Forging/Blacksmithing

[Anonymous No.1371869]

I just got my forge and anvil set up and finished my first fuck up today.
Tried to make a bracelet, it came out uneven as fuck and I think I need to grind the circular texture off the hammer I bought but I'm excited to get better at it.

Any smiths have some tips or stories from when they first started?

[Anonymous No.1372055]

I was lucky enough to get to spend an entire year learning blacksmithing in highschool. The first exercise we did was to take a piece of round stock about 4-5 inches long, leave the first inch round, forge the second inch square, forge the third inch back to round, then an octagonal inch, and then back to round, then a smooth taper, each time reducing the thickness of that section by about 1/4 inch. It sounds pretty simple, but it's a good exercise.

[Anonymous No.1372070]

How heavy is an iron bracelet?

[Anonymous No.1372157]

Making an iron "bracelet" for your black gf anon? Noice

[Anonymous No.1372159]

>>1372157

[Anonymous No.1373943]

>>1371869
polish your hammer face

[Anonymous No.1373975]

>>1372157
Give her back to Tyrone.

[Anonymous No.1374057]

Where did you get your anvil, OP? Post pics of it and your forge set up.

[Anonymous No.1374213]

>>1374057
>this

[Anonymous No.1374225]

>>1371869
Try Forging it around a steel pipe of the diameter you want it to be

[Anonymous No.1374381]

Smooth out your hammer face. Set that hammer aside and never use it for anything other then forging. Keep it nice, it will keep your work nice.

You can reduce the amount of scale by using a reducing fire - run rich on fuel, it lowers the amount of oxygen in the fire, thus less iron oxide (scale) formation.

[Anonymous No.1375154]

>>1371869
I would recommend putting the rat-tails facing outwards as a matter of comfort.

Having them inwards is going to be quite uncomfortable, and will rub/chafe a good deal.

[Anonymous No.1377411]

Anyone ever used this stuff to coat the insulation in a propane forge?
I got it because it was cheap and local instead of paying ridiculous canadian shipping fees, and it went on really easy but it needs to heat cure and when I point the propane torch at it it gets white bumps and expands so I'm guessing it needs a slower more gentle curing heat.
My options are either tossing it in the oven or building a small wood fire in/around it. The oven would be easy but I have no idea if it would unhealthy or stink the place up terribly or something, I'm a little leery about mixing things like this with food.
A small campfire would be a bit inconvenient and harder to control, and might damage it somehow?
I couldn't find any details other than "apply heat gradually" on their website, really helpful


Fuck, hiroshima broke images again.
This shit
www.imperialgroup.ca/stove_maintenanceproducts.cfm?c=323

[Anonymous No.1377489]

>>1371869
Definitely polish your hammer face, or atleast smooth it out on a grinder. The smoother your hammer and anvil surfaces are the smoother your work is. Mind the scale as you work, when you're doing twists and tight scrolls that crap will work into the details, your better to wire brush it away early than late or not at all. Remember if you want to drive out hammer marks do it with the work on the cooler side, black cherry red which will be almost invisible in broad day light. The cooler the steel is the easier it is to smooth out hammer strikes, however do not work it black black cold, chances of shattering your work gets higher especially with the thin finer details like your really slender end there toward the bottom of the picture OP. What kind of forge are you using? I'm assuming Coal at this point with the scale you've got on that image.

[Anonymous No.1379724]

Heres my little outdoor propane forge, don't use it as often as I would like. My friend comes over and forges more than I do but it's nice to have around.

[Anonymous No.1379728]

>>1373975
Fuck you, you unfunny skinhead asshole. Stop fucking posting this in every thread. I'm incredibly white, and you fucking people need to drop this shit where you found it.

[Anonymous No.1379740]

>>1371869
Just round off the edges of the stock a little prior to twisting and it won't get nearly as jagged, also a lot of your prep work there in terms of surface finish will save you hours of work later.

>>1372157
>I am a bad man for laughing too hard at that

[Anonymous No.1380304]

>>1379728

[Anonymous No.1380359]

Op, heres afew small things that would help the next time you try to forge the bracelet. Im assumeing you started from a ramdom piece of juckyard steel but i could be wrong. Don't take any of these points personal these all come from my own mistakes over the years In my own learning curve.

1 sand your hammer SMOOTH. It doesn't have to be 50000 grit finished mirror polished. Mine are all polished to around 400 grit which is still kind of high. And don't go into this thinking you need to buy that 500 dollar specialty made Brian brazeal(No offence to him) style hammer. The best 3 hammers I have came from harbor freight, 1 crosspein, 1 stubby 2 1/2lbs drilling hammer, and 1, 3 lbs machinists hammer all with WOOD handles no fiberglass or plastic. Also clean up the anvil face it's just as important as the hammer face.

2 start with a known steel and/or new steel. Especially when you get started you need to accomplish the basics first. If you are struggling trying to move a high carbon steel around before you learn how metal moves easiest you will take longer to learn how to do it. Mild steel is the best learning steel for anything.

3 plan all of your steps before you put any metal in the fire. Then you pull out hot steel you have seconds to hit it into shape, wasting time planing after you have it on the anvil increases to amount of time you are working on the project, and increases the amount of metal you lose in the fire to forge scale.

4 start with metal as close to the finished dimensions as possible, whenever possible. Its great to say you forged that 2 inch ballbearing into a blade, but it took you 3 hours with heavy machinery to do it. When a bar of the same steel can be turned into a blade in half that time.

5 EVERY time the metal comes out of the fire, scrub it with a wire brush. This knocks off the scale(oxides) that have formed, if you don't you end up pressing them into the metal causing divots in the steel that can be hell to grind out.

That's pt 1

[Anonymous No.1380364]

>>1380359
Here's pt 2.

This is how I'd plan out how to make the same bracelet.

1) grab a bar of 3/8 mild steel and cut to about ~4.5.
2) use a center punch and mark 1.5 inches from each end, this will be the taper on each end. marking it now let's you make each side even.
3) forge out the square taper, make sure all of the sides are even and square. Then form the rat tails over the edge of the anvil if you don't have scrolling tongs.( If you do have scroll tongs roll the rat tails last.)
4) put in the twist in the center of the bracelet.
5) using fire wood of the approximate size of the wrist, form the bracelet around the wood. I use pine 2x4s to bend metal that has decorative twists that I don't want to mar the finish.
6) do a final check that everything is straight.

This project should only take 8-10 heats to do. I think you could probably do it in 6 if you were mass producing them and had a proper bending jig. The tricky part to bracelets is making the curve symetrical enough while leaving enough room to insert the wrist and making it comfortable.

But overall OP you have a solid 6.5 out of 10 bracelet there. The twist is even and clean, with no cracks, the bottom taper could use some work to make it even , but the top is flatter in one width than the other. Plus you do need to put the rat tail on the outside. Those inside points hurt when they rub. But keep this project and hang it on a wall in your shop. Always be aware of where you started from and where you are headed.