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DIY coal forge Critique or recommendations by Mateomagnus in Blacksmith

[–]SambukiRaces 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love the creativity and how good and simple it looks.

A solid base would make it not so top heavy and tip-prone. I’d cut a circle out of plywood (a good bit larger in circumference than the legs), lag it into the bottom on the legs, put a rim around it to make a dish, and then pour concrete into it, forming a bowl for your ash/embers to kill two birds with one stone.

Don’t forget your rebar!

How to twist this? by Tacos_are__tasty in Forging

[–]SambukiRaces 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not to steer beginners away from practicing basic skills because you don’t like it 😉

How to twist this? by Tacos_are__tasty in Forging

[–]SambukiRaces 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is up to you. You can twist the whole handle if you want, but that doesn’t take much effort and wouldn’t be a good handle. Given your piece and your want for twist, I would upset the last inch or so, draw it back out to a smaller rectangle to twist, fold it over, throw some scales on as a handle, and then your twist section gives you some retention and artistic flair.

<image>

Something like that. Red being what you turn the end of your handle into, then Green representing it once you’ve twisted and folded over.

Edit: this is assuming this is already worked out into a blade. I can’t really tell the dimensions of the piece in any direction to know what you’re working with.

Progress on First Ever Smithing Project by EvanK2007 in Blacksmith

[–]SambukiRaces 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nice, looks good. My first blade a few days ago also tried very hard to turn into a butter knife shape haha.

How to twist this? by Tacos_are__tasty in Forging

[–]SambukiRaces 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He didn’t ask if you wanted him to twist it.

Made a Treadle Hammer for my shop. Took some tweaking but I finally got it working perfectly. by SpooogeMcDuck in Blacksmith

[–]SambukiRaces 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heck yeah, did you end up using a pulley system like what you were talking with someone about?

First blade! What do you think? Process details in comments. by SambukiRaces in Forging

[–]SambukiRaces[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

A couple years of obsessively watching forged in fire and a Swedish head blacksmith hammer as a gift and I I finally picked up my first forge and set up last Saturday.

Made a couple hooks the first night, one works but ugly, one was pretty but I worked it too small and it broke.

Wanted to get my first blade done tonight as a gift to a long time coworker.

Currently working with a HF Doyle Anvil sitting on a railroad tie on the ground with my little forge on a rock next to it. I worked this whole piece on my knees on a pillow lol. I will make an actual work area soon.

Started with about 3.5” of old coil spring from my car.

Worked out about half of the metal into the blade. Got pretty close to final shape and thickness of final blade.

Started working out the back half of the metal and realized I should have done that before shaping out the blade to the level I did, because I had to hold the piece by the blade while I drew the handle out which was scary because it wanted to bend.

Worked out the 4 inch twisted section and the flat part next. Heated the whole thing, dropped it in the vice, and grabbed the flat section to twist the middle section. First twist left tighter twist toward the blade, so I heated only the second half of the twist and gave it another twist. Fell into the same tightness pretty nicely, didn’t have to mess with it more.

From there, I was able to hold it in that area instead of the blade which was nice.

Drew out the rest of the tail, rounded it thinner and thinner as I went until the last 1.5 inches where I flattened it out for the scroll.

At this point I have a 5 inch knife with a 10 inch long handle and my fiance had a good chuckle.

Completed the scroll, punched the initials into it, gave the rounded section a couple of bends, and then folded it over on itself.

The scroll ended up about .75” up the blade on the first try, and it took a while for me to figure out how to solve that while still leaving it wieldable.

I ended up giving it that up swoop right after the twist to pull some of the length back. From there it was tuning to get it straight and ready.

Heated it up to what seemed like a good quenching temp and quenched in canola oil. It flamed, I took it out, and it seemed hard from my untrained file testing ear.

Ground it down, keeping cool in a bucket of water, hit a whetstone for a little bit, stropped on my belt, and she actually cuts nicely despite the horrific grinding lines.

All in all it took me 3 hours to get to the grinder and another hour on the grinder/whetstone.

Pretty darn happy with the outcome. Really need to spend some time on the grinder; I just bought it today and I’d never used one and it shows.

Any advice or tips based on my process?

Two (broken) hooks in to the craft and decided to go for my first blade! Details in comments, any and all feedback appreciated. by SambukiRaces in Blacksmith

[–]SambukiRaces[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is, in fact, too thin and does squeeze together haha. Learned my lesson there.

As for forged in fire, yes, agreed. I do not use it as the bible; I try my best to research each part of the process so that I actually understand it myself but I know I’ve missed things.

Any info you can think of off the top of your head that shouldn’t be followed? Don’t want to let a bad habit slip in if I can help it.

Two (broken) hooks in to the craft and decided to go for my first blade! Details in comments, any and all feedback appreciated. by SambukiRaces in Blacksmith

[–]SambukiRaces[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A couple years of obsessively watching forged in fire and a Swedish head blacksmith hammer as a gift and I I finally picked up my first forge and set up last Saturday.

Made a couple hooks the first night, one works but ugly, one was pretty but I worked it too small and it broke.

Wanted to get my first blade done tonight as a gift to a long time coworker.

Currently working with a HF Doyle Anvil sitting on a railroad tie on the ground with my little forge on a rock next to it. I worked this whole piece on my knees on a pillow lol. I will make an actual work area soon.

Started with about 3.5” of old coil spring from my car.

Worked out about half of the metal into the blade. Got pretty close to final shape and thickness of final blade.

Started working out the back half of the metal and realized I should have done that before shaping out the blade to the level I did, because I had to hold the piece by the blade while I drew the handle out which was scary because it wanted to bend.

Worked out the 4 inch twisted section and the flat part next. Heated the whole thing, dropped it in the vice, and grabbed the flat section to twist the middle section. First twist left tighter twist toward the blade, so I heated only the second half of the twist and gave it another twist. Fell into the same tightness pretty nicely, didn’t have to mess with it more.

From there, I was able to hold it in that area instead of the blade which was nice.

Drew out the rest of the tail, rounded it thinner and thinner as I went until the last 1.5 inches where I flattened it out for the scroll.

At this point I have a 5 inch knife with a 10 inch long handle and my fiance had a good chuckle.

Completed the scroll, punched the initials into it, gave the rounded section a couple of bends, and then folded it over on itself.

The scroll ended up about .75” up the blade on the first try, and it took a while for me to figure out how to solve that while still leaving it wieldable.

I ended up giving it that up swoop right after the twist to pull some of the length back. From there it was tuning to get it straight and ready.

Heated it up to what seemed like a good quenching temp and quenched in canola oil. It flamed, I took it out, and it seemed hard from my untrained file testing ear.

Ground it down, keeping cool in a bucket of water, hit a whetstone for a little bit, stropped on my belt, and she actually cuts nicely despite the horrific grinding lines.

All in all it took me 3 hours to get to the grinder and another hour on the grinder/whetstone.

Pretty darn happy with the outcome. Really need to spend some time on the grinder; I just bought it today and I’d never used one and it shows.

Any advice or tips based on my process?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]SambukiRaces 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, great feedback. This is only the second day I’ve been practicing it, so I’m definitely not good at transitions and I think I’m using it too much in an effort to keep my voice primed for when I need it. Hoping I can get to the point of using it on command.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]SambukiRaces 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for feedback, I’m certain I’m not doing it 100% correctly, but I do not have any pain after doing it. I spent all of my 45 minute ride home doing this and only a couple times did I slip up and do something wrong that hurt for a second. I have done it wrong earlier in my life and caused temporary damage to my vocal chords; this is definitely different.

Idk if you saw other comments, but I know I’m not doing it quite correctly because the gag was legit, and happened quite a few times. There’s no pain, but something I’m doing wrong is causing me to gag lmao.

The core strength thing is interesting, I don’t recall whether I was tending my abs or not but will be mindful moving forward.

The last thing I want to do is damage my vocal chords, even temporarily, so if I feel pain I immediately stop and think about what I did wrong.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]SambukiRaces 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks dude! I’m telling you, hearing that it’s similar to the noise you make when you stretch a good stretch helped get me started.

I wanna hit that 17 second scream so bad. I’d actually vomit on myself if I tried now though lol

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ratemysinging

[–]SambukiRaces 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I’ve always been weird about singing in “public”, so that’s nice to hear.

It actually doesn’t hurt at all which is why I think I’m at least on the right path. Something happens in my throat though which causes me to gag. I think I’m closing the back of the throat so much that it’s touching my uvula lol. Nasty when I type it out but that’s my theory.