Ctrl-Alt-Dlt...Life Reboot

This is the year of change for me. I've never been someone to try to map out my future with any real degree of determination. I have a things I'd like to see happen and if they get put into motion I try to have them play out as beneficial as possible. My experience with this silly journey called life has taught me that, at best, you have to be adaptable to the circumstances that are presented to you.

By the end of this year, through a not uninteresting sequence of events, I will be able to say that I have, changed jobs after 22 years, bought my first house, got baptized and married. The first two of these items I did within days of each other. Any one of these are fairly significant life changes and all but one of them were no where near being on my radar even 8 months ago.

But life, as I seem to live it, demands adaptability.

With all of this going on I haven't been able to put hammer to steel in my forge for many months. Today I had a small window of time so I chased out some mice and a few spiders and fired up the forge. A successful session in the forge is usually diametrically opposite to living my life. I like to know what I'm making, what tools I'll need, how long I'm dedicating to each project and as much else about that time as possible in order to be a economic with that time as possible. I still need to adapt to situations as they arise but I'm usually quite focused. Sessions like today are much more day-dreamy and if I get anything to come out, I'm pretty happy. I was able to get a split cross or a Frederick's cross done but it was a hastily cut with a cut-off wheel rather than a band saw or hacksaw and rather sloppy job. Still, it looks alright and the sense of accomplishment was nice.

I do have some other things I was to do in the near future including a couple videos but we will see how that plays out in the coming weeks.

Harvested Steel

I've always been creative. I grew up where I had to spend a lot of time entertaining myself. One day I would be trying to play a garden hose like a bugle and the next I would be climbing around in the backyard tree line like I was Rambo. At an early age my dad would have me help work on the lawn mower and change oil in the vehicles so I developed some mechanical aptitude.

Where we lived was a short distance from the village hall where, on Saturday's, the community would bring their garbage for removal. Rural community home pick-up service wasn't available at the time so we would load up the garbage cans, drive to the village hall and get in line to dump everything into a compactor that would fill a container and be swapped out by truck when full. In addition to standard garbage, they had a bin for scrap steel and other items not suitable to be compacted with the garbage; things like used or wrecked bicycles for instance.

I don't know how or why it started but I began asking the guy running the compactor if I could grab some of these bike. The used ones were still good enough to ride and the damaged ones had parts to fix each other and soon I was gathering parts together and building complete bicycles. This culminated in me building an entire bmx style bike made entirely from different salvaged bikes. Nothing was from the same bike. The forks, frame, rims, tires, tubes, pedals, gears, bearings, even the bearing cups were from different bikes. I rattle canned it flat black and called it (obviously) Frankenbike. I enjoyed making something functional out of these parts people had given up on.

Fast forward several years to my journey into blacksmithing. For over 20 years I've been working at a final stage manufacturer of utility equipment and in addition to the various skills I've learned, I've also had access to a great deal of scrap metal. I always loved looking through the scrap bins at the different shapes and daydreaming about what it could be made into. On occasion there would be a scrap that was too perfect to leave so I would check with the supervisor and get permission to take it home. The company was quite generous and as long as there wasn't any misconduct, either displayed or perceived, they were open to those requests. So when I started blacksmithing I was able to grab small bits of stock or cut off scraps that I could work in the forge to build skill. I really liked the idea of taking this piece of metal deemed unusable and reforming it into something aesthetically pleasing and sometimes function.

Sounds familiar, right?

I, too, recognized this theme in my thinking. I get as much joy, if not a little more, from turning a rusty chunk of rebar into a couple nice wall hooks as I do turning new steel into corkscrews. There's an obvious material cost savings, though the effort of harvesting and processing the steel needs to be considered. It also requires some knowledge to determine which metal is useful, can it be worked with the tools available, is it galvanized or coated with something equally as dangerous. Heating up galvanized metal releases fumes which are deadly. Metal can be soaked in vinegar and cleaned but sometimes the health hazards are just too much to make it worth using. A couple hooks or brackets aren't worth respiratory failure or nerve gas exposure. These are things I've learned through reading material online or from experiences at my actual job.

Ultimately it boils down to this, I enjoy harvesting scrap steel for my projects. I love the excitement I feel when I look at something and see the potential in that raw form and the satisfaction of coaxing that vision into a reality. Many people enjoy the idea of recycled or re-purposed material as a way to be more conscious of What we consume in this little rock we ride through the universe.

So if you see something lying by the side of the road or leaning against a dumpster and it ignites your creativity, consider doing something with it. You may find yourself in a new hobby as well!

Accidental Anvil

Some time back a friend of mine gave me a bunch of tools he decided he didn't need while cleaning out his garage. As I was loading them into my truck he said he had a block of steel to give me if I wanted it. It turned out to be a block measuring 4”x4”x9.25” and weighing nearly 50 pounds. I jumped at the offer. I had no idea, at the time, what I would/could do with it but, I loaded it before he could think twice.Time passes and it sat in my forge and acted more as a conversational piece than anything production worthy.

At that same time, I was doing regular work in the forge making this or that. Occasionally I would get frustrated because I'd have to put a step or shoulder in a piece of steel I was working which requires the use of my anvil’s edge. The problem is that my anvil is quite old and had a pretty hard life before I came along and most of my edges are chipped and damaged. There are ways to refinish the faces of anvils but it don't really want to do that so I made due with what I have.

One day while trying to organize my work area I had to move the block in order to brush off the forge tabletop. I set it on the face of my anvil and resumed cleaning. When I went to move it back I looked at it and an obvious solution came to mind. I could dress the edges of this block of steel to whichever radius I want. I could even put a few different ones on there which is what a lot of Smith's did in the past. This way I could get the edge work surface I wanted and not have to drastically alter my anvil. I grabbed my angle grinder with a flapdisk on it and went to work. I made one edge nice and round another one was a sharper round and I left a couple edges at 90°.

Once finished with that I stood there and looked at the block and thought maybe I should weld on some feet so I could keep it from moving all over the place while I'm working on it. I don't have a welder in the forge that could handle that kind of job so I took it to work where there are plenty of welders available. At lunch I set everything up and just as I was going to strike an arc i saw a bracket used to attach truck bodies to frames hanging on the side of the bench I was at. It's angled stock with decent sized hole in a nice solid plate of steel and I thought, “That looks like something i could turn into a serviceable hardy hole.” Most hardy holes are somewhere from ¾” to 1” square so as to accept a hardy tool. Hardy tools are usually different types of tools with a square peg base that fit into the hardy hole on the anvil and aid the blacksmith in certain ways like bending, cutting and shaping.

I cut the bracket off the table and cleaned it up. I then looked around for some steel tubing with a 1” inner diameter. I found some that had a decent wall thickness and cut off a section long enough to hold any of the tools I owned. I then used a die grinder to square out the round hole in the bracket to get my tube, positioned the tube and welded it in place and used a sander to flatten out the face of the hardy hole. Then it was just a matter of welding it to one end of the block. Even though I have a state structural welding certification, I don't weld full time so my welds are fairly ugly but very functional. I welded it up and sanded it to my satisfaction.

As a stood there looking at it I remembered a chunk of kelly bar I had at the forge which has a hole drilled in it. I thought that would work as a pritchel hole even thought it's quite a bit larger than most standard ones. Pritchel holes are commonly used to aid in punching holes in metal and are usually around 1/2" in diameter. I figure if i need to, I can make a reducer to fit in the hole. I brought the piece I to work, cut it down to size and welded it on the opposite end. It was around this point I figured I might as well face the fact that I was building an anvil or at least an (ASO) anvil shaped object.

Once I settled on that it was time to decide what to do about a horn. The horn is commonly shaped as a tapered offset cone. Given the resources I has this wasn't really feasible so I opted to weld on a couple chunks of used machine pins I salvaged out of the shop scrap bin. I cut those to length, welded them on and sanded them to shape. I saw that I never got around to welding on the feet so I did that and as I was positioning it I got to look g at the hardy hole bracket and realized that I wanted to make that bracket a little more sturdy so I weld scrap diving again and found some decent plate stock, trimmed it to fit and welded it across the bottom and rear of the bracket effectively closing most of the bracket up.

So, that's that. I meant to do a little grinding to make a use out of something that was in the shop and the next thing I know I have a 65 lb ASO. I classify this as an ASO because it doesn't have a hardened face that I'm aware of. It will be serviceable as an auxiliary work surface and for small work but the majority of my work will be done on the shop anvil. I haven't ruled out welding a hardened top plate on this thing but it's just not necessary to do that right now. I imagine it will get more use as the shouler block I had intended it to be but it might work as a secondary anvil if I have a visitor to the shop who wants to doodle around. Regardless, I'm pretty proud of my little accidental anvil.

October update

Greetings everyone!
A few posts back I said that I wanted to post at least once a month here and I succeeded for a couple months but then dropped off again until my last post in September. I'm a little bummed at my lack of posting but ultimately I just have to try again.

I know the main reason for lack of posting is that when I want to assemble a post I really like inserting images and hyperlinks to add to the content or aid in giving anyone who reads this something interesting and engaging. The problem is currently I end up having to use my phone and the Blogger app to assemble posts and while it's functional it is a far cry from doing it on my laptop.

So obviously the answer is going forward I will try to utilize both. Simple update posts I will do here on the phone and more complex, in depth posted will be done at home where I can make them as filled with stuff as I please.

I do, at this time, post more often on Facebook and Instagram so look for me there and if you haven't already "liked" my pages, I would be honored to have you in my social media circle.

I am also planning on setting up a "Tailgate" post where I will have a list of things I have for sale. I'm doing this in the short term rather than selling on Etsy for a variety of reasons. As inventory changes (meaning if inventory sells) I will update the list.

Thank you so much for the support and I look forward to sharing much more with you!

Rain Gauge

I recently made a rain gauge for a wonderful friend and neighbor Shirley. She had been admiring the first gauge I made for my Dad and asked about having one made. I looked around the shop and found a decent length of 1/2" square stock and some smaller round stock and decided I had the material to make one.

I took the round stock and squared it with the idea of putting twists in the branches that hold the glass tube that actually collects the rain.

I cut a section of the half inch stock tapered and bent it to weld on for a stability leg on the main gauge staff.

I then flattened and scrolled the branches and welded them to the main staff.

Cleaned it up, painted and delivered! All in all, it was a bit heavy but turned out really nice.

Forge Improvement Update!

Fox River Forge resides in Wisconsin in what was primarily a storage shed without electricity or insulation. This means that for a good portion of the year it is cold in the shop and there are weeks where it's just too cold to work. It's cold inside the shop and the tools, specifically the anvil, are so cold I end up burning way more fuel that is tolerable to make even simple items. This is hugely inconvenient as the time off leads to atrophy of skills and potential degradation of equipment and supplies.

This year that changes!

My folks, with some guidance from my Jessie I think, presented me with a gift card to get a torpedo heater from a regional hardware store called Menards. This is very exciting as I will finally be able to continue working and learning and building up inventory on through the winter.

After taking some measurements and figuring out what size I needed I settled on a Dyna-Glo Delux. I went and picked it up and spent some time reading about how to set it up and use it safely. I am, admittedly, the type of person who will only look at directions if I can't get something to work or have already hurt myself using it incorrectly. However, I did a bunch of research on it this time as it has the capacity to not only burn down my shop but severely hurt or kill me in the process. So having done my research, a couple days ago I gave it a test run and let me tell you, IT WAS GREAT. It was snowing out and I was smithing away happily in my apron with a t-shirt over a thermal undershirt. I was able to work comfortably the whole time.

One of the things I made that day was an appreciation gift for the Fastenal representative who supplies the business I earn a living at. He supplies a variety of hardware we use in the shop including bolts and nuts, so I made him a bottle opener out of one of the bolts he supplied.
My good friend Cliff, who was the one who hand-crafted my apron, came up to visit while i was working and took some pictures.

I’m looking forward to being able to keep the shop open and productive. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and wish all of you a wonderful, happy and healthy New Year.

December Update

One of the most popular items I currently make are bottle openers made from scrap steel diamond plate (also known as check-plate or treadplate). These are fairly popular because of the material and, modesty aside, they work well and are a conversation starter. After making several of these I got the idea that I’d like to try to make a corkscrew.


So I started messing around with some scrap square stock and came up with a design I like wherein I heat and twist the bar in a couple directions then use a grinder to sand of the edges into a square again. This gives it a very neat pattern while providing a texture that's comfortable and easy to grip. Next was the screw. This turned out to be a little more tricky. The first one I made ended up being too big to fit in the cork or even the neck of the bottle so I used thinner stock. The thinner stock heated up and cooled really fast and getting a tight uniform coil was quite a challenge. I decided to make a jig. I found some round stock that matched the inner diameter I was looking for, cut a slot in the top to hold the tip of the round stock, heated my piece and wrapped it around the jig a few times. Once it cooled a bit, I tapped it off the jig and began trying to tweak the coil and tip into proper shape. This became quite frustrating as heating it in the forge meant that the whole coil was heating up and as I was moving the part I wanted to adjust, the whole thing was moving around and I seemed to just be making things worse so I stopped for the day to do some research.


A few days later I was working on a truck at work and needed to heat up a bolt shank that had frozen in place and broken off but it was in a location where I couldn’t use an oxy/acetylene torch set. I went and got the shops little Berz-o-matic bottle torch to heat it up. As I was heating up the shank I realized that this might do the trick for getting the corkscrew adjusted. I went and bought my own bottle torch, wrapped a new coil and then, using the bottle torch, i was able to heat exactly what I wanted to move. Within a few minutes I had a coil that I was confident would thread into and pull out a cork.
Then came the matter of attaching the coil to the handle in a secure but aesthetic way. I opted for drilling a hole, threading the coil shank through the handle and welding it on the top and bottom. I then used a sanding disk to clean off the top weld leaving a smooth finish. This worked out very well. After spraying some clear-coat on it I suddenly had a corkscrew!

Neat….now what?


I decided to give it to a friend of mine for her birthday. I got a wood box and a wooden “N” ( her first initial) and made a display box for the corkscrew and one of my bottle openers and gave it to her. She was thrilled and I was pleased this little experiment had gone well.

Sometime later, I decided to make another one to see if I could sell it. I made one up and took it on a group camping trip to Illinois in October and a friend of mine bought it immediately. It got posted on Facebook and after a while I had seven orders for these sets! WOW! So I've been working on those fairly steadily. People wanted them to give as Christmas presents so I had a deadline to meet. I got them all finished and have all but one set delivered as of this posting.

In addition to the beverage sets, I've been experimenting with other designs and essentially “doodling” with some scrap and have come up with a bottle opener with a twisted handle that I quite like. I've made some “S” hooks and a prototype twisted double hook which looks pretty rough but is still functional.

Outside of the forge itself, I've been brainstorming with my Jessie regarding branding, packaging and forge swag. The ideas are flowing and I think some neat things will be coming out in the new year!All in all, the activities around the anvil recently have been very productive and rewarding. I'm looking forward to seeing what else emerges from that fire.

I wish for all of you the happiest of holidays!


Sincerely,
Chris