Northwoods1 confirmed some of his work I saw in the woodworking section. My Dad's dad and his brother were blacksmith/farmers in their communities in rural Mississippi. My grandfather first worked building six wheel log wagons before settling into his homestead of Lobutcha Mississippi. I was only 4 or 5 you and remembered the smell of coal in the forge burning. It was all I could do on my toes to reach the hand crank bellows. Family and friend are usually the recipient of damascus knives, tables, lamps or lights I've made. I did make four - 10' 4" Nut Crackers, Germantown, TN puts them out for Christmas. The following is a handrail I made at home for the office. It's difficult to get government to contribute to certain arts. I was glad they let me commission myself for this.
I'm also fortunate to have spent some time and taken classes at the National Ornamental Metal Museum. It's here in Memphis overseeing the Mississippi River, just below what we call the old bridge. Truly talented people I've met and worked with over the years. My Youngest son and his wife were married there. The grounds are beautiful with huge oaks shadowing the property.
My first coal forge, I built from a cut down 55 gallon drum. I filled with clay and used a hand crank bellows. My second was handed down/traded with a farrier. My third is a gas fired forge I built in welding shop as a term project. I pulled different designs from the internet. I have a vertical/horizontal bandsaw, anvil, 220V Lincon AC buzz box ESAB 210 wirefeed, standing drill press and a 25 lb. Little Giant Trip Hammer for my basic tools.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12635/3377/CIMG0038.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12635/3377/CIMG0033.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12635/3377/CIMG0034.JPG)
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Descriptions of each picture can be read in my photo album. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
I'm not a blacksmith, yet I am sure I could get into it, if I didn't have so many other interests already. The intricate work you have have displayed here shows your great skill. I am curious, how long does it take to make an iron flower? Lots of great detail you have made.
That is as nice as it gets, :)
I had the same question as Fish, so I won't repeat it, I will ask an another ;D How long did it take you to make one section ??? :)
My grand father worked as a smith for a few winters in the camps around the depression times. With a roll of wire that man could of out did Detroit ::) :D
I volunteer at Hancock Shaker Village in the blacksmith shop. My focus is making tools and hardware for my timber frame work. My skills are pretty basic right now. I am gathering the tools to set up here at home so I can do it more often. That railing is very impressive. :)
The bearded iris was eight individual pieces. Pedal cut from a piece of sheet of steel with a jigsaw. Edges smoothed on a belt sander. Edges then hammered for texture. Each pedal concave hammered for shape. Split piece of 3/8" heated and shaped to match pedal then welded through the backside. Pedals heated and fitted to stem individually. Bowl below blossom spun on a lath to close the end down to 1/2" I.D., welded then ground clean. Couple of hours would be right on.
The roses are pretty easy. One 4 1/4" and one 4" disk cut from sheet metal. Center drilled and cut within 1/2" of the 1/4" center drilled hole. Smoothing and providing a radius on each pedal's corner. 1/4" - 20 thread X 1/2" drilled and tapped into stem 3/4" deep. Bolt the smaller disk on to the larger atop of the stem. Use a gas/acetalene(?) torch to heat and shape each petal. Pry up the first pedal with a screw driver, lift and crimp close the first pedal, then the second which will begin to enclose the first and so on. The two disk, cut on quarters are set to evenly divide the eight sections. Takes about an hour to drill, tap and shape a rose into a stem.
I know with fabrication of the mills, trailers, peavys and logging arches to name a few, I'm going to modify the "Subject" to include Fabricators. Thanks for the plus, comments.
Forestry Forum member "Shag" is a blacksmith.
I don't know to what degree though. He had PM'd me about how he makes flowers!
I confess! 8)
My son says it this way.
If you want it done right you need at least one crazy German (read Dad)
If you want it screwed up right you still need that same crazy German!
I have made flowers too but not near that nice. Burchfield sounds like a good German name. Must be crazier then me! 8)
I had a neighbor that was an old time blacksmith. He helped me make a fishing gig out of a Chev. kingpin. I always told people that I made it, and he just told me how. That's what I believed till I tried to make one on my own-----what a mess. About the only thing that I remember that he taught me were the two things a blacksmith will go to hell for. Beating cold metal and not charging enough :D :D :D
One, here in Pa. although I dont really consider myself a Smith, I reserve that for the REALLY talented folks in the trade. I have met, and sold wrought to some of the country's best over the last 8 or so years. There are many people who call themselves "blacksmith's" who do business with a King's Architectural Catalog (or Triple S ) and a welder. Some dont even know what true iron is or even how to work it. I have such a respect for those who have made this their life's passion (the old ways, the historic knowlege) some knowlege will ultimeately be lost with time and lack of need for historic practice (like say, forge welding ships hull's, CAN you imagine?) I feel so honored to have met and gotten to know some of these folks. So, yes I hammer some iron, but I am not a true Smith.
I have seen some real dibochary repairing historic iron on a few campuses. We were up in Conn. a few years back, U Mass I bellieve and few others in that town (Northport, or Westport or something) and my GOD were the welders repairing this stuff cave men. What a shame. Beautiful, pre 1900 hand forged iron slaughtered. The Board's of those schools should be ashamed.
Nice rail, did you make the open baskets?
Ironwood
That's really nice work Chris. 8) 8) 8) I'd like to see more.
An aspiring blacksmith/fabricator. I have most of the tools except for talent and inspiration. I want to make a entrance gate but all I've done is taken pictures of everybody else's gate.
Hey Iron wood, I hear what you are saying. I learned what i know from 2 old smiths. Both worked for the CPR/CNR when they were young bucks in the boiler works plant in Calgary.
I pound a bit of iron too but my skills are pretty basic mostly for lack of the proper facilities and i didn't get to spend any time actually using the skills I was taught BY my Grandpa and the neighbor that had the complete blacksmith shop set up on his farm.
It is an art and a science that is disappearing. finding a smith today that has a skilled command of both fields so that the resulting work is both reliable, beautiful and rugged enough to take the rigours of a locomotive it is nothing short of amazing.
The ship builders where no less talented.
I actually have my grandads anvil, 3 sets of tongs a couple of hooks and 4 of his old hammers. Need handles for the 2 biggar ones. Dad still has a bunch of his other smith tools that he is keeping for me cause I dont have room for them.
That is some beautiful work, Chris.
My great grandfather was a talented blacksmith. He built a downsized working model of a Case steam engine along with alot of other pieces of equipment. The steamer is 1/3 scale and 99% home constructed. Great grandpa has been gone for close to twenty years now and the steamer has been donated to the local museum about a year ago. I have a newspaper article here but am having a few problems trying to get it scanned to be readable.
Brad.
Impresive railing there Chris, I like the posts.
Somewhere on here is a great set of shelves I think Ironwood made a couple of years back.
I like to muck around at the forge. Wore the old hand cranked portable forge out and are back to using a gas forge at the moment untill I get around to building a new permanent fire forge, I bought the firepot etc a couple of years back. I have enough fun doing the basics, hooks, fireplace tongs, campfire tools and gambrels. I bought the plans for an inline treadle hammer and will hopefully get it built this winter. We have a new baby thats put a stop to the hammering at night.....Small price to pay. :)
I have tons of old iron forged by Blacksmiths, I collect old wagon fittings, axles, bullock wagon chains, its a race toget them before the scrapmetal dealers jump in and melt down our history. :(
Nice looking railings .That certainly took some time to do .
I can't say I'm really a black Smith although I obviously am indeed a Smith .
Regarding any form of metal working I was literally born into it .I do very little forge work though although I'm knowledgable with the process .Arc welding,cutting torchs and plasma cutters have pretty much replaced the trusty old forge .
The Black Smiths today are pretty much limited to the type works such as massive hindge works for doors ,custom railing as this fine exmple shown and other specialty items .Pretty much considered an art form more or less .
I would dearly love to find about a 150 pound Peter Wright anvil but those are rare as a hens tooth or at least for a decent price .Anybody that knows a thing about them will want a kings ransom for one
I might add I have a cousin ,another Smith who lives in N Carolina who is indeed a practicing black Smith .He was born into it too . ;D
Yes Ironwood. Each column post consist of 13 pieces. Each of the four basket pieces were welded to the 1" square stock. The upper most was welded shut, eater and twisted closed, then twisted back to open them up. The upper was more open than the lower. The real trick was to twist and open the same amount to get uniformity in their appearance.
I've visited Penland Arts school in North Carolina http://www.penland.org/ and Williamsburg Virginia's blacksmith shops. Penland is so cool, atop in the Appalachian mountains. The view for the students is inspiring in itself.
Sauder which is a manufacture of ready to assemble furniture has a historic type thing called Sauder Village near Archibold Ohio .
Several years ago myself and wifey toured the place,very interesting .In the blacksmith shop they were assembling a huge pair of ornate door hinges which I went over with a fine tooth comb .I asked the two young men how they cut them out with such precision .In very low voice one of them whispered "plasma cutter " I was greatly amused . :D
That is a good job Chris. I do a little blacksmithing, and have shod so many horses I can't count, which includes basic smith work. I have made knives, forged from coil springs, a lot. I am good at that, and many of the typical little things you see handmade; fire tool sets, hooks, hangers, hinges etc, utinsels, and all that type of thing. I have a both a coal forge and a propane one, a couple of anvils, peter wright 80# and trenton 160#, drill presses, bench grinders and belt sanders, buffer, wire wheel, wire feed, stick arc and gas welders and a bunch of hand tools. Just the basics to do it really.
Doing large repetitive work like that railing or a gate is a different ball game, a harder one, and I have to admire your work. :)
ErikC, I've never shod a horse as a farrier would. Both my sons were taught by my father-in-law how to shoe horses. My oldest son was given an anvil an other tools by his mother an I for graduation from highschool. I purchased them from http://www.nctoolco.com/ I've also made hoof picks from horse shoes. Farrier work is hard work and I don't have a trust for large animals like horses. FIL had flat shod walking horses I use to ride. I've spent many an hour with Farrier friends over the years watching them work.
I have an ole Peter Wright anvil that I use from time to time...Question..What do the marks on the side revel about the weight of the anvil...I have forgotton how to read them...(Go ahead with the jokes as long as someone will answer the question) :D Tim
Why does 1+2+3 equal 171?
1 hundredweight=112
2 quarter hundredweights=56
3 pounds=3
Thanks Dave...Tim
Chis that is really wonderful work you did on that railing, I wonder how many hours did you have into making it? I have never attempted anything near that complicated, but I do have a home builder out in Utah that wants me to make some window grills for some new construction in a Southwestern style, and some other assorted ironwork for their home. I think I can handle it as long as they keep what they want simple :D
I studied with Wallace Gusler from Colonial Williamsburg, he taught me how to carve wood and engrave. I learned more from him than just about any other person, and I am not only talking about carving and engraving... the guy is a true genius in my opinion. He was master of the gun shop there for many years but went on to head the furniture shop and then the department of conservation.
Here is something else I made as a gift for a friend. Not quite as complicated as your railing :D
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Nice railing , I know how much time was spent on that .
I have a friend that is the blacksmith up at the JD site in Grand Detour . One day an older lady came into the shop and watched his demonstrtion and then said that she had an old anvil that was her late husbans and wondered if Rick would like it , what he thought it was worth. He said that he would give her $25.00 without seeeing it . she told him to come get it . when he finaly got it it was a peter wright . He tried to give her more but she said a deal is a deal.
I play around with a hammer and hot metal a bit . But i like the electric fire myself . one of my buddies has an indution heater . It just takes seconds to go from cold to yellow hot with that thing.
Northwoods1, I spent about three weeks of long days on the railing. Wasn't hard, just time consuming heating and shaping. Nice serving set.
I have an old portable forge that has not been set up yet. I have played around with heating metal, and want to learn more.
Quote from: Radar67 on March 23, 2011, 09:25:46 AM
I have an old portable forge that has not been set up yet. I have played around with heating metal, and want to learn more.
There are a lot of good books on the subject out there. The quickest and best way I think, is to find other knowledgeable people and have them teach you. I also think that one of the most important things for a beginner to start learning about is basic metallurgy. I have met a lot of people who just as a hobby get into blacksmithing but never reach the point where they have a solid understanding about the fundamentals of heat treating and what is happening with different metals when you heat, cool, fabricate them into something and then use them.
I like the Peter Wright anvils and it is what I primarily use. I have a big fisher sawmakers anvil that doesn't have a horn or heel which also is one of my primary anvils. I like it because a lot of times you want to do something and the horn and heel get in the way. The fisher doesn't ring either because it is a cast steel anvil with a steel face that is cast right into the anvil, but it still has a very good rebound. Most other high quality anvils like the peter wrights are forged and have the face forge welded to the body. I have a #50 little giant hammer that I completely rebuilt you can really move the metal with that. It is so difficult to do much of any serious metal shaping by yourself the powerhammer can be a real big help.
I found a small portable Champion forge in a dump with a hand crank bellows. I replaced the wood handle on the crank, greased the gears and it was good to go sitting with three legs. Gave it to my father in law as he did farrier work on his own horses. I made for a good son in law for a while. :D :D :D
I'm not a black smith fabricator but have turned the crank for my dad and this was in the late 50's. He bought a Forney Welder and we hardly used the old forge again. I still have our forge & all our tooling from the old days. This remind's me to check on it to make sure it's not rusting up in the building where it's stored.
Both of my great grandfathers and grandfathers were blacksmiths. We had 12 teams to maintain when our family farmed in the 20's to the early 40's with horse's. My grandmother's grandfather & son's made the Stapleton Rifle. Their gun shop was located at Todd, PA. I had a chance to buy one the Stapleton Rifle's in the 80's. I was stupid to pass the deal up. This deal came up right before Christmas. The guy needed money but the gun was very ruff looking. It had a octagon barrel and rusted all to hell but you could still read Stapleton on it with no problem. My other mother's father (Ed. Stake) made a lot of different things for for people. I saw the river dragging chain (had hooks on it) that he made for the Mount Union Fire Dept. It was a nice rig & they used it for years to drag for people that were believed drown in the river by Mount Union, PA.
I added in a paste about the Stapleton Rifle. This is my Grandmother's (Mary Belle (Stapleton) Baker) folks. They lived about 25 miles from us in Todd, we lived at Aitch, PA. I was really amazed of how nice this rifle looks. The one that I was offered to buy was rusted junk. I should have bought it anyway because it was made by my folk's and will never get another chance for $ 50.00 bucks.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12166.0
Hope the paste works (above) to see the Stapleton Rifle.
Avery
It works fine Avery , nice gun :)
Quote from: H60 Hawk Pilot on March 23, 2011, 10:24:49 PM
I should have bought it anyway because it was made by my folk's and will never get another chance for $ 50.00 bucks.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=12166.0
Hope the paste works (above) to see the Stapleton Rifle.
Avery
Thanks for sharing that Avery I love those old guns. Would have been a neat thing for you to have, a gun made by your g-g- grandfather. Lots of times a rough looking gun can be given some TLC and it will fix up rather nice. The gun you show the link to is in nice condition. Nice enough that it looks like someone fairly recently had fixed it up so they could shoot it. It has a new nipple and drum, a replacement hammer and screw and you can see that the mainspring was replaced and also the sear spring. That work looks to be real recent. The double set triggers are really finely handmade I wouldn't be surprised if those had originally come off of an older gun originally most likely a flintlock. That gun most likely was made in the 1860's I would guess. :)
Northwoods1
Yep, I messed that one...big time... $50 bucks for a Stapleton Rifle.
I've missed out on some other deals on old guns, was a day late and a dollar short. My father sold his gun colletion to pay the hospital bill when I was born. My mother nearly died giving me life (birth) and she was in the hosptal (bad shape) for almost a month. He inherited some of his gun's from his father. One of them was a Stapleton Rifle, a 32 caliber if I remember right. He hunted squirrel's with it and said it was fine shooter.
I'd love to know where my Dad's Stapleton Rifle ended up. I have no way of finding out. If I'd did find one like it (32 cal.).. I'd try to buy it and add it to my collection & dad's (Jack Baker) collection that I got from him when he passed away.
Avery
I don't claim to be a smith but I do have two anvils, plenty of hammers, a good vise, gas and arc both and like to harvest steel out of old farm equipment up in the boneyard and make things that work. Generally a small investment and a good return on time spent.
Pretty is OK, but I'll take functional every time! 8)
I would like to be a 'smith but aint so yet ;D I do like old machinery and love to get it a second chance. Sometimes it takes more to get um going then there dollar value, the fun and work you get out of them out weighs that ten fold.
WOW, that is some nice work. I am a noob/budding blacksmith myself. I have been working hard, doing my best to learn what I can through books, online group (they really can teach you a lot) I am even a member of a 3 CD a month club sending me 3 videos a month from the world's best blacksmiths...
I have a shop about 3/4 done with 3 different types of forges and a couple anvils which I work at almost daily when the weather permits. I can at this time make smaller scale things such as knives, some Damascus work including cable Damascus. I make my own tongs and most of the tools I use (that saves a ton of cashola) I can make roses, and magnolia blossoms and leaves....There is more but you get the idea. I am a Novice and proud to be one. I am a sponge to people like the author of this thread and that kind of work. I plan, without a doubt ,that I will be able to produce that type of work SOMEDAY...I am so glad to see some smith's here. Here is a couple pictures of my work,
Also a little thank you to Chuck White for sending me his used sawmill blades...they are perfect for Damascus.
some of my first work...Edit:I uploaded a few pictures of my noobish work into my 'profile pictures'. I will take the time to do it properly later....thanks guys for looking. All comments appreciated.
Here is a easy link.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=14675;sa=pictures
False modesty!! Those are nicely done. Keep at it. The times they are achangin.
Joe
http://www.abana.org/ American Blacksmith Association of North America is a good place to start for information. I didn't learn about them for a few years into my indexer. I didn't have the internet back then. There are so many talented people out there, you don't have to be a so called blacksmith or fabricator to learn more than what you know now and add to it. Don't sell yourself short.
Chris,
FYI, Artist Balcksmiths Assoc. North America. The one reason to mention it, is the name has created some contention within their ranks over the years. The "Artist" part seems important.
There are a few others out there also, I dont remember the name now but one is Metal something something and is more fabrication AND smithing related. ABANA has good meetings held regionally (Called Affiliates) around the country, and used to have Annual gathering but became somewhat "politisized" and was dropped in light of a more regional approach for Chapters to persue. Much of the membership does not travel well, due to age, limited resources and personal tendency.
A link to ABANA Forums
http://www.abana.org/resources/forums/index.shtml
And others unrelated, in particular, the first is more smithing related> The "Guru's Den" has facts and info that is arranged alphabetically and is an OUTSTANDING resource
http://www.anvilfire.com/
http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/forumdisplay.php?f=34
http://www.artmetal.com/brambush/forum/bramyak3/index.html
http://www.thesheetmetalshop.com/
Ironwood
Picked up another toy a few days ago. Hossfeld #2 bender...made in Winona, Minnesota USA. :) It came with some basic dies along with most of the pipe dies.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10125/bender.jpg)
Did a job this morning before I even have it mounted proper. Bent up some brackets for shed posts. Bent them around the center pin with the square blocks. They have a slight radius in the bend. Looks like Hossfeld has a die that makes square corners. Would that be any better for brackets?
Think I'll go ahead and rig it for hydraulics. That way I can put it on a roll around cart. Anybody have extra dies, send me a PM.
Good find there Larry....Can I borrow it next weekend :)