Good day forging

[webradbury]

I cheated today and didn’t go jogging this morning so I could start early on this one.  After yesterday’s failures, I’m glad this turned out well! I’ll post more when I finish it.

[WH1]

nice looking hawk

[Greg Pennell]

Nice... need to make forging time myself.  You’d think a retired feller would have plenty of time...

Greg

[David R. Pennington]

Looks a lot more productive than jogging. Nice.

[Iktomi]

 I miss my forge. Unfortunately, where I live isn't the best place for it, creates *issues* with the neighbors. Unless someone has a silent anvil....

[hanshi]

I do like where that is going.  More pics when it's finished, please.

[webradbury]

A few more days of filing and sanding and I’ll be done! I am Doing some file work on this one and so far it’s going well. I had a heck of a cold for the past five days so didn’t get much done. The doctors made it sound more dramatic “Acute upper respiratory infection with acute pharyngitis”. All I know is, I’m On the downhill side of it and coughing up stuff you could plug tires with!

[BOB HILL]

Nice looking work there. Hope your health continues to improve.
Bob

[tippit]

Do you wear a respirator when you sand and grind...especially any wood handles.  A number of my friends that make traditional bows from exotic woods have become hypersensitive to the dust.  So much so they can't even touch certain woods...be safe.

[Spentprimer]

One of my long time clients was a blacksmith and when he was in his late 50's he was losing weight, a lot of weight, was fatigued all the time and generally looked rather sickly.  After a rather long series of tests at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN he was declared to have iron poisoning.  Until he told me I had never heard of it before or since.  Airborne iron particles were the problem.  Respirators are a good idea.

[Dave R]

Did your friend recover?

[Spentprimer]

He lived maybe a dozen years longer, but, he never did get back to his big muscled, strong self. He could performed magic with a welding rod.  If you drove past his shop at quitting time everything was inside and the sidewalk clear.  When you drove into work the next morning the side of the building and sidewalk would be cluttered with tools, farm implement, parts, etc, things that had been dropped off overnight by the local farmers that needed fixing. He had two or three men working depending on the season and everyone was very busy.

[tippit]

Sorry to hijack your thread but y'all need to work safe...

When I grind, I set my grinder up right in front of my over head garage door.  My grinder is on a tall plastic drum so it is easily movable with a dolly.  Then I have a Big barn fan blowing everything out the door plus my respirator on...tippit

[Hungry Horse]

 I’m not so sure airborn iron is the culprit here. If that were the case all welders, and fabricators would be at extreme risk, and you would hear about a lot more cases. Major sources of iron are food additives, along with well water, as well as your daily vitamin tablets. Women lose iron through ministration. But, everything that is prepackaged in the way of food is iron fortified, which can build up in men’s systems. Some people are more susceptible to this, than others. The treatment is to give blood, and check everything for added iron.

  Hungry Horse

[David R. Pennington]

My grinder is slow speed with water on the wheel and most metal is shaped by forging and hot rasping. Most wood work I do with hand tools and very little dust is created.

[T*O*F]

Do you blacksmiths give the Vulcan sign and say, "Live long and prosper" when you meet one another?

[webradbury]

Well I filed it, polished it, Heat treated it and put an edge on it so far. I’m working on fitting an Osage haft right now. I’m hoping if I stick the haft in the sun for a few days it will darken up. It’s bright yellow right now! Interesting wood for sure. I found this giant tree that blew over about five years ago in a hurricane. Turned out to be an Osage orange which are extremely rare in Eastern NC. I’ve spent many years hunting/fishing/camping and studied forestry in college, and this is only the second Osage I had ever seen. I’ve got a couple bow staves from that same tree that are about ready for me to ruin them!

[rich pierce]

It’s actually fairly hard to ruin a good Osage bow stave if the rings are wide enough to make it easy to skin down on the bark side, past the sapwood on one growth ring. After that they can be built with serious defects and shoot hard. My first Osage bow was from a down log that looked like it had been lying there for years. It’s got a horrible profile at draw, knots and some twists, and still shoots better than better looking bows made of other woods like black locust.

For handles it is not going to break off but is more likely to split than hickory. Osage splits easily on the growth rings. Split-ability has little to do with hardness or toughness.

[David R. Pennington]

I tend to over use (abuse) hatchets. I have a really handy little bag axe that had a real pretty osage handle. I broke it. It has a hickory handle now. Hickory is all I will use for a handle in an impact tool I intend to put to work. River bottoms around here have a lot of osage.

[webradbury]

I tend to over use (abuse) hatchets. I have a really handy little bag axe that had a real pretty osage handle. I broke it. It has a hickory handle now. Hickory is all I will use for a handle in an impact tool I intend to put to work. River bottoms around here have a lot of osage.

Y'all are making me second guess my osage!

I don't have any hickory, but I do have some pecan although it is still drying. Guess I'll just wait for it.

[David R. Pennington]

Your osage will likely work ok for normal use. I have used my hatchet like a froe and driven it into logs to split them. I had a self proclaimed professional knife maker tell me my forge welded axes would come apart so I have purposely abused them. Every time I am at an event where there are a bunch of youngsters throwing hawks I will loan them one of mine and ask them to see if they can tear it up. Hickory is the only thing I know will take that kind of abuse.

[webradbury]

I’m still working on a haft but here is the head. I can’t get anything done with the kids out of school!  Not the best photos. I’m planning on rusting it. And that is my first attempt at file work on a spine. I’m not sure I shouldn’t have just left it alone.

[Elnathan]

How are you making the cut for the eye? The only time I ever made a 'hawk I tried to cut the eye with a hot chisel and it ended up taking two people and was crooked to boot (my planned hammer poll tomahawk ended up a round poll bag axe in consequence).

I'm thinking of trying again, but how to cut a slit  over an 1" deep by myself and get it straight is a daunting prospect.

[webradbury]

I am using square stock and I mark it well on both sides where the slit will be started. I use a cold chisel I reground into a slitting chisel. I go slow and work from both sides while it’s hot.  I perform this operation after upsetting the front of the bar. I also hold the bar between my legs so I can use both hands. If it is a little crooked, straighten it up while drifting it. Then do some filing if needed.

The trick is knowing how long of a slit to make in relation to your particular drift. I’m still working on this.

Hope this helps.

[David R. Pennington]

Looks great from here!