Home Chores Trump Forging

It is a lot of trouble for me to adjust from Winter to Spring.  I have to bring up the hoses from the basement - didn’t I just drain and coil them a couple of weeks ago?  The we did some lawn fertilizing, worked on the mower, fixed some screens, sharpened pruning tools and did pruning.  On and on it goes and the shop isn’t seeing much activity.

Betty did some planting in the garden.  Mostly our neighbors use that space and give us part of the crop but we have to do some watering and we built a pea trellis.  She has been busy picking asparagus and putting house plants out for the summer and planting summer annuals which we brought home from several local nurseries.

I sprayed the poison ivy and greenbriar and keep the grape jelly feeder filled for the orioles.   Now I’m going to have to spend some time battling wood bees which are tunneling in the wood trim around the house.  That has been and ongoing battle for twenty years.  I’m going to leave the black carpenter ant colony in the silver maple tree alone.  I have been told that they just eat out the center rotting dead wood and the living tube around that is still strong.

Even though there is a lot of work to do there is the pleasure of being out of doors and observing what nature is showing off.  I sometimes remember to carry my pocket camera and take a few images.  I don’t really go out of my way and miss documenting most of the flower bloom and wildlife activity.  We live in a riparian forest habitat so there is a lot of it.  Each night I sit outside until I see the bats and record the time they begin to fly.

Trellis rose west of the shop.

1" long pawpaw.

Serviceberries west of shop.

Wild strawberry patch north of shop.

I wrote about how I modified the sprinklers so they wouldn’t tip over last October - http://persimmonforge.blogspot.com/2013/10/sprinkler-spike-base.html Now, I’ve made another sprinkler modification.  I mounted a impulse sprinkler on a 48” pipe and welded a spike on the bottom with a foot plate so I could push it into the ground.  This puts the sprinkler at a handy working height so I can easily adjust the spray arc restrictors.  

Tall sprinkler rainbow at SW corner of shop.

I’m about caught up now so I think I can get in a good lick of work in the shop next week.

New Forging Gloves

I recently bought a dozen pair of welding gloves because I have been discarding several gloves which have deteriorated a lot.  I was really pleased to find how well they were made and how comfortable they were.  I felt I got a pretty good deal for the price and decided to pass on the tip.  I got the Uline variety for $7 a pair.

http://www.uline.com/BL_987/Welders-Heat-Resistant-Gloves

Hinged Fold-Down Trellis

Six years ago I decided to put up a trellis to break up a large expanse of wall and make it a bit more interesting.  I made a sort of art nouveau wireframe trellis.  It wasn’t my greatest design but I was considering this an experiment and wasn’t greatly concerned about that.  I didn’t want to invest a lot of time and work as I believed it would be changed later.  One thing I particularly wanted to try was a fold-down mechanism to accommodate periodic house painting without destroying the trellis vine.  

I fabricated a tube and rod hinge for the bottom.  Each rod end is attached to the house siding at about the level of the sill plate.  The trellis frame is attached to the tube so it can rotate from horizontal to vertical.  In actual use it won’t need to fold gown more than about 45º.  When the trellis is folded into the upright position there needs to be a keeper mechanism at the top.  A couple of eye screws and some wire will work.

I installed the trellis and decided right away that I didn’t get the visual scale large enough but that could be remedied later.  I planted a honeysuckle vine and it quickly grew up onto the structure.  While the plant was still relatively small the trellis could be folded away and the vine was not damaged. 

At that point I felt like I had demonstrated the feasibility of using the fold-down design.  However, there was more to be learned here.  First, the vine growth will soon totally obscure the structure of the trellis so no fancy design is worth making.  In the future I would plan to just make the frame simple and light in weight.

Also, I didn’t envision the vine jumping to the siding and using it as a climbing aid.  Now that the vine is doing that I’ll have to deal with it.  One thing I’d consider in the design is making the standoff from the house a greater distance - perhaps a foot or more.

The experiment didn’t turn out to have nice visual result I had in mind but it gave me the experience to develop a few opinions about trellis design and some birds seem to like it just as it is.

The Nest Fiber Vortex

When I was making the last post I noticed I could see one of the vortex nest fiber dispensers and it reminded me that they are being put to use now too.  I wrote about this simple garden wildlife product on 7/10/11.

http://persimmonforge.blogspot.com/2011/07/nest-fiber-tales.html

In our yard I have found several active nest sites. The robins are nesting on the shop north porch and in a redbud tree to the west.  Carolina wrens are nesting in a milk carton box I set up for them under the eave outside our garage door to help discourage them from nesting in the garage.  House finches are in two nest boxes and cardinals are in a lilac shrub, etc. etc.

I never seem to see the birds removing the fiber material from the dispenser but soon it is nearly empty.  I didn’t have time yesterday to track down some colored yarn so I just stuffed in some fiber material from a mat that was used to cover an icy spot.  I save worn out mop fiber and rope and similar things to use too.

Again, this is a garden product which sells well in the gallery.

Almost empty.

Refilled with fiber material.

Oriole Jelly Feeders

For over ten years I’ve been putting out grape jelly in hanging bowls of one kind or another to feed eastern orioles.  Before that I’d see one off and on in the late spring and early summer.  Now we have two pair that nest in high trees in our yard and others which visit.

The first feeder I made had a 5” steel hemisphere bowl and an 18” crook hanger.  I filled it with the least expensive Concord grape jelly I could find and hung it under the south eve of the house near a hummingbird feeder.  The orioles quickly found it.

A woman emailed me about making a somewhat fancier one she could use as a birthday gift.  I changed the design to a grape motif.  The bowl was made from a 10” grape leaf and the hanger looked more like grape vine and I added a grape cluster and some tendril and she liked that.  Other people saw the photo image of it and I got more requests.  Soon it became a regular product and has gone through several stages of modification.

I found this image of some specimens hanging in the gallery.

The Orioles usually arrive around mid-April.  This was an exceptionally cold and long winter and they were two weeks late.  They raise a brood and move out of our area around mid-July when summer heat really sets in.  I fill the feeder with sunflower seeds after they leave.  In the fall some orioles will migrate through and I put out more jelly when I see them.

Hemi-bowl and prototype Grape Leaf types.

The Hibernaculums are Open

Clearly, I do not know much about hibernaculums or snakes in general.  I don’t really have any special fondness for them.  They startle me when I suddenly encounter them at a too close distance.  As an amateur naturalist I am interested in them, I have a détente with them and when I encounter them I observe and leave them to their agenda.

This winter was exceptionally cold and long and the hibernaculums did not open until the first of May.  In 2012 there were open on the 25th of March.  Rather than concentrating on a calendar date it might be more reliable to note what is blooming at the time they open.  This year I wrote down, Eastern Columbine, False Solomon’s Seal and some type of sedge in a small pond.

The low area opening is a hole 1.5” in diameter.  I have actually never seen a snake emerging there but I have see black rat snakes and king snakes of that size in the vicinity.  The largest garter snake I’ve seen there was about 7/8” in diameter.

In the driveway hibernaculum the opening is about 5/8”.  This is about the average size of garter snakes I see frequently.  This overwintering site has likely been made since the drive was poured.  I think the original cavities were made by shrews or some other small rodent and taken over by the garter snakes.  

The low area hibernaculum would make a good study site for a nature camera.  I think it would be very interesting to see how the entrance gets opened and closed.  Over the winter the site just looks like a 8” circle of flat bare soil.  After it is opened it looks like a low volcano with soil and small pebbles making up a cone 8” in diameter and and inch or two in height.

 I’ve made a few snakes out of horseshoe rasps and one hangs on the stairway wall of the shop.  Even it seems a little creepy to me.

Inexpensive Small Tire Repair

This is a tip for shop and home use.  My wife has a hose cart she uses for watering yard plants.  It has two 2” x 20” tires with spoke wheels.  Both pneumatic tubes developed leaks which didn’t seal with green slime so I needed to find another solution.

I could have gotten two new tubes for $20±.  I could have gotten a solid foam insert for $60±.   But I decided to try using Spiralite 115-00 suction hose which could buy at our farm and ranch store for $1.25/ft.  I had to buy a minimum of 10’ for $12.50.  I cut the pieces to length and worked the tire back onto the rims and the tires were stiff enough to work just fine for the light load they carried.  My wife is happy with it.

I had a backup plan in case the weren’t stiff enough.  I could go back to the store and buy a stiffer type of Spiralite hose or I could fill the hose with an expanding urethane foam such as GreatStuff for about $4.00.

Spiralite references:

http://www.ges-inc.com/PacificEcho.html

http://www.pacificecho.com/115-001a.html

The Grader at Henry’s Plant Farm

On Saturday, May 10, 2014, we paid a visit to this site to shop for garden plants.   http://www.thehenrysplantfarm.com  They had greenhouses of the plastic covered arches type.

It was a family friendly place.  Mom and Dad could shop for flowers and plants for the vegetable garden.  The kids could watch some farm animals such as a horse, a pony, peafowl, ducks, chickens, etc.  Sort of a petting zoo arrangement.

While I wasn’t in the business of actually buying plants, I explored the artifacts mostly relating to farming.  The most interesting one to me was an antique grader.  It was a masterpiece of forged wrought iron and cast iron engineering.  With close inspection there was a lot of evidence of hand work and the grain of the wrought iron was easy to see but my photo images didn’t capture it well.

The Gamble House Front Steps Rail

In August 2012 I visited the Gamble House in Pasadena, California and took a your of the home.  It is an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture. The house and furnishings were designed by Charles and Henry Greene in 1908 for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter & Gamble Company. The house, a National Historic Landmark, is owned by the City of Pasadena and operated by the University of Southern California and is open for public tours  I thought it was a wonderful experience and on a par with some tours of work by Frank Lloyd Wright.  I highly recommend seeing the home if the opportunity arrises.

The front steps had a forged handrail which I found pleasing and fitting for the site.  I took some photos of the unusual design and joinery.

Later, after returning home I decided to see if I could find who forged the railing.  An image search for the Gamble House revealed that some renovation had been done in 2004 and I see the railing at that time was a single center-of-stairs run and appeared to me a “modern-ordinary” design and not the Arts and Crafts one I had seen.  More recent images showed the new rail.

I wrote and received this reply from Edward R. Bosley. “Thank you for your interest in The Gamble House and our hand forged railings. They were designed and made in 2008 by the late Bobby Sharpe, whose shop was in Oakland, California. He passed away in late 2011, sadly, at age 65. His railings replaced a single rail that previously ran up the center of the front steps, and was installed in the 1960s. Originally, there were no railings at all. I hope this is helpful.”

I did further investigation of Robert Sharpe and was able to see more examples of his interesting work.  It was a a rewarding adventure.  If you visit the Gallery page of Robert Sharpe you will find much better images of the Gamble House railing done by Sofia Sharpe.

http://robertsharpeblacksmith.com/Artist/Gallery.html

A lengthwise view:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/seanbabee/2769836748/in/photostream/

Green and Green Primer

http://greeneandgreenestyle.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-primer-on-greene-greene-and-their.html

Helve Hammer References

I’ve started thinking about building a helve hammer when I get the time.  I’ll start by doing the design drawings and that way I have some definite ideas in mind so I can collect potential components.

I began by studying the images I took of Bernie Tappel’s machine and making a parts list.  Next I did some searching for other design variations.  Eventually I’ll put something together that seems to best suit my needs.

The following list if some of the things I found about helve hammers on the web which seemed must helpful to me.

Richard Ferguson’s Excellent post that covers almost everything about helve hammer physics.

http://www.fergusonsculpture.com/helve/helvearticle.html

Hathorns Helve Hammer:

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/25036-hathorns-helve-hammer/

Building the Metalshaping Helve Hammer (Air Power) By Joe McGlynn

http://metalshapers.org/101/mcglynn/thehelve.htm

BP0063 Helve Hammer by Irnsrgn

http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/blueprints/original-series/bp0063-helve-hammer-r291

BP0159 Helve Hammer  by Jr Strasil 

http://www.iforgeiron.com/page/index.html/_/blueprints/100-series/bp0159-helve-hammer-r390

Wooden Helve Hammer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXiwm3LWb70

Dick Bear’s Helve Hammer

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4774

Home Made Tools - Two Posts:

http://www.homemadetools.net/category/helve-hammers?sort=title

http://www.homemadetools.net/bench-mountable-helve-hammer

Paolo Scordia’s mini guided bench top helve hammer

http://www.farwestforge.com/Forum/bsgview.php?photo=3311&cat=T&by=

Tom Lipton’s post:

http://oxtool.blogspot.com/2012/08/helve-hammer-part-1.html

Spring Under Helve Design:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jwp1IUjFSo

Operation of a Helve Hammer similar to the one Bernie Tappel made:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBe4qFDq4-w

Eureka Springs School of the Arts

At the BAM conference I had a short visit with Bob Patrick and he told me about a new art opportunity in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  The Eureka Springs School of the Arts offers workshops in visual arts and fine crafts for interested, emerging and professional artists.

Workshop sessions are offered in visual arts - two-dimensional, clay and glass, fiber, wood and metal.

http://essa-art.org/workshop-metal-art

Bob Patrick, Jim Wallace, and Kirk Sullens will be teaching in the metalwork arena so it should be a very nice opportunity for artist blacksmiths.

MIG Gun Holder

I think the first holder I made to keep the MIG gun handy was just a 2” ring of 3/8” round stock.  It had two problems.  It allowed the gun to rotate so I could not keep it in a desired position and it tended to catch the gas nozzle and pull it off.

I now use two short pieces of tube oriented at 90º to each other.  One is parallel to he vise jaws and one is perpendicular.  When I’m doing a lot of MIG work the gun is in the perpendicular one.  When I want the gun out of the way I move it to the parallel one.  The tubes are short enough to avoid hooking the nozzle.

MIG Perpendicular Holster.

MIG Parallel Holster.

Touring Sierra Bullets

After we registered at the BAM conference we hooked up with our friends, Jim and Donna Friel.  We were discussing what to do next and I mentioned that I had always wanted to tour the Sierra Bullets manufacturing facility.  Betty did some online investigation and found tours were available at about any time without reservation.

Sure as shootin’, pun intended, we were escorted on an hour-long journey showing the entire process of construction and ending in the underground testing range with the aroma of burned nitrocellulose.  They take lead billets and copper sheet and turn them into millions of handgun and rifle bullets and .22 cal, 6mm and .30 cal jackets of the highest quality.

Our host was charming.  He had worked for the company since it’s mover from California to Missouri twenty-some years ago.  We had a great time and learned a lot.  The business is running three shifts and adding equipment but they are still a year and a half behind in filling orders.  I would highly recommend the visit to interested persons.  I could see spending a lot more time studying the precision machinery.

http://www.sierrabullets.com

If we had more time I would have liked to tour the next door facility Starline Brass which is owned by the same family.  They make high quality brass jackets for reloading.

http://www.starlinebrass.com

Bernie’s Helve Hammer

I think the most fascinating piece of equipment I saw at the BAM conference was a helve hammer made by Bernie Tappel.  He made it since the last conference and I think this was the public debut.  He said he made it almost entirely from scrap he had on hand.

I’m going to study it and see how something similar might apply to my work.  It looks like a very appealing engineering challenge.  As Robert Oppenheimer said, “It is a technically sweet project.”

I hope Bernie will write an article for the BAM newsletter about it.

BAM 2014

We’re settled back in following a few days off to attend the annual BAM conference.  For the past several years it has been held in Sedalia, Missouri on the state fair grounds.  Typically it is on the first weekend in May and, typically, it is cold.  This year, each day was warmer than the proceeding one and it was generally pleasant.

We stayed with friends and met up with others at the meeting.  I spent most of my time watching Peter Ross demonstrate making Colonial hardware and Jim Crowell make a knife blade.  I had seen Peter work several times but not Jim.  I’m not really into blade making but I found his presentation so fascinating, both funny and instructive, that I stuck around to the finish.

Slide show of some of some of Peter’s work:

http://peterrossblacksmith.com

http://www.theblacksmithsanvil.com/getProfile.php?term=3

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/tools/peter-ross-controlled-irregularity-2

Some James Crowell references:

http://www.crowellknives.com/About_the_Maker.html

http://www.agrussell.com/browning-crowell-and-barker-competition-knife/p/BRW-322580/

Missouri State Fair Swine Pavilion conference site.

Peter Ross forging.

There is plenty of space for demonstrators and bleachers.

And the ventilation is good.

An image of Peter Ross work I took at another meeting in 1999.

Walt Hull striking.

Roger Degner moving one of his anvils.