#forgeposting time :D

Finished a new hardy today, that was a few after-work sessions spread out over the past few weeks. It's a real workout to shape thick pieces like this, even my hammer's handle gave out at some point and I had to replace it 😆

On the pics I'm showing it next to another hardy I made last year and which was one of my first projects, it served me half-decently until now but it's very rough.

Not gonna lie, I feel like this shows my progress very well and it's hella cathartic.

#forgeposting time!!!

Made a toilet paper roll holder today, the one I had was of unfortunate construction and broke. I'll try to reforge it into other stuff since it's steel 😁

Tried using the peen of the hammer to create a texture on the flat section after seeing the work of a local blacksmith. I'm happy with it.

I went too hard driving the nails (common L for me lol) and chipped the bathroom wall tile. No biggie, somewhere in the house restoration process it's gonna have to go anyways 🤷

I just put up a new address plaque on my house, I forged both the numbers and the staples that pin them to a northern white cedar board with concave radii in the corners and charred sides. I'm not gonna show it here because I don't want to dox myself so you're just gonna have to take my word that it's totally cool.

#forgeposting I guess lol

On today's episode of #forgeposting with an actual bus, I made a punch so I can make holes of a variety of widths.

I had previously been using a cold chisel which was too small, I couldn't fully wrap my hand around it and even just pinching it had my hand too close to the hot metal which was no fun.

I had a big bolt from a truck that someone gave me, ideally I'd get something like an old drill bit which'd resist losing its temper from being driven in hot metal but oh well, it works.

#forgeposting time!

Yesterday I posted a bottle opener I had made, but I wasn't satisfied with the handle as I found it too large.

I straightened it all back out, made a couple nails with the excess length, and then re-did the curl. I'm happy now.

I think it's pretty cool to think this started as a foot-long section of rebar scrap.

#forgeposting time 😁

For the past few days I've been making nails, good practice but a bit boring to post about hahaha

Today I wanted to do something a bit different though, so I made a bottle opener. I'm happy with the frills but not the handle—it's too large and the twist didn't come out right—so I'm gonna remake it. That said it works great :D

Maybe when I get nailmaking down pat and can reliably make one in a single heat I'll post a video of the process.

#forgeposting time :P

Made a hardy today, which is one of the essential tools for blacksmithing and allows you to cut hot metal neatly. Up to now I've been flattening work against the corners of the anvil until it was thin enough that I could break it off by hand, but this was neither efficient nor gave clean results.

It may not look like much, and somewhere down the line I'll probably make a nicer-looking one but for now this thing is a genuine level up 😁

#forgeposting time!!

After finishing my nail header yesterday, of course I would make nails today 😁

Success rate so far is exactly 50/50 so lots of room for improvement, it is what it is :P

The forge ran on bark this time, I read it's actually a traditional fuel and I get lots of it from milling logs so I had to give it a shot. It puts out less smoke and more coals than plain wood, but also *lots* of ash. Definitely good enough to get it done though—I love finding good uses for by-products.

#forgeposting time!

Been away for a bit, but I wasn't slacking! Over a couple more sessions I finally finished my nail header, which is currently tempering in the toaster oven 😆

It's been a workout, spring steel is a lot harder to shape than rebar as it turns out, and I (mildly) splurged on an actual blacksmith hammer to speed things up. Ground the faces before starting work today.

With this I can now make nails, which is going to be key to a bunch of other projects in the pipeline 😁

#forgeposting time!

A few years ago I made a froe from a big leaf spring, but it was just way too thick and heavy to work well.

As of today it is no more and on its way to become more useful things, first of which a nail header because spring steel is good tool steel. I uncurled the eye, started upsetting the head and cut off what I need with a grinder. Every step took a while because that is a heckin' large chunk of steel, just heating it up had me take a seat as I waited 😆

More tomorrow!