Planning the Final Projects

So, here are the knifemaker's aunt's metalworking projects from today. She's going to divide up the metal into 4 projects: the Kale Nail board, a shop hanging board, the scarf broach, and the big hook that will go home for the shed. The large hook and scarf broach was brushed with a brass brush which gave them a subdued glow of a golden color.

Everything was forged in one long day of hammering. Of course, there are things auntie would do differently when she does this again (oops! did she say she'd do this again?!) but for now she's going to work with what she has. Hindsight is always clearer than foresight!

Starting the Metalworking Projects

The morning started sunny and hot for the knifemaker's aunt. The forge porch is in direct sunlight until 11:30 so she innovated an umbrella holder on the handrail that provided a nice piece of shade over the forge and anvil. Yay!! The new glove worked well although it needed to be removed on occasion to allow for finger control when manipulating pliers.

Nails with the heads loosely shaped
into broad kale leaf shapes.

Plain nails with hooks.

The nails were put into the forge to start the day. Because they are small, the knifemaker's aunt could bank up several at once. It turns out the nails were more difficult to smith into hooks than to knife shapes. Even with the new mechanic's glove, manipulating the forging tongs or smaller pliers were challenging. Nails are far smaller than railroad spikes! Using the hammer, red hot nails were shaped around the horn of the anvil for a hook shape. There are plain nails with just hooks, and then there are what she's calling Kale Nails where the nail heads were shaped out into kale leaf shapes [more about that in another post].

While the hooks were being forged, a piece of 1/4" square mild steel went into the forge. The knifemaker's aunt took a chance and worked on a hook with a twist and a willow leaf. The knifemaker and the knifemaker's dad were busy with a custom damascus knife, so there it was all systems go -- take what's been learned and put it into action. When the guys came onto the forge porch to see how things were going, there was some amazement!  The old girl may not be able to forge a knife completely on her own, but she can totally forge hooks!  Even the knifemaker's dad raised his eyebrows in surprise. Yay!!  A month of work is finally paying off!

Once the forging was done, and wire-brushed to release any remaining scales from the surface of the metal, holes were drilled into the heads of the nails so they can be attached to something for use. The scarf broach did not need a hole of course, the the seasoning process put a nice black finish on it to add to the forged appearance. Seasoning metal is when he pieces of metal were placed back into the forge to raise critical temperature (red hot) and quenched into a pail of peanut oil to cool it down. The metal is put straight down into the oil, lifted and quickly put back in and moved top/bottom and side/side. That is to make sure it cools as fast as possible. If the red hot metal is put in, and left there, the oil around it would heat up and not draw off heat. Once done, the excess oil was wiped off immediately. 

The black was rubbed clean. The large willow leaf hook was brushed with a brass brush. In doing this, the knifemaker's aunt discovered the metal takes on a slight golden sheen. Lovely!

The Glove

The knifemaker's aunt has been the sad victim of blisters most of the month. The 100 degree heat, the sweat on her hand and hammer, and the friction have led to multiple blisters on top of older blisters. Bandages just sweat off. Triple antibiotic ointment under a taped paper towel keeps the dirt of metalworking off the affected areas, so that's been a blessing.

Hardy padded mechanic's gloves

However, relief happened when she made a visit to Harbor Freight and picked up a pair of mechanic's gloves with interior terry cloth that offers padding and also wicks away moisture.  She only uses the left hand glove for the hammering hand (and she offers the right hand one to students to come for a class and suffers similarly!). Amazing results happens when the knifemaker's aunt can fearlessly forge her projects without too much concern about friction blisters!

Revisiting the Experiment

Before putting on the new mechanic's glove the knifemaker's aunt bought to protect her hand against blisters, she made a small detour to get the leather originally intended for the nail knife experiment. Remember that plan? Present nail knives in their original sheaths next to nail knives in a color sheaths. The experiment got out of control early on and spiraled into too many variables, and too many choices for customers: too many colors, too many textures, too many differences to know which variable produced results.

Original nail knife sheath and the proposed
leather in teal (also called turquoise) - a color chosen
after reading research about color preferences.

The knifemaker has a regular sheath producer. In hindsight, the knifemaker's aunt should have presented a plan to use similar leather (to what she usually uses) in a different color and asked to have sheaths made. Here is the leather obtained and the sheaths usually made. If the same sheath maker could have used the same pattern, the same stitching technique, but used a different leather color, the show sale may have produced clearer results about whether or not color impacted customer choice.

After reading the University of Delaware paper, Color Sells: How the Psychology of Color Influences Consumers, the knifemaker's aunt chose teal. Hopefully, the next selling opportunity at a large show in the fall can present clear data collection of how color makes, or does not make, a difference when purchasing a nail knife.

The Project - Part 3

With the scarf broach nearing completion, this is the first day the knifemaker's aunt actually considered owning equipment to do her own metalworking projects once this educational project is over. Anvils are hard to come by, the tongs, the forge, blah, blah, blah...quite an undertaking.

Of course, a railroad tie 'anvil' can be obtained and assorted screwdrivers and hammers might substitute for the official tools, so maybe work-arounds can happen? Metalworking with 1/4" square mild steel can be purchased at the local big box DIY stores. Metalworking is much less complicated than the multi-step process of making a knife. The knifemaker and his dad make traditional, durable knives for utility and the process is the very close to the nail knife process auntie worked through as she made her 40 knives but yikes! what a process. Metalworking seems immediately accessible.

Tomorrow, the knifemaker's aunt will work on the other designs she's come up with and see Mohr possibilities. [Sorry for the pun, but it was impossible to resist!]  The heart, the tree, leaf hook, and a couple more scarf broach designs to include gemstones are possibilities of the choices.

Starting a Finished Product - Part 2

1018 mild metal is good for this project. The knifemaker uses 1095 high carbon metal for knives since he wants them to not only be durable but to hold a sharp edge. The metal used for this brooch is soft enough to work, but certainly durable enough to last.

The knifemaker's aunt is going for a leaf/vine circle for the brooch and a leaf stick for the pin that goes from side to side to hold the scarf in place. This will incorporate the curved lines and organic shapes we learned in a previous post that have a positive affect on the brain.

Once the metal is elongated with several forge-to-anvil episodes (as you saw in the previous post), one end is worked into a leaf shape and the other end into a tendril. The whole skinny piece is placed back into the forge to make the circle. The red hot metal is hammered around a piece of pipe positioned in a vise and twisted. In hindsight, using the horn of the anvil may have been more efficient.

The knifemaker's aunt put both pieces, one at a time, into a smaller vise and wire-brushed them thoroughly before wiping each down to remove any metal dust.

On the way home, she'll stop by a hardware or paint store to pick up some clear coat to give the pieces a finish. If they were knives, they'd be coated with gun oil or seasoned with another kind of oil. However, these will be used with scarves where oil residue is not desirable. The consideration tonight will be choosing gemstones to add for some additional metaphysical meaning and glam to the brooch. What should she go for? Stones that represent Prosperity? Creativity? Balance? So many options, and so many colors!

Starting a Finished Product - Part 1

By combining the leaf and the elongated nail form, the knifemaker's aunt could make a Celtic scarf broach. The Tara Brooch is described at HeadStuff as "In ancient Celtic culture, brooches served both the practical function of holding one’s shawl closed, and the social function of indicating one’s wealth and status. In fact, the relationship between brooches and social standing,..."

Elaborate metals and gems have been used to distinguish one person's image over another. The knifemaker's aunt thought of using metalworking combined with gemstones for a scarf brooch to embody creativity or prosperity. Various stones have meanings and with a combination of several stones, a meaningful piece of jewelry that can be used everyday with scarves or shawls (not in the summer of course!) would be lovely.

Initially a piece of 1018 mild metal was heated red hot in the forge, and then the end of it was hammered into an elongated thin rod. The knifemaker's aunt's technique has definitely improved over the past month. Now when she hammers, she moves metal!



Notice how the metal blisters. Just like skin will blister and peel after a sunburn, metal will blister and flake when hammered from a red hot stage.