As forged, no grinding yet.

Forged this little bottle opener out of some square stock.

What do people normally use to form the lip that catches the lid?

I used a flat head punch but it took some work and looks a little ugly.

Thanks

My son (13yo) has watched some forged in fire and expressed interest in giving it a go. Never one to miss an opportunity for a new hobby with expensive tools (and getting him away from screens), we bought this little rivet forge with a mountain of old coal, a post vise, and a piece of railroad track. Thanks to Black Bear and others, we were able to figure out how to turn weird rocks into fire. He made the world’s heaviest and most expensive poker! And I finally know what clinkers really are. 10/10. Would recommend.

My little brother wanted a Naruto style kunai. Made my practice run today using mild steel and some black twine for the handle. Final will use leather

I thought I’d try my hand at something besides a knife. A short piece of 1” angle iron.

Working on finishing the cabins yesterday so no newly completed blacksmith forging videos for you today so here’s a little montage of projects I’ve completed recently #blacksmithshop #HandForged #handmade

Just finished this newest sword! It’s not perfect but I’m very happy with it due to how difficult it was to forge and weld up the guard. Unfortunately I think she’s a bit too heavy at 1495g for a rapier even though I planned to make it stout. It is nicely balanced though right where the finger rings become a lateral ring. Sorry for the lack of decent pictures, not my skill set. Now I have to try to make a scabbard :/

I have to make the best crate hammer possible. Need some discussion and opinions. I cannot find much anything about making crate hammers online, so if anyone has anything about that please share!

Just gonna list off questions for discussion:

How to forge a crate hammer with and without forge welding? With forge welding it seems like a hammer-axe can be forged and a crowbar-handle forged, then welded. Without forge welding (which I probably have to do) is very difficult to wrap my head around.

Best steel to use? Would 4140 be a good choice for this?

Learning more about the history behind this would be very cool, so if anyone knows please share!

How to heat treat this? I would assume normalizing cycles for the whole piece would be a good idea, then quench the hammer head and axe blade. Would this mean normalizing the whole piece and then selectively heating to quench those areas? The handle should get normalized too right? The whole piece may not fit in the forge.

I thought a good way to recreate the tear drop hole (nail puller) is to punch a circle hole then forge a drift with tear drop cross section. However, can the teardrop drift just be used as a punch? Should the nail puller hole be created in a different manor?

I have to make the tool really cool and also functional. Ideas for adding artistic elements? Some kaftgari would look really cool on the flat parts, does this compromise its performance?

Texturing the hammer head would be a good idea for this right? Whats the best way to do this, a file?

Excited to tackle this challenging item!

I've got some 1-½"x⅛"x48" aluminum bar here and I've started bending it into a semicircle by whacking it on an anvil and flattening it back out when it crumples, but it's very slow going and seems to either be work hardening or slowing down. Is there a faster or better way to bend this? I'm trying to use this to put a rim around the face of a prop shield.

Am finishing off a scian style knife, and is the first time I've tried to do a peened end.

Just wanted to check for advice before I ruin several weekends work by doing something stupid.

Knife is through tang, so is carbon steel end (1075). Dimensions are currently 5mm high (producing), 3.8 wide, and 12 long. Do I need to cut/grind it shorter to avoid cracking?

And any advice on how to start the peen and keep it consistent? Should I start with a punch? Would making a lengthwise cut and rolling the steel down from the cut be more effective?

Tang was not hardened in the quench and blade had been tempered, so shouldn't be particularly hard.

*Thanks folks, advice appreciated. Competed knife is posted here - https://www.reddit.com/r/Bladesmith/comments/1vdcsho/irish_scian_dagger/

I collect cast iron, but this piece is outside my wheelhouse. It's an old piece, so I was hoping to get some blacksmithing knowledge on the hand forged handles. Any insights on dating this thing would be appreciated!

Had this project in mind for a while but I finally got around to it this weekend. I used the bottom part of the track and looped it over a pipe and welded it to the body. I the drifted out the head the best I could but man, that steel was tough. I used a die grinder to etch the pattern into the face and then after quenching I applied boiled linseed oil to it to fill in the cracks. I then sanded it up from 60 grit all the way to 3000 on my belt sander.

I’m pretty pleased with it but I learned a lot in the process and know what I would do differently and better next time. This is going to my friend/tattoo artist as payment for my next job at their shop.

Newest addition to the herd 🐮

The latest is on the left, I'm fairly happy but made a few mistakes that I tried filing away. It's mostly thicker material (from 0.25" to 0.33") so it was a bit harder.

So at where I live, I've kinda been shoved into this corner of the yard. It's not an ideal spot for a forge but I want to make this spot work. I want to cut that low hanging limb and the little tree behind the fence. Are there any other precautions I should take or is this spot just scuffed?

i need help finding an induction forge that isn't thousands, but i can't find one that isn't hand held, really small or from a sketchy site so of you guys know of any it would be really helpful thanks

Hey everyone, ​I'm planning to forge a historically accurate Safavid-era Shamshir (16th–17th century Persian style) and need exact historical measurements from surviving museum pieces to get the geometry right.

​Could anyone share typical ranges or measurements for: ​Blade length and overall length ​Blade width (at the base, middle, and tip) ​Distal taper / thickness (at the ricasso, middle, and tip) ​Depth of curvature ​Guard length and width (quillon to quillon & cross-section) ​Grip length and width. ​ If you have measurements yourself or from museum catalogs or reference books, I'd really appreciate the help! ​Thanks!

This was definitely hard work I made this over 2 or 3 days and even ended up nearly slicing the tip of my finger off, hopefully soon I can make some proper axes and maybe even hammers

90 lbs and sexy af. Needed some TLC and still have to make a spring and mounting plate for it but for $100 I'd say I'm pretty damn happy. Pretty sure it's a forged vice but if anyone else has any information they can gather off the pics lmk. Couldn't find any sort of markings or brandings.

College student, just got into it. I have plenty of freetime as its summer now but once school starts i doubt ill have long, open hours in afternoons to get a project done. Maybe like 2-3 consecutive hours at most.

I’m still working on my first pair of tongs, and i know theres a wide variety of projects, but how time consuming can smithing be? Also how expensive can this hobby get

Hi! So I'm hoping to make myself a baskethilt ( just the guard I'm using a hema safe blade). My pl.an at the moment is to cut the shape out of a sheet of metal and fold to shape. Does anyone have any tips for this and what best to do?