Even though steel prices are high and lots of old stuff is getting melted down to make new, poorly-made Chinese crap, there is a lot of good, high-quality tool steel around, and we are looking for ways to recycle it into tools and art.
I have been lucky to spend some time in some great metalworking shops this year, and have learned a lot from the generous people in these photos.
A jig for clamping hot metal in a post vise at an angle so you can work it hands-free – @Earthen Iron
David searching for a part in his van-based storage system
A kitchen knife we made from part of an old sawmill blade with a baseball-bat ash handle
Somewhere in South Chico
Consignment auction in Chico
Old iron in Portland
Dave Richer and Anthony at Earthen Iron bending up a custom stair railing for a hair salon.
I like the scaled-out template on the concrete floor
Their finished product
Forging night at Earthen Iron
Dave and Brent Bailey at the coal forge
Metalworkers social
Heavy sculpture in progress at Earthen Iron
Some basic tools
Preparing an exhaust hood for our forging area from reclaimed nut-drying ductwork
Starting point of a coal forge blower rebuild, c. 1901.
Champion Forge Blower guts, just needed some oil, cleaning, and $5 worth of loose 1/4″ bearings.
Champion Forge Blower frame and tuyere, it needed new legs
A new burner for the forge, some sort of old hub.
Nena Creasy, Klamath River metal sculptress
A collage
There’s a heart in there
Hand forged hooks in Nena and Max’s kitchen
The beginnings of a firepan for the coal forge, an International Truck wheel and hub.
Firepan, step 2. a custom base plate to fit it on the tuyere of the original blower.
Anthony texturing straps for gate hinges on the power hammer
Oak chair parts > forging hammer handle
Rake becomes pound-in key hooks
Richer’s gas forge
Rake becomes key hook or cellphone shelf
Anthony laying out a railing
Firepan, step 3
The refurbished forge, complete
Forge, in action
First tool out of the new coal forge
Hatchet made from old hammer head
J. and David Irle, South Chico, with 58 years of accumulated materials
Anthony and Dave at the forge. There has been a blacksmiths shop on this property since the late 1800s.
Anthony practicing his decorative twists on an old railroad spike
Looks about right
Improvised anvils were getting old
Broken anvil found in a junkyard and purchased by the pound. Made in England in the 1800s.
The broken top cleaned up well, and without the missing tail, it still weighs 200#
Got a 24″ Valley Oak stump from an arborist friend to put it on, together they weigh about 500#
Decorative twists in railroad spikes
Drawknives made from car leaf springs
Handles from an old axe handle, ferrules from 3/4″ copper pipe couplers
