Patti update and some more smithing.

 

Patti update:

Patti is doing great! Yesterday we went to the out patient PT place and they said that she is doing much better than most patients at this stage.

More work at the forge:

 

The weather has been quite warm (high ninety’s) so I have only been working a couple of hours in the morning.

I twisted up another handle using the 1/4” rods you see in the below picture.
You can see the twisted part also in this picture.

I used four of the rods. First I wired the bundle together then I clamped the bundle in the vice and tack welded the ends together.

Once I had the ends stuck together I attempted to forge weld about an inch of the end.

 

The end on your left welded fine but I had some trouble with the right end so I had to arc weld it together, then pound it out so it looks forged. I have some work to do on this handle. I’m still trying to perfect the process.
The next thing I will have to do is make the legs for the the handle. I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do there only time will tell.

Making some more tools:

A square hot punch:

I found an old, small, rusty, ball peen hammer and decided to try and make a small square hot punch.
I cut the handle off and put the hammer head in the forge to heat it. Once it was hot I forged out the ball into a square punch. Once I had the punch end the way I wanted it I replaced the handle.

Here is the finished punch.

 

Some hold downs:

Many years ago I was watching a program called “The Wood Wright’s Shop” on PBS.
In this episode the wood wright made some steel hold downs. These are used to hold work to a work bench or anvil.

The hold downs are easy to make and use. You just hammer a flat on one end of a steel rod then bend it leaving the tail end a little longer.

Here is one on the anvil holding down a piece of square stock. The tail end is locked in the pritchel hole.

To lock the hold down you just tap it down with a hammer.

To release just tap the hold down on the back and it will pop up.

I use hold downs like this for all kinds of holding situations. All my bench tops have holes drilled in them for this purpose. Here is one holding a piece of wood on the bench top.

 

The hold downs hold strong enough that I even have had an arbor press held down to a bench with them. It started as a temporary setup but it has been this way for years.

I highly recommend making some of these for your shop they are very handy.

Okay that’s all for today. Talk to you later.