Class Projects

(2/4/2001)
I'm going to keep a running gallery on the projects we finish in class. "Gallery" is probably too strong a word, but it makes me feel important. The following are the pictures and descriptions of the class that will hopefully never end. Clicking on the picture will get a larger picture.

Here's the "group picture" of my first 8 weeks of class. Starting from the left we have:

• Flipper: Basic twisting, riveting, and eye-making. The flat is just sheet metal.

• 'S' scroll: This was to practice scrolling. No real use, but I like the way it turned out.

• On top of that a leaf: I didn't like the way it turned out at all. But I've gotten better since.

• Turkey Fork: Splitting, twists, tapers, etc. One of my favorites. Haven't stuck it in a turkey, but it flips steak well.

• Three skewers: Here's where I learned to make eyes.

• Trivet in progress: Learned scrolling and split a pipe for the flower. It's got feet and the flower mounted since then.

• Nail hooks on top of that: One of them was my first project. Learned tapering, twists, drawing down, bending... all in my first 2 hours of blacksmithing.

• The bars to the right were used to make the feet of the trivet. There are tenons on the ends.

• On top of it all, a utensil rack. Learned shouldering on the hooks, simple scrolls, bending wide radii, etc.

This is a toilet paper holder. Learned upsetting (the ball at the end) and the corkscrew. See what I mean about leaves?  I'm feeling better about this one. I like the way this turned out, too. Now how to convince my wife it really does fit in the bathroom decor.

(05/19/2001)
This is the completed trivet from the pieces shown in the "class picture" above.

This trivet's main point is a ring I welded in a gas forge. The weld was a major accomplishment. It took three classes to learn to weld, but it was worth it.

Here's my latest class project, sort of a "capstone" project. The candle-holder arm is two sections, fully articulate, and slides up and down the vertical rod. This project was interesting mainly because it was something my teacher got from a picture in one of the blacksmith mags (can't remember which one). He had never tried it before, so we, as a class, worked through the design and figured out how to put it together. One tip on this project - Keep the part of the arm that slides up and down the vertical thick. A thin eye here will make it tough to keep horizontal.

(07/26/2002) OK, it's been over a year since updating this part, enough time for a complete year of class. This year, Ken started us out with a different concept. We were going to "make the tool to make the tool to do the job".



The above are the tools we made, tongs were used to make a drift. And the tongs and drift were used to make a set hammer.



Then we made this box. The set hammer was used to do the bevels on the top, front, and back. I'm using this box to hold matches for the woodstove. But if we had made the box a little bigger, it would also make a nice business card box.
I colored the box by heating in my oven at 550 degC. Then I coated it with a clearcoat.
Lessons learned here - work faster. The beveled panels spent so much time in and out of the forge that scaling reduced its thickness noticeably, especially when compared to the sides.

The next project was this winerack.


We learned collaring on this one. But we also "cheated" by gas-welding the rings together. The collars cover the welds. This one was painted with a satin black Rustoleum.
On this one, we used 4" pipe to make the rings. But the collars take up space, so 5" rings would have been better.

(01/01/2004) HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

A couple of my more recent projects.

  

This firewood stand was started in class. I made the frame there, but the scrolling and copper kindling tray was finished at home. This was my largest project so far, involving 5 foot-long work. I had to use the coal forge for this to heat the middle sections for bending.

A jig was also made to make sure all arcs were uniform. The frames pieces are joined by piercing the side rails, threading the cross braces, and winding them around the side frame. I was kind of surprised when the entire thing was very nearly square and required minimal tweaking. One little goof, though - I thought I measured my fire tools correctly, but I mis-remembered them. The original design had simple hooks to hang them. But they dragged on the floor when I was done. So I re-formed the hooks into those little "pig-tails". I would have liked the hooks better, but these aren't a bad second choice.

Each scroll has a forge weld at the point. My new home forge is quite up to the task, and my skills are getting better.

We just finished these stands in time for Christmas, hence the colored candles. These big projects are challenging. You've got to find space to moves things around and work on the floor a lot.