Yesterday was spent at an SCA event.  I was there to demoing/teaching.  The heat kept the crowds to a smaller amount around the forge which was fine with me.  It let me take a few more breaks from the heat.

I started off by making a requested item for a friend.  He needed a way to hold gas bottles for teaching a glass bead making class.  In about half an hour, I manged to make an iron "cup holder" for him.  He really appreciated it and kept telling me I should have a mark to mark my items.  I really should make a punch to mark my items.

I then made another one of the uprights for the brazier.  I need to make just one more upright.  I was going to start on the eigth upright but the afternoon rainstorms began to threaten so I went ahead and packed up.

Bored at work...

  I am very close to buying a new anvil.  I am currently looking at the Peddinghaus 220# anvil.  It is very pricey but Peddinghaus has an unmatched reputation for anvils.  I can justify the cost in the sense that I am planning on doing blacksmithing for the rest of my life and a good anvil will last longer than me.  I learned a painful lesson in woodworking.  You get what you pay for.  If you buy cheap tools, you will always be struggling with them.  While its very true that a good blacksmith can work with less than quality tools, why struggle with them if you don't have to?

  Why this is important is that recently I have been remaking a lot of my tools.  I've been focusing mainly on punches, chisels and drifts.  However, I need to make some anvil tools such as hardies(used for cutting thicker stock), fullers(stretching metal in one direction), bending forks(gives precise control where a bend occurs), etc...  All of these tools fit in a square hole on the anvil called the hardie hole.

  My current Russian anvil has a hardie hole of 1 1/4".  This is not a standard size.  Most anvils sold in the US have a hardie hole of either 1" or 7/8" for smaller anvils.  I need/want to make the anvil tools but they are fairly time and labor intensive.  I was sitting here thinking if I am going to get the anvil soon (I'm hoping to pick it up at a convention in October) then it doesn't make sense to make a bunch of tools that fit the wrong size hole.

  Oh well, just thinking out loud.

No 6 out of 8 is done.

Finished another upright.  That's 5 out of 8.  They are actually taking me about 2 hours a piece with time for breaks.  If it hadn't been for my back I should have been done with them by now but oh well...

It has occurred to me while making the brazier that I am gaining valuable experience for the clock.  Not only will the brazier give me some practice with joinery but the holes for the rivets are very similar to what I will need for the axles of the clock.  After the brazier I may try to restart the frame for the clock.  Its been about a year since my initial effort at the frame.

Completed another upright...  50% done on the uprights.

Some thoughts on design of the brazier,

  When I first came up with this particular design, I knew of a potential problem.  With eight uprights converging near the base, they will be very close at the base.  This will not really allow for additional upright pieces.  However, at the outer part of the brazier, they will be close to a foot apart.  Since this would be holding a campfire, that is not necessarily a good thing.

  I knew this would be a possibility so in addition to the 8 upright pieces, there will be 8 additional shorter pieces that will be about the same shape as the upright pieces except that they will taper off as the approach the center.  So the upper part of the brazier will have 16 pieces while at the center and legs, there will only be 8.

  Also, in the center of the brazier will be about an 8" wide circular gap.  This would let a lot of the burning material fall to the ground.  I will be placing a few support pieces in the center of the brazier to prevent this.  They will be simple "L" shapes and just help make the center area a little more solid.

  Overall, I will be making 40 rivets from 1/2" stock.  Not looking forward to that but not a big deal.  Just a bit on the repetitive side.

  My final challenge will be to figure out how to best peen the rivets that will be in the narrow part of the brazier.  I will probably need help with all of the rivets simply because it will be difficult to hold the brazier and peen the rivets at the same time due to the size of the brazier.

Yet another entry in the world's most boring blog...

  I took a vacation day from work to do blacksmithing.  Unfortunately, a pulled back limited my work.  I was only able to do one more upright for the brazier. 3 down, 5 to go.

Trying to be safer...

  Time for a dirty little secret.  I haven't been a very good blacksmith.  I'm referring to my basic safety standards.  I don't wear safety glasses or hearing protection.  Its not that I don't understand the danger its just that with the heat in Florida, safety goggles are not an option.  They fog up too easily.  The safety glasses available from Home Depot just don't fit too good.
  I picked up a pair of new glasses(don't fit too well but not too bad) and disposable ear plugs.  I could get used to the ear plugs.  They did make a big difference.  The glasses aren't great but will work until I can find a better source.  Anyway, onto the blacksmithing...

  I continued work on the brazier.  I managed to cut all the remaining upright pieces.  They have all been measured and marked.  I managed to put the holes, scrolls and bends into one of the uprights.  Each upright is going to take me about 1 1/2 hours.  I want to try and finish them all by this weekend.
  Below is a picture of the two legs showing the approximate shape of the brazier.

Started brazier,

  A good day of blacksmithing.  I tempered some tools I had made during a previous session at the forge.  After that, I decided I wanted to go ahead and start the brazier that I have been wanting to make.  To start, I needed to make a drift.  A drift is meant to open up a hole in metal so that it is a particular shape and size.  I needed the drift to match the rivets that will be used to hold the brazier together.

  The brazier will essentially be 8 upright pieces and 3 rings to hold them together.  I wanted to make one template piece to make sure everything will come out okay.  The template piece is shown below.  The right side of the pic is the bottom of the brazier and the left side is the top.  The holes are for the rings to bind the brazier to together.  Because of the use of the drift, the metal bulges around the hole.



I was originally going to put fleurs on the top but that was vetoed...  :)

Very happy

  On Saturday, between feeder bands from hurricane Dennis, I managed to get outside and work for about 2 hours.  In that time, I was able to complete the fleur, a chisel and a hand held fuller.  The fuller is nothing more than a chisel with a rounded end instead of a sharp end.  When cutting metal, there tends to be a gagged or sharp crevice where at the end of the cut if the cut is not through the full length of the metal.  There is a small aesthetics issue with that but also metal tends to crack wherever there is a sharp crease.  Just ask the British about the Comet passenger jet.  There is a reason why airplane windows tend to be rounded.  The fuller is designed to round out the bottom of cuts like that.

  The fluer came out pretty good.  I will try to most some pics of it later.  I am particularly happy with the leaves.  The flower part needs some work.

Added pic...  The fleur is about 2" wide.  Not a super great job but could get much better with just a bit of practice.

So, to break up the monotony of making punches and chisels, I thought I would do a fleur.  The fleur will be part of the design of the brazier that I want to make.  Although my lady is not particular fond of the fleur, it is a very common blacksmithing motif.  The pattern I'm using is shown below and is from the blacksmith Chris Marks.



  Well, I had just gotten started on it when one of the feeder bands from hurricane Dennis hit.  So, I had to stop for the now.  The weather doesn't look like it will cooperate until the hurricane is mostly passed.  Luckily, its not a direct hit for me.

Two more punches.  Really getting quick at making them since I was only on the forge for just over an hour.

Another new punch and the new chisel is working just fine.

Working quick....

  So after repairing the mower and doing some yard work, I had a few hours before sunset so I decided to do some smithing.  Using my new tongs I decided to make a new chisel.  The one I have is just not very well made.  I think I made it about 2 years ago.  So, after shaping the chisel I needed to anneal it.  This involves heating it to a critical temp and putting it in wood ash to cool it very slowly.  Well, when I went to put the chisel in the ash I was suprised to find a nicely made punch.

  I made the punch a while back and when I put in the ash to anneal it, I forgot about it.  So, I took the punch out, cleaned it up then I hardened and tempered it.  In a period of less than two hours, I have a new chisel and a new punch.  I am going to be making some more punches and chisels over the next few weeks so it was a good start.

Good day...

  Made another pair of tongs.  They are a set of "vee" tongs for holding both square and round stock 1/2".

A personal oath...

  I hearby promise that I shall, under no circumstances, ever use gasoline to start the forge again.  'nuff said.