New Tongs, Now A New Hammer

So, I’ve got my new scrolling tongs I’m very proud of, and now I have a new HAMMER!

My new 2,1/4lb. hammer. I stamped “BEAST” on the side.

This is what my new hammer looks like. It weighs, I’m guessing, about 2 – 2 1/2lbs. I was shootin’ for a 3lb hammer, and in doing the math, I thought I had used a 3.3lb chunk o’ steel, but it doesn’t feel like it, so either it’s so compact I can’t feel the weight, or I let it scale up too much and lost the weight. Or my math wasn’t correct. Either way, when it’s all said and done, it feels great in the hand.

Ryan, James and I drifted the hole out of a two-by-three inch chunk of solid steel over the weekend. Since the process is very dynamic and all the blacksmiths were involved at some point, it really helped draw in and keep a crowd. We had a nice-sized crowd watching us work for over an hour at one point! Since it takes so long to heat up after it’s worked, we had time to crank out quick demonstrations between heats.

We got so much cranked out in that one demo! Ryan made a spork, some s-hooks and a couple of kabobs, I made nail swords and worked on both my tongs and the puzzle set I’m trying to figure out. We didn’t sell a whole lot, but we made a really great show and answered a whole lot of unique questions. Better yet, we had a whole lot of fun.

I worked on grinding the faces of the hammer down just this week, and then I oil-quenched it, which not only helps harden the faces, it also put a lovely, even, dark sheen on it, which will help keep it from rusting. One side is square and flat and puts a nice, divet-free face on my projects. The other is slightly convex, designed to move and shape steel more quickly and easily. I put a simple oak handle on it – a piece recycled from another hammer. I put it on sideways, because it easily fits into my hand like that. Plus, the narrow side of the handle lets me know by feel which face I’m working with. Really important when I’m working in the dark of the evening (my slotted time in the shop this week, so James and I don’t step on each others toes).

I meant for a 3-lb. sledge, a hard-faced, heavy hammer to work lots of material with. However, I wound up tempering both faces at an even dark-straw color, making the faces softer. So what I wound up with was a heavier, soft finishing hammer. This isn’t a bad thing. It feels and works almost exactly like the finishing hammer Squatch let me borrow, so now I can return his hammer.

Next time I attempt a heavy, hard hammer, I’m going to make it the German way, the way Squatch made his flat hammer. Instead of immediately drifting a hole in the steel, I need to set it on end, with the fibers running vertical, and pound the whole thing back down into a hammer shape. What that does is re-align the fibers of the steel so that they overlap and fold over where you want the faces to be. Then proceed with drifting, etc. But that’s a lot of work without a trip hammer.

I love my little hammer, it’s a work beastie. That’s what I named it, stamping it on the side of the hammer. You can barely make it out in the picture, but it says “BEAST” on the side.

Peace.

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If I Don’t Have A Tool, I Make It

How many people out there can legitimately say they can make their own tools, eh? I love my job. I just completed my fourth set of working tongs. So now I have a set of “alligator” tongs (which I actually modified from a pair of farrier‘s tongs), a pair of flat tongs, a small pair of tongs we use for waxing and seasoning and digging things out of the forge, and now a brand new pair of nice-looking scrolling tongs.

Blacksmith Tongs. (No, I didn’t make these, but these are similar to what I’m working on.)

The scrolling tongs took a few days. They were meant originally as tongs to hold railroad spikes, and I made it all the way to finishing the working ends when I finally realized the flaws in my design. So I gave up on that plan and turned them instead into scrolling tongs, bent at a 90 degree angle for added versatility.

They came out really nice, much to my surprise. I’d fought with these things for about a week, then I go into the shop one morning and I’m refreshed and relaxed, and I’m all by myself. I take my time with the tongs, get in the groove, listening to the music in my head with the forge fan playing a background. At some point something with those tongs gave in and said, “Okay, now I’m ready to become scrolling tongs.” And the work flowed after that. They became what I envisioned. I tweaked the nose and hand-filed all the burrs and divets out.

There’s something to be said about hand-finishing your products; you put something more personal into the piece. Other people can sense this, even if they know nothing at all about the process. I notice a different reaction on the faces of patrons who pick up a hand-finished die versus a machine-finished one, for example. Subconsciously, they sense the love, skill, and patience put into that particular piece. It feels warmer, more alive, more “real” in a sense. Therefore, they tend to pick up and buy up the hand-finished dice more often. Seriously, I watch people pick up my dice one at a time, seeing how they feel, and they almost always return to the hand-finished ones. It’s weird.

Anyway, that’s how these tongs felt when things clicked. Suddenly I went from holding two pieces of beat-up steel to holding a firm pair of tongs. They felt ready to be. I put extra love into those tongs, quenched and perfectly tempered and thoroughly seasoned. They feel good in the hands. I feel they’ll treat me real good.

I ruined/broke the first two scrolling tongs I attempted to make last year. I haven’t given up, though – each failure is a valuable lesson in this craft. Now I can not only make them correctly, each pair I make gets better and better. Ryan is actually helping me along quite a lot, even though it takes me a mistake before I realize what he’s trying to show me (“every failure…”). He’s proud of my tongs, which makes me a happy little chicken. ^.^ I’m glad to finally be working with him again for real.

I named my new scrolling tongs Ducky – I’m going to stamp the name on the handles next chance I get in the fire.

Peace.

Related article

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D-D-Duh Dice!

The product I both love and loathe.

When I became a blacksmith‘s apprentice last year I never imagined I’d land myself in dice production. But, this is Pittsburgh, and those Pitts-burghers (yes, that’s the official terminology in these parts) love their dice games. Plus, this is Steeler’s country, and coal country, and steel manufacturing country, so handmade steel dice are my number one selling item.

Last year I only made six-sided dice (called hexahedrons, FYI), but they sold like crazy. I figured soon I’ll have flooded the market with those and so I’ve upped the ante. This show I’m making multi-sided dice. Last night I completed the patterns for all the common dice used in most table-top role playing games – the 6-sided(d6), 4-sided(d4), 8-sided(d8), 10-sided(d10), 12-sided(d12), and 20-sided(d20) dice. I just finished roughing out a nearly 2″ d20 last night. The thing will weigh over 1 pound when it’s all said and done. I should have a complete D&D gaming set by the end of the week.

I’m also creating special life-counters for all the Magic geeks out there. I already have a commission to make a 3-digit counter along with a special art piece for one die-hard, long-time KracK addict (which I need to somehow whip out of my ass this week along with all my other unfinished projects…).

By the way, I’m never making another fist-sized d20 again unless it’s a commission. It took me a two days to figure out the pattern and another, oh, 10-14 hours of cutting and grinding and sanding and hammering just to get it to where it is now… I’m going to have to sell it for over $200 just to make up for it all.

I’m excited about my dice so far. They’re turning out well and are actually a lot of fun to work on. Never had I so much joy than when I got to figure out the geometry of the d20. I really love geometry.

Right now, I only have enough product to get me through this weekend, but if all goes well, I’ll have an Etsy shop and running (I’m literally losing sales on the weekend because I have no business cards or online shop…). Expect to see some really quality pictures of my dice and the other things I make online soon!

Peace.

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Pineapple Twist

Today (Wed, Sept. 7th) is the first day the rain’s let up in two and a half days. A long storm system moving striaght up along the Appalachians ruined what should have been a great 3-day weekend. Instead, we had two okay days and one really crappy Labor Day. We showed up at the blacksmiths’ shop really only hoping to complete a bit of inventory and hopefully make enough to buy something warm to eat.

We wound up making a little bit of money – just enough to make the day worth it. I stayed nice and damp, despite the heat from the forge. Then, a bleak day turned into a really awesome day when a master blacksmith from the area (who, incidentally, used to be the blacksmith of the faire back in ’03) showed up, saw the patterns on our war hammers and figured out what we were actually trying to do.

You see, for some time we’ve been trying to make something called a “pineapple twist,” a complicated-looking twist that, when done correctly, comes out looking like a closed pinecone. It looks something like this: (Pic.)

Ryan saw this twist done once before, but since he didn’t do one himself shortly afterwards, couldn’t remember how it was done. We figured we’d have to go online and find a video demonstration. Hallelujah, we didn’t have to! Kurt – a local blacksmith – showed up and heartily offered to show us. Kurt fits the blacksmith stereotype as far as appearances go. Over six feet tall and barrel-chested, he stood tall and relaxed with his thick thumbs hooked into the loops of his shorts. His round, almost boyish face, thick black hair and full beard completed the outfit. I half expected him to put his hands on his hips, throw his head back and let loose with a belly-shaking guffaw.

Thank god he didn’t, because I think I might have freaked out a little…

I’ve noticed working with blacksmiths, that master blacksmiths in particular turn into giddy little children whenever they get a chance to crawl into someone else’s forge to “compare hammerblows,” so to speak. Anyway, I watched in rapt fascination as Kurt instructed and assisted Ryan in making a pineapple twist. He gave us plenty of great tips and reminders; showed me how not to fear the cross-pein hammer. (As a result, I pumped out a handful of throwing spikes today at the forge!)

Kurt was a great guy and we might have to swing by his shop someday to drink beer and swing a hammer. (Because beer and hot metal go together for the same reason pizza and beer and cigarettes and beer go so well together. By the time I left Colorado, I had written recipes for half a dozen “blacksmiths’ drinks.”)

Learning the pineapple twist made that rainy, slow, potentially crappy Labor Day Monday worth getting out of bed and suffering wet garb for. Ryan’s now using the pineapple twist whenever he can, and I’m eager to try it, too, once I get more stock to make throwing spikes.

And, for all the apprentices out there just like me that want to try this twist, too, here are the basic steps in how it’s done:

Steps in making a pineapple twist, labeled Fig. A - Fig. E, from left to right.

1. Mark a deep groove down the center of a piece of heated square stock. Make this mark on all four sides of the stock. (Fig. A)

2. Place in vice and make a 3/4 twist. (Fig. B)

3. Square all four sides on the anvil. (Fig. C)

4. Punch another groove down the center of each four sides, as in step 1. (Fig. D)

5. Untwist in vice 1/4 twist. Watch the twist to see if it looks right. True up on anvil with a wooden mallet. You now have a completed pineapple twist. (Fig. E)

Have fun with that! ❤

Peace.