TRIVET

As you can see from the pictures the good old tapers make yet another appearance. We began with the steel ring. Material was heated then shaped around the bick of the anvil ,until something resembling a circle was formed. Once happy with the form, a small weld was made, then taken back to the anvil to try and hide the weld best possible. Gentle hammering around the join cleaned up most of the weld. To the right of the tapered leg in the secong photo you can see some evidence of the weld.

Newly formed ring was placed back into the forge for a heat then placed on a cone mandrel, sometimes known as a Witches hat, due to the resemblance. The ring is placed over the cone so it can be trued and shaped to form  

With our ring made and set aside, it was time to move on to the tapered legs. Some opted for more elaborate legs with different designs for the centre. I decided on this design purely to keep things simple. On a personal level more elaborate designs can come later, you cannot run before you can walk! A total of 5 tapers were made with the best three being selected. Material was heated then tapered, a quick measure then bent to a 90 degree angle.

Group discussion followed once we all at the same stage. Time for the very rusty Mathematics to be used, not my strongest point, seeing how i only ever calculate how much money i have left halfway through the month. As a group it was decided to use PI to calculate circumference and all that malarkey, you know 314............... with the calculations complete( i done mine by eye), chalk marks ready, it was time for some hot punching, which went a lot better than expected. Tapered legs were drilled with a cordless, however most of us suffered problems at this stage due to too much quenching. Quenching hardens the material, not a problem at play until you start drilling bloody holes.

This was to be the second attempt at riveting with the help of a vice. Oxy- acetylene was used to heat the rivets, then hammered once at orange heat. Job done!

Due to the shortness of the legs, i hve used this trivet on a number of occaisons for placing hot pans at the table. With longer legs it could be used for a kettle or pan on an open fire.

SHOW US YOUR TONGS

My first set of tongs, lovingly made by my hands. No big deal right, well it was for me! Only now 10 months down the line, the significance of crafting your own tools has eventually sank in. Most beginners probably find the task of tong making tedious, take a step back, think for one moment? Who else makes there own tools as well as tools for everyone.

A couple of pages into the book THE SKILLS OF THE BLACKSMITH- VOLUME 1 BY MARK ASPERY  you will come across a wonderful passage called The king of crafts makes his/her own tools. the passage relates to the finishing of Camelot. Towards the end of the passage King Arthur exclaimed "SMITH! BY YOUR HAMMER AND HAND ALL CRAFTS DO STAND"!

The above passage is a wonderful example of the skills of the trained Blacksmith, so back to me the untrained, trainee Blacksmith with wild ideas and some skills in the making. Out of our class no one seemed so interested in the making of tongs and opted for other projects on the next session, i decided to stick with them, and have found uses for them at the fire! As this blog progresses i will find the diagram for tong making and post a step by step sequence, as for now i will explain the title of this blog post.

          Towards the end of the session, with the tongs assembled,riveted and working as they should, they   were placed back into the fire for a last heat to cherry red, a good brush off with the wire brush and a healthy spray of wd-40 for the final finish. After the initial wd-40 inferno had burnt out, the tongs were to take on a grey/black pa lour that to the unaware makes them look just the same as nice and cold hand forged steel. All it took was a handful of seconds a slow response from me whilst looking for piece of chalk to draw the warning of HOT METAL around the tongs. Steve the workshop technician walked past "SHOW US YOUR TONGS" picked them up to the sound of a sizzle,a very similar sound to a Saturday morning frying pan loaded with bacon and eggs. For me this all happened in slow motion, if we could add the theme from chariots of fire you would be on the same page. Mouth open with my best dying fish impression, hand held out with a piece of chalk it was to late, the hand was burnt! What could i do? Well apologise that was about it really!!