Blacksmith forging project thread idea (pic heavy)

[Florida83FSJCherokee]

Ok, So ive been thinking about doing a forge and metal work blacksmithing thread...

With the bummer that today was with the mothership leaving us behind like sad little E.T's i thought I would post this to give something else to think about...

If there is any interest I could start with the basics and we could move up to making whatever ideas people come up with...

I could do it in picture format like below, and I suppose that it could be done in you tube links as well. The first few would be much simpler than this one with a few devoted to the simple science of moving metal with the hammer and anvil...

Anyway, I had some down time at a horse show today because of a really long rain delay and thought I would work on a project that had been suggested to me by a friends wife.

If you like this stuff and want more project postings I will be happy to do it. Today I had to use my phone for pics, but I will get my apprentice to take them next time with the good camera...

Please let me know what your feelings are about this...Its not FSJ specifc but I could try to work on pieces releated to FSJ's in the future...

The requested project was two horseshoes that came together to form a heart.. I thought that was a cool idea but decided to do it a little differently than just lapping two horseshoes over one another.


Started with 2 even pieces of staright bar stock 14"long x 3/8"thickx 7/8"wide


Next I marked reference points on each so i could begin my turning process in the same place on each side piece of steel. Hopefully setting me up to have a symetrical heart.


Then the steel is put in the forge , careful to only heat the side that you want to work on...this prevents movement that your dont want somewhere else.


its hot!

Notice that only the part of the shoe im going to work is red hot.


To begin the turn you strike into the steel creating a "U" this is also called "breaking the back" If you go directly to the horn to set your radious the steel will buck and you wont be able to turn it with a fluid radious.


now you can set the radious with the horn. take note of where you set it so you can use the same radious on the second piece. notice the mark/dot is right in the turns origin and pressed up against the horn to hold the radius.


I turned both sides and checked for symetry, them i layed them like I was visualizing the design to be and fine tuned the radious to get the shape i wanted.


Now we have the start of a heart.. but his isnt enough detail to call it done yet.

Horse shoes have heels forged into them. Even though this will obviously not be going on a horse I wanted it to have the same landmarks as a horseshoe. so I forged heels into all four edges.

Heels are formed by driving the hammer into the edge of the shoe. Not drawing it away. Those are two different hammer strokes. I could get more specific about in a different demonstarion. Basicly driving is packing of material into itself and drawing is pulling material away from itself.




Notice in the above picture that the packing has upset my straight branch so I need to straighten it back out before I continue


After finishing all four heels I have to recheck the two pieces and reheat to make adjustments. these were forged at two different heat levels which is why one moved further than the other.


Not gonna pass a skills test for identical but pretty close...


recheck for design



if happy move on to the fuller. The fuller is a tool that lays the creases you find in most horse shoes. Its used to make a groove that the nail head can rest insdie and also provided and ridge for traction. this is a fuller


before you go thumping on it you need to map out some references to follow. I use the calipers and a wrench to score out the path i want to run and the start and end locations. the wrench is a cool trick because you can lock one side on the side of the shoe and the other side can drag the top. the bigger the wrench th further in your mark will be...
then you mark the steel lightly to set a groove to follow once you get the steel hot nd your mark dissapears.







check your layout again and make sure the lines are what you want because once you start running you cant go back


you want an orange heat to run you fuller in. To hot and you'll cut through the steel...




Exmple of forgeing heat and black heat


running the fuller is something that you develop a feel for and you can actually get it finished in two or three passes. I was taking pictures so i had to run over it several times
check your design again. I didnt like that one side stoped short at the bottm so I will fix that later


after you fuller you have "displaced" metal so you need to hemm your branches to push it all back together. you do that at a black heat and walk the radious of the horn with your hammer.


Next you need to punch the nail holes. This is done with a fore punch, a drift punch, and a pritchel...
forepunch:


use the calipers again to establish a uniform distance between holes and mark out the locations lightly


mark both out and throw them in the fire. You want a barely yellow heat for this next step.


getting close!
You run the drift punch to "drift the hole into the tapper of your pritchel. All of you stamping tools are "tuned" together the fuller and the forepuch are the same size, the drift is the same size as the bottom half of the fore punch head and the pritchel is the size of the tip of the fore punch. This allows you to blend the nail hole to match the contour of the nails head for a seamles fit.


finally you pritchel, you will know you are ready to pritchel when you flip your shoe over and see your "frog eyes" developed


you pritchel at a very low heat. you want a clean shear through the nail hole and if its to hot is tears away instead.

you would nornally have one hand on the pritchel but i had to hold the camera


Flip the shoe and clean up the trash


re-run your fuller to unify the sight line


Do any final shape adjustments and then put the shoes in the fire. You want them to get fairly hot so you can flatten and brush them.
Flattening is literally overlapping hammer blows that level and equal out the shoes thickness.. (you forgot there were 3 deminsions to worry about....) not as easy to maintain as you think...
then you block brush, and more block brush and more block brus untill you have removed all the slag and scale


So the final result has been brushed and oiled with hoof packing. Its an oil based material that you use to treat different issues within a sore foot but at the right temp the oils will soak into the warm pours of the metal and give a great finish.

Here is the end results. I liked three different designs and all you have to do is pic you fav and spot weld the back to hold it together

#1 as designed


#2 slight overlap and different heels


#3 my favorite, with the heads of the nails cut to fit in the heart



So... truned out pretty cool, would make a nice picture frame if you got a piece of glass cut or cool just like that.

If you thought this was fun and not a terrible waste of your time let me know and ill find something else to make with different techniques involved.

Thanks
JP

[AwesomeJ10]

Wow.

Now THAT is true metal fabrication!

[Florida83FSJCherokee]

Blake you should probably check it again because i had to edit 50 times to get all the pics lined up right..

however,

Thanks!

JP

[REDONE]

I pride myself on being a professional fabricator, but I don't have an ounce of the skill you do! I could not have made anything like that from flat bar stock without a one-shot with special dies, a bridgeport, my miller and grinder, and even then it'd be all shiny and covered in tool marks. That's beautiful!

[Cecil14]

JP,

That was absolutely amazing! I've always thought blacksmithing was really cool, always something I wanted to try as a hobby but never had really had an opportunity for. I know I would certainly be interested in reading more, if you're interested in posting.


aa

[bigun]

I always wanted to try my hand. My grandpa had a forge and I used to turn the blower when ever he used it to repair farm equipment. One summer I told him I wanted to forge a knife ( like the one from the TV show Branded) so he handed me the blacksmiths book he had inherited from his father. After reading the pertinent information I spent the rest of the summer trying to find a piece of tool steel. I have no idea how many pieces of steel I held between my thumb and finger so I could tap it to see if it would ring, needless to say I never found any. When he died I asked my Aunt if I could have the blacksmithing book she said I could, but when I looked on his desk it was gone apparently one of the other relatives had taken it with out asking.

[jaber]

Awesome work. I too have always wanted to know more, just dont know anyone with a forge...

Subscribed...

[dbigd]

You are a craftsman sir, and it is always a privlege to learn skills from one. I have always been facinated by the forge and blacksmithing. I made a few knives and stuff when I was younger and would sure like to try some new projects out with my son. Thanks.for the motivation and hopefully for lots of future tips and inspiration.

[Brizio]

That's a great job!!!

[jamesdart]

very cool. am i going to be the first to ask, how much $?

[serehill]

Totally impressive. There's so much potentail there whena re you going to branch out. With that kind of talent you should be able to do everything we have been discussing.

[CherokeeCraig]

I grew up around a black smith shop and have always found the work interesting. I would walk out the back door early in the morning and you could smell the coal fired forge from half a mile away! Very good write up. Thanks for sharing

[Florida83FSJCherokee]

This is great. I'm glad you all like it, and thanks a lot for the compliments.

I will definitely develope the thread further ....

In response to some of the comments/questions :


BIGUN- do you remember the name the the book. Size, color, any clues. I have an embarrassing amount of old blacksmith and farrier books. Most pre - 1900... if you can recall it ill try to find it.

SEREHILL- Im trying to develop more techniques, in fact I just finished trying an attempt at replicating antique wrought iron furniture strapping. As a Farrier I get to work on shoe building every day. Most of the basics apply to artistic forge work as well
I'm definitely considering doing the engine rebuild myself but I'm hesitant to attempt it with out someone helping me through it the first time.

JAMESDART - are you asking what the tools, forge, and anvil cost or what price could be asked for the heart project. In response to set up cost you could get the basics new for $1000 . I do alot of competition shoe making and need super fast heat recovery times from my forge so the one in the pics is way more than a hobbiest would. Need.
The anvil would run around $600 new but used anvils arestill anvils. They don't tend to wear out. ; )

The heart project is already being given to someone so I don't know what I would charge ...


Ill try to post this wrought Iron project tonight since it turned out pretty cool. Ill also build a little basic start up kit from online just so anyone thinking they want to pick it up knows what they are looking at.

Thanks again and ill try to keep it interesting,

JP

[fulsizjeep]

Great topic! Thanks for the detail.

[bigun]

BIGUN- do you remember the name the the book. Size, color, any clues. I have an embarrassing amount of old blacksmith and farrier books. Most pre - 1900... if you can recall it ill try to find it.
JP

I have no idea what the name was you have to remember that this took place back in the 1960s and my grandpa was born in 1899. All I can remember is it was dang heavy, IIRC i was about 4 inches thick and held together with a rubber band. It looks like the show was short lived only 65 and 66, but as I remember I had watched in the afternoon so is was probably a rerun. I did pick up a book while I was in college in the mid 80s and took it to him to have him look it over, but alas it to was taken with the other. The sad part is when he died all his tools went to my uncle who as far as I know hasn't been back since 1996 when my grandma died. I am probably the only one other than my uncle who has any idea what or where anything is in there, or how to use it.

For all who are interested in this subject you tube has lots of videos for beginners and experts

[MT1]

Put a chain on that thing and the ole lady will have some serious BLING. But seriously great job and shape.

[jamesdart]

im an ironworker welder, so i have an appreciation for anything done with metals. if you could come up with a price for something like that, let me know. its cool.

[serehill]

I'll tell ya Jonathan there's all kinds of help out there.
There is not anyone on this or the other board that did not:
1. Have thier first rebuild.
2. Didn't make mistakes
3. Wasn't worried about doing it wrong.
4. Didn't have to go out on a limb to do so.
5. Didn't mess it up some how & didn't learn by the school of hard knocks.
6. Plagiarizing here. The only thing you have to fear is fear itself.
You have the talent.
The key find another 258 & rebuild it while your other one is still running. Rebuild it as carefully as you can using all your resources Right here. Then take your other one out look it over closely & make sense of what your not sure of looking at the original engine. Then consider rebuilding it too. keep it or sell it if you did good on #1. That is exactly how I did my first one.

I'm not meaning to digress from your tallent or this thread. You got what it takes.

[Tad]

As someone that has paid a lot of bills working with metal I just have to pat you on the back.
Very informative thread, thanks!

[Florida83FSJCherokee]

I want to say again a Big! thanks for all the compliments.

Im leary of posting any other projects for fear of dissappointing now. ; )

I will be honest that I will probably not be able to post multiple projects back to back but being that this was the slowest horse show I have ever worked I had enough time to work on a few back burner things.

So.. This isnt a display of precision, its is a totally improvised experiment in how to create an affect and stlyized design idea.

The back story: my 10 year old nephew is obsessed with pirates and my sister in law asked if there was any way we could work together on a treasure chest for his birthday. Shes going to find an antique trunk and I said I would work out the hammered strappings, lock plate, and hinges. So today I made a test strapping piece to test some ideas.

Unlike the previous post, I switched gears alot and had to adapt to what the metal was showing me in order to reach the result I wanted.

So here is my experiment on making antique hammered strapping out of new bar stock....

I had to do a little math so that i can recreate this if it works, so I wanted the total lenght to be around 4"long . The tickness of the bar stock is 3/8" and i want to end up at 1/8'' thick. So in theory I should gain a 1/4" of length for every inch that decrease in thickness from 3/8" to 1/8". I tend to be heavy when im drawing metal and get more than I technically should so I subtrcted 1/2" from my measurement. If i was short I can alwys draw out the length later. -(i ended up doing this because it needed to be longer)



forge was set at a medium heat for today because the material was going to be made thinner and you dont want to scald it or burn it up.


I heated a much longer piece to make working the material easier at the beginning


Im only concerned about the last 4" of heat so I quenched off the unnecessary section


todays Im going to use two different hammers one is a rounding hammer and one is a clipping or cone hammer...



I wanted a hammered look so i began by chipping and moving metal around into the shape I had in my mind






Unfortunately this was not working like i wanted. I had to abandon the hammered look and try to obtain my shape first and then return for the finish after.


I switched to the rounding hammer and used the radious of the top of the anvils horn and the round side of the hammer to forge this hourglass starting shape


then i switched to the face of the anvil and the flat side of the hammer to drive the shape further into the middle and out from the center of stock. This worked well but I wasnt able to keep the flare at the base like i was planning on so I again had to figure out how to get the metal back where i wanted it without wrecking what i was happy with.


I decided to "bump" the flare into the rear of the strap. To do this you hit the top of the working stock with the base pushed hard on the face of the anvil. The anvil actually pushes material into the steel and the hammer pushes from the top. Its a common way to increase the density of a metal. as an example, you would do this to the toe of a horseshoe in order to give the point of greatest wear more density to outlast the less used areas...


much better and cleaner


I was now happy with the rear section of the strap and needed to rid myself of the long shaft so I could shape the front.
this is a hot cut, its used to cut heels in horseshoes. truthfully we dont use them anymore because they are messy and hard to keep from damaging. Your suposed to use a brass hammer so you dont damage the cutting edge but Im a risk taker! : )



pretty self explanitory on how it works

lay it on top and drive it home


I choose to use the hot cut because it would give me the curved and pointed shape at the tip of the strap without me having to wreck everything to achieve it through forging.
here's the cut section hot and ready to be drawn down




ok.. i am very sorry but i apparently didnt take a photo of the drawn out section.
in the next few pics if you simply remove my forging and filed areas it was the same deminsion from the top of the blown out ridges to the hot cuts tip.


So in order to get the classic treasure chest roll to the strapping I used the horns radious to set my curves and then a crap ton of elbow power too "half round file", and "hot rasp" the shape into a finish. Hot rasping is filing the steel at an orange heat. It kinda melts away rather than grinding away. When the heat goes down you can clean up the edges.

half round file



finished shape. pretty much exactly what I was thinking when i imagined it...


a quick look back to remind myself that despite the headache I had actually gotten my results
before and after


i used the tip of the cone hammer and layed in my hammer marks...


I thought it looked a little to lunar landscape and not enough antique pitted steel so I used the half round file and smoothed it back out a bit


went back over it again and it was closer, still not there but better


I decided to mark out the screw holes and punch starting hole into it. A drill press will bounce around all over the place on an uneven surface like that so the center punch just makes it easier.


drilled out and ready for final finsih work


I took a nice even heat and worked all the sharpe edges with the cone hammer. I took my time, reheated when needed and basicly softend the entire piece. this step really made a difference for me.


here it is brushed and brushed again with a little! oil rub to help the finish


back side, i guess i didnt mention this. the front is rounded for astethics but the back has to stay flat so you can attach it evenly. basicly achieved this by only working on one side and light hammer blows to the rear during the softening heats.


Finished idea on some wood at the house , I think it will definitly work for the treasure chest. Now I just have to make 7 more, lol, and a set of hinges...


So next time i will be in my new shop and will have my helper take picks. I think if everyone is okay with the idea i will start with some terminolgy and application of those terms. Kinda set a baseline so in future post when i mention something or a technique you can refer to it as the glossary of terms in a way...

Im going to say this and i do mean it, but... please realize that not everything will be possible and it will take time to get through them all , but... if you would like to see something made let me know and ill try. If i havent made it before we can try it together. maybe it will work maybe not, but we will definatly learn something.

Thanks again, hopefully pirate treasure chest art isnt to juvenile for everyone. truth is... this was way harder for me to do than the heart project. ; )

JP