Thread: Back in the saddle

With the most pressing parts of the home renovation out of the way, I was finally able to dedicate an afternoon to get my forge up and running again. I didn't forge any razors today. I just forged some Damascus bars down to size, and I forged a Damascus scrap into a small knife. My forge has been dormant for quite a while so I didn't want to forge any razors. I hate starting a razor and then not being able to finish it in one session. And I wasn't sure it would run without problems.

With the long time it had been cold, I had to start it several times at low heat to expel all the trapped moisture, and then build up the heat to see if everything held together. Happily, I could build it up to intense heat that is possibly good enough for forge welding. That'll have to wait for another day. Still, I got a couple of pieces of Damascus forged to size, and made a small Damascus kitchen knife.

I also started forging down a quarter of a wootz ingot. I got it from semicircle forged to a thick stubby bar. At that point I had to quit because I'd promised I'd get the living room electricity sorted out before Sunday morning. And that 7 pound hammer started to get real heavy in the end . It's basically a single hand sledge hammer. The people would handled it in Texas last year know what I am talking about.

Tuesday I have planned a day off to finally forge some new razors and get my pipeline going again. In normal circumstances I always have various projects in various stages so that I can always do something during my evenings and free moments. with the complete stop of the last months, I'm all out of razors so I urgently need to get a load of forged razor blanks, and start a number of Damascus billets.

With a bit of luck I can also get my powerhammer going before the end of the year, and then we're really going places.

Very cool. Good luck on yetting it all up and running soon. I love to see what you make.

It sounds like razor making withdrawals. I'm looking forward to seeing that power hammer in action. Happy Holidays, Bruno.

good to hear you are getting some shop time! I swear that if I stay away from the shop for too long, I don't feel quite right...

and its always good to just work down stock for a bit to get back into the swing of things. but I bet as soon as you get that new powerhammer running, your 7 pound hand hammer will find a place of rest in a corner somewhere and have a new career of collecting dust. if something ever happened to my powerhammer where I couldn't fix it, I would stop making knives until I got another one built. I mean we were given brains for a reason......... to use them to build powerhammers!!!! :}

Especially now that I am forging down wootz ingots instead of buying wootz bar stock. I have a project that needs doing and the guy who made the ingot also asked me if I could give him a review of it so I needed to do something with that ingot. I cut it in half, and then one of the halve into halves again. I'm telling you: forging down a quarter ingot (more or less a cubic block of 1 pound) is really hard work.

Yeah the power hammer will be a good thing

I'll have my "power hammer" at Charlie's, my 7#...so you don't have to worry about that. I've gotta polish up it's faces as the moisture in the air has left a little surface rust I saw the other day. Means I haven't been in front of a fire in a while too...

Monday or Tuesday I am going to My friends studio & adjust the 150Lb Beaudry. The top die rests on the bottom die when not running & this is not good. Should be around 2" clear space between the dies. Also the ram guide gibbs need adjusted & the lock nuts retightened. The 50Lb Little Giant needs some love also that will be mainly adjusting the spring & making sure everything is in adjustment & tight.
I will try & get some pictures of the shop & the power hammers in particular

Slawman

Today was my birthday. I took the day off, and spent most of that in my forge.
I am fairly happy with my productivity.

I made 3 razors. You may notice that the 2 top ones look pretty lumpy. Usually I forge much closer to size. But I got an order for 2 draco nobilis razors (one in damascus, one in wootz) that require a ton of special filework That has to be done using files in solid steel. And they have to be identical as well. So I just forged the outlines and made sure that both blanks will be able to turn into the same razor. The third is going to be an 11/8 chopper in O2.



The 2 next pieces are small kitchen knives, made from end cuts. The flat one is going to be a 3 layer potato peeler. The knife shaped one is wootz and will be a small general purpose kitchen knife.



And finally I took a piece of 100 layer Damascus, forged it down and turned it into a twist bar. This bar is about a foot long. The ends are split but that is fairly normal. The ends will be clamped into a vise and immediately cool down while you're twisting the rest. Outside layers sometimes come loose where the cold and hot part meet. I'll cut them off and still have enough of the bar left to serve as the body for 2 hybrid wootz / Damascus blades.

...and a Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday!

Sounds like you had much more fun than I did sitting in the waiting room at the doctors.

I was the driver for a friend after surgery.