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Finally... => Creative Projects => Topic started by: kisame12794 on September 28, 2011, 02:22:41 pm

Title: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on September 28, 2011, 02:22:41 pm
In light of Girlinhat's recent chainmaille topic I have created a thread for Blacksmiths and any other people interested in learning about this ancient trade. More pictures will be posted as they are made, found, and requested. Any questions you have will be answered as soon as I can, or if I can't answer them I will point you in the direction of someone who can.

PICS!

Several shots of my forge.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some knives I have made.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some random crafts.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Biag on October 03, 2011, 04:50:56 pm
Question to kick off the topic: I have been mildly interested in getting into blacksmithing for a while. What'd be the typical price of entry?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 03, 2011, 07:03:36 pm
Well it depends wheter or not you want to get a full sized anvil or a proper firepot. My anvil sits at 150 pounds and cost 300$ canadian. My fire pot is an old brake drum sitting in a metal table I threw together that cost about 100$ to make, this will vary depending on the size of the table and how much you could recycle. Whether you want to use coal or propane will count too. A good gas forge can be anywhere from 300$ up. An 80 pound bag of coal can cost 120$. So all in all Expect to spend anywhere from 50$ to 3000$. It all depends on what YOU want. And that is only startup costs. you have to buy material and tools. It helps if you can get old metal lyng around or in scrap yards. Again it depends on YOU.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: SolarShado on October 03, 2011, 09:33:41 pm
Posting to follow :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: _DivideByZero_ on October 03, 2011, 10:14:49 pm
Quote from: SolarShado on October 03, 2011, 09:33:41 pm
Posting to follow :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: klingon13524 on October 04, 2011, 02:39:44 am
PTF.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Hubris Incalculable on October 04, 2011, 09:09:07 am
Quote from: kisame12794 on October 03, 2011, 07:03:36 pm
... anvil ...

My Opa (German/Dutch for Grandpa), who has a love for hands-on work and anything mechanical or metal, uses a 1-foot section of discarded railway track for any anvil-like use. I don't think he uses it for any hot metal, though.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 04, 2011, 11:20:32 am
You can use an old section of railway for hot metal too, but you have to harden it. A block of steel 5 inchs by 5 inchs by 10 inches is good enough for an anvil. Some smiths prefer smaller anvils because they don't need a large one to do all the things they want.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Nospherat on October 05, 2011, 05:04:55 am
Absolutely awesome.
Watching this topic for pics :D
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Aklyon on October 06, 2011, 10:23:19 pm
As am I.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 07, 2011, 03:34:25 pm
Awesome! More blacksmiths!

Not to steal the thread, but here (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jmartins/blacksmith.html)'s a couple of pictures of pieces that I did when I "apprenticed" for one year.

Unfortunately, since I went back to Portugal and then to the USA, I haven't had time, money or place to set up a decent workshop, so I've barely done anything since then :(

Share your pics, shaaaaaaaaaaare, want more blacksmithing! Grarrrhhh!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 07, 2011, 05:00:53 pm
CALM THE F*CK DOWN. Pics incoming soon. Real soon.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 07, 2011, 05:14:14 pm
Like how about now? Soon enough?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Eagleon on October 08, 2011, 03:06:19 am
Here's the only thing I have of my old work, when I still had equipment for cold working anything respectable. Whole thing is around 3 ft, with 6 inches of usable handle, the sheath (work-formed thin steel tubing, very simple and light) adding another 6. It's not a clever design - the most that can be said of it is that the balance is fantastic, towards the back of the blade and just above the non-existant guard. It can double as a nasty club with the sheath on, but it's basically a costume piece since I had no way to temper the steel the way a light sword needs. Fittings made from leather, wood, strong masking tape, steel wire, faux sinew, quartzite, and sweat.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I miss making stuff :( Kisame: I love the twisted handle design :) Very elegant. I've always liked the simplicity of single-material stuff.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 08, 2011, 08:41:22 am
That's a nice looking workshop! Man, I miss the smell of a forging workshop.... :)

Aren't you worried that the walls will catch on fire though? The heat of the forge canopy itself is brutal!

The horseshoe looks pretty damn good too, very symmetric, nice :D I'm personally not a fan of making blades of any kind. It's just super boring having to polish it to all hell... it's like, 10% forging!

Share more! :) Love seeing what people do :) And by the way, iforgeiron.com has a bunch of interesting projects you can do, and it's a real friendly community!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 08, 2011, 11:53:32 am
Thank you. Another good site for projects is Anvilfire. And yes while it does get very hot, the it isn't hot enought to catch the walls on fire. And yes while making knives is a time consuming process, it is really wrth it in the end. The polished one is my first knife and it took me about at 72 hours of straight work. Bear in mind that this was my first knife. The second knife has taken to date around 8 hours. They are both made out of a railway spike. Eagleon that is a fine looking sword. What material did you make it out of? How long did it take?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Eagleon on October 08, 2011, 01:04:12 pm
It's a mild steel, 3/4"x1/8" (the picture might make it look a lot wider than it is), all cold work - lots and lots of grinding and polishing, about an hour of actual hammering to get the curve and tip and give it some strength. You can't see it very well in the picture, but there's a distinct ridge where the back has been hammered out so that it won't buckle as much. Filing the edge to sharp was absolute hell - I couldn't use the grinder because it heats it up too much, not to mention it'd have been tough to impossible to get the right profile for it, so that was all done by hand.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 08, 2011, 01:09:06 pm
If it's mild steel, then it will never hold an edge, independently of the tempering. It needs to have more carbon content to actually become rigid. Still, I've gotta say that it looks pretty nice :)

One thing about smithing is that you're forging volumes, which means that as the crossection of the material increases, the volume that you're hammering on increases to the power of three. In other words, if you forge something which is relatively thin, it'll be super easy to forge. Anything above 3/4" is starts being pretty damn hard unless you're doing it everyday and can handle a 2+ pound hammer. I remember when I was able to swing those, eesh. Long time ago :)

How thick are railroad spikes?

When I got into blacksmithing, I was all about swords and knives and weapons and whatnot. Then, I started realizing that there's so much art, and so many other techniques than the ones you use for bladesmithing that you're limiting yourself if you only do that. I really, really loved some of the projects that I did (links to their pictures on my 1st post). We were given the design, but they were so aesthetic. Love it :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 08, 2011, 01:37:19 pm
The spikes are about 1 inch square. I regularly use 3+ pound hammers so forging out up to 1 1/2 is pretty easy for me. I'll work up a sweat sure but i won't get so tired out that i can't recover during heating.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Hugo_The_Dwarf on October 09, 2011, 08:31:02 pm
Epicness, my only exp in blacksmithing (if using welding in the process counts) is making a long-sword to hack down some of the menceing thisle plants that grow all over the place on the farm. Also works nicely on bur-docks damn those mini-trees. Altho its heavy ended, it just adds to it's cutting potential
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 10, 2011, 03:54:28 pm
Nice. Anybody who has anything they think is interesting, post it! Got an idea? Post it! This is not just about me, I want to help You.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Komra on October 12, 2011, 05:34:08 pm
Heh. I've always been the creative type in terms of anything other than drawing (stick figures FTW), so I find this quite interesting.
In any case, if anyone needs some ore for their work, I found out that I own a pickaxe. So there.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 12, 2011, 05:35:41 pm
There's some awesomely crazy people that actually do that. Gather ore, then a bajillion tons of coal, and melt the ore, then hammer whatever comes out. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, and it takes forever :) Like a whole day or something crazy :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 12, 2011, 06:01:54 pm
Ahem. I am one one of those crazy awsome people. I spent around 6 or 7 hours recording data for the smelt. We put 24 kilos of ore and 160 kilos of charcoal and the resulting bloom weighed around 5 kilos. Me and another guy hammered the bloom down to size, then using an axe, cut it into 4 sections. One of those sections was then pounded flat. It was awsome.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 12, 2011, 06:03:07 pm
Oh, wow, that's great :D

How did it come out? What did you guys use it for? Do you have any pictures of the process, result, or what you did with the result?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 12, 2011, 06:14:28 pm
I do not know what happened to the other pieces. I got a little that fell off the rest of the bloom and have yet to do anything with it. The bloom itself was similar to wrought iron. I will post a picture of the bloom soon.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Girlinhat on October 12, 2011, 09:36:38 pm
Posting to watch...

As if.  I respond to FAR too many threads to rely on that, ha!  Regardless of that, I think we're rapidly approaching an epoch.  It's just a matter of time before the forums suddenly shut down and all productive members move to Nevada and start digging out a fort.  We've got some blacksmiths, miners, farming isn't hard...  Unrelated, I think I realized what the 2012 apocalypse is going to be.

Now I'm wondering how we might combine our crafts, and produce some doubly crappy pieces!  We need a leatherworker, to make a sheath, and then we can have you make a knife, someone make a sheath with an image of a dwarf and groundhogs on it, and I can make the belt strap for it.  I don't know!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 12, 2011, 10:50:16 pm
Naw a knife isn't dwarfy enough. I think my next project is going to be a short sword. Or maybe a chestplate.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Girlinhat on October 12, 2011, 10:58:03 pm
You're right, it's too Kobold...  A hatchet, perhaps?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 12, 2011, 11:06:48 pm
Nice to see another owl. Yup I could do a hatchet. I may do that first due to the fact that is has some use. Other than being awesome.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Karakzon on October 19, 2011, 03:47:48 pm
if you have a bit of a woodland, you can go learn the ancient art of coppercing that goes hand in hand with charcoal making.

Gather simular sized chunks of wood without cutting down trees, just the odd right size and shape branch, pile together, cover in dirt, set on fire but make sure it only smolders, watch for three days without falling asleep and walla, charcoal, iwch works almost as well as coal when burnt in a forge, and if anyone asks, its actualy classed as a) environmentaly freindly and b) it actualy helps increase biodiversity since the small clearings used for coppercing/charcoal makign act as perfect sites for rare species of butterflys and other species classicaly not found in woodland, wich, isent as biodiverse as you would think, since the trees block out light for foliage on the floor.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 19, 2011, 03:54:42 pm
Yes that is true but you need a large amount of charcoal, which means you need a large amount of wood, plus your coal forge may not burn charcoal as well.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 19, 2011, 04:07:03 pm
I tried using charcoal a while back and really couldn't. I think you need a pretty deep forge to use charcoal, and I can only get pinewood charcoal, which is horrible. You'd need a heavy, thick type of wood to make decent charcoal. I would consume massive amounts for very, very little heat!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 19, 2011, 05:42:57 pm
Something like oak or maple makes good charcoal.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Hitty40 on October 19, 2011, 09:03:11 pm
Being interesting in medival weaponry and wanting to make my own sword/axe/pike, posting to watch.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 19, 2011, 09:11:35 pm
That's what everyone wants to do, but I never got why (actually, I did. That's what I wanted to do before I learned blacksmithing). With so many interesting, aesthetic, useful things you can do, why would you want to spend your life grinding and polishing away? :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Eagleon on October 20, 2011, 02:07:19 pm
I for one still find it interesting. There's so much to consider in a good weapon, so much room for improvement. It's not like I need them, but I'm a martial artist as well, so that helps.
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 19, 2011, 04:07:03 pm
I tried using charcoal a while back and really couldn't. I think you need a pretty deep forge to use charcoal, and I can only get pinewood charcoal, which is horrible. You'd need a heavy, thick type of wood to make decent charcoal. I would consume massive amounts for very, very little heat!
You need to build your fire differently, and change your timing up. It takes a very short time for a charcoal fire to be ready compared to coal, with less air needed. On the flipside you need to feed it more, and you'll get a lot of ash at the bottom when you're done which will soak up your heat if you don't clean it out religiously. The nice thing is you can dump it straight into the garden, which would be a terrible idea for coal.

Charcoal also won't compact and stick as much as coal, so the techniques for concentrating heat with coal will be much more difficult (but still possible). And you need to have a deep, narrow pile, since everything will be burning at once, including whatever you have off to the sides. It's really a different beast entirely, but I think it's honestly cheaper than coal for a beginner when you take into consideration that you can get a huge bag of it at most Walmarts or grocery stores without having to worry about shipping, sulphur content, build times, etc.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Girlinhat on October 20, 2011, 02:16:07 pm
My local grocery store sells 25 pound bags of charcoal for like $10 I think, been a while since I checked.  The only reason I know at all is because I worked there and, being the tall one, I was always dragging bags off the top shelf and carrying them out to the car for an old lady.  Damned old ladies, what are they burning anyways?!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 20, 2011, 07:25:15 pm
Weather or not you use charcoal, coal, or gas is all a matter of preference. I work with coal because I am used to it and it is easy to get. I order it from home hardware in 80lb bags. If you do go that route make sure to ask for bituminous coal instead of anthracite. Bituminous coal is softer and cokes, which is what blacksmiths are really using to heat the metal. Coke is just coal with most of the impurities burned out. It reflects heat really well but it needs a near constant flow of air to keep it going.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Reudh on October 30, 2011, 07:09:18 am
I'd love to try bladesmithing. Minor problem being financing it. :p
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 30, 2011, 08:18:17 am
I am a bit of a bladesmith myself, and just be aware, it takes a LONG FREAKING time. I have put 8 hours of work into the pointy RR spike knife. Be prepared to practice a lot. On the topic of money, RR spikes are a good source of high carbon steel and are really easy to find if you have a railway track near your house. If you have an old brake drum that would make a good forge. There are designs for bellows on the internet. You could use a chunk of metal as an anvil. How much it costs to start up is really up to you.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Reudh on October 30, 2011, 07:36:45 pm
I'm perfectly happy to put many hours into it. The closest railway track to my house is fairly far away, though I know of a place that sells old railway spikes. I don't know how strong they would be.
I've always loved blades, dunno why, perhaps it's the viking/Frisian coming out in me. My dream is to own a Damascene blade, because the artwork on the blades is so intricate and gorgeous.

I've never actually done and bladesmithing before, however I've whittled a knife out of heartwood from a cut down oak. It took bloody ages and then it snapped...
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 30, 2011, 08:14:53 pm
I would get a gas forge if you are going to do damascus a lot because it makes it easier to see the welding colors. Check out a guy named Jake Powell, he does viking swords out of damascus. I saw him make a billet, and it had 600 odd layers of steel.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Reudh on October 30, 2011, 09:01:03 pm
Oh no, I could never make a damascus blade. I merely wanted to buy one one day.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: OddTheTall on October 31, 2011, 06:08:00 am
@kisame12794: are you sure the name is not Jake Powning? - Jake Powell seems to have been a baseballer or musician.

What is on his site seems to be pattern welding with modern iron/steel rather then Damascus. What was originally called Damascus steel was (probably) Indian Wootz steel billets worked with the same technique (so far as I'm aware).

There's a guy in Britain by the name of Paul Binns who does very similar stuff - though more museum-quality find replicas (and probably the best reenactment blunts I have ever handled and owned).
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 31, 2011, 07:37:04 am
Yeah it was Powning. Oops. It is pattern welding but most of us call it damascus. I am interested aboud where you heard of wootz steel though, not many have.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: OddTheTall on October 31, 2011, 09:27:34 am
I ran into various references to it in some of the fiction books I have read and in the quick Wikipedia search I did just before my previous post to check that my (vague) memories were correct.

I have now dug up the copy of the Chronicle (the magazine that my reenactment group sends to its members) with the article about recreating Damascus and Wootz steel and I think that's were I first ran into it in an intellectual context.

The article is chock full of references which I can copy out if you are interested.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on October 31, 2011, 11:19:35 am
How much is a subscription?
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: OddTheTall on October 31, 2011, 02:28:13 pm
As far as I'm aware, it's a society-only circular - no distribution outside of Regia Anglorum.

I've included some of the sources given in the article below. (Harvard notation)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Reudh on October 31, 2011, 09:13:22 pm
Wootz steel was steel imported from India- the reason why it was considered so strong was because (recently) it was discovered to contain carbon nanotubes embedded in the steel, vastly increasing the strength of the blade.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on November 19, 2011, 04:40:18 pm
I am currently freezing my ass offyo bring you a christmas themed project. I will post pictures after I am done forging it.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Projeck37 on December 06, 2011, 06:43:21 pm
You make me want to be a blacksmith .-.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on July 18, 2012, 04:16:04 am
This topic has been dead for far too long. Where's that promised Christmas present you promised?! :)

I am finally starting to get back into the loop. My bestest of all in-laws found a nice anvil! It still needs a stand, and I need a worktable, but other than that things are looking up. Hopefully I'll get the table, weld the supporting structure and the anvil stand this weekend.

Anyway, I was welding a mobile chicken coop, and then needed 19mm holes for the wheel shaft, but only had drill bits going up to 12mm. I drilled as much as I could, and then used the tube as a drift to widen the hole to the desired width. Unfortunately, using 1.5mm thick tube to drift is REALLY DUMB, but that's all I had. Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nbGbj2iYa0) it is. It wasn't much for sure, but I was all teary eyed at the end when I realised I'm getting real close to having a proper workshop and forging again after 7 years.

After getting the worktable and anvil stand, I'll be doing about 4 or 5 sets of tongs to offer to budding portuguese (hobbyist) blacksmiths. There ain't many of us, and the small market makes tongs cost about 70€ (around $100), which is way too much for what we portuguese can afford. This way they'll have one of the basic tools for free. Hooray!
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: kisame12794 on July 18, 2012, 05:48:01 pm
Right really sorry about the long absence, I got hit by some real life. The Christmas present was ready to go, but I lost the photos. For an anvil stand, just use a stump.
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on July 19, 2012, 07:04:58 am
Unfortunately I'll be working on either an uneven concrete floor or an uneven hard dirt floor, on neither of which I'll be able to make a hole... which means there's no way a stump would be stable.

Besides, I like anvil stands. It's what I trained with, and they're easy to pull around, or to put a step in so you can jump up on when upsetting and all that :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on July 26, 2012, 08:58:30 am
So I finally managed to spend 5-6 hours forging yesterday, after setting up the workshop during the weekend. I pulled off a slightly crappy set of vee-bit tongs for 16mm square. They'll work... They'll be given a home soon too, as there's at least one person who's become interested in them!

Here's the pics! :)

Spoiler: Full tongs (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: One side of the jaws (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The crappier side of the jaws... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: I think it's trying to kiss me... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Open wide, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah (click to show/hide)


They're fairly low quality. I could've used a rasp and a vise to remove kinks, neither of which I have at this point. I used to be able to do them much quicker and much better, but it'll take time to get back to that level. Still, I'm really happy that they are functional and that I was able to forge for 6 hours pretty much non-stop with  a hand cranked blower. I'll do a few more sets and then move on to some project that I still have to decide on :)
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Toxicshadow on July 26, 2012, 03:20:56 pm
Quote from: Anvilfolk on July 26, 2012, 08:58:30 am
So I finally managed to spend 5-6 hours forging yesterday, after setting up the workshop during the weekend. I pulled off a slightly crappy set of vee-bit tongs for 16mm square. They'll work... They'll be given a home soon too, as there's at least one person who's become interested in them!

Here's the pics! :)

Spoiler: Full tongs (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: One side of the jaws (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The crappier side of the jaws... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: I think it's trying to kiss me... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Open wide, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah (click to show/hide)


They're fairly low quality. I could've used a rasp and a vise to remove kinks, neither of which I have at this point. I used to be able to do them much quicker and much better, but it'll take time to get back to that level. Still, I'm really happy that they are functional and that I was able to forge for 6 hours pretty much non-stop with  a hand cranked blower. I'll do a few more sets and then move on to some project that I still have to decide on :)
They look really nice :)

And, posting to follow :P
Title: Re: Kisame12794: Proficient Blacksmith
Post by: Anvilfolk on July 29, 2012, 08:52:21 am
Here's some pics from the tong forging. Sorry about the bad quality!


Welding the anvil stand:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After forging the bits, cut off excess for reins:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Forging the reins:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Punching the rivet hole:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, forging the rivet itself. It was getting late :)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately, the person who was taking photos came in helpful for the rivetting part, so there's no photos of that process specifically.

Hope you guys enjoy it :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on August 14, 2012, 03:50:28 pm
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, another set of tongs, that actually turned out worse :( I'm really sad about that, but I've identified what went wrong, and I think I might be able to fix it.

Full tongs:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The bits and hinge plate:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The other side:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The bits seen from the front. You can see one hinge plate is thinner, and there's spacing between the two:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At least the rounding finish on the reins is a lot better than on the first set... something's gotta be better!:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'll probably do a couple more sets and then try to do an actual project! Practice, practice, practice :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on August 27, 2012, 07:36:23 am
AAAAAAAAAAAAND besides another set of tongs this weekend, I did a fire-rake. The previous one was mangling my fingers...

Spoiler: Stupid old fire-rake... (click to show/hide)

Here's the new fire-rake, made out of 20x6mm bar.

Spoiler: Fire-rake (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: It works nicely... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ... and fits the hand just so! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The handle's fishtail scroll (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: And the little twist my wife helped me do :) (click to show/hide)



For the tongs I used longer bar. It's still 16mm square, but now I used 21cm for each side. That made them a whole lot more robust. I'm also using a 2.75 pound hammer now. It has a shorter handle, making it much easier to lift than I expected, compared to my usual 1.5 pound hammer. It moves metal faster, and having more material means I don't need to move as much metal. Either way, here are the usual pics...

Spoiler: Full set of tongs (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ... NOW WITH HANDS INCLUDED (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: A very thin rivet... you could almost call it a thin wafer rivet... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The tong bits, in need of a dentist's appointment! (click to show/hide)


Hope y'all enjoyed this, especially since it's not all tongs this time around...
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 24, 2012, 02:22:42 pm
It's getting kind of lonely in here, but I'll plod on in the hopes and more people will participate... :)


I did another set of tongs, this time for a bladesmith who requested flat-bit bolt tongs.

Spoiler: The whole set. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Closed mouth (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... (click to show/hide)


This is the last set I had as a request. I'll probably do another set just to have them around so people don't feel bad asking for them.

The next piece I did this weekend has a funny story. One of my advisor's other students will be defending his PhD tomorrow, and he was apparently almost about to quit at some point to become a cook. It turns out he was proving all these negative results, and couldn't get anything that was actually true. But he turned it around and is apparently going to have a kickass thesis, so it's all good! I thought I'd make him a little something related to cooking as a graduation present :)

'Lo, the crappy meat fork!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: It menaces with spikes of iron. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: It ALSO menaces with twirls of iron and a single leaf of iron. (click to show/hide)

But more importantly,

Spoiler: It menaces with a hand of flesh! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: And can be twirl-de-wirled around... (click to show/hide)




Hope you guys liked it :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GoombaGeek on September 24, 2012, 06:50:09 pm
Well, lately I've been trying out aluminum casting and other at-home stuff. Unfortunately my camera uses the world's worst card format (xd) and I can't take any pictures without using my old computer and that's too much work.

So, first we tried pouring aluminum into stuff and melting it. Sadly, our propane torch only barely melted it so any real casting won't work since it cools too fast... but our two non-cast tests are pretty neat. It made one flat (really flat, I was surprised) sheet when poured on our concrete driveway pad, and it's pointy where it rolled into the little ridges and trenches on the pad. Then we poured it directly into water (this was all really small amounts - we had a narrow window rod that we hacksawed into 1" sections) and it made a nifty drop shape with a crumpled back - it's pretty fun just to hold. Later, I learned that if we had heated it with something hotter, it could have exploded into powder as soon as it hit the water, and metals like tin and lead form long spires (I guess because their "near-solidifying" temperature isn't as hot). Then we tried some failtastic Lego castings in sand, which led to two non-complete failures with just one where a single stud managed to cast before the metal solidified.

Then I found a lovely brass light switch cover and decided that I would plate a dime in brass. Of course, it didn't work, because the alloy wasn't properly mixed on the dime and I got some zinc scunge on one side and some floating clouds of copper/crud. I'll have to try pure copper next.

This week's project is to find some zinc to make better castings out of.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on September 24, 2012, 08:03:54 pm
Just be careful what you heat. Toxic fumes ain't fun guys. Also sorry about the lack of stuff from me. College.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 25, 2012, 03:26:00 am
Goomba, I personally hate gas-based stuff. I'm always afraid it'll decide to blow up in my face, but if you can get an oxy-acetylene kit, it'll heat up anything quite nicely. Lots of blacksmiths use them, but I'm afraid it's less accessible than a normal propane torch.

Also, did you try hammering the aluminium? I recall seeing someone try to bend it and it just broke. It was especially hard because it doesn't give you any hints about the temperature that it's at, unlike iron.

Kisame: I know that feeling... that's pretty much how the past 7 years of my life were. But no more!
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GoombaGeek on September 25, 2012, 07:17:23 am
No, all we did was put the lump on an old iron (?) coffee can and melt it. The acetylene torch is something I'd like but we didn't have one at the time :U

After a while, it glowed a teensy little bit, but it may have been my imagination/the coffee can below it. You could tell it was liquid though because it started rolling into a little puddle. There was no hammering though, because it was my first time working with really hot anything and I didn't want to hit anything really hot in case it exploded or something...

I also discovered that a 2003 Canadian dime gets the nickel (?) plating dissolved inside it when torched, leaving just the steel center, but an American dime warps and actually cracks into three layers. None of the layers actually melted, but the copper got pretty irregular.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Reudh on September 25, 2012, 07:52:41 am
Quote from: Anvilfolk on September 24, 2012, 02:22:42 pm
It's getting kind of lonely in here, but I'll plod on in the hopes and more people will participate... :)


I did another set of tongs, this time for a bladesmith who requested flat-bit bolt tongs.

Spoiler: The whole set. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Closed mouth (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Say aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... (click to show/hide)


This is the last set I had as a request. I'll probably do another set just to have them around so people don't feel bad asking for them.

The next piece I did this weekend has a funny story. One of my advisor's other students will be defending his PhD tomorrow, and he was apparently almost about to quit at some point to become a cook. It turns out he was proving all these negative results, and couldn't get anything that was actually true. But he turned it around and is apparently going to have a kickass thesis, so it's all good! I thought I'd make him a little something related to cooking as a graduation present :)

'Lo, the crappy meat fork!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: It menaces with spikes of iron. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: It ALSO menaces with twirls of iron and a single leaf of iron. (click to show/hide)

But more importantly,

Spoiler: It menaces with a hand of flesh! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: And can be twirl-de-wirled around... (click to show/hide)




Hope you guys liked it :)

That meat fork... looks amazing. I would love to impale a roast with that and carve it up for family and friends. :P

DO you take commissions? When I've actually got money, and said item is able to get through Australian Customs I might order one if you do that. :P
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Aklyon on September 25, 2012, 08:01:19 am
That is a pretty neato meat fork.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 25, 2012, 06:05:25 pm
Reudh,

I have to tell you how much I appreciate that you'd actually pay money and support this type of activity. Since you're the first to do that, I'd be delighted to do something for you for free. You can pay shipping :)

What kind of thing would you like to get? Any style in mind? Could you do a drawing of what you'd like? I'd prefer not to do the exact same thing :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Aklyon on September 25, 2012, 06:23:04 pm
He'd also have to pay for whatever customs does to make international shipping more expensive.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Reudh on September 25, 2012, 07:36:11 pm
Anvil, I am not sure at this point what I'd like. I'd have to think on it. :P

Also, not sure how much shipping would cost for getting it from wherever you are to here.
It all depends, oh.. as everything does, it all depends on me getting a job so i CAN afford to commission things like that. :/
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 26, 2012, 02:12:19 am
I'm in Portugal, so pretty much on the other side of the globe. I'm wondering whether air shipping is less costly than just drilling a hole all the way over :P Either way, this should be marked as a gift, so customs hopefully would not be a problem.

Either way, take your time :) I'm plenty busy anyways :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on September 26, 2012, 09:18:29 pm
Since my own attempts at blacksmithing fell through, I decided to actually learn something about metalworking. Right now I'm about 15 hours into Welding 1, and I'm signed up for another 3 courses. It's pretty fun so far, cutting is more fun than it has any right to be.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on September 26, 2012, 09:57:57 pm
I think it's the FWOOSH when you light it up. At least for acetylene. Heheh FWOOSH.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on September 26, 2012, 11:09:48 pm
Quote from: kisame12794 on September 26, 2012, 09:57:57 pm
I think it's the FWOOSH when you light it up. At least for acetylene. Heheh FWOOSH.
Nah, I like seeing the metal running like water, and the sparks.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 27, 2012, 04:49:40 am
Aw, Kilroy, I'm sad to hear that. What happened?

I have to say that there are some pretty nifty books (no longer copyrighted) that you can use for learning. I read through them a while back I felt like they followed pretty much the syllabus for the National Certificate in Blacksmithing and Metalwork I was lucky enough to be able to attend. You can grab those here (http://www.mooseforge.com/library/Wrought%20Ironwork.pdf). I'd start with "The Blacksmith's Craft" and then move on to "Wrought Ironwork". The first one covers the very basics, and the second one takes the basics from small pieces all the way to making a big iron gate.

They should be perfect for learning by yourself. In particular, welding classes should totally help you get your equipment going and all that stuff.



I hate gas cutting and I hate gas. I'm fairly accident prone, and it's the kind of thing that an accident only happens ONCE... :\
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on September 27, 2012, 02:01:42 pm
Quote from: Anvilfolk on September 27, 2012, 04:49:40 am
Aw, Kilroy, I'm sad to hear that. What happened?
I have no access to tools, an anvil, or anything of that sort.

Oxy-acedyline seems more my speed.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on September 27, 2012, 02:03:37 pm
As long as you have space, alternatives for the rest of the tools can be gotten relatively easily. Most of the people I know use pieces of railroad track and self-built forges!

I forgot to mention, you should check out "basic blacksmithing" from my previous link. It contains info on how to build the most basic of forges from the most basic of materials :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on September 27, 2012, 05:13:39 pm
Space? Well I do have around 300 acres to play around with.
But, I'd rather stick to welding for the moment, see what I can do.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Siquo on October 01, 2012, 03:04:06 am
Quote from: Anvilfolk on September 24, 2012, 02:22:42 pm
'Lo, the crappy meat fork!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
That's very nice, I really like it, especially how organic the "tail" looks. How long have you been practicing for something like this?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 01, 2012, 03:47:43 am
The only degree I have that I'm genuinely proud of is the National Certificate in Blacksmithing and Metalwork from the Herefordshire College of Technology, UK :) It was a one year degree (there were further studies you could pursue), and you'd generally get about 10h of forgework a week IIRC, plus welding (arc, MIG, gas), fabrication, fitting, tech drawing, and design classes, totalling perhaps 40h a week of metal-related activities.

Blacksmithing is one of the old crafts. It takes decades to truly master, although everything that's forged looks cool. I would say you could do similar things in a couple of months of weekend forging. This assumes that you have a minimal workshop set up and that you're OK with leaving a lot more hammer marks (now THOSE are hard to get rid of...).

I personally believe that the most important thing is discipline. Like I said, forged iron has this indescribable way to just look awesome, which in turn leads many people to accept and be content with very bad quality forgings. This not only cheapens the craft, but permanently damages it by causing stagnation of skill at a mediocre level. I don't think many people left that could do something like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That was made by a Portuguese Master Blacksmith who lived 'round the turn into the 20th century. But now we lack technical know-how and discipline for this these days.



I could write about this for hours. I guess the main point is: you can make stuff that looks cool almost from the start, but be disciplined and you can do insanely beautiful stuff eventually. The main point is not stagnating. It is also one of the most rewarding experiences. Smithing is a kind of controlled chaos, where everything is at its very limits. Heat the metal a little to much and you burn it (the temperature is over 1500C, or 2700F); you really have to hammer it hard for it to move, but all it takes is one hammer blow to permanently mark the piece and ruin it. Also, the colour of hot metal is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. I still spend hours on youtube sometimes, just watching people forge.

Also, depending on where you're from, it's possible you can give blacksmithing a go. There's plenty of blacksmithing schools offering small one day, weekend or week-long courses if you've got the money. It's a good way to gauge how much you might like it.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: NRDL on October 01, 2012, 04:13:27 am
PTW
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Siquo on October 01, 2012, 06:00:55 am
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 01, 2012, 03:47:43 am
Also, depending on where you're from, it's possible you can give blacksmithing a go. There's plenty of blacksmithing schools offering small one day, weekend or week-long courses if you've got the money. It's a good way to gauge how much you might like it.
Wouldn't be able to do it at home (apartment in the middle of a city, I doubt my neighbours will like it), and time is something I hardly ever have... I might do a course or something some time, but I'll just watch you guys make cool stuff in the meanwhile :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 01, 2012, 06:04:11 am
Yeah, that seems to be the main problem. That's why I'm trying to get a portuguese blacksmithing association with a community workshop going. People can just come in and forge with some supervision, as long as they pay for what they use.

Still, from reading several blacksmiths forums, it seems to me that quite a few old blacksmiths will be glad to teach you if you are truly interesting and eager to learn. Some of them make a business out of this, but some don't. Take this guy for instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFhH4r9pyZ0

That might or might not have moistened my eyes a bit... :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on October 03, 2012, 08:43:27 pm
I spent about 5 hours cutting shit out of inch thick steel plate. Next week, welding.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on October 03, 2012, 09:14:31 pm
Stick or MIG?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on October 03, 2012, 09:19:24 pm
Quote from: kisame12794 on October 03, 2012, 09:14:31 pm
Stick or MIG?
Oxy-acedyline, I'm still taking welding 1. Those come later.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on October 03, 2012, 10:30:57 pm
Ah. Remember, A before O or up you go.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 04:39:55 am
Oh, good grief. My gas welding classes were like bloody WW2... For some reason, if you overheat the metal, it blows up in your face, and everyone else's face. My overalls didn't have any elbows anymore on account of other people's stuff going BANG and me getting bits of hot metal going down my sleeves.

Worst was in MIG welding when a bit of hot metal flew against my neck, into my shirt, and all the way down to come to rest on my belly-button. I've never danced so much in my life... :D
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Urist McPenguinhead on October 04, 2012, 05:33:12 am
Ouch :0

Also, PTW, this looks interesting. I very much like your meat fork, Anvil!
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on October 04, 2012, 08:12:52 am
I did the stupid thing and wore short sleeves the first time I welded. I had a sunburn the length of my arm. Never did that again.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 09:50:50 am
Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! :) Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz! :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on October 04, 2012, 11:21:36 am
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 04:39:55 am
Oh, good grief. My gas welding classes were like bloody WW2... For some reason, if you overheat the metal, it blows up in your face, and everyone else's face. My overalls didn't have any elbows anymore on account of other people's stuff going BANG and me getting bits of hot metal going down my sleeves.

Worst was in MIG welding when a bit of hot metal flew against my neck, into my shirt, and all the way down to come to rest on my belly-button. I've never danced so much in my life... :D
I haven't had that much trouble. Some other people shot a huge shower of sparks in my direction, most of that shit only happened to me when I didn't cut a piece of metal the first time so I had to make another pass.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 11:46:05 am
This happened to me mostly in T-welds with pretty thin sheet, like 1, 1.5mm (which I think is somewhere around 1/16 of an inch?). What are you gas welding?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on October 04, 2012, 02:03:44 pm
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 11:46:05 am
This happened to me mostly in T-welds with pretty thin sheet, like 1, 1.5mm (which I think is somewhere around 1/16 of an inch?). What are you gas welding?
Mostly scrap metal, we don't have projects, we're just learning the basics.

It's just a 30 hour course, the first of 4.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 02:07:48 pm
Oh, we didn't do any projects in gas welding either, we just trained different types of welding! They all blew up in my face though :D
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on October 04, 2012, 04:26:52 pm
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 09:50:50 am
Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! :) Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz! :)

It was a fad.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Urist McPenguinhead on October 05, 2012, 02:32:13 am
Quote from: kisame12794 on October 04, 2012, 04:26:52 pm
Quote from: Anvilfolk on October 04, 2012, 09:50:50 am
Thanks, Urist McPenguinhead! :) Also, the part of the internet related to penguins elude me, and this seems like as good a time as any to ask. Why does half the Bay12 community have penguins in their avatars?

Kisame: yeah, I really need to get a new monkeysuit/boilersuit/whatchamacallid. I never wear one and keep getting sunburns. Also, those automatic welding masks are the absolute shiznitz! :)

It was a fad.

My avatar is only a penguin because I really like penguins c:
I think I joined too late for the fad.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Reudh on October 05, 2012, 03:26:24 am
It was a fad that harked back to an earlier fad. Everyone started taking up penguin versions of their avvies, and most still have them. I've got a penguin version of my old avvy.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on November 01, 2012, 10:26:06 am
So, after a super busy 5 week stint without forging, I went back to my "shop".

First, I finished off a hardie cut-off tool that I had started doing.

This was pretty thick stuff, 30mm square bar (about 1 1/4 inch). It's also EN8 steel, which has .45% carbon content, making it harder to forge than regular mild steel. Anyway, something being hard has never been an excuse for a blacksmith, so off to work I went (with a stupid looking sweatband to avoid burning eyes from sweat).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After forging out the tip, I hardened and tempered it. Finally, it went under the angle grinder. Unfortunately, the angle grinder is kinda broken, and I couldn't use it for long as I was loosing feeling in my hands. Anyway, even if it looks rough, it still works and that's all I can ask for at this point. Here's the final piece.

Spoiler: It was kinda tired after being in the forge so long. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: But then it kinda perked up! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: and it was all like, hey, life ain't so bad after all! (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: But that was until the owner picked it up... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ...and it was kinda awkward. (click to show/hide)

It looks thin, but forging it out was a bit of a nightmare. Could've used a striker for sure :)


I am planning a workshop for wood sculpture students at a local university, where they'll hopefully be forging their own wood gouge. Some of those can be hard to find in Portugal, so if they can forge one out for $2 to $4's worth of material, instead of $60 or whatever it costs to buy them and ship them, it'd be a big bonus. Anyway, I thought I'd offer a small set of tongs that they can use to hold the gouge. They're tiny, but surprisingly solid!

Spoiler: Here's the whole set (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: ... aaaaaaaaand again... (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Also, the mandatory dentist shot. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Finally, the tongs holding a gouge! (click to show/hide)


And finally, I made a prototype wood gouge from mild steel to try out the techniques and process we're gonna use. The spike is kinda battered because I tried using the gouge with a hammer. Like the idiot that I am (see sweatband).

Spoiler: The whole gouge. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The gouge's facebook profile picture. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Damn it, is it doing a duckface? (click to show/hide)

Anyway, as it turns out there's a bunch wrong with it, such as the blade bevel being done the wrong side, and also a few more things. They'll be improved upon for the next iteration :)

Oh, also, here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzI1O1S4tro)'s a video of me forging out the reins a bit. I am getting pretty tired, since that's a 2.7lb (1.2, 1.25kg) hammer and I hadn't forged in a while.

Hope you guys enjoy this :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on November 01, 2012, 05:36:35 pm
Nice shop. It's getting cold up here is the north, so it's time to stop making chainmail, and start making knives. I'll try and get a quick how-to for a neck-knife up.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on November 05, 2012, 09:21:19 pm
Well the end of Welding 1 is coming up on wednesday, with a final test consisting of 50 multiple choice questions and a Practical. The practical is easy as shit, run a 3 inch bead, and cut a straight line in an 1/8th in steel plate. The sad thing is there are people in my group that don't know how to pierce, braze, or LANCE.
It's just painful watching people try and cut a thin piece of metal, and looking at the metal with a dumbfounded expression when it reforms.

I have no idea why they just don't ask the instructor for help, Or a few of the older guys who got sent there to be certified.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on November 05, 2012, 10:14:08 pm
In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Kilroy the Grand on November 05, 2012, 10:17:55 pm
Quote from: kisame12794 on November 05, 2012, 10:14:08 pm
In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?
$3500? I paid only $375 s course for mine. But I expect a good 2/3rds of the class to fail which I'm going going to complain about since I'll have more scrap metal, and more of the instructors time.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on November 06, 2012, 11:33:49 am
Quote from: Kilroy the Grand on November 05, 2012, 10:17:55 pm
Quote from: kisame12794 on November 05, 2012, 10:14:08 pm
In my welding class, which cost around 3500$ Canadian, one person showed up to one class, and hasn't been seen since. What kind of job do you have to throw that kind of cash away?
$3500? I paid only $375 s course for mine. But I expect a good 2/3rds of the class to fail which I'm going going to complain about since I'll have more scrap metal, and more of the instructors time.

That was the first semester of a college course.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on February 11, 2013, 11:25:19 am
It is with tears in my eyes that I show to you a couple of photos from the very first (and very humble) meeting of the Portuguese Blacksmiths' Association.

Spoiler: Is there a more beautiful colour? (click to show/hide)


Spoiler: Working together on very thick carbon steel for a chisel. (click to show/hide)


Spoiler: Doing the bits of the tongs. (click to show/hide)


I *adore* the leather apron my wife got me for Christmas. I thought it would be a little too thick for comfortable movement, but I was wrong. Such matters do not concern true dwarves. My great-great grandfather Urist McBeef used an entire live cow as his apron, and was a better blacksmith than most of us!

In all seriousness though... it was marvellous. I hope it will draw more attention and that we will get more and more people.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 26, 2013, 01:56:17 pm
Sooo, I did get to forge a little but more while in Portugal, but not much... however, I did take my last week off before emigrating to the US to forge a little project that wasn't just more tongs...

Here's the result, in crappy crappy photos!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hope you guys liked it - took about 3 days to do, though if I had decent tooling it would've taken much less :)

Trying to see if setting up a community forge or something is a possibility here in the US, since I can't really afford it otherwise. Let's hope so...
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Lectorog on June 26, 2013, 01:58:29 pm
Was it designed to hold a single orange?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 26, 2013, 02:00:16 pm
Excellent question... I think it was mostly designed just to exist, and hopefully be slightly pleasing to the eye? There are quite a few more things I could've done to it, like add a perpendicular piece to the top so it could hold a bowl (of oranges?! Who knows?)...

It also doesn't have a ton of balance... I had a nicer system planned, but again, ran out of time :(

If only I could get a forge set up close by around here, I'd forge almost every freaking day!
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Steeled on December 14, 2013, 08:29:44 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/LA9wKV1.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/TN3uaFp.jpg)
Forged table
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on December 14, 2013, 08:30:46 pm
Nice :) I hope you can get us some photos of the details in the legs and joinery when they're not covered in snow! :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Steeled on January 07, 2014, 02:05:43 pm
(http://i.imgur.com/NbdaRZ3.png)

An unfinished firepoker and stand to go with it. I need to adjust the stand a bit, I don't like how it's crooked. The stand assembled with rivets.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on January 07, 2014, 02:47:32 pm
Looks good so far, hope to see it when it's done.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on January 07, 2014, 03:06:47 pm
Nice!!!

Looks like you opened the top using a chisel, cutting from both sides? It's usually a good idea to put it in a vise and cut it from the top. That can remove the gradual cut you can still see from where you opened it out to horizontal. Just gotta hammer it from the top :)

It does look slightly crooked, but you should be able to straighten it out cold! Do post back :D
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Steeled on January 11, 2014, 05:58:51 am
I would have had something to show tonight but the bronze I received was unusable. Monday for sure.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on June 21, 2014, 06:32:21 am
Rise from your grave!

Quote from: GiglameshDespair on June 20, 2014, 08:44:58 am
So I've started to make a forge to do some blacksmithing.

Spoiler: Warning, BIGHUEG image (click to show/hide)

The charcoal will go in the steel brake disk. I wanted a brake drum, but couldn't get hold of one.
I've used a steel can to attach the exhaust pipe. I'm going to chop the exhaust pipe up and make a t-piece. The T-piece will get air through the horizontal part of the t-piece (either with bellows or a hair dryer with the heating element removed) and ash will fall down into a bucket that i'll fill to make a water seal. I'll use either bricks or cinderblocks to make a stand for it.

It should get hot enough to heat steel enough I can shape it or melt aluminium for sand-casting.

The anvil i'm using is an old anchor weight. I need to sand down the surface i'm using to make it flat, but at the moment it's just a big painted block of steel, so there's no point taking pictures of that.

Soon, I hope to make some knives and the like.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 21, 2014, 09:57:11 am
AW man, everybody always goes for the knives... I wish people would also try other things!

Keep us posted though! More pictures = more good!
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on June 21, 2014, 10:01:20 am
Well, i'll go for a sword or axe head, but I want to get some practice in first, and there's not really anything else I can think of to make. No much point in pokers if you don't have a fireplace.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: LordSlowpoke on June 21, 2014, 10:02:54 am
fold your metal a brazillion times and create a toy anvil with the force of your own rage

really there's a lot of shit you can forge, point is whenever you make things because you like to make things or the utility of said things
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 21, 2014, 10:36:52 am
You can make tongs, all kinds of tools for yourself (chisels, punches, hot cuts, hardy tools, scrolling wrenches, etc), wall hooks of lots of different shapes and styles, candle holders (your imagination is the limit). There's soooo much stuff that isn't a blade... that requires hours of grinding, making whatever forging you've done largely irrelevant.

I'm not really an example, but here's (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4234083247627.176156.1151807127&type=1&l=41e625e660) some stuff I made with limited forging time a year ago.

You can also scroll back on this thread and see some pretty awesome things other people have made :)
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on June 21, 2014, 10:53:18 am
How would I curve metal? I don't have any surfaces I could curl it against. My 'anvil' is just a flat, square-ish block.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on June 21, 2014, 11:03:59 am
There are special tools you can buy/make that would allow you to curve metal. If you've got a vice, you can clamp a piece of round bar in it and use that. I'd recommend hammering one end flat to make it easier to clamp.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 21, 2014, 11:22:27 am
You don't need a curve to make scrolls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsjXOhQDtAI

There's a ton of really good books freely available in PDF (http://www.hlcollege.ac.uk/Downloads/craftpublications.html) that you can download that will teach you the basics. They will also open up a world of possibilities as you learn more techniques than just hammering down on the steel until it looks like a blade! :)

The first book on that list is ace. I'd highly recommend it. In fact, most of the books on that list are great.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on June 21, 2014, 02:59:39 pm
Ah, cheers. I notice on the video you linked the guy still uses the holes and horn of the anvil to shape the curve.

Thanks for the resources, I'll definitely have to take a look.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 21, 2014, 06:50:38 pm
Yeah, this is a fish-tail scroll. To do a regular scroll, you don't really let the tip of the scroll angle outward so much. You just hammer it down every time it starts widening, and that keeps it the same thickness as the rest of the material. This way you don't have to use the hardy hole as a way to straighten the scroll, you can just lay it flat on the anvil!

Also, his usage of the horn is pretty minimal. You can just use two pairs of tongs or pliers to straighten things. He makes it look easy, you'll make lots of mistakes, but the more you do it the better you become!



Also, I'm actually really sorry if I'm coming off as super cynical and holier-than-thou. I am aware that might be how I sound :( I just don't get the fascination and adoration of weapons, or anything that can be used for harm... I see the piles upon piles upon piles of railroad spike knives, and people who never really graduate from it. It's reducing the art to its lowest common denominator, and it frustrates me to no end when some blacksmithing pieces can blow your mind.

(http://www.ferroforjado.org/anvilfolk/lectus.JPG)

(http://www.ferroforjado.org/anvilfolk/CandelabroPompeiano.JPG)

(http://www.ferroforjado.org/anvilfolk/LustreBissaiaBarreto.JPG)

(http://www.ferroforjado.org/anvilfolk/LustreCMC.JPG)

(http://www.ferroforjado.org/anvilfolk/Tripode.JPG)


And here are some made more recently:

- A gate (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10204099428312744&set=gm.686315481417483&type=1)
- A card holder (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152122903366583&set=pcb.686703494712015&type=1&theater)
- This guy's (http://www.joshuadelisle.com/page3.html) work... get to the horses, trust me



And instead of all this, all people can think of doing is:

(http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs20/f/2007/258/2/b/Railroad_Spike_Knife_by_Logan_by_Night_Everclear.jpg)

You hammer it for 5 minutes, then spent 3 hours at the grinder......

Sigh, again, I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated :(
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on June 21, 2014, 07:06:25 pm
Three hours? Wish I had a grinder. I've gone for weeks with a file. Hell, I finished forging a sword a few months ago, and I STILL haven't finished filing. Granted, I've not been filing it all that often during those months, but I've still logged around 20+ hours spent filing away at it.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on June 21, 2014, 08:57:16 pm
Well, I want to make a knife because I have practical use for that when I go hunting.

The problem is with these big designs is that I have limited money and confidence. I don't feel capable of trying some big metal thing that if it messes up will clog up a bunch of room and waste a bunch of steel. I want to be able to use my creations as well. I don't live on my own. Where am I going to use a forged metal bench? Where am I going to put it? A chandelier? It's not like they'd be good enough to sell.

No, i get where you're coming from. But just starting out, i'd like to try something that is simple-ish, and possibly useful. I get where ypu're coming from, but I don't want to try something too ambitious, fail, and lose motivation.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 21, 2014, 09:05:10 pm
I totally get that - and blacksmithing can be insanely frustrating at first. The important thing is to keep noticing what you do wrong and finding ways to fix that.

Knives are great starter pieces. People think they are cool, and you get a ton of nice feedback from them. Make sure you learn a bit about steels and things.

If you like tools, just look up blacksmithing tools. Quite a few of them have edges, and you can work on those, using a larger range of techniques, and you still get something that's super useful. Tongs are a great example. Or a chisel, to cut stuff! Once you have a chisel, you can probably do a pineapple twist, which is cool:

(http://r23.imgfast.net/users/2316/23/54/18/album/pineap10.jpg)


You can also do some pretty simple wall hooks, or bookstops. Stuff like that! You might even be able to sell them for a profit.

(http://www.johntheblacksmith.co.uk/userimages/WALLHOOKS.JPG)

(http://i.tfcdn.com/img2/y-IVFFAAY9Jx49FITyxKSc1jyCgpKbDS18_MTTfUSy0priwuSSzJTNZLzs_VNzA00DfQNzcwsrSwsNDPzIk3NTeo8NMzMTE2tzQzMzSMTy0oLNXLKkgHAA**/fvUG-v8A.B)


All I'm saying is: start with whatever motivates you, but don't get stuck in doing just blades. There's an entire world of aesthetics that you can explore, and that most people don't even scratch the surface of, let alone explore.

I had a teacher at the blacksmithing college I attended who was into reenactment, and decided to do a sword. He spent a couple of sessions in the forge, and then spent weeks grinding away at it, almost full-time... The ratio of forging to grinding (and the kind of forging) that you do ends up not being very... blacksmithy! Heck, I never bothered to properly grind and polish the damascus knife we did back in college, though I put in some 4-8 hours of elbow grease!
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Arx on June 22, 2014, 01:16:17 pm
For those that think making armour could be fun: http://www.armourarchive.org/

And some eye candy from those forums: This guy (http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=145749)  is insanely good. (http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=169246)

This is a glorified PTW, though. I've wanted to get into this for years, but never actually have.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on June 23, 2014, 07:34:54 am
Yeah, unless it's a technical college it's doubtful they'd ever bother to get some blacksmithing or metalworking classes, the latter being more usual. You can find blacksmithing classes, but they are taught by individual blacksmiths and are very expensive. If you're in the UK, there's a few colleges that still offer UK-college level/US-high-school-level degrees in blacksmithing. That's what I was lucky enough to be able to do.

That said, there's an enormous amount of information out there that you can use to get yourself started. The main problem is usually space. If you live in an apartment or something, you can pretty much forget it.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: ICBM pilot on August 15, 2014, 07:00:12 am
Can I have some advice for building a charcoal forge?
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: GiglameshDespair on August 15, 2014, 07:57:52 am
http://www.anvilfire.com/article.php?bodyName=/21centbs/forges/brkdrum1.htm
http://www.instructables.com/id/Basic-Brake-drum-Forge-for-under-40/

Make one of these, and it's relatively cheap.

Careful if you use any galvanised steel, though, as it'll give off poisonous fumes until the galvanisation burns off. You'll want to use steel, as you won't be able to melt that, but you should be able to melt aluminium.

Use coal instead of charcoal. It's more dense, or so I am told.

Man, wish i had the time to finish my forge, but with my job and all it's just sitting in the garage half done.

Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: ICBM pilot on August 15, 2014, 08:27:14 am
Quote from: GiglameshDespair on August 15, 2014, 07:57:52 am
http://www.anvilfire.com/article.php?bodyName=/21centbs/forges/brkdrum1.htm
http://www.instructables.com/id/Basic-Brake-drum-Forge-for-under-40/

Make one of these, and it's relatively cheap.
I already have a brake drum forge but it's too small for me to finish some of my bigger projects and I'm thinking of building a forge that would allow me to heat any part of the metal instead of just the first six inches.
Quote from: GiglameshDespair on August 15, 2014, 07:57:52 am
Use coal instead of charcoal. It's more dense, or so I am told.
I can't find any places to buy it around here and I found some charcoal that works well.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Anvilfolk on August 15, 2014, 10:30:37 am
Yeah, my problem was that finding hardwood charcoal was hard where I was forging. If you can find good quality charcoal it's pretty good. I think you're supposed to use a slightly deeper forge, and break up the charcoal into slightly smaller pieces than he huge lumps you usually use.

I still prefer regular coal, as it's more efficient in both preparation and burning.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: TD1 on August 18, 2014, 09:54:08 am
PTW.

Always been interested in Blacksmithing, but it's not exactly economically viable, nor do I have the requisite skill.

Still, nice to watch what others make.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: kisame12794 on August 18, 2014, 03:03:22 pm
I know several blacksmiths who make a living off of their work. It's true that there aren't many jobs out there, so if you want to make money blacksmithing, you need to start up your own business.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: MaximumZero on August 21, 2014, 07:36:15 am
Posting to watch. I've always wanted to learn.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: ICBM pilot on August 29, 2014, 03:59:56 pm
Quote from: Th4DwArfY1 on August 18, 2014, 09:54:08 am
PTW.

Always been interested in Blacksmithing, but it's not exactly economically viable
It isn't that expensive(in my opinion it's worth the money just to have things that actually work like they're meant to).
Quote from: Th4DwArfY1 on August 18, 2014, 09:54:08 am
nor do I have the requisite skill.
With enough time even a dappling blacksmith can turn a xXrusty metal thingyXx into a ☼steel goblets☼.
Title: Re: Ye Olde Magma Forge: A Blacksmith discussion thread.
Post by: Antsan on August 31, 2014, 03:45:03 pm
Post to watch.

Sometimes I wish I had unlimited time to do all the things that manage to capture my interest.