Today was a good day.  I spent about 3 hours on the forge.  My arm did much better today than it did on Sunday.  Anyway, after doing some yard work, I decided to fire up the forge.  I spent the first hour doing some more work on the bootscrapers.  While I was working, my mind kept coming back to a show I had seen on the History or Discovery.

  The show was talking about cannons through the middle ages.  The earlier cannons were interesting but a cannon from the later middle ages interested me more.  The cannon in question was one from the Mary Rose(a later middle ages English warship).  www.maryrose.org

  Now, I have a soft spot for the Mary Rose.  I've visited the Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth 3 times in my life.  There is something about that ship which has always interested me.  Anyway, the show was talking about the cannons recovered from the Mary Rose.

  The show detailed the reconstruction of one of these cannons.  The cannon comes from an extremely complex construction process.  It starts with long iron staves layed side by side to form a cylinder.  Very similar to how you make a wine barrel.  Once the cylinder is formed from the staves, you need someway to hold them together just like the metal bands on a wine barrel.  The way this is done on the cannon is by forming metal rings very similar to the rings you wear on a finger except on a much larger scale.  These rings are heated, placed over the cylinder, then cooled.  During the cooling process, the rings shrink forming a tight band around the staves holding them tight together.  From what I could tell, these rings were down the hold length of the barrel.

  Anyway, during the show, they showed the blacksmiths making the gun.  The part that caught my attention the most was the forming of the rings.  The smith was using a bending bar to form the rings.  A bending bar is like a long two prong fork with the tines pointing out to the side.  It is placed over a hot bar and the leverage of the handle makes it easy to bend the bar. 

  When I had tried to form circles in the past, I had always done it by hammering the metal over the edge of the anvil's horn.  While this worked it has several drawbacks(especially to a new smith like me.)  It tends to create bulges on the edge of the metal where it is struck and it is difficult to make that near perfect circle.

  So, today I decided to make a bending bar and give it a try on my metal.  Now, this idea had occurred to me before I saw the show but I had assumed that the metal was too thick to bend this way.  Well I made the bending bar, heated up some 1 1/4" x 3/8" bar stock, put it in the vice and bent it...

  Damn, it was so easy and so easy to control compared to the hammering.  One of the most common misconceptions by non blacksmiths is that blacksmithing is almost all hammering.  In reality, only about 25-50% of blacksmithing time is hammering at the anvil.

  This also reminded me of one my great weaknesses that I am trying to get rid of.  I have a bad habit of forming theories on how things should be done even when my level of experience is not that great...  Well, I proved myself wrong(I think).  The bending bar will probably be the way that I will form the circles for the clock gears.

Things that suck...

  Well, been a little bit since I've posted.  I've been doing work around the house which was suddenly halted when my pickup's transmission started acting up.  Anyway, I'm making some gifts that need to be done in a few weeks(bootscrapers) and today was the first day that I've gotten forge time in weeks.  Its amazing how difficult it was after not having lifted a hammer for a month.  I made good progress and there should be no problem getting the gifts done but my arm feels like a noodle now...

  I hope to pick up some larger oxy/acetylene cylinders this week.  I already own a pair but they are very small and are usually empty after about an hours worth of work or less if I'm doing cutting.  I'm not going to use modern welding on any of my period items but I will be using it for tools that are difficult to make(usually because I don't have a helper to hold things while I'm working...)

Holidays seem to always be the busiest time of the year...

  Last Thursday I picked up 400 pounds of coal.  That should keep me going for about 6 months.  I also managed, through the goodwill of a friend, to locate some 3/8" x 1" bar stock.  I believe that this may be the ideal size for me to do the clock gears...  yee haw!!!

  Also was given some high quality tool steel.  Will put that to good use making some anvil tools.

Reinventing the wheel...

  Yesterday, I was at an SCA event teaching blacksmithing.  After I demonstrated making a boot scraper, I helped two people to produce forks.  One made a fork appropriate for a large fire while another made a feast fork.  Then, after I rested for a bit, I decided to try something that I hadn't tried for about six months.  That is, to make a basic "wheel" that would eventually become a clock gear.

  Now, the wheel is not like the wheel you would find on a buggy, that would be too easy...  (no offense to any wheelwrights...)  Most blacksmiths, if they are making a wheel, make it so that you bend the metal the "easy" way.  That is, the curve is made through the thin part of the steel.  For the clock gears, I need to bend it along the thick part of the material.  The stock I was working with was 1" x 1/4".  I, in a fairly short period of time, was able to bend a circle and weld it closed.  Now, since my skills aren't that great, it was not a perfect circle.  But, it was still more than close enough to make me happy.  I truly feel like I will be able to complete this project.  It may still be a few years off, but it is possible.

 

By the way, anybody know where I can get a cone mandrel?  Preferably with about a 12 bottom diameter? 

Punching holes sucks...  Well, actually...  Its not that bad.  Once I learned the trick of doing it, its quite easy.

Very good day on the forge today.  Things are definitely starting to click...  I started by making a square punch.  Next, I played around with trying different things.  The biggest thing I tried was a pot/pan hanger...  The hanger I am trying to make is modeled after one scene in Fellowship of the Ring.  It's on the back wall in Bag End when Bilbo and Galdalf are having tea.  Relatively simple...  However, this time of the year keeps me from staying out too late.  Had to come in as the day light began to fade.

  Been busy with work this week.  Have only had limited time on the forge.  I may head over to Orlando this weekend to pick up some more coal, 300 pounds usually lasts me about 4 months.  Hopefully will be able to get some time on Saturday to do some serious work.