Good day and a fresh start...
Started today by going to the local meeting of FABA (Florida Artists Blacksmithing Assoc.). It was held at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa at a historical museum called Cracker Country. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was a very high quality museum. The primary focus of the meeting was a demo of joinery. It was a good class and although most of the information I've heard before, it was a nice reinforcement.
When I got home, I finally got restarted on the clock. I made an attempt a little over a year ago that I mentioned in previous postings. The first order of business was to harden the chisels I made last week. After that, I cut the corner posts to length from 3/8" by 1 1/2" stock. Their overall length was 26". This is the cut out pieces alongside one of last year's posts.
This photo gives a bit of the idea that I've cut about a foot off the overall length and a 1/2" from the width. The square in the photo is 24x16". There is a decorative element on the piece from last year that can be seen just a bit near the top. The stem from the top is for a decorative finial. The new posts will eventually have those elements as well.
After cutting the posts to length, I next moved to chiseling out a 1/2" length down one side of the posts. This is a picture of one post prior to cutting.
The white markings are from a paint pen. Highly recommend them for marking a piece to help with layout. For actually cut marks, I use a piece of sharpened metal to score the stock. This is better than soapstone or markers as its more precise and can be seen after being in the fire. The "B" at the bottom marks the bottom of the post. The markings show where the strip will be cut out. This is the stock after chiseling out the length.
I forgot to take a picture of what it looks like while chiseling out the piece. Still have 3 posts to go so will take some to show in progress.
This final picture shows how the post gets stretched during the forging process. The two pieces started out the same length. Part of blacksmithing is taking into account that the metal will stretch.
Overall, found it much easier than last year when I made my initial effort. Much happier...
2 comments:
This is such a cool project. I'm a horology buff myself, and I can't imagine making a clock from scratch. Weapons, tools, hardware, clothing, accoutrements- yes; - a clock- ....wow...
Thanks, I think so as well... :) Its one of those things that from the time I first saw the clock, I knew I had to make it. I had no idea what I was getting myself into....
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