Well now, let me tell you, this was quite a day to be at the forge, as we had another friend, Tony, come along for a day at the forge with the Brothers 3. So of course we put him to work drawing out a piece of square bar from 1 1/8 inches to 7/8 of an inch, allowing it to fit into the hardy hole on the anvil. There were a few times I noticed that his forehead was pretty wet with beads of sweat from working between the forge and the power hammer, as well as swinging the hand held hammer. His best comment at the end of the day was "Forging and swinging a hammer, looks like a lot of fun, but the novelty wears off rather quickly". He did say he had a good time hanging out with us, and he did mistakenly pick up a piece of hot steel, but not for long.
I had seen a blacksmith using a Guillotine tool, which is very useful, and can be used for many applications from cutting off a hunk of hot steel or making a groove around the end of a bar before you "upset it" make it fatter by hitting on the end you want to increase the diameter of, or making a groove in a blade, etc. I got the steel yesterday and we made it first thing this morning. We only made one set of dies today, but we will make more as we need them and we will need them. Then I made 2 more coat hook like I did last week, after lunch. Looking back a couple of week when I spent 2 hours on a 20 minute job, today I turned out 2 in about 35 minutes. So speed-wise I think I'm improving. Here are a couple of pictures of my Guillotine Tool.
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| Guillotine Closed no steel |
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| Open Steel round bar inserted |
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| Side view steel round bar inserted |
All in all, just a great day, and lots of fun. I must say a huge "Thank You" to My Brother Dave, for letting me have more fun than than the law should allow.
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