Hogan Baker

Wow, those are great! But where are the mokume sheaths? ~Hogan

That is really great!!! I love how you come up with something completely new everytime!

Thanks for all the prayers and get well wishes. The doctor mentioned the sterile maggots, but luckily he has a little whirl pool thingy that does the same thing. The doctor couldn't really give me much info about my finger when i went to his office on monday. Half looked black and half looked normal ish. But he said it probably was better then it looked. One good thing about getting my finger mangled is that all the rest for my right hand should get rid of the carpel tunnel. ~Hogan Baker

Hey guys, so today i was splitting logs in a 20 ton log slitter and my finger got caught and it pinched half of my fore finger right off ! Boy it did and does hurt. Anyway, i got it reattached by one of the best hand surgeons in the area who thankfully was in the building at the time. He said that i have only about a 20% chance of keeping it. So, i would appreciate some payers. i get to find out in 10 days.... ~hogan baker sorry about the bad typing, i am only using one hand.

Check out what Don Fogg has on it... here Good luck, Hogan Baker

Hey Sam, I am sorry to hear that you lost your job, but I am happy that you are going to be doing some more smithing. Maybe I could stop by some time? ~Hogan Baker

I went to Middleton Place about 3 years ago. It is a really interesting place! I remember meeting the resident blacksmith, really nice fellow, but I don't remember his name (It was before I got interested in forging). If you can go, you really should! ~Hogan Baker

That is an awesome boat! I wish you best of luck! Its very nice blog too, I may have to try to figure out some of those knots in my spare time. ~Hogan Baker

I just welded up some chain saw blades as my first damascus, and it was pretty hard, plus it was all full of flaws. I think that I, just like you, am going to do some regular old straight laminate. The MS that C Craft is refurring to is Ed Caffrey and you can read his wonderfully written out replies here Good Luck, Hogan Baker

Yep

That sure would be fun! I live in Westtown Ny ~Hogan

Thats like 20 minutes from me. Actually I share a forge with Geoff, but I am not at college. ~Hogan

Wonderful work! How did you finish the flower? Hogan Baker

Man! This sure is coming out fantastic! You guys rock. ~Hogan Baker

"The Journeyman Smith may test with any forged homogenous carbon steel of his or her choice. No Damascus steel (pattern-welded) or other forge-welded material (welded cable, etc.) will be allowed for this test." Alright, so dumb question time, is that line on the blade a hardening line? Or is it the seam between wrought and 1095? ~Hogan Baker

Awesome!!!

Ok, thanks for the suggestions! I welded it up in my cousin's coal forge, I was too chicken to try charcoal. ~Hogan Baker

I just moved up to New York, so I am only about 45 minutes away. I plan to be there! Sam, how close are you to Westtown New York?

Well, I played around with forge welding today and decided that it was time to actually make something, so I figured that I would try to make a trade axe. I wasn't really sure what I should make it look like, but I kinda just started and this is what I ended up with. I made it by looping a piece of 1 1/4 iron and weld it to either side of a chunk of rail road E clip. It really isn't as off centered as it looks in the pictures. There is just about 1/4 to 1/2 of steel showing on the edge of either side. Right now, in these pictures I have not done the heat treat or filed any on the edge. I plan to leave as much as possible with the as forged. Does it look anything like a little trade axe? What should I do to make it better next time? From some of the pictures that I have seen, I think that I should: -Keep the top of the axe flat. -Make the axe longer by and inch or two. -File some notches in the top of the axe. Thanks for the input! ~Hogan Baker

Hey, I have a bunch of blades without handles if you want something to do.... I am just kidding. Wow that sounds pretty bad, I am glad you didn't get hurt worse. Get well soon! Hogan Baker

That is really funny. I was really impressed until I got down to the pictures.... Hogan Baker

I am cheap, just like Isaiah. Most of you will notice that this is a version of Tim Lively’s “wash tub forge.” I made this forge in a 5.5 gallon oblong galvanized steel wash tub. The tuyere is made of one inch black pipe with 1/4 inch holes drilled every 1 inch. The refractory that I used isn’t actually a true refractory cement, I took a 60 pound bag of quickrete and added several hand fulls of wood ash. All of the parts cost me about $35, it is probably one of the cheapest forges that you can make. The forge has worked very well for me so far, It has develped a couple of cracks in it, as you can see in the photo, but I think that they are natural. This forge burns about 4 pounds of my homemade charcoal per hour, while maintaining forging heats. The washtub forge is able to to get sustain forge welding heats with ease, though flux will fill up the tuyere holes really fast. Most of the time this forge is too large for the things that I make, so I simply choke down the size of it with some clay. I can mold it into what ever size or shape that I want. I power it with an old hairdryer, though most of the time I find that the blast is too hard. If I were to remake mine, I would have made it into more of an oblong bowl instead of a slot. I would recommend this forge for the beginner. Hogan Baker Edit: wow, I didn't realize how much my forge was like Isaiah's, the are practically the same forge.

I was just about to ask the same thing. How long does the early registration last? Hogan Baker

I believe that Thomas Jefferson had something just like that so when he wrote a letter he would have a copy of it. Hogan Baker