Tiki dudes

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

Tattoo Flash Buckles

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 ....

Fireplace screen done

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!

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! 

New business card holders

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...