And a little bit of blacksmithing

On mondays I am usually at home, and because a lot of neighbours are at work, that is the perfect time for making noise and smoke. So I did a little blacksmithing again.

I tried to make a plane stop. This is an ancient design. In the workbench you make a large hole with a movable stop which can go up and down. In the top of that block you would have an iron hook with teeth, like I made today. (nr 5 and nr 6 in this drawing from Roubo)

This is the basic shape.

I didn't take pictures of the process, so I'll try to describe it. I take a length of 10 mm round, about 50 cm long. First I make the spike, that is a simple taper . Something that is still pretty hard for me. Making a regular taper ain't easy! Then with the taper sticking out beyond the far edge of the anvil I make half on/half off hamer strikes to define the head. The head becomes about half the thickness of the 10 mm rod. This is all with the steel still attached to the long bar, so I can hold it in my left hand, much easier then holding with tongs. I make the bend. I try to make the corner as square as possible, which also is difficult. After bending I cut it off with a hacksaw. The last step is spreading out the head with the fin of the hammer.

It is a simple object, but still took me three tries!

I finish the hook with files, and then it would look a bit like this in the workbench. I still have to make the wooden stop.

I also tried some forge welding. I was very proud about my first attempt, but on trying to pry it apart in the vise it proved to be not such a succes at all!