Well, I’m stuck with way more time, but way less motivation. With the worry over the business, I am having trouble keeping focused and on task. Still, pounding on metal is not worrying about what is going on. So here is what I have been working on:
First thing is repainting my wife’s horse trailer. This has been an ongoing project for the last few weeks. Painting it by hand both inside and out. at least 3 coats of paint over the entire thing (1 primer and 2 paint.) Almost finished the painting then to attach the pads and hardware and I will be done. Here is the closest to a before picture I can find and the work done so far:
When I can’t seem to get myself excited about starting a new project, I tent to clean and straighten up my workspace (I know that those of you who have been to my shop will not believe that, but it’s true). In doing that over the past weekend, I came across a razor kit that was given to me by my father in law at Christmas. It was a very simple wood turning kit, and I kept meaning to get around to it Well cleaning was getting boring, so, wood turning it was! I had a spare piece of Cocobola wood so, a turning I went. This was to make a replacement razor fof the shaving kit given to me by my daughter years age. Good to have it a complete set again. Simple but satisfying
After all of that, I did force myself to fire up the forge.
Coming out of the forge this time:
cord holder
coal tongs (take 3)
re-worked the viking hammer
another hoof pick
this went as described below:
Cord holder:
The cord holder was supposed to be a quickie to get me back into the forging frame of mind. My wife is in charge of the leaf blower. Just part of the division of labor at the Grimmsfield estates. She has tried several blowers of the course of the years we have been together and has decided that a corded blower is the way to go. In order to use said blower, she keeps a monstrous extension cord plugged in in the garage. This cord gets used for anything going on in the yard that need electricity, So it never really gets unplugged and put away. So we have this giant pile of extension cord that sits around and tries to trip us whenever it can. Well, I pretend to be a blacksmith, so I should be able to fashion something to hang this cord on. Simple right, just put 2 bend in a bar of steel, drill 2 holes to mount it and be done! Go to grab a piece of scrap to make this and come across a failed attempt at making a paper towel holder. Split on one end and rounded and knobed on the other end. Perfect, just bend the knobed end and mount the split end to the wall. “But the spit end looks unfinished and ugly”, says my artsy side. “Just bend it and be done!” shouts my practical side. “But wait” interject the artsy side, “if you forge out one of those split pieces you could make a hook to hang the cord end from.” “Grrrrrrrrr.” from the practical side. “And. AND! and, we could forge a twist in the other end to keep the cord from being pulled out when you pull on the cord from the yard. This could be so cool!” shouted the artsy side. From the practical side: “FINE!!! Lets waste 5 hours forging a 15 minute project. Lets turn this into a major production over something that no one will see or appreciate. Go ahead, see if I care!” “Oh goody!, here we go.” Artsy side.
Another attempt at coal tongs:
When cooking on a fire table, the placement of the coals becomes tantamount. To this end, i have been trying to produce a pair of tongs to pick up and move the coals for the table. the first attempt ended up with a scissor action pair much more suitable to small logs the coals. These my wife found to heavy and bulky. So, back to the drawing board. The 2nd pair was spring loaded and ended up being more like ice tongs then coal tongs. I did not even take a picture of these. This was the 3rd, but not final attempt to make coat tongs. Here is this attempt:
some notes on why these are not the last tongs:
still to heavy (says my wife)
Center spring not large enough. should have left 5 or more inches to be thinned out.
more metal needed to be left for the ends, they also need to be shaped better.
might need to start with thicker stock and draw the arms out thinner to reduce weight.
They work, but they are still not where I want them to be.
Re-worked the viking hammer & another hoof pick:
I purchased a handle (I know I should have made my own) for my viking hammer and found that the eye was way to small for a decent handle. So, back in the fire it went. I did nothing but expand the eye. this thinned the cheeks a little bit, but it now it fits the handle: the indexing on the handle is a little off, i think i will need to make my own handle with a better shape for the hand.
Last bit of news (kind of a big deal):
The hoof picks that I mass produced last week have now been put on E-bay for sale. There are 6 of them up for sale right now. Not sure if they will do anything, but I thought I would give it a try. I need to find some way to pay for this hobby. The pictures below will take you to the E-bay page:
Well, I guess that is about it for me for my adventures this week. And it seems like it is time to get right back into it. Next week, I hope to get the trailer finished and back on the road, get a few scores in in the throwers challenge, plus fire up the forge again. I am hoping to get some better metal in to forge better axes.
Everyone keep safe and be careful out there. Don’t forget Grimmsfield is open for private practice by appointment if you need to get out and get a break from home.
more soon,
Grimm