Convenience Bends

I read an article a few days ago in which the author detailes a list of things he wished he had learned earlier.  It started me thinking about how I might have benefitted from more instruction.

Probably the first thing I could have done quicker is to lear to work at high heat.  This is in spite of hearing the “get it hot and hit it hard” phrase time after time.  The flip side is learning to stop forging when it ltill looks pretty hot and get it back into the fire for mor heat.  I tended to keep on working and let the heat fall too far.

Another thing I could have given more attention was ending a forging segment with an intentional convenience bend so the area to be worked next would be easy to position to catch the next heat.  Putting in convenience bends to avoid obstruction when forging seemed more obvious to me.

Those two things probably could have helped me a lot.  Today convenience bends to fit the fire seem second nature.  But now I have another reason for using them - my tumbler.  While Ken and I were recently forging a piece which was about 60” long I realized it would not fit into the tumbler which only accepts pieces up to about 56” long.  The solution, forge a convenience bend, or two, which would reduced the overall length to 56” and which could easily be straightened later.

Twenty years ago the possibility of these bends wouldn’t have occurred to me as my mind was so cluttered with other things I was trying to learn.  In any new endeavor it takes a while to develop a minimal competence which allows moving from the awkward self conscious mode to a Zen-like state of relaxed confidence.  That’s when it becomes fun.

Get Convenience First

I’ve had some interest in time and motion study since I read the book, Cheaper by the Dozen, sometime in the 1950’s. So, when I am planing a forging session I attempt to plan it heat by heat.

When working with small blanks or short material I want to form them into shapes I can easily pick up as early in the process as possible. Sure as can be, some pieces will find their way to the floor and as long as they are short and flat they will be difficult to pick up. At the very least this wastes time and motion and the distraction may risk losing something else to overheating in the fire.

In the image, Repoussé Sunflower center volume.JPG, I show how it may be possible to establish useful initial volume with the fly press. In the image, Sinking heart volume.JPG, the rounding hammer and swage block are used to establish some volume. Granted, if these pieces land on the floor concave side down, they may still be difficult to pick up (think magnetic pickup), but I’ve improved my chances of easy grasp to at least 50/50. I can skew the favorable odds more by working that initial volume more toward a potato chip shape, dome and bowl, rather than just the bowl or dome shape. I’ll just admit I don’t know the proper topological names for those shapes.

In the image, Various Handle Lengths.jpg, I offer the example of how I first drew out some of the 3/8” round handle length from the 3/8” x 3/4” flat bar blank so I had more to grasp and could do without tongs for the remainder of the forging of the cane bolt slide.

Those two techniques are rather obvious. Using the convenience bend is less obvious but becomes intuitive with some experience. As forging processes become more sophisticated and complicated the issue of obstruction comes up more and more. Planning convenience bends is usually the solution.

Sometimes the bend is just a fold-forge-fold back type. Sometimes it is a bend and twist-forge-bend and twist back type. Sometimes it is difficult to use the bend without leaving a trace of the process in the finished work. Planning a bend of long radius in which the stretching/compression deformation is subtle is often helpful.

Formulating general strategies, such as these, for my work has been helpful.

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

Back from a week vacation to southern California to see kids and granddaughter, it was disappointing to find the 106º heat still entrenched. The long anticipated break my come next week. In any event, it looks like head down work ahead for several months. It’s nice to begin feeling rested and full of new ideas.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/