Its hot... too hot...

Dang,

  The heat has really kept me from working too much.  However, I did manage to get some work in today.  I am working on some last minute items for gifts for Pennsic.  This is a picture of the prototype that I am finally happy with.  I haven't done the final touch up or hammering, but it gives an idea of what a portion of the candle sconce will look like.  I will take some photos to show how to make the fluer on a latter post.

Got some work in...

Fired up the forge today just to say I did.  I really didn't have anything specific in mind, just wanted to swing the hammer.  I played around with making some candle cups.  If you ever need to make those, make absolutely certain that you don't work below an orange heat.  The metal is so easy to crack that its easy to mess up a piece.  They aren't difficult as long as you have patience.

Also, just to work on some endurance, I put in a few heats on making my bick.  A bick is used for those smaller pieces that are just too small for the anvil.  (BTW: bick is short for bickern or bicorn meaning bi-horns. Many bicks will be T-shaped with two horns.)  An example of their use is either the tines of fork or the shaft of an arrow head.  Think of it as a miny anvil.  This is an example of one on sale at www.blacksmithdepot.com.



I plan on making mine with a a skinnier taper.  I can do that because of the quality of steel I am using.  I am forming the bick out of a solid trailer hitch.  I did get the hardie shank formed and started the taper.  The heat finally drove me inside.

Spring fuller

For Jim...

  I looked through my old photos and found a spring fuller I used for the finials.  This spring fuller is 1" rod.  The one I made this past weekend was 1/2" rod.  Spring fullers are used to put a waist on metal.  These 2 photos show what the spring fuller does for you.

Christmas in July

  Today was shop cleaning day.  I did some cleaning last week but not nearly as extensive as this week.  Well, my shop really needed it as time and time again I was presented with an item I forgot I owned.  Parts of the shop were in really bad shap.  Anyway, I think I found over 20 files.  Sigh...  At least now things are nice and clean for me to get back to smithing and get working on the thrones.

BTW: Jim, will post a picture of spring fuller sometime soon.

Finally, some forge time to myself

Finally unloaded the truck today from the weekend.  Since there were a few hours left in the day, I decided to fire up the forge.  I have some candle sconces that I want to make so I decided to play around with making the cups.  Much to my surprise, the cups were very easy to make.  I would have been able to do more but I had to make a spring fuller to make the cups.

Had some fun

  Yesteryday, I finally got to do some smithing.  I was at an SCA event and had an afternoon to play.  I managed to make a coal (wood coal) rake for a friend that does outdoor medieval cooking demos.  After that I made two axes.  I finished up the day by doing a small amount of work on the clock frame.  Not much, just enough to say I actually did something.  The end of the day was quick dip in the river.  If you have ever heard of Weeki Wachi springs (famous for their mermaid show), the river is the outlet of that springs.