Candelier

Here are a few pictures of a candelier I made for a hammer-in recently. It is held together by tension. If you pull the center pin, it all falls apart.

Metal Forming at Medwedeff Forge & Design

Here are a few great technical pictures of hot forming metal at Medwedeff Forge. If you are not familiar with John Medwedeff's work, check it out.

Brinksty Forge-In

Here are a few pictures from the annual forge-in at Brinksty Forge on April 28. Brinksty Forge is the shared workshop of Henry Ponfret, Tony Ingarfield, and the one and only, Adrian Legge. The day was filled with forging and the night was filled with grilled meat, ale, and good music. As always, a great time was had by all and many great objects were forged.

This year's theme for the forging competition was "spring", so Sam Pearce and I decided to join up and forge bumble bee from a 40 mm bolt and nut.

Special thanks to Dave Dewson for the professional photography.

Links:

Brinksty Forge

Words of wisdom. I like number ten.

The Man

THE BIG RIVET!!!

I'm coming to the end of my gate construction now and just fitting everything together. The last big step before replacing all the bolts with rivets and sending it off for galv and paint was to fix the two cross elements with a huge rivet. Yes, it was every bit as fun as it looks in the video, probably more so for Matt Garton and Sam Pearce as they were swinging the sledges. 

Thanks to Ben Davey and Katie Write for filming!

A very interesting discussion about drawing with Richard Serra

Some people really don't like Richard Serra's work. I do. This is a good watch, either way.

Art Nouveau in Brussells

This a great album I found on flicker:

Art Nouveau in Brussells

Some work by John Haley III

Here is a great example of an artist that manages to twist a style into something very unique. The Art Nouveau influence on Haley's work is obvious, but his take on it is totally unique. A common criticism of Art Nouveau is that it is overly feminine, but the work below is far from that. John Haley manages to take the organic flowing curves usually found in Art Nouveau motifs and mix them with violent edges and sharp points that make his work look like a mix of Alphonse Mucha and Frank Frazetta translated into forge work.

Links: 

John Haley III

Forging my own stock with the Massey

A video of me forging my own stock, just like a real blacksmith! I had to make my own 40 x 20 mm from 30 mm square because I waited until the last minute to order my material and it didn't show up in time.

Forging a set down with the Massey

Here is a video of me forging the set downs for my gate elements using the Massey and the Blacker. The method came from the Lillico book and some trial and error test pieces. In later pieces I forged down the section using a set black tool before moving over to the Blacker.

Forging a halving joint on the Massey power hammer.

Here is a quick video of me forging a halving joint for my gate project. The material spread nicely and the joint ended up looking very good.

Drifting a big hole on the Sahinler power hammer.

Here is a video I made of drifting a hole out from round to tapered octagon for flypress weights. I got the method from a video of Claudio Bottero punching and drifting a hammer eye. As you can see in the video, the method is trial and error. It ends up working quite well in the end.

3DSP Samples

Here are some of the samples I have made for my 3DSP project. All samples have been made using the power hammer with minimal hand work with the exception of the tooling. 

Leaf hammer forged from 25 mm square EN9 high carbon steel. The hole was punched by hand and the cheeks were drawn out on the fullering dies on the power hammer. All necking and forging of the faces was done using a broad fuller and striker. 

Rodded chisel punch forged from EN9 high carbon. The hole was punched and drifted by hand, and everything else was done using the power hammer. 

Texture and spread sample forged from 5 diameter pipe section. Half of the pipe was compressed and forged under the fullering dies, while the other half was untouched.

Another view of the same sample.

Here is a close up shot of a sample that I ended up incorporating into my gate for design development. It is a 40 x 12 mm flat that has been heavily fullered on edge so that it upsets the edge of the material while necking it in. It has to be done slowly and very hot with the finishing work done very cold. This creates a natural valley in the center of the piece that I really like. The best part about it is that the most interesting bit of the sample has been created without any direct hammer contact. 

Here is part of my gate for design development that uses side set tooling to set down material under the power hammer.

A close up of the set down. Please view the video for a full demonstration of how it was done.

Side set tool forged from spring steel. This is the tool I used to do the set downs in the above sample.  I took this design from the videos by Toby Hinkman. I also looked at the Lillico book for inspiration.

Cut off tool forged from spring steel. 

This sample plays with the possibilities of set downs and material isolation.

Punches made from EN9 high carbon tool steel. All three were forged smith and striker using mostly the flatter.

This is a sample using an interesting spring swage that I found on the rack. It has a single round fuller on top and two round fullers on bottom. 

The opposite side of the same sample.

An interesting finial sample made using the side set tool to isolate the end of the bar on two sides. The end was then squashed on the blacker mechanical hammer.

A sample using the same spring swage as the sample above. 

Made using the side set tool to isolate material then a flat block tool to forge down the center area.

Floral study using the fullering dies on the Kugn power hammer.

Box section that has been forged down using the fullering dies on the Kugn hammer. 

The other half of the same sample cut off on the bandsaw.

Albert Paley Forging Videos

Here is some video I shot while at his residency at Steneby School in Sweden. While working there, he did almost all work on a Beche 125 kg power hammer with flat dies. I never saw him use any tooling, swages, etc. He really shows the versatility of flat dies to achieve sculptural form and texture. All video was shot with my iphone so the quality is not great, but it still illustrates the work.

More pics of power hammer work.

Here some more pictures of free form power hammer forging used in different pieces of work. These pieces really exploit the plasticity of the material.