metalogical

Metalogical Blog Has Moved

2012-02-09T07:44:00.000-08:00

I've moved my blog to my new website www.metalogicaldesigns.com, so please come on over and check it out! You can find the blog - here.

The site is still under construction, but it will be 100% up and running shortly.

Old Blacksmith Skate Session

2012-02-01T11:15:00.000-08:00

My blacksmith friend Eric came over today to show me his Japanese style chisels, which are a sweet design.

He did the little sun in the corner of a buckle from the scrap pile for a quick demonstration. The messed up half finished palm tree is mine. Didn't want Eric to get blamed for that!

It wasn't long before we got down to the serious stuff - riding the motorcycle and thrashin' the parking block. Turns out we both used to be little skate rats back in the 80s. I quit for a long time and just recently started skating again. Eric stuck with it for a lot longer and is really good. Oh yeah, and he's even better at blacksmithing - check out his website.

Tiki dudes

2012-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

I was out making buckles this morning and decided to forge out a few of these. They are so much fun to make. I'm going to use this motif for a bunch of new products...

Fireplace screen in its new home

2012-01-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

New Product - Dog Tags

2012-01-09T19:39:00.000-08:00

Dog Tags - check 'em out. Whether you are going for the military look, you need a new key fob, you just sat down on the couch with an unopened beer and forgot the bottle opener, and Fido is right there at your feet, or you need something cool to dangle from your custom motorcycle ... we got you covered. You can have all that an open a cold one at the same time.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/90176517/dog-tag-metal-pendant-bottle-opener

http://www.etsy.com/listing/90176658/dog-tag-metal-pendant-bottle-opener

Doing Some Stamping

2012-01-04T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have gotten a bunch of orders in lately for custom stamped buckles. I was out in the shop today stamping a customer's initials into a buckle, so I thought I would do a few others while I was at it.

For the George Orwell fan:

This is my flypress. It's such an awesome machine. I use it all the time.

I have a ton of different jigs and tools I've made for it. This is the setup I use for stamping.

Here is the setup I use for bending the buckles into shape.

It's pretty safe. I've only had one accident with it so far. A few years ago, I got my finger caught in between the handle and a ring I was bending and my nail popped off like the press was opening a can of soda. At the ER the nurse kept asking, "Are you okay? You look pale." and I was all "Really? Well, I suppose it could have something to do with the fact that I just smashed my finger in an industrial press." Good times.

Gypsy Woman Buckle

2011-12-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

I really love this design. There's just something so cool about classic American tattoo flash. I like it so much that I told my wife if I can sell 50 of these buckles, I'm getting this design done on my left arm. We'll see what happens.

Thanks for an Excellent Holiday Season

2011-12-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

I know it's not quite over yet, but I just wanted to say thanks to all my awesome Etsy customers for making this another great holiday season. I promise to try and come up with even more cool stuff over in the new year. I love you guys!

Tattoo Flash Buckles

2011-12-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've come out with any new buckles. I just listed all kinds of stuff in my Etsy Store. What do you think? Lots more to come ....

Black Friday Sale!!!

2011-11-22T07:39:00.001-08:00

It's that time of the year again! Starting on Friday Nov. 25th through midnight Sunday Nov. 27th, enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY for 15% off your entire order, plus free shipping to the US and Canada!

New Tongs

2011-11-17T20:46:00.001-08:00

New ones are on the left. Had a little fight with the old ones, and they ended up with a crack. I was going to taper the reins out on the new ones a bit more, but my arm got really tired and it was already an hour past lunch time.

When your leather belt falls apart, come get one of these bad boys

2011-11-11T14:19:00.001-08:00

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65889865/industrial-belt-15-inch-snap-belt

All leather belts have a lifespan if you wear them every day. Especially the craptastic factory made ones most people on Etsy are selling. We used to sell those, too, but got tired of replacing them when our customers told us they had fallen apart a month later. So we went back to the drawing board and created the toughest belt of them all.

Also, my next door neighbor is a cow named Pancho. He's really smart and you can walk him around on a leash like a dog. If you say his name, he moos back at you. So cute. Just sayin'.

Fireplace screen done

2011-11-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Finished this up a while ago. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the rivets. Now come get this out of my garage, Mom! Just kidding, Mom.

Fireplace screen almost done!

2011-09-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

Finished it up last week. Just needs to be sandblasted and then I'll heat and close the rivets. Even the rivets are handmade. Should be pretty sweet when it's done!

Fireplace Screen

2011-08-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

This one is for Mom and Dad. They have been waiting years for this, I feel really bad about it! It's going to be Arts and Crafts style. Oh yeah, my favorite.

New business card holders

2011-08-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any blacksmithing for a while, so I thought I'd post a quick tutorial on how I make my new business card holders. Alrighty then ...

First I start with a 2" piece of steel channel and cut it partway through the middle like so ...

I also cut some pieces of 2" X 3/16" flat bar stock (not pictured) to use as the backs of the card holders. The next step is heating the pieces in my propane forge. It kind of hard to see, but the metal in the picture below is red hot. What I am doing here is quenching both ends in a can of water so that I can bend it in the vice without losing too much of its shape.

The key is in the quench - too little and the metal will deform and become a twisted mess, too much and the metal will be too brittle when I bend it and split instead of making a nice bend. Here goes the bending. You have to move pretty fast or you'll lose the heat. I check my bend against a test piece while I'm bending it.

Mmmkay,now that we have the bending done, I put everything in my finishing machine to remove all the scale and rust (lots of rust here in S. Florida). Here's what they look like after a short run in the machine. You can see the scale starting to come off.

Here's what everything looks like when it comes out. A few of the pieces have a hibiscus motif chiseled into them, but that's another tutorial ...

Finally, it's time to join the parts together via the electric welder ...

Voila! Here's the finished product (well, after another couple rounds in the finishing machines and clear coat spraying):

The business card holders are available here and here if you're interested. Thanks for hanging out in my little corner of the art world! Stay tuned for more new products...

Business card holders and containers

2011-07-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

Another great organization I've been fortunate enough to work with is the World Steel Association. Here are pictures of some business card holders with their logo hot stamped on them and some containers. They give these items out as gifts to their contacts in the steel business. They are working hard to keep the steel industry at the cutting edge in areas like sustainability, but they also help preserve the oldest profession in the steel industry, blacksmithing, by supporting artists like me.

These business card holders have turned out to be difficult little projects when you are trying to keep them all identical. I have a new design that I will be posting up soon and I am working on more business card holders as well as containers, so stay tuned!

Surfrider buckles up and running!

2011-06-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to say that the Surfrider Foundation liked the buckles I made for my friend so much, they have decided to include them in their product line. Check them out here.

If you haven't heard of the Surfrider Foundation, be sure to check out their website. Their goal is to protect oceans, waves, and beaches worldwide. Recent events like the Gulf oil spill and the nuclear crisis at Fukushima illustrate just how badly our oceans need protection in today's world.

The buckles pass the Surfrider Foundation's sustainability requirements, so, in addition to supporting an important cause and buying handmade, you can feel great about this product's low impact on the environment. Here's a video of the manufacturing process:

Shop Mascot

2011-06-22T12:44:00.000-07:00

I think I have 2 or 3 three of them living in the shop right now.

Mmmm ... lychees!

2011-06-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Lychee season has started off with a bang. This is our second lychee score this season. Turns out there is a massive lychee farm less than 5 minutes away from our house (good excuse for a quick motorcycle ride). I can hardly eat apples anymore after a few years down here!

Coming Soon!

2011-06-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Tiki stuff.

Odds and Ends

2011-03-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

One of the jaws on the tongs I use to make buckles broke the other day, so I had to make a new pair. It was kind of sad, because they were the first pair of tongs I ever made. But, I made them a little too thin and years of being heated, quenched, and beaten on finally did them in. I made a mistake on the new pair. Notice how the old pair has a nice taper on the reins (what blacksmiths call the handles) and the new ones don't. Yeah, I kind of forgot they don't handle right without being tapered. They work great, but feel just a bit heavy, so sometime I'll have to take them apart and taper them. Man, I need a power hammer.

I've been trying to think of a use for the plug that's left over from the hole I chisel in the bottle opener buckles for a long time. I usually just save them in cans and leave them out for the scrap metal guys, but I thought it would be cool to make them into some sort of scrap metal art. So, I came up with these skull pendants. I'm going to list them soon in the store and they will be under 10 bucks!


These haven't been cleaned and finished yet

I am working on an order of containers for a client in the steel industry who gives them out as corporate gifts. They are almost done now, but here is a progress picture from last week:

My new old motorcycle

2011-02-09T10:57:00.000-08:00

I finally finished off my 1978 XT500 project. For now anyway. It's a super fun bike, especially with all the dirt roads around here. I stripped it down to the frame, removed the stuff I didn't need, and changed a few things. I also reworked a smaller tank to fit the frame, made a seat pan and had it upholstered, and modified the stock exhaust. There are a few other custom parts here and there, and pretty much everything that doesn't make it go or stop is gone other than the head and tail lights.

Surfrider Foundation Buckles

2011-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine works for the Surfrider Foundation in Oregon. The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Check out their website here:

http://www.surfrider.org/default.aspx

He wanted some buckles with their new logo to give out as gifts to his friends. So, rather than have the logo laser cut like most people do these days, we decided to do some old school manufacturing instead. We had a stamp custom made and I hand stamped each buckle using my flypress. I think stamping creates a really unique look, and it's a lot more fun than just punching some buttons on a computer. Check out a video of the buckles being made here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbVcdOGzwaQ&feature=feedu

New Belts!

2011-01-14T06:43:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to introduce our new line of industrial grade super duper tough belts! Strong enough for the Florida sugar cane factories, and definitely tough enough to hold up your pants for a long time to come!

I had always intended to replace the commercial belts we have been selling with something handmade. Initially, when I started the buckles and they began to take off, I just wanted something I could sell with my buckles to hold people's pants up. But, over time I noticed that the quality was not always the best, and I was tired of pairing the buckles with a non-handmade product.

When I first started brainstorming, I just assumed I would be working with leather. But, I'm a big animal lover, and my house out here in the Everglades is surrounded by cow fields. The cows are like my neighbors, and I would have a hard time looking at them day in and day out while I was slicing up their friends' hides to make into clothing. To tell you the truth I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but I have a lot of friends who are, and I often hear them mention the lack of choices when it comes to normal clothing items like belts or shoes. I decided to find another material and it just so happened that a friend of a friend has a job selling industrial belting products!
Perhaps you are thinking, "But, I'm used to leather and these are more expensive than your other belts, why should I buy one of these?" Well, for starters, everyone else has a leather belt, so right off the bat, you'll have something cooler and different than everyone else. These belts are also tougher than leather, and won't stretch and wear out the way leather does. How do I know they are tougher than leather? Well, I looked through two huge books of belting samples for industrial applications and there wasn't a single one made of leather. When was the last time you saw a belt driven motorcycle with a leather belt or industrial tools that use leather belting? Been a while, right?

So, if you are in the market for a new belt, make sure you check these out! Keep an eye out because we will have more new belt designs and materials on the way!

www.metalogical.etsy.com

Eric's Shop

2011-01-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of my friend Eric Velleca's blacksmith shop. We met when I moved down to Florida and called him with some questions about the area. Eric is thinking of moving out of state, so I wanted to post some pics of his cool shop in case he moves. There aren't that many parts of the country where you can have an open air, tropical blacksmith shop like this. Eric is a really talented blacksmith who does a lot of large architectural work. You can check out his website here: http://www.vellecametaldesign.com/

Power hammers for forging steel:

Forges, quenching bucket, and anvil:

Another shot of the anvil with an industrial press and tong rack in the background:

Gas forge:

Drill press:

Seems like no metal shop is complete without at least one motorcycle project. Here are a Harley and Honda CB 750 Eric is building:

CB750:

Large gate:

Samples:

Here's a picture of Eric's sweet custom Toyota Landcruiser which he built. There are a lot of cool custom parts, but unfortunately the interior pics didn't come out very well:

Fall in South Florida

2010-12-04T06:01:00.000-08:00

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale!

2010-11-26T05:45:00.001-08:00

Black Friday / Cyber Monday SALE! 15% off everything my Etsy store until the end of November! To get your 15% discount, just add the item(s) you would like to your cart and check out as usual. Enter the word BLACKFRIDAY in the coupon code box and the discount will be applied to your purchase.

Custom Motorcycle Shops in Japan

2010-11-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

I am loving these pics of some custom motorcycle shops I Japan. I found them on a cool blog called BoltsAction. I love to see other people's workshops, especially when it's custom motorcycles.

Etsy Kaboole Feature

2010-09-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

One of our buckles has been featured by Etsy in a Kaboodle Oktoberfest slideshow! Check it out:

Kaboodle Oktoberfest Slideshow

Featured Seller on Etsy.com

2009-12-18T21:26:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Etsy, for making me the featured seller!

http://www.etsy.com/featured_seller.php

Home Decor

2009-12-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

The focus of my Etsy store is buckles, but I also love to make ironwork for the hearth and home. Here are some pictures of a set of hand forged andirons, fireplace tools, and a log rack I made a few years ago. Please contact me at metalogical1@gmail.com with your custom ironwork ideas!

New blog features

2009-12-15T05:55:00.000-08:00

My buckles have been featured in a couple of holiday gift guides. Click the links below check it out.

Obsessions of a Renaissance Woman http://kellyjcallahan.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/handmade-gifts-for-him/

Beer + Etsy = Great Gifts for Guys on Etsy Stalker http://etsystalker.com/?p=5945

World Steel Association

2009-08-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you stop to think about the vast number of uses for steel, it's overwhelming. The World Steel Association's website provides an excellent overview of the steel industry worldwide, including current issues such as climate change and sustainability. worldsteel is a non-profit organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium whose members produce 85% of the world's steel.

www.worldsteel.org

New Video

2009-03-03T08:04:00.000-08:00

Here is my latest video. It demonstrates how I make a top for one of my forged boxes. Mortise and tenon joinery is one of the methods for joining metals that was used before the days of the electric welder. Welding is a lot easier, but it doesn't look as cool and it's not as much fun!

Mortise and Tenon Video

Featured on a Blog

2009-01-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

My buckles are being featured on Scoutie Girl, a really nice blog about handmade crafts:

http://www.scoutiegirl.com/2009/01/link-mini-steel-belt-buckles.html

Ornamental Wrought Iron Videos

2009-01-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

I found this great series of videos on Youtube. The first time I saw this video was at my very first blacksmithing class with David Norrie a couple of years ago. This video shows David and several other talented blacksmiths making a reproduction of a beautiful iron gate designed by the great Samuel Yellin.

The video provides an excellent overview of blacksmithing techniques. It's also really exciting to see so many smiths working together under the supervision of the late Francis Whitaker, one of America's most famous blacksmiths. Make sure to check out all six of the videos!

Ornamental Wrought Iron Part 1

Basic Forging: Drawing Out

2008-12-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

Forging hot iron is the core of blacksmithing. When iron is hot, it becomes soft and malleable, like a piece of clay.

One of the first techniques most blacksmiths learn is “drawing out.” Drawing out means to lengthen a piece of steel by heating it in a forge and hammer it on the anvil.

Here are some pictures and a video of me drawing out a piece of ½” square mild steel.

This is the 1/2" bar stock:

Once it's hot, the steel is hammered at an angle to draw it out:

For this example, I kept the square shape and drew it out to a point:

Here's the video:

The Winter Garden

2008-11-30T21:28:00.000-08:00

We had our first real snowfall of the season today. I snapped a picture of the garden gate and fence in my backyard collecting snow. It's hard to believe that only a month and a half ago, you could barely see the fence at all because the tomatoes were so huge.

I built this gate and fence using no modern welding. Not that there's anything wrong with welding, I just really enjoy doing things the old fashioned way when I can. I needed a gate and fence to keep our dog out of the garden, but I also wanted to create a garden fencing system that could be easily installed by a customer.

Old Time Blacksmith Shops

2008-11-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

Check out these cool pictures I found of blacksmith shops from the old days. As you can see, not that much has changed except that most of us now use gas forges and power tools:

Blacksmith's Tools

2008-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of the hand tools that I use everyday. Pictured below is a Lufkin rule. It is one of the most important tools in my shop. Without it, I'm like a ship with no captain. Tape measures are okay, but for blacksmithing, a steel rule is so much nicer. Plus, if you flip it over and measure a circle, the fine print tells you what length of bar stock you need to make the circle.

Next is the hammer I made. I wanted a shorter, stubbier hammer like a Habermann or Hofi hammer. With a stubbier hammer, you strike the metal with more of a punching blow. I find this style of hammer a lot easier to use and it doesn't wear me out as quickly as a traditional blacksmithing hammer. Some people don't like them, but this style of hammer is my favorite.

The problem was that a Hofi Hammer costs over $100, and a Habermann Hammer is only a little cheaper. There are some other options, but the only other hammer of this style I could find for a reasonable price weighs in at 2 lbs - little smaller than I like for my main forging hammer.

So, I ran down to Home Depot and bought a Stanley "blacksmith" hammer. It's horribly balanced and comes with a junky plastic handle. But, it's still made of nice tool steel and weighs over 4 lbs. So, I figured if I cut it down, it would weigh somewhere in the ballpark of 3 lbs - the weight I like for my forging hammer.

After a little cutting, grinding, and tempering - voila! I call it the "Home Depot Habermann." It only cost me about $20 and is so much more comfortable than the hammer I used to use.

Plus it comes with this helpful reminder:

I also make my own tongs. Once you get the metal hot, you need something to grab it with. That's where tongs come into play. Tongs can be bought, but making tongs for a specific task is a great blacksmithing exercise and saves a bunch of money. It's also very satisfying to do work with tools you made yourself.

Pictured from left to right are: pickup tongs to grab various stock sizes, box jaw tongs for holding 1" wide flat bar stock, angle jaw tongs for holding scrolls, and tongs for closing hot collars. If you are new to blacksmithing, I will explain some of the terminology in upcoming blog entries.

Now that you are familiar with my shop and some basic blacksmithing tools, next up will be some blacksmithing!

Shop Tour (Part 2)

2008-10-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

Let's pick up where we left off in Part I ...

This is my leg vise. Gotta have one of these. By the way some of my tools are very old - this vise may well be over 100 years old, I'm not sure.

This is my layout table:

Next is the chop saw. It doesn't get as much use now that I have the horizontal bandsaw, but it still comes in handy a lot.

Here's my drill press:

Next is my old 400 amp Miller stick welder. It has a lot of power and still works great.

This is the welding area & a small Mig welder:

This is probably my favorite tool - the flypress. It can do so many things, I could go on forever. I still find new ways to use it all the time.

Here are my sanders. I use them to deburr and sometimes reshape steel.

In the back area, I have my old Logan 10" lathe. It's seen a lot of use, but it's more than accurate enough for my purposes.

Finally, there's my little air compressor, surrounded by a bunch of projects. In the foreground, you can see the motorized beach cruiser I built- more on that later.

That about does it for the shop tour. Hope you enjoyed checking it out! Soon I'll show you how I use everything...

Shop Tour (Part 1)

2008-10-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I thought the best way to get started would be a tour of my workshop, so you will be familiar with the basic tools I use during the course of a day.

Here's a picture of my shop from the entrance in the garage:

Over here in the corner, we have the horizontal/vertical bandsaw. These saws are really nice. They can handle small to really large pieces of steel and you can cut multiple pieces at once.

Next is the table I have sitting next to the anvil. I use it to store my hammers, tongs, and any other stuff I might need while I'm working:

These are two trestles I made for assembling gates and railings. They work really well if you don't have a big layout table, or you just want to keep whatever you are working on out of the way. They don't take up much space when you aren't using them.

Here is the pipe forge I'm building. It has a ribbon burner that I learned how to make from an article written by John Emmeriling in Hammer's Blow magazine. I still need to finish it up, but the ribbon burner is supposed to be really hot and efficient.

There's my torch and a stump I use for shaping hot metal:

Next is the centerpiece of the shop, the anvil. It has a tray to hold tools I use while I'm working.

This is the quenching bucket. It's filled with water to cool hot steel.

Here's my forge. It's a pretty nice one, but it's about time to upgrade to something that fits my needs a little better. I use propane gas right now, but I'm thinking of switching over to natural gas. I know how to run a coal forge, but right now I only use gas.

That's it for part one. Stay tuned for part II!