Quality Ironwork

The metaphysical exploration of the nature of quality was the theme of Robert Pirsig’s novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance  I read the book a couple of times quite a few years ago.  I was intrigued by the notion that being open to using all our potential tools rational and romantic and not being uncomfortable with aspects which can seen contradictory can open creative insights and increase our enjoyment of the world.

I think something in that applies to the design process in ironwork.  Whatever the piece, sculptural or functional, the physics must work and the aesthetic impression must work.  I’ve never done a piece of public art so I wouldn’t know how to approach that.  My work has been making things for my own use and picking the ones I really like and creating versions for others to consider.  Those are the item which stock the gallery.  Additionally, I make things which clients request.  The first part of that equation is coming up with something which appeals to me and working until it also is what works for the client.

Usually when I get a project request from a client I can get to work on it and complete it in a fairly direct progression by working its components into the already flowing stream of work.  Occasionally, a project gets hung up in the first stage - I can’t figure out how to do it in a way which pleases me.  One project I have started on a number of times making progress here and there but have never been able to tie it all together.  I still have all the test pieces, notes, etc.  I don’t want to turn out something which I don’t like even though it might be acceptable to a client.  It is an irrational obstruction and maybe I should let go of it.  I recently read, in Wired Magazine, a quote attributed to Sheryl Sandberg  about obstacles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheryl_Sandberg  She said something like “When you encounter obstacles, and there will be obstacles, make sure they are external.”

I have another fairly large project hung up just because of my inability to clear enough space for it and also because it was designed when I had a regular assistant.  Now it seems much harder.  Not having enough space is an external problem.  Seeming too hard is an internal problem.

Back in the late 60’s or early 70’s, when our boys were young,  I read a book, Parent Effectiveness Training. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gordon_(psychologist)  One of the useful concepts is the necessity of figuring out “Who’s problem is it?”  If I get hung up on the “what I think is quality” side, that’s my problem.  Maybe I should just push on and complete something and see what the client has to say about it.  If they are happy, that’s really more important than me being happy.

I have thought about quality and value a lot lately and I will try and remember some of these ideas each time I return to one of those hung up projects.  Maybe I will have a new perspective and make progress.

How I Use the Coal Fire

I’ve used a number of coal forges but now I only use the side draft one inside my studio.  I’ve used the great bellows, the spiral gear hand crank fan blower and the several lever powered blowers of the same fan design.  They all work and have advantages and disadvantages.

I’m no longer in the business of doing shows so I’m just interested in effeceint use.  When I built my currently forge I placed a Champion electric blower http://www.centaurforge.com/Centaur-115-volt-PB-50-Blower-Variable-Speed-Eligible-for-Free-Shipping-See-Home-Page-for-full-details/productinfo/PB50VS/ outside the building on the porch to keep the noise level down inside and plumbed a nearly silent hand crank blower on the other side right next tot he forge pan.

In everyday use I use the electric blower turned down well below it’s maximum speed and rarely use the hand crank blower at all.  The tuyere is plumbed from both sides, electric and hand crank.  On the hand crank side there is a sliding blast gate.  On the electric side there is a hand wheel screw valve to further choke the maximum airflow.

In our normal work cycle the forge work is well organized and laid out so we go from one item to the next non-stop for two hours.  We discuss how the work will proceed and in the couple of hours we forge there is very little conversation.  Incidentally in the image “Hand Crank Blower” a can of black spray paint can be seen. We use the forge hood to make drawing in soapstone when needed and use the black spray paint as the eraser.

The electric blower runs essentially all the time maintaing a large hot fire.  The intensity of the fire is controlled almost exclusively with the blast gate on the hand crank side.  The only time the blower gets turned off is when we shift to a new project and have to get the new tools and workpieces arranged and when we quit.  Ken packs the fire, turns off the blower and allows a bit off cooling before raking out the fire pot.  This leaves plenty of coke ready for the next day and the clinker is in one solid ring, easy to separate from the coke.

I’ve worked with forges which require flipping the the blower motor switch off when a heat has been taken so that excessive fuel burn is avoided.  The disadvantage is that the heat falls off and to take another heat the blower must be restarted and the heat driven back up.  If the work being done requires some thinking between heats or if the smith is demonstrating and talking the additional time may actually be desirable.  However, if the work is a production run and there are multiple pieces being worked, it is a disadvantage.  Moreover, in my situation where Ken and I are alternating fire tending and forging with every other piece it would be a big waste of time.  We strive to bring each piece out at a orange/yellow high forging heat temperature unless lower world be better.

I didn’t learn to work the fire that way and that’s not what I teach when I have the opportunity but it is the way I do it now.  It’s probably always best to learn a craft the tradition way and modify the techniques so they fit the specific requirements of the shop later.

In a normal two-hour work run we don’t remove clinker until the fire is torn apart when we quit but we do turn the clinker breaker frequently and empty the ash dump a couple of times.  About the only time the quench can gets used is to put out any smoking coal after the fire has been pulled apart with the rake.

I don’t use wet coal on an everyday basis but I probably would if I was doing a lot of forge welding.  Also, a straight poker is the only tool I use to actually control the fire.

Take another heat.

Great Water - Great Bottles

I drink several bottles of water every day as I work in the studio.  I have a mini-refrigerator which I accepted in partial payment for an early commission along with an old Lincoln stick welder.  I eventually sold the welder.  The refrigerator seems to be one of those old appliances which is nearly immortal.  I use it to cool about 20 boltles of water and store an occasional snack.

I started the process by buying a 12-pack of bottled water and as I emptied the bottles, Betty refilled them with our tap water.  We pay attention to water.  Betty’s father was the head engineer at the water treatment plant in our home town for many years.  Red went to work at the plant in his teens.  He was a self-taught mechanical and chemical engineer and worked up to become manager of the operation for many years.  We have moved from where we grew up but we still have the good fortune to live in the town which was voted to have the best tasting drinkling water in the world.  These are some links to verify that fact.

http://travel.cnn.com/worlds-best-drinking-water-232371

http://www.emporiagazette.com/latest_news_and_features/article_0823016e-cf75-11e2-ab6e-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/24/4083934/emporias-tap-water-no-1-in-taste.html

http://www.drinktap.org/details-page/articleid/833/who-has-the-best-drinking-water.aspx

Well, I digress.  I wanted to get to the point that when I first started buying bottled water, the plastic bottles actually amounted to something.  Over time, they have been engineered into flimsy wisps of a bottle that have an insubstantial feel when grasped and I wonder if they will biodegrade before I have consumed the contents.  I really don’t like that crinkling noise they make as they collapse under even a light grip.

In the quest for a plastic bottle that is an old-timey plastic bottle I went shopping and after getting a general education in how many colors and flavored concoctions are now bottled (when grew up bottled meant in glass), I found a plastic bottle I liked.  It was a flavored water - zero calories - and I selected the black cherry flavor.  After I took apart the four-pack and put the bottles in the mini-fridge for a couple of hours I sampled one.  Great!  Just what I was looking for - not the drink, which was tasty enough, but  the plastic bottle which had some real structural integrity.  I carried the great bottle to the house where Betty will fill it with the world’s best tasting water.  I’ll bet these bottles will last five years or so.

Here is a bit of nostalgia about water from Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDtCa8ZgAk4

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

How I Make a Blow Poker

The blow poker is an Item I make again and again because they sell well in the gallery.  Most sales are during the log burning season but they sell throughout the year too.

I didn’t know anything about them until a client asked me to make one for a Christmas gift.  The client had been using one for years.  I think she got it while living in England.  She let me use it as a model and I came up with a working version and now it is my favorite fireplace tool and one of my most frequently made products.

This is designed to be a “light-duty” tool and is not meant for moving heavy logs.  It is for moving coals and kindling and starting a roaring fire from a tiny ember.  My standard blow poker is made for indoor fireplace or wood stove use.  If camp fire use is intended a longer and more “heavy-duty” version is made.

There are four elements to the standard construction; the push-pull tip, the collar, the shaft tube and the mouthpiece.

The shaft tube largely determines the weight and stiffness.  I use the smallest tube/pipe I can get for the standard version.  It has in inside diameter of about .25” and I use 26” lengths.  The campfire version uses 3/8” black pipe in about 40” lengths.

A collar is needed on the standard version to join the shaft to the tip.  I cut a 2.5” length of tubing which closely fits the shaft.  I cut two slits or notches on each end of the collar to allow a larger MIG weld bead to be applied.

The Mouthpiece is a 4” piece of pipe or tube with about 1/2” inside diameter.  One end is forged down to fit the shaft and the other end is flared and peened to resemble the typical shape found on wind musical instruments.

The push/pull tip is made from 5.5” of 1/4” square bar.  Tapers are forged on each end and the piece is heated near the middle and bent into a tight hairpin. The bend is forged closed and welded, fire, MIG, TIG, whatever, for about 3/4”  Then it is forged to a flat taper the easy way.

The only somewhat tricky part of the project is getting the poker fitted properly so that it is securely joined while preserving the air exhaust ports.  That is where I found making the top and bottom slits in the collar useful in getting stronger weld attachment. Plenty of weld remains after sanding smooth and there is plenty of open space on each side of the tip for air to exit.

After cleaning up the welds, I forge the shape of the poker arm and the hook arm.  Then the piece is firescaled, tumbled and the finish applied.  The last item is to blow and test the air flow.  The tool is much more effective than a bellows.

When it is ready to take to the Gallery, Betty attaches the price tag with a card explaining how it is used, as a lot of people have never used one.

http://www.persimmonforge.com/

If you can't hold it, you can't hit it

Along the blacksmithing path I’ve picked up a lot of conventional wisdom dropped by other persons.  I think I heard the title phrase from Francis Whitaker, but I’m not certain.  The point is, to do the best work it is necessary to have good control of the workpiece.  Select the tongs which give the best grip.  I know this rule well but recently got a reminder lesson when I was in a hurry drawing out a short piece of 1/4” x 1.5” flat bar the hard way.  The box jaw tongs I picked would hold the bar nicely for working the easy way but when turned sideways there was enough wobble to let the piece flip loose.

I had a flash of feeling foolish which reminded me of the children’s song, “Found a peanut - It was rotten - Ate it anyway”.  I could see right away I didn’t have secure control but continued when I knew better.  This is another example of “good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgement.”

The hurry-up nature of the work was of my own manufacturing rather than some actual schedule issue so I laid that work aside until I had time to make a couple of pairs of full box tongs which were designed specifically for that stock.  This is going to be a short run of work so I didn’t bother to do a really nice job on the tongs. 

I keep a bucket of tong pair blanks with everything forged except the jaws and they are not riveted but just wired together. They were made at a demonstration over two days several years ago. Originally there were probably 20 pairs but I’m down to about a half dozen now.

I forged the needed box jaws from two pieces of angle and MIG welded them onto the tong blanks with an offset.  I made two pair so I could use one and my assistant, Ken, could use the other.  They are not really pretty but will get the job done.  It seems like I have quite an accumulation of this sort of specialized tongs which have only been used a few times and may never be used again - but you never know.

Scale Blowpipe Followup

This is a simple tool that is helpful in achieving high quality die work.  I wrote some about it on 8/17/2012.  When I make a run of small botanical elements ti be incorporated into sculptural work I often have made specific dies to accomplish that, daylily buds, holly berries, hickory nuts and the like.  When the dies are used in the hydraulic forging press, scale can accumulate in the die cavity.  The iron oxide scale is very hard and will deform the surface of the stock being forged, causing loss of surface detail.

Regularly removing the scale is a necessity for a good result.  The best method I have found is a blowpipe.  It was made from a piece of small diameter tubing about a foot long.  I forged the exhaust end to a even narrower diameter, about 1/8”, and flared the other end to form the mouth piece.  It stays on a peg beside the press so I can quickly grab it and blow the scale out of the die cavity.

This is not so much of a problem when using dies in the power hammer because the bouncing of the dies tends to make them self-cleaning.

Soon, I plan to post how I make the blow poker used for hearth fire management.  It is a very popular item in our gallery especially around the holidays.  I make them it runs of 20 or more at a time.

Blowpipe

Fire scale in die cavities.

Fly Press Handles

My fly press came with a single handle.  It’s the one shown in the foreground of the image “All Three Handles.”  It didn’t take long to start thinking about modifications to bettert suit my specific needs.

First was a grip issue.  The end of the round bar handle rubbed uncomfortably on my palm, so I welded on a steel sphere and eliminated that problem.

Next, I noticed that the handle had a tendency to unscrew from the threaded socket in the wheel, so I welded on a piece of thread rod and added a lock washer.

The single handle never seemed to be in the most convenient of the three sockets, so I added two more handles with slightly different design.  This has worked well for me and I haven’t made any changes in several years.

For one job I did make an adjustable handle that mounted on the handle which was closest to being in the optimal position.  It could be rotated and locked with a T-handle in the perfect spot.  It adds length to the edge-to-center distance and increases leverage too.