Finial test - part 1

I got home early enough tonight to do some smithing.  So I decided to do a test to see how hard it would be to make a die.  I'm kind of kicking myself now because of how easy it was...

I started with fullering a 1" bar stock.  These pictures show the work progress.  The stock is hammered between the fuller until the stock is very thin then half is cut off.







This tip is roughly shaped.  I then filed it to clean it up some.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of this.

Finally, I took a piece of 1" x 2" 4142 (type of steel alloy).  I heated this piece of a steel to a nice even yellow.  I took the piece created above and hammered it into the steel.  It took a few heatings but it was actually much easier than I expected it to be.  This is a picture of the steel after I was done.



Well, it did come out much better than I expected.  I just wish I hadn't been in a rush due to the sun setting.  I think I will make a wooden pattern to make the next finial top.  This will help me when filing to make sure it is balanced and true on all sides.  Still, this was a successful test.

Finials again...

Hmmm...

  The more I think about it, I think I should go with an idea I had a while back to make the finials.  It involves making a die to form the top.  By making a die, I could be very sure to a consistent look to the finials.  This is also a possible sequence of construction.

1) Fuller a piece of 3/4" square almost all the way through, cut off half.  This would give a rough approximation of the top half of the finial.
2) File and touch up the piece to get it as close as possible to what I want.
3) Heat a piece of tool steel and drive the piece from step 2 into it to form the die.
4) Start with another piece of square stock and fuller as before but leave a bit more material.  In other words, not fullered as far.
5) Cut this piece from the main stock.  Just enough material to actually form the finial, no extra.
6) Place the finial into the die and drive the socket into the back end.  This will not only form the socket but force the finial into the shape of the die.
7) Place completed finial into die once again while hot.  Slide post attachment into socket and close socket up.  This allows me to close the socket without damaging the top of the finial.

I am doing an SCA event this weekend and I will be setting up.  I may have to give this a try.

Getting there...

Saturday I went to the local hammer in for FABA (Florida blacksmiths) and spent a few hours BSx2 (That's blacksmithing and bullshitting)  Anyway, had a chance to use a power hammre for the first time.  It was a fairly small hammer but still fun.  Also, showed off my Mastermyr chest (the original with the lock) and the guys seemed to be very impressed.

Today I spent just a few hours on the forge at home but I was able to get a lot done in that time.  The bulk of my time was spent attempting to figure out how to make the finial.  I made a line drawing of the finial shown below.



The first attempt I made was to start with 3/4" stock.  The diagram above shows 1" but I decided that might be too big so went for the 3/4".  On the first attempt I started with the socket end.  I began by putting a pyramid shape on the end of the stock but with a flat top.  Next, I took a 3/8" square punch to begin form the socket.  This actually worked better than I expected.  I then took a piece of 3/8" stock and upset it just a bit on the end.  This bit of upset end was to give the finial something to grab onto.  Finally, I used to punch to widen the socket slightly.  With all of this done, I heated up the part that was going to be the finial and put the square stock into it.  Then I lightly hammered the finial to close it on that stock.  As it turned out, I did not upset the end of the square stock enough and the finial did not have enough to grab onto.

On the next attempt, I started the same way but used a 1/2" punch instead of a 3/8" punch.  This would allow me to upset the metal more on the 3/8" stock that would go into the finial.  Well, this time the finial was able to lock onto the 3/8" stock much better.  As a matter of fact, there was absolutely no give.  The next step was to make the top part of the finial.  I have a 1" round fuller that I made specifically for the finials. 




The fuller is really nothing more than two round 1" bars that the piece is placed between and the fuller is hammered.  Well, when I went to do this, the shaft was knocked loose.  Even though both of these attempts failed, I learned from them.  Fading light and a sore back made me stop.  I think the next sequence that I am going to attempt is this...

1) Form socket.
2) Form top of finial and seperate from stock.  While doing this, ensure that socket is not deformed.
3) Upset and insert the shaft.
4) Heat and close the finial on the shaft.

Hopefully this will work.  I decided that I wanted to go ahead and do the finials before I go any further on the frame.

Some other things I did was to reform the broken chisel from a previous post.  After reforming it, I stuck it in the wood ash to anneal it and surprise, surprise, I found a rectagular punch that I completely forgot about.  Always a pleasant surprise.  Judging by the size, I'm guessing that I meant this for the end pieces I mentioned in my last post.  I forgot all about it but saves me some work...  :)

I will post pictures of the finials once I get a working process.

Even the experts give bad advice...

  Continued work on the cross pieces for the clock.  Just shaped them and sized them nicely.  There is still a bit of cleanup but that will be done with files and one or two holes will need to be punched to complete them but I am much happier than before.  This shows the pieces on the clock.  Once again, the clock is not actually fastened together that is what the rope is for.  Also, the clock won't be perfectly square until I actually pein the tenons.  Here is the pic.  The two pieces I just laid on the frame to give an idea of what it will look like.



  I am anxious to get the frame done.  I will try to remember to scan a photo I have of the original clock's frame to show what all I need to do.  The next part that I decided to work on are 4 small tenons that will be added to the horizontal end pieces.  Those 4 end pieces essentially do the same thing as the two crosspieces that I am working on.  They will hold vertical uprights that in turn will hold the clock axles.

  Anyway, these pieces are about 1" by 2" with a slit on one end of it.  This slit is to hold a wedge that will hold the vertical uprights in place.  I decided to make a drift open up this slit.  After some experimental tries, I decided that for what I was trying to do, a punch was a better choice.  I pulled out some car spring to make the punch.

  In getting ready to do this, I noticed that one of my main chisels was a bit soft and deformed.  So I filed it back to shape and went to reharden it.  When I quenched it, I introduced a stress fracture that caused the chisel to fail when I went to cut a piece off the car spring.

  How did the stress fracture get there?  I quenched the chisel in water instead of oil.  Usually when quenching tool steel, you either quench in oil or just let it cool in the air.  This introduces the hardness needed.  However, I started water quenching some of my tools because of a tip I got on a blacksmithing video.  The video stated that for the most part, water quenching could be used instead of oil quenching for a lot of the common tools.  This seemed a bit odd to me but I followed the advice.  Since then, I have lost 3 or 4 tools due to stress failures.  Proof that even the experts sometimes give bad advice.

  Now for a quick lesson on heat treating to explain the problem.  Heat treating is essentially a 3 step process.

1) Annealing: Bring the metal up to a critical heat (steel turns non-magnetic) and cool it very slowly.  I usually put the piece in wood ash to do this.  This process helps to relieve stress that was introduced in the forging process or that may have existed before forging.

2) Hardening: Bring the metal up to a critical heat then rapidly cool it.  This is usually done either in water, oil or air.  This causes the metal to become very hard, but also very brittle.  A good comparison is glass.  Glass is very hard but also easy to break.

3) Tempering: Bring the metal up to a temperature range around 450-750 depending on the tools intended purpose.  This softens the metal some and makes it less brittle.  Too little heat and the tool will be too brittle, too much and the tool will be too soft.

  So, what was I doing wrong?  In step two, I was quenching in water instead of oil.  Water cools the metal much faster than oil.  This can cause the metal to crack under the stress of cooling.  Once again, this is similar to glass.  If you take a glass still hot from an automatic washer and fill it with ice water, it can break from the temperature shift.

  The main reason that I was using water was because of the tip from the video and because water is just more convenient than oil, especially at demos.  Well, I won't do it any more.  I've lost too many tools.  So, one of my next projects is to build a container for oil that I can use at home and at demos.  I'm thinking of making a wooden box for this.  I'm trying to go for a more period look at events so I want to avoid any modern metal container.  I'm not too worried about fire as the oil is easy to extinguish if it catches fire by simply closing a lid or removing the hot metal from the oil.  (mental note: check that fire extinguisher is filled...)

Taking long breaks has advantages and disadvantages...

  Finally got back to the clock after about 2 months of really doing nothing with it.  I looked at the pieces I made that are horizontal crossbars in the middle of the clock.  These pieces will ultimately hold uprights which in turn will hold the axles of the clock.  Anyway, I was a bit put off by the shape of the pieces.  They were too thick and too uneven.
  The main reason that they were poorly formed was that I made them part of the time while demoing at events.  When I do that, I tend to rush so that observers can see more "action."  Anyway, I took the time to clean up one of the two pieces this afternoon.  It looks much better now.  I started on the second piece but my arm has lost some of its endurance so I had to break after only about 2 hours worth of work.

Chest part deux...

The second chest is done.  One hinge was a little tight but overall happy with it.  Here are some pictures.  This version of the chest has no lock.  My understanding is that it will be part of a gift package to Ansteorra.

Something cooking in the oven...

I am finishing up a second reproduction of the Mastermyr chest.  As I type, I can smell the oil on the hinges that are cooking in the oven.  I've found that if I use the oven and cook the oil on them, it gives a really nice finish.  Tomorrow morning, I just need to put the hinges on and one more coat of oil and the chest goes off to Gulf Wars as a gift.

In the mean time a selection of photos from NY...  Most of the photos are presented smaller than actual.  Click on them to enlarge.

Medieval candelabra from the Cloisters:


This is a door in the cloisters.  With all of these images, there tends to be a blurriness due to not being allowed to use a flash.



Another canlelabra



Yet another door.



And now, some ceiling pics for Jim...  This is the timber framed ceiling in one of the exhibit rooms in the Cloisters.







More pictures to follow at a later date...

New York, NY

In New York City this week.  I've taken a lot of pictures of some medieval blacksmithing stuff.  And just for Jinx, took some pictures of some painted medieval timber framed roofs.  Very cool...

And on a non-blacksmithing note, saw Spamalot last night.  Very funny...