, JHCC said:

Looks like a Minion (from the Despicable Me franchise) dressed as Thor.

Yup, Thor Minion! My youngest has a knack for finding just the right gift for me, one of my favorites. One of those bolts n bits welded together sculpture artists you see at street fairs. Just right mix of hubris and questionable skills for the smithy ;-)

ThorMinionsmall.jpg

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