That’s Not a Daylily Bud

Yesterday I made a lot of daylily buds which will eventually be incorporated into some table sculptures. It was a beautiful spring day and reminded me of an earlier outdoor daylily sculpture connection.

At one of the first art shows in my experience I exhibited a daylily sculpture and some other botanical sculptures. It was generally a pleasant adventure held in a outdoor botanical garden setting. It offered the opportunity to see lots of other art and craft work and to visit with people and just enjoy the outdoors. It was a lot of work and not highly profitable given the amount of effort required setting up and taking down the display and eventually I elected not to do those shows any longer but I have a lot of interesting memories. The daylily conversation is one.

A visitor carefully examined an untitled sculpture and then asked me what flower it was. I casually replied, “Daylily” and the response was, “I’m a daylily judge and that’s not a daylily.” I recall being so amazed that I don’t recall my followup.

I was reminded of “The Treachery of Images” (La trahison des images), a painting by René Magritte, The picture shows a pipe and below it, Magritte painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", French for "This is not a pipe." The painting is not a pipe, but rather an image of a pipe .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images

A fellow artist blacksmith, much more experienced that me, said, “If a client comes over and says I’d love to buy your tulips (actually iris), don’t tell them they are iris.”

I’d say a lot of my biological sculpture work is representational. At least close enough that a child could name the object. but it isn’t intended to be highly accurate representation - only suggestive. I can’t match Mother Nature. I think it’s enough just to point to her work. I’m fascinated by how many clues are needed to define an object in our minds. My daylily sculptures are certainly less daylily-like than Magritte’s pipe is pipe-like. When does representation become abstraction? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map–territory_relation

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The Anvil of Damocles

I’ve made a few hollows form anvils as a novelty item and had some fun with them. The first one I made had some defects and recorded some of the difficulties I encountered figuring out how to do it so i didn’t think it was good enough to sell. On the other hand, I didn’t want it sitting around taking up space so I decided to hang it on an outside wall over a door just for mischief. Originally it was over the west entrance and suspended almost invisibly by a length of 10 gauge wire. I thought it was so prepostoursly obvious that the anvil had to be fake that it caught me off guard when a person asked me what special kind of wire I used to hang the anvil.

I got the idea from Roger Denger who brought his hollow form anvil and swage block to a BAM meeting quite a few years ago. He had done a very convincing Job of fabrication and patina perfection but when he chalked on a “$400 Sold” message it was the crowning blow of deception.

Now the original anvil hangs over my east sidewalk by a chain and a still rather obviously inadequate bracket. I suppose now someone will ask about what kind of lag screws I used.

So, have some fun today and try to worry less about the fears we imagine hang over us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Severing to Isolate Mass

When a student is learning how to draw a taper without a cold shut there are several well known tips to include in the lesson. Most are designed to work when the stock has been cut with a blunt end as with a chop saw or band saw. The problem is avoided almost entirely if the stock was cut off on the hardy or with a handled hot cut.

Now that I have a hydraulic forging press in operation I cut a lot of stock with it. Recently I was making buds which will be incorporated into some daylily sculptures and needed quite a few short lengths of 1/2”, 9/16” and 5/8” round stock. The first step was to mark the cut point of each piece with a steel tape and presto pen. The next step was to notch each pen mark so the cut off point could be felt when placed hot into the severing tool.

The notching die is a bottom die made from a piece of hex shaft drill rod so the edge angle is 120º. In my press it makes a 1/16” - 1/8” deep notch in the stock cold. The press is powerful enough to completely sever the stock cold but the drop shoots off like a bullet and is too hazardous for any stock thicker that 1/8”.

I think the safe way to sever is with hot stock cut and a scissor tool. I bought mine from Old World Anvils and have one set up for a power hammer and the other for the forging press.

http://www.oldworldanvils.com/phtooling/tooling_scissor.html

The resulting ends are nicely tapered and each of the hot cut drops falls right into the collection pan right at waist level. These pieces are heated again and pressed into various open face dies I made to size and roughly shape each type of bud. The flash is removed and the stem drawn out and then they are ready for adding any final detail.

The tapered ends facilitate filling the die cavities and preventing cold shuts when tapering and overall I think this method of cutting is nearly effortless, less expensive and less time consuming than using the bandsaw.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Texture and Patina

One thing said about craft masters is that they are in control of their tools and techniques. That is what skill is all about. But when it comes to the issue of surface patinas watch out.

Early on in my metalworking experience I was visiting with an artist who said he never agreed to create an exact color surface for a client even if they had the target example in hand. Under no circumstance would he accept an color image. At the time I didn’t think much about it but it wasn’t long before the complicated relationship between the alloy, the surface texture and the finish chemicals sunk in.

My first work taught me something about the differences which can result from fire scale effect differences between the coal forge and the gas forge. The “tooth” and gross texture differences between hot wire brushing, pickling, planishing, sanding and tumbling are remarkable.

One of my first really difficult struggles came when working with a sheet of hot rolled A36. Apparently the alloy differences in the surface made it almost impossible to get an even color with hot waxing. I think that may have been when I started experimenting with spraying Minwax polyurethane instead of rubbing with the paste wax.

More recently I have seen a similar problem with creating a rust patina with hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide on A36. If the pieces are from two different batches of A36 the problem is magnified.

The chandelier and pendant images illustrate the color variation due to (in addition to the camera) the different metal stock alloys in the tube, sheet, flat bar, balls and chain, and the surface texture differences between the glass sockets and the smoother tube.

Now that I am aware of some of the potential bummers I have somewhat more control of the process but, really, I don’t mind the help of some serendipity.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The Secondary Coal Bin Door

The coal bin is nearly empty and I’ll need to make a trip to the mine soon. When the bin is full, I open the chute and the coal falls out to fill the bucket without any other encouragement. As the supply dwindles I have to reach in with a rake and pull more toward the chute door. It’s no big deal until the supply is down to the last 25% or so. At that point most of it is out of reach and the top doors must be opened and the remaining coal scooted toward the outlet.

The doors were hinged from the south side so they would open on the north where I backup the pickup bed for unloading. That means I can’t open them from the chute side to check the coal level or move the coal from that side. Then comes the ah-ha! moment. I needed a secondary door, a door within a door which opens from the south and facilitates management of the contents. A little jig saw work and it was completed.

The bin was originally described in the blog post on 4/7/2011.http://persimmonforge.blogspot.com/2011_04_07_archive.html Now, I’ll add this addendum drawing. It won't be long before someone points out that I should have added another door on the left side while I was at it.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Vise Rivet Head Upset Tool

Usually rivets from 3/16” diameter through 1/2” are easy to obtain in commonly useful lengths. Custom rivets, for me, are either ordinary diameter rivets in an extraordinary long length or rivets with a larger than ordinary shank diameter.

I recently needed some 3” rivets with a 9/16” shank so I made them from scratch. Vise clamping and peening with torch heat works well but the shank needs to be gripped securely to prevent slipping. Providing a bottom buck works even better and combining the two is a sure thing.

Over the years I have made one style clamping/bucking tool to be used in the post vise which has worked well, That style is shown in images “Rivet upset tool 6 & 8”. The loop depth is about 3” as that is as long as I have ever needed. When making shorter rivets a piece of steel scrap can be inserted to make the bottom stop more shallow. On the 1/4” shank tool I actually tack welded in a stop piece.

After I had finished making a new larger version for the 9/16” shaft rivets I thought perhaps a more universal tool could be fabricated which would have a screw adjustable stop so I drew up a plan. I won’t take the time now to make and test one but if this comes up again I will try it. See “Adjustable Rivet Header”. The shank gripper part is made by sandwiching a piece of card stock between two blocks of mild steel and drilling the hole about the same diameter as the round stock to be used then relieving the sharp edges. The assembly is completed by welding the gripper jaws to the angle flanges and adding the side arms to the fixed nut creating sort of the bottom half of a turnbuckle. I will use 1” thread rod with 1” nuts for the adjustable stop. I might use a coupler nut for the fixed nut.

When welding clamp a piece of slightly oversized stock in the gripper channel so there is a little spring gap built in. The actual stock will fit easily and the vise jaws only have to bend the spring arms a little to grip firmly.

Tip for clean threaded rod end cuts:

http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2010/10/07/clean-threads/

Tip for upsetting rivets:

http://chestofbooks.com/crafts/machinery/Shop-Practice-V2/Simple-Bend-Forcing.html

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

Calculating the Bend

I have been asked to make a steel table leg style which, if the look is right and the price is right might be used in a table project by an artist who creates custom barnwood furniture.

The issue came up as the result of a conversation in which I described some experiments I was doing in an attempt to define the styles of table support frames which appealed to me and which I may adopt as my preferred styles.

In short we agreed to use 1” square bar stock. Each leg would be a pair of these bars, riveted together, rising to a 90º bend point which when pulled over a 2.5” radius mandrel would support the bottom table top 31” inches above the floor. The terminal eight inches of the top end would be forged into a plate with two bolt holes and there would be a 45º twist which would bring each plate into a parallel line with it’s corresponding side.

This is simple enough in concept but a bit more difficult in the details. At what point on the bar does the bend begin? How much bar length is required? More importantly, to what length should the bar be cut for the most convenient working?

For me, this is one of those “trust but verify” things. It is easy enough to make a full scale drawing which will provide most of those answers but I have been using SketchUp lately and decided to try it here.

I first drew the bending mandrel - a 2.5” circle. Then I used the offset tool to illustrate the 1” stock bending around the mandrel. Finally I extended the bar to the floor and about 8” under the table. Although the physical result of my bending may be slightly different from the calculation, I’m going to say I need to allow the 4 21/32” for the bend, 8” for the table bolt plate limb and 27” for the vertical limb.

I drew the neutral zone of distortion of the bend in red and that should be the actual length required. The area between the red line and the mandrel should compress and the mass in the zone outside the neutral zone should stretch.

I have left the dimensional measurements which show the “off by a 32” or so” notations to illustrate how some error can accumulate when drawing lines by hand rather than typing an exact number in the measurement box.

This works for me and I didn’t have to find the roll of freezer paper an a flat surface to make a full size drawing.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The Gas Saver Handle

My gas saver hadn’t been in use very long before I became annoyed with getting my finger tips burned every time I tried to turn the flame adjustment brass fitting. Affixing a handle seemed like the most obvious approach.

I can’t remember if the hose clamp was my original solution or if I tried a piece of wire or something like that first but the hose clamp has been the long term fix. A blacksmith friend from Colorado visited a while back and said, “Wow, why didn’t I think of that?” So this is posted for any others who might not have thought of it.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

The Film Crew

Back on October 14, 2011 I mentioned that a film crew was coming. As I was looking over some earlier posts I realized I never reported on that experience, so, this is it.

I looked back at my journal and found that on that Saturday I wrote “Another perfect weather day. The film crew got here at 1010 and stayed until noon. I worked the rest of the day with the coal fire on some dies and experimental forging.”

There were four crew members who each had specific roles directing, lighting and filming, sound and interviewing. They made a quick tour then worked very efficiently to set up the lighting and hook up my microphone and get the interview rolling.

I’m not accustomed to this sort of thing and I wasn’t being filmed doing actual work, just tapping with a hammer on some small piece on the anvil so it all felt a bit awkward but they were all very nice and things went pretty smoothly. Apparently they only needed a few images or short film clips for their job so I hope they got what they needed.

I think their company was based in Boston and they were working on a project for the state of Kansas to promote tourism. Betty did all of the arranging of their visit so she has a better understanding of what it was all about. I think if any of the material is useful it will be used somehow in conjunction of the opening of the Flint Hills Discovery Center.

http://www.flinthillsdiscovery.org/

http://www.persimmonforge.com/