Projects from my Blacksmithing class

[Brasilikilt]

Hey all

It turns out that a local community college offers a traditional iron working class, and I so happen to have an educational award that needs to be used up before it expires.

I'm sure you guys can figure out the rest :grin:

Anyways, the shop is equipped with 4 little Harbor Freight type anvils, a nice vintage post vise and a couple small propane forges.
My classmates are cool, and the instructor has a lot of welding/blacksmithing experience under his belt, and is very good about dividing his time up among the students.
The added bonus is that he makes some very nice blades. There are no weapons allowed at school, but he does allow us to forge "letter openers" and "barbecue utensils" :wink:

I've only had 3 classes so far, but this is what has become of those sessions.

The first lesson was to forge a point from 3/8" square stock, round it off and taper it.
Our teacher had us make coat hooks to practice these skills and have something to show for it.

I took those same skills and made something we needed at home.....A fireplace poker.

My mother after seeing that one, decided she wanted one as well, and placed an "order"

I have a good friend who is a very large bear-like Norseman who rides a Harley. I often jokingly ask him "Why aren't you off sacking a village or something" Because he really looks like he should be :grin:
I decided that he "needs" a large hammer that is well suited for his Viking needs, but really had little idea as to what I was getting myself into :surrender:

It's made out of 1 1/2" mild steel plate and weighs about 10.5 lbs. It will likely lose some weight after I forge it down into shape, grind on it and clean off the forge scale.

We don't have tongs big enough to handle such a large chunk of iron, so I welded a length of 3/4" rod onto the end to ease the process of moving it around

What really irks me is while we were drifting the eye hole, it got knocked off center and became uneven on the other side .

I hope I can remedy this somehow

Anyways, thanks for checking this all out.
As always I really enjoy reading your comments and suggestions.

Iain

 

[Robby]

I'd say stay with it, you got the touch. That is some nice stuff, done very nicely. Thanks for sharing.
Robby

 

[rkmeyer]

Looks like you was payin attention during class.
Nice stuff. :hatsoff:
Dusty :wink:

 

[AeroncaTAL]

Hey Iain, great looking stuff! :thumbsup: Which community college puts this on?
Scott

 

[blacksmithman64]

Good job! If you have a tapered mandrel or punch, you can probably get the hammer eye centered better. But not many originals were perfect either! :thumbsup:

 

[shmrck1]

Iain,
Looks like you are getting the hang of
it.....Got plans for your own shop? Nice photos.
snake-eyes

 

[40cal]

Thats cool. I would like to do some metal work some day. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Brasilikilt]

Hey all

As always, thanks for your comments :thumbsup:

And yes, I pay REAL CLOSE attention in this class :grin:

I already have my own (tiny) shop which isn't well suited for Blacksmithing, but I do have a garage with a concrete floor.....I don't think my wife would approve if I moved the operation in there :nono:

The college that puts this on is Clackamas Community College in Oregon City.
The teacher is Burt Romans who is a really skilled welder as well as a blade/blacksmith.

For the hammer eye, we were using a tapered mandril.
I hope that we can correct the problem if we continue to hammer from the side where the hole is properly aligned and correct the problem by punching the drift all the way through.

I'll show you guys more as the projects are finished.

thanks again

Iain

 

[Bob Riegl]

:v Man that is the greatest---to be able to learn skills associated with that trade.No such luck at any of our local BOCES or Community Colleges---believe me I asked.There were several Iron workers (blacksmiths) in my family who plied their trade in Europe and here stateside. I still remember the smell and look of my Dad's paternal Uncle's shop in Lakewood New Jersey---just the thought brings back the smells and sounds of the work going on. He used to make little gee-gaws for me, and most of them have remained with me for over 60 years---Wow! Keep up the work you have started, even though maybe just a hobby---I see a lot of guys on these websites with a fantastic collection of skill sets. I majored in metallurgy from my undergraduate days through 8 years of graduate schools, and never worked one day in the business. I got waylaid into becoming a stodgy Chem prof at the University. :thumbsup:

 

[Brasilikilt]

Ezekial

If you've had no luck with finding a class, you might check into your local historic sites. A lot of times they have living history demos, which often includes a smithy run by volunteers.

Here's a link that also might help if you are looking to pound iron, let me know if this works or not.
http://www.iforgeiron.com/Getting-Started/gs0003.html