Iron Ring Forge

05/07/2025

It's been a few minutes since I last posted anything. My favorite customer is past his weapons stage, so those types of projects have fallen away. I guess turning teenager will do that. I have kept somewhat busy in the shop, although most of it was small stuff, not really worthy of display. But my latest creation was pretty fun and came out OK.

It's a dragonfly wall art. Dragonflies are my favorite bug. They're just cool looking. And they eat mosquitoes!!!

The forging was fairly straightforward (but still fun), however the assembly/fabrication had some challenges. But the part I really liked was the painting. I'll get to that at the end.

There are some 3D elements to it, mainly the head, back, and tail (head, thorax, and abdomen to any entomologists out there). One problem was - I had to figure out a way to keep the eyes in position for welding. Their centers needed to be raised above my table, and they're way too small to clamp properly. See the closeup of the head. My solution was modeling clay. I put a clump in the middle of the head and set the eye pieces into the clay, while the ends made contact with the head piece. I melted a little clay, but the eyes came out as intended.

Another challenge was the raised pieces for the back and tail. I wanted thinner stock for that, which is challenging for me to weld. But then I noticed that the thin stock I wanted to use wasn't much thicker than my welding rod. So I preformed the pieces and then used them as a welding rod. I melted the puddle in the thicker base piece, then inserted the back/tail pieces into the puddle, as if I was using it as filler, then backed off the heat and let that piece "freeze" in place.

Now, the paint. At first I was going to leave it natural, with a clear coat, but I thought to look up "iridescent paint". After all, this was a dragonfly, and they're normally pretty iridescent. One of the paints that came up was "Dragonfly Glaze", from a company called "FolkArts". This stuff has a clear base with tiny reflective particles suspended. Depending on the angle, it shines blue, purple, or red. I used a flat black base coat for contrast, and am really happy with how it turned out.

So that was my latest adventure in hot metal. I've got a bunch of pictures showing different angles, and you can see some color changing at those angles. The camera doesn't pick up the iridescence as much as real life, but you can see some blues and purples in there. Actually the closeup of the head shows the color changes really well.

Take care, folks!

12/08/2022

10/30/2022

Johnny wanted to be Thor (again) for Halloween this year. Since the God of Thunder ⚡ got a shiny new weapon recently, this slightly smaller version of Thor needed one, too.

The head of Stormbreaker is all wood, painted by Thor, um, Johnny himself. The handle (at least the part that you can see) is made from some bittersweet vines that Johnny and I harvested from my back yard. We stained it Groot Brown together. Minwax doesn't actually call this color "Groot Brown", but what do they know?

The only blacksmithing on this is meant to stay hidden. I didn't really want to trust dead bittersweet to hold onto that head, so I took some metal pipe and forged "vein-y" dents into it, painted it Groot Brown (again, not what Rust-Oleum calls it), and stuck it into the head.

This was easily the most complex project I've worked on. Lots of parts with many angles and shapes. Just forming the vines took some trial and error. But it was definitely fun, and I really enjoy projects that make me think, with plenty of problem solving. The brain needs exercise, too. And a satisfied customer is, well, satisfying for both of us.

01/11/2022

I'm guessing that every blacksmith, and maybe even every metalworker, has been asked at least once if they've ever made a sword. I never have — until my favorite customer asked for a sword.

OK, it's not a *real* sword. It's made of mild steel, which won't hold an edge very well. And that's pretty OK, since this "sword" has all the sharpness of a spoon.

Johnny knows that all these "weapons" I've been making are for decoration only. However, when watermelons get back in season, there might be some casualties.

I used the same basic techniques making the blade as if this were a real sword, with the obvious exception of heat treating, which doesn't do a darned thing on mild steel.

The blank started out as 1/4" X 1", which I spread out to around 3/16" X 1-1/2". It's got a hidden tang that I cut out and Johnny sanded all the edges out. Johnny and I used a "guided" burn-in technique to attach the handle (made from scrap poplar). I drilled a series of holes where the tang would go, but smaller than the tang. I then heated up the tip of the tang and Johnny pressed the handle onto the hot tang, which burned through the tight fit. A few heats and the handle fit snugly on the tang. Johnny liked the smoke streaming out of the handle during the process. And I admit, so did I :-). Then I stuffed some 5-minute epoxy in the handle hole (to make sure the handle stayed snug, and inserted some pins as an extra safety measure.

As you can probably see, even if the sword was hardened and sharp, it wouldn't go very far with the Forged In Fire judges. There are a few hammer marks that I didn't want to grind out. But for my first sword, and a decoration one at that, I was happy enough with the outcome. Johnny's face when he got it was more than enough to crown me Forged In Fire Champion.

12/14/2021

Here's our latest creation - a scythe. I use the word "our" because Johnny and I worked equally hard on this one. This scythe isn't connected to any super hero (or villain), but it's just something that popped into my best friend's head and he asked if I could make him one. I asked if he'd like to make it with me and he loved the idea of starting a "tradition".

I had him sketch the idea out, got some details, and off we went in the back yard in search of a branch or small tree to use for the staff. We have plenty of saplings back there, so it wasn't long before we found the perfect size.

I then set it up in the basement to use my draw knife and Johnny proceeded to de-bark the entire thing. Here's a video of part of that:
https://youtu.be/IVh4fyzCeeo
He also shaved the sides to get more of an oval, ax handle shape.

I took on the metal work. Johnny drew the actual size outline on my welding table, but we couldn't get together enough time for him to help with the smithing part. I also ran my torch over the shaft a bit to get that burnt-in, manly, look.

Don't worry (too much) because this doesn't have a sharp edge at all. I ground the sides of the "edge" to get it shiny and look sharp, but this is only sharp enough to spread butter. It could still do damage with the point, but I'm confident that Johnny won't be swinging this at any people, cats, dogs, ... Pumpkins, melons, and squash would be wise to be afraid, though.

10/23/2021

A dear friend of mine is the pastor for a church and he asked me to build a lectern for his church. The church is called "Lighthouse Christian Center", https://www.lighthousecc.me , so we thought to theme the lectern after the church's name.

This may have been the most challenging project I've done. Getting all the upright pieces at the right angles was a lot easier in my mind when thinking this up than it was in practice. Many of the welds on there are in their third iteration, and I almost gave up on the design twice. But The Spirit came through with some "AHA!" moments and --- Here it is!

08/07/2021

04/04/2021

Continuing on the superhero theme for my favorite customer, I present you (and Johnny) with Wolverine claws. He helped design them, of course. The claws are made from butter knives. Those knives are old extras, and I don't remember if they're made of Vibranium or some other indestructible metal.

In case you're worried about safety, the edges are *not* sharp. The points are also rounded over, but we have demonstrated that they will easily pierce an apple. And except for apples and maybe unsuspecting watermelons, Johnny knows these are for decoration.

03/03/2021

I've gone full into shelf mode. Some, like for closets, are basic ones that use commercial hardware. But a couple sets are more visible, so I got to play in the forge to make the supports, plus some mug hooks.

01/25/2021

A set of nutcrackers and picks I made years ago as a gift. The giftee has since moved in with us, and the nutcracker set came with her. There were originally four picks, 'cuz four picks with two crackers seems to make sense as a set.

06/13/2020

This is another bird-related project. The leaves started out as 1/8" X 1" stock, and those were welded to 3/8" round stems. At first, I was going to make it all out of 3/8" round, but I just wasn't in good enough hammering shape to flatten those long leaves. That gorgeous bowl is a lucky find from a thrift shop.