What did you do in your shop today?

[Garry Keown]

Cut out a few more blades today with 4 pair of steak knives, a bird and trout, a mini bullnose skinner, and 3 bearded UTI's (1 camp and 2 kitchen) The bottom 2 in the center are a wapiti hunter and a pH EDC from a san mai bar I bought in from Australia to try. Have another design I will work with at the same time in an EDC Khukuri so with it and the new bearded UTI's it is going to be an interesting couple of weeks with a couple of days hunting in the mix.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Garry Keown

[Alan Longmire]

No knife work since right after Christmas, I've been in furniture mode.  The backstory:  I won a couple of steel scuba tanks with the bottom cut off at an iron-in-the-hat at my local blacksmith's guild a few years ago, and made them into bells by forging a loop up top and welding it to the body.  Two I painted black, made outdoor brackets for, and sent on their merry way to deserving people.  The third one, my wife saw while I was stripping the old paint and rust off and claimed it as her own, to be left in the white, not painted.  It was to be an indoor bell, and I was going to make a stand for it.  Inspiration for the stand design, however, was not working.  Steel was out, per executive order.  One idea in wood and iron was also vetoed by the design committee (me).  Then, nearly three years after I made the bell, inspiration struck.  I wanted Arts and Crafts movement, but I also wanted Chinese.  Add the two and you get Charles Rennie Mackintosh.  Use North American hardwoods and add a little extra flair and you get Greene and Greene.  Bingo.  Image search for furniture by both designers, copy some elements, and I came up with this:

 

 

 

 

 

Oak and black walnut, copper and bronze.  

 

I'm proud of myself on this one.  

[Chris Christenberry]

Ah and in my favorite style...........Mackintosh.  (or very close to Greene and Greene)   Nicely designed and done.  I've made a lot of furniture in both those styles.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Chris Christenberry

[Ron Benson]

Great job Alan!

Edited February 7, 2021 by Ron Benson

[Alan Longmire]

Thanks guys!

 

Chris, that means a lot coming from you. I am humbled.   And I value your opinion as well, Ron, but have you seen Chris's furniture?  Talk about a pro!

[Chris Christenberry]

Well, the compliment was sincere.  Your combining of Macintosh and Greene and Greene was very subtle and, I thought, very appropriately done.  I have only one thing to critique.  I think it would improve the over all look if you would ditch the metal strapping to hold the bell.  Personally, I'd have made it out of leather.   But now that it's done, I think it would be easy to cover the metal just by contact cementing a covering over it made of leather.  I'd make it dark and weathered looking.  Everything else is so organic in design the strapping stands out as "foreign" to my eye.  Might just be me, but that's my take on it.

Edited February 6, 2021 by Chris Christenberry

[Guy Thomas]

Hats off Alan! Beautiful, I envy those who have the knack of working with wood, it requires so much delicacy of precision. Way harder than metal for me.

 

[Ron Benson]

2 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

Thanks guys!

 

Chris, that means a lot coming from you. I am humbled.   And I value your opinion as well, Ron, but have you seen Chris's furniture?  Talk about a pro!

Well, maybe it's time for Chris to post a few photos of his furniture. What do ya think Alan? 

[Chris Christenberry]

http://www.chrischristenberry.com/

 

Click on the pics for additional pics.

Edited February 7, 2021 by Chris Christenberry

[Ron Benson]

Wow Chris - you da man. Super work.

[Alan Longmire]

Re: the copper strap:  I agree it's a little harsh. I am hoping that it will blend better when it oxidizes to the deep brown it will achieve in a few weeks.  The original idea was for the bell to hang from ropes, rather like a Japanese temple bell, but the need to dismount it killed that.  Leather would stretch too much, the bell weighs around 25 lbs. It is a full 1/4" thick, more at the top. The copper is not attached, it just sits by gravity. I may change it later.  I appreciate the feedback!

[Chris Christenberry]

Thanks, Ron.

 

COPPER?       I retract my critique.  In the pic it looked like "plumbers tape", or something similar.  (reflections can be the greatest headache of every photographer.)  Leave it as it is.  Really nice touch.  It'll eventually turn to a nice patina and look great.  If it doesn't, there are plenty of ways to "force" it in that direction.

[Alan Longmire]

Yep, copper!  I can see where it looks like plumber's tape in the first pic, though. 

I learned something new while making it, though:  you can drill copper with Forstner bits!  

[Guy Thomas]

Are you making a bell mallet for it too Alan?

[Alan Longmire]

I thought about it, but it's far too loud to use a mallet on.  It's for indoors, so a tap with a knuckle makes it sing for about five minutes.  These air tank bells can deafen you!  They have one at John C. Campbell made out of an oxygen cylinder, about four feet tall and eight inches diameter.  It is used to get the attention of the blacksmithing class when everyone is working.  The rule is to tap it with a hammer handle.  If you actually hit it with a hammer it's been known to make people flinch so hard they hurt themselves, or throw their own hammer, etc.   I stuck an old baseball on a handle for a mallet for this, but it was still way too loud for indoors.  I thought about a felt mallet like a drumstick for tympani, but a simple knuckle flick works fine.

 

Here's a closeup of the copper strap with hammered texture.  It's already darker than it was yesterday.  It's a piece of 3/4" pipe, split and flattened.  

 

[Chris Christenberry]

WOW!  That's really sharp lookin' Alan.  Sorry I opened my mouth with a critique.  It's beautiful just like it is.  Very appropriate.

[Chris Christenberry]

Soft leather covered mallet.

[Matt Walker]

As always, Impressive work Alan! Link sent to current owner of the bottle inventory. Maybe he will be inspired.

 

They are nasty to clean up aren't they. If you burn them a little in the forge it makes the powder coating softer and a little easier to remove. All the ones I had were in fact air bottles, from a local fire dept. Scraped when they went to all composite bottles several years back.

[Alan Longmire]

Thanks, Matt!  Yeah, I bet Bobby will like this.  The loop is forged from about six inches of 1 x 3/8.  Had to spread the middle out wide to cover the whole top.  There's a little hook in there as well, to hang a clapper if wanted.  I have a pic or two somewhere, let's see if I can find 'em...

 

Edit: Here's what the loop looks like before welding to the bottle.  The hook is 1/4" round, tack welded into a hole.  

Edited February 7, 2021 by Alan Longmire
added a picture

[Matt Walker]

Great, Best I remember a golf ball gives a decent tone in that size bottle. I have some hockey pucks if you want to experiment. That's a rare item in East TN.

[Alan Longmire]

On the ones I made wind chimes out of, I cut and turned some old laminated cabinet door material down to a circle that fit inside with about 3/8" clearance. That keeps it from being too obnoxiously loud for those of us who don't like wind chimes.  I actually have a hockey puck, never thought of using it!  

[Joshua States]

On 2/6/2021 at 2:29 PM, Alan Longmire said:

I'm proud of myself on this one.  

And well you should be. That's a wonderful piece Alan.

[Matt Walker]

6 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

I actually have a hockey puck, never thought of using it!  

And I thought I was the only one in the region. They make a handy rubber hammer. You can machine them on your lathe by mounting a die grinder (carbide tool) on the tool holder. 

[Brian Dougherty]

8 hours ago, Matt Walker said:

And I thought I was the only one in the region. They make a handy rubber hammer. You can machine them on your lathe by mounting a die grinder (carbide tool) on the tool holder. 

 

Neat project Alan!  It's a real hum-dinger!

 

Hockey-pucks are a must have for car guys.  You sit them on the pad of a floor jack to keep from scratching up the jacking points on the car.  They also machine a bit easier when frozen

[Ted Stocksdale]

More "what did I do in my shop this weekend", but yesterday was busy at the place that makes it so I can do these things

 

First off, my first welding project after learning on little scraps: a table for welding other things on (prior to cleaning up all the flux scale)

 

Then, to "business", for my next attempt I took some of this

 

And I cut the rough shape out

 

Then I heated and pounded on it until I was rather sore. But I was able to grind

it the results into a small cleaver. I didn't take a picture between forging and grinding, but

there were many hammer divots because I'm still new. As I said in previous posts,

I seem to enjoy picking harder things to do than my skill really allows

 

In getting the hammer marks out, I ground the edge way too thin, so after quenching, 

the edge resembled a mountain range. I tempered it to 450 a total of seven times applying

clamps and spacers to get it straightened. But I am fairly happy in the end.

 

I'm a little surprised by how it got rusty overnight... 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Ted Stocksdale