Blacksmithing and forging

[psacustomcreations]

One more added

[Shootr]

8

[whtbaron]

And another one...

[Bruce]

Does that make me #9 or #10?

[Lis2323]

Does that make me #9 or #10?

Just announce with confidence that you're a "ten" Bruce


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[VaughnT]

Some Roycroft andirons from back in the day. These would be a good project for the beginner or mid-level smith. None of the individual components are too hard, and even if it's outside your ability at the moment, you can always buy elements like the basket twist from King's and other suppliers. I like pieces like these because you can see how each little piece is pretty simple. What makes the end product stand out is simply how all those simple things were brought together.

[VaughnT]

Displaying your work is every bit as important as forging your work. Credit to Peysak Custom Knives for really knocking it out of the ballpark!

[Shootr]

Starting to think about the Christmas gifts I have to make for family that will be visiting. One will be this couple made out of lifting hooks:



But of course, the hooks I bought have eyes that are waaaaay to large for my taste. (The hooks themselves are as well, but I can grind them thinner). Ignore the ball bearing, didn't realize it was sitting there...



The website only describes them as "alloy steel", which internet search tells me is forged most likely, not cast. If that's the case, welding/forging shouldn't be a problem?



I'm trying to figure out a way to make the finished eye smaller like in the example. Possible ideas I came up with include:

*Weld a thick disc of steel into the eye, then grind down the outside perimeter and re-drill a new hole
*Cut a section out of the top of the eye, and forge the ends together to make a smaller diameter
*Cut the eye off completely and fab a new one out of thick steel and drill/grind/weld to shape

Any thoughts on what would be a good way of going about it - knowing my questionable skillset?

[Lis2323]

"Hooking Up"


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[VaughnT]

I would start over. No matter what you do with the hooks you have, I'm afraid it will always look either out of proportion or cobbled together. It'd be very cool if you had the male hook kind of rough and pitted while the female hook was smooth and polished.

Making your own hooks wouldn't be that terribly difficult especially since you don't need them to be perfect for lifting.

[Lis2323]

Vaughn that is just plain sexist. I don't really think you mean what you said.

No reason at all why the female can't be pitted and rough looking. I'm certain there's lots of smiths out there that are attracted to that type.


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[VaughnT]

More power too them.

[Shootr]

I would start over. No matter what you do with the hooks you have, I'm afraid it will always look either out of proportion or cobbled together. It'd be very cool if you had the male hook kind of rough and pitted while the female hook was smooth and polished.

Making your own hooks wouldn't be that terribly difficult especially since you don't need them to be perfect for lifting.

Aaaand, for the umpteenth time - thank you for taking the time to help a brother out. That looks well within my wheelhouse and now I'm excited to get going on it. Well, after a brief vacation this weekend...

Thanks Vaughn.

[VaughnT]

Glad to help. Were I to make a lifting hook, I'd start with the square stock the size he talks about for the eye and then draw things down for the rest of the piece. I don't think it's any easier, but I've always had a problem upsetting bar and keeping things tidy.

10" of 1"x5/8" flat bar would be more than enough material, imo. Everything depends on how tall/short you want the finished hooks, but I think that'd give you more than enough meat to make something that looked good. 1"x1/2" would work, too, and is probably more common. Just gotta be careful to not thin the eye area too much or it'll look spindly.

Another style that might be easier to at least practice on first is the non-welded version.....

I think he had his proportions all wrong, but other than that....



I sometimes wonder if I'd be better at blacksmithing if I had a British accent.

[cwby]

You would have to grind the forged in china off.

https://www.amazon.com/Forney-61074-...77&sr=8-2&th=1

[VaughnT]

Now that'd I've had a nap, I'm curious to know if the store-bought hook could be fixed for the application.

It's certainly going to be cast steel rather than cast iron because the latter is too brittle and would simply snap under about 100# of load. That being the case, there's no reason why you couldn't cut a 1/4" section out of the eye, heat the whole area up to a uniform red, and then squish the eye back together in your vise. This would shrink the head a good big, making it look more like the original. The difficult part would be dressing your weld so it disappears. I'd remove a section down where the shank joints the eye so you get a little help by the transition interfering with the flow. If you put the weld up high in the eye, it'll be very apparent if you don't get it sanded "right".

Looking at the example above, the hooks look to have been extensively sanded down to smooth things. I think there might even have been some other tweaking just to make sure the female hook was smaller but not too much smaller. Or maybe it's just the perspective caused by how they're oriented.

You're already going to have to do a ton of grinding on the hooks, so tweaking them a little bit wouldn't add much to the workload.

Either way, it'll be a fun project and I'll look forward to seeing it come to life.

[Shootr]

I have a feeling I may still be trying to make my own hooks via the method in the first video. But no harm in seeing what comes of cutting, forging, welding, and grinding these ones.



I have plenty of time to mull over different thoughts and ideas before I get going on it (gotta finish the totem pole first! - priorities!) This is one way - as you described with sectioning the eye and narrowing the hook. I can also see slightly stretching the hook where it connects to the eye. I'm also going to use this for refining/practicing my finishing - patiently sanding through grits to get a smoother, uniform, seamless finish.

It just is relieving to have a plan or two - because before, I was grasping at straws on how I might do this.

[VaughnT]

The key will be to get the eye potion sized right. It needs to be "chest/shoulder" proportionate with the head and the rest of the body. Too big and it'll look wrong. Too small and it'll look wrong.

On the original, I'd guess that hole for the link/arms is about 1/2" in diameter. The "arms" look more like 5/16" than 1/4", but not as big as 3/8" diameter stock.

As for finish, I'd be tempted to build a simple tumbler to help. Even with a "stone-washed" look, it'd be dead sexy with some matte polyurethane on it, maybe darkened with some Cold Blue solution first. And the tumbler would do wonders for hiding little imperfections from welding and sanding.

[psacustomcreations]

What about using this style hook? Some have a nut instead of the formed portion. The area with the nut could be flattened and a hole punched into it for the head. The example looks hand formed so maybe that is what they did or an option.
There are several styles available. These are called crane hooks.




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[shortfuse]

No reason at all why the female can't be pitted and rough looking. I'm certain there's lots of smiths out there that are attracted to that type.

They call those "two baggers", LOL

[N2 Welding]

They call those "two baggers", LOL

Damn that's gotta be rough. Reminds me of when the kid in home alone says to buzz your girlfriend " WOOF "

[Shootr]

On steel with little spots of paint in nooks and crannies - will it just burn off in the forge - or leave undesired discoloration?

I can get 99% of the paint off the hooks, but a few areas will need a tiny Dremel-style brush to get to otherwise.

[shortfuse]

Paint remover??? Solvents???

[whtbaron]

I would expect small areas to burn and flake off... but I might be wrong... paint remover or hand held sand blaster would cure it. Didn't you want a small sandblasting cabinet out there too?

[Shootr]

Chemicals are always an option, but if forge heat works as well - that'd be more awesomer.

Don't have the compressor power for blast cabinet - yet. Or the room for one actually.