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...

Business card holders and containers

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!

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

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

Mmmm ... lychees!

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!

Tiki stuff.

Odds and Ends

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: