Holiday Happenings at Hall Ironworks

It's been a little over a month since my last blog update. I haven't forgotten about you all, I promise.

There's a lot going on a Hall Ironworks right now, between my commissions and the projects Wayne has had rolling... where to begin?

First off, this is my first holiday season in the blacksmithing/bladesmithing world and so far I like it. It's nice knowing that people are considering my work as gifts for someone they care for. It really is a good feeling, and I'm blessed to know the wide range of good, earnest people that I do.

But enough with that mushy mushy stuff, on to some hammerin'.

Standard hawk on the bottom.
Lawnmower on the top.

There are some things that I can't quite show until after Christmas, but Wayne has just completed a suuuuper cool project that's different than he's ever done. I'll post pictures after the holidays, but for now, he's a few axes and hawks I've forged. Some have become gifts, some were before the holiday season and were just commissions. The ax forged from 5160 leaf spring and a lawnmower blade came out far better than expected, but it was really tough to get it stick while using the coal forge. When tried in the gas forge, it stuck right away. Evidently, a lot of these mower blades have a high amount of chromium in them, which makes them a pain to forgeweld to themselves or carbon steel. Needless to say, it was an excellent lesson in forge welding for myself. I would list the demensions of the steel I started with, but I couldn't tell you due to how long this was a WIP (work in progress).

Freshly forged standard hawk.

I've also forged my first mouse hawk, and I really like forging these. They're nifty little bastards, a lot of folks un-mount them and use them for skinning, evidently! I'd like to make more of these. For my full size hawks, I start with 10 inches of 1/4 inch thick by 1 1/4 wide flat bar mild steel, but the mouse hawks I only start with 8 inches. It makes a big difference in size, despite only losing two inches of material. I do find it easier to shape the eye with the full size mandrel rather than the small mandrel.

My little mouse hawk! 

I'm currently working a knife for a Christmas gift for someone in my family (not going to say who, they may be reading this!) but it's a clip-point hunter made from an old bastard mill file with a walnut handle. I've really enjoyed this one, too. There's a lot of passion going into this. It was a drop off from my previous file knife made for my friend Nick. I forged the rough shape, forged the bevel, and started clean up. The more and more I carve and work with wood, the more it grows on me, especially walnut. The wood has so much character, it is dense enough to make a solid handle, yet isn't a nightmare to carve. Douse it in a few coats of Tru-Oil and you've got a deep, beautiful finish. I have yet to finish polishing and forge the bolster, but I'm going to whip up some mokume-gane this weekend (redneck style) that will become the bolster for this knife and maybe some Christmas gifts.

One of the cool things Wayne and I did back in the beginning of November was head up to Odon, Indiana for an Indiana Blacksmith Association hammer in. Holy COW it was cool. Lots of awesome people, and it was like a bottomless well of knowledge. Everyone was so welcoming and pretty damn funny, too. The coolest part was a 200lb Bradley hammer than ran from the drive of a tractor. There's a video below.

They IBA guys hanging around the fire, forging damascus. 

And finally, here's an image dump of some works in progress, some cool stuff Wayne made, and other goodies. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays, folks... whatever your beliefs are!

A three-layer viking style seax. Soft wrought iron on the outside, hard 5160 carbon steel on the inside!

A table base forged by Wayne

Ash shovel and fire poker for the Hall houses fireplace. 

One of the handles for the fireplace tools Wayne forged. 

Two bowie/bushcraft choppers, an edc, commission, and sheepsfoot carving knife ready for clean up.

 And finally, here's the video of the 200lb Bradley working a 1 inch piece of rebar.

The Process

Today I'd like to share something that a friend of mine, Aaron Armstrong of Black Cat Forge, posted on the "Blacksmithing" Google+ page. The page link can be found to the right of the page. Aaron is a fellow moderator of the site and is a very accomplished blacksmith. He has an deep understanding of the trade that most people do not. 

Aaron facilitates engagement in the communities better than anyone else. He's always offering advice, how to's, and tool identifications. You can find him on Google+ and on his Etsy site located here. He has some really cool products for sale that would make great Christmas gifts. 

Here is Aaron's post. I think it's something that we all need to keep in mind when working off of demos: 

Tonight's discussion is not on the project itself but more the process.

Many of us do a lot of our first projects from "Demos". Demos are great, but I was reminded with this project, that demos are a starting point and an idea. How they are done is a guide line, not "Law". Meaning, just because one smith does it one way doesn't mean that the project has to be done the same way. What works for one smith may not work for another. There is always more than one way to complete a task, as long as the finish project equals that of the demo, then you completed the task.

Tools will sometimes play a factor too. A lot of the time we make our own tools and they are sometimes different from the smith who did the demo. I had to make a new guillotine to complete this one and I found it easier to work the horn and heel after cutting it off of the 1/2" square stock. Different hammers and anvils will play a factor too. The demo had making the horn and heel while it was still attached. Generally it is easier to work metal without tongs when you can, but for this project it was easier for me to work the horn and heel with tongs. Doesn't necessarily mean that it wouldn't work for another smith, some may find it easier to work the horn and heel while still attached to the stock, however for me it was not.

So this is just a reminder, to think for yourselves when doing demos and use what techniques you are comfortable with.

Bench Knife Revamp and Lots of Coffee

I know I've been talking about getting away from doing knives entirely... but sometimes the creation or completion of a knife is just what the soul needs.

About three years ago, I forged a rough little bench knife from a cut off I had remaining of a jackhammer bit. It was nasty, rough, and didn't even get hardened or tempered. But it was a nice little thing to have around my bench to do stuff with, so I kept it. I wrapped the short, stubby handle in some deep burgundy leather cord and called it finished.

The bench knife is on the top.
Sorry, this is the best pic I could find. 

The other day, I was waiting for a knife to come out of the tempering oven (let's be real. It's a toaster oven. Not a tempering oven, not even in the slightest. It makes me feel cool saying it's a tempering oven, so let's go with it. Deal?) and I saw my little bench knife sitting there. Having remembered it being so sharp, I picked it up and ran it down my arm. Expecting to see hair start popping off of my arm immediately, I was utterly destroyed inside when I realized the hair on my arm was in fact resilient to the knife edge. Had the eggs, bacon, and dark coffee I've been eating every morning for the last two years turned the hair on my arm to the manliest, hardiest, steeled arm hair that even Paul Bunyan himself would be impressed with? Despite what you may think, no folks, it had not. The blade was as dull as a butter knife. I rolled the little, crude knife in my hands with sad eyes and thought "This is not the end. I will change this. I must fix this"... so that's where it started.

I ran outside to my handy-dandy, second replacement Harbor Freight 1x30in belt grinder (it had been out of the package two hours before, broke it in on another knife) and went to town. The nice thing was since I hadn't hardened it, the steel was soft as butter. So shaping was easy. I cleaned the top up and ground a steeper bevel on it. I left the fire scale on the top portion of the blade cheeks, of course. I thought "Hmph... decent."

Back inside, I started looking for scraps of wood scales to start carving out a handle. At this point, I had ran back and forth from the shop to the house about six times, which prompted Wayne to come downstairs and say "Well... what wild project did you come up with all of the sudden and decide you have to complete tonight?". He knows me too well. When I get a project on my brain, I start running around and get jittery like a high school chemistry teacher who just discovered the amount of money to be made from his perfected rock recipe. Wood chips were flying from the slab of walnut I found hiding under my work bench, shavings were rolling and spiraling onto the floor from my planer, and by the end of the night I was gluing together two scales of what I was hoping would be a relatively pretty handle.

After a two day wait, due to busy life stuff, I was able to un-clamp the scales and start sawing to a rough shape. I wasn't really sure what shape I wanted, and due to the limited material I had to work with, I wanted to keep it plain but appealing to the eye, such as seems to be my style. As I shaped the wood with my planer and chisels, it began to take the shape of the handle, or tsuka, or a Japanese shirasaya style. It was a plain shape, nothing fancy, but the wood was just beautiful with blends of tan, dark brown, and purples. I cut the shape of the tang into some copper I had lying around, cut it out, sanded it flush, and glued the copper spacer to the handle. I love copper, I really do. I love the colors and the textures that it can assume. I also love just how easily the metal works and bends to your will, so long as there is a steady hand guiding it. I broke out the remaining sandpaper supply I had and went to town sanding it all nice and pretty. Once it was to my liking, it was time for my favorite part of any process when working with wood. The application of not just any stain, but boiled linseed oil.

For those of you who do not work with wood very much or happen to NOT be a fellow Ax Junkie member (look it up on Facebook if you like axes, go ahead. You know you're curious now), boiled linseed oil is the fragrant nectar of the wood working Gods. Although the nectar is not recommended for consumption, the sweet, earthy smelling liquid can breathe life back into even the most dry and weathered wood. The easy application and quick drying time makes it a go-to-finish not only on my bench, but of many hobbyists and craftsman/craftswomen who truly appreciate a natural, beautiful color and shine kissed by Gods of woodworking. Fun fact: it makes a wonderful quench for hardening, although it's expensive. I watched someone quench a tomahawk head in it at JCC and it did the job (and smelled great!).

Over all, I'm happy with out this came out... sort of. If I had a way of yanking the blade out of the handle without destroying the handle, I'd put a full polish on it and try to do a hamon to finish off the look. Maybe add some fancy filings on the spine of the blade. However, like one of my buddies says:

"If 'ifs' and 'buts' were candies and nuts, we'd all have a merry frickin' Christmas, wouldn't we?"

Thanks for reading. I had a lot of caffeine this morning whilst waiting on some things at work.

Hawks!

I've been on a bigger than ever hawk kick here lately. They're so fun and so rich for learning.

As most of you who've been victim to my social media spew of photos know, I stick to two styles: hawks from rail road spikes and hawks folded and wrapped with a carbon insert. I used to really prefer to make the hawks from rail road spikes... but not so much anymore. I'm hooked on these wrapped eye style tomahawks.

We have a lot of scrap floating around the shop right now from fence jobs, handrails, gates, and utility racks. We just happen to have a lot of 1x1/4 flat bar laying around which works pretty well for making wrapped eye hawks. I've also been lucky enough to be surrounded with wonderful people who have come across a lot of 5160 leaf springs and given them to me.

This style of hawk head can be made into a lot of different designs (I've got a few brewing in my head that I'm going to try this week hopefully... I think my hawks need a bit more bearded look). I had an English professor in college that always used to say "There's a hundred different ways to skin a cat" ... strange, I know, but I think it applies here. A folded hawk can be drawn out and hammered into a lot of different styles, or so I've found. Depending on how one use a rounding hammer or the peen side of a hammer, these can be made into a Norse or Dane style ax, French trade axes, or whatever style is needed. Some of these designs depend too on grinding ability but I think you get my drift.

I did another rail road spike project for a good friend of mine recently. My cousin James Poag told me "Well. Every knife or project you make, you won't want to get rid of." That's definitely true. I fell in love with this beast I made for Luke. I liked the texture that came out of it, the shape, and the handle. At first I mounted it on a hammer handle but the handle cracked during wedging, so I decided to carve a handle from red oak. A little draw knife therapy is never a bad thing. Here's some photos.

On Demos, Booths, and Craft Fairs

It seems that we as human beings are visually learning creatures. Through this visual learning, we're able to clarify and gain a further understanding of things we had not understood or even known about.

Tis true for blacksmithing.

This topic for this blog entry spurs from our weekend at Harmonie State Park in New Harmony, Indiana. This past weekend was their annual Trade Fair and we were so lucky to be apart of such a wonderful event. Really folks, if you're from the tri-state area and have a trade or craft, you need to get in on this. So very well put together and worth every bit of your time. It was for us.

Doing things like demos and setting up a booth at the craft fair, the forge burning up coal, and the hammer flattening red, hot, soft steel helps people understand what exactly it is we do in this trade... and what exactly it is that we don't do. These kind of events allow us to show people of how we turn that plain, boring piece of steel into something exciting and inviting to the eye. Many people don't realize how it's done, but many have a general idea of what a blacksmith is... kind of. Perhaps it also facilitates a greater respect and appreciation for the work that we do.

However, it also gives you some killer one liners about your trade. Here are a few, bless these people's hearts.

"So uh, you doin' some blacksmithery over here?"
- Yup.

"Are you going to anvil that iron now? Right? That's how you flatten it or shape it?"
- I'm going to anvil this iron so hard that it's going to become hand hammered steel.

"So how long have you been a horse-shoer?"
- Well, I haven't shod a horse in 23 years! (...I'm only 23 folks)

"...can you make me a sword from Lord of the Rings?"
- Sure, come back in 30 minutes and I'll have some Orcs ready for you to test cleave, too.

"I know what smithing is... I've played Skyrim."
- I have too. Many, many hours. If you forge a ton of daggers in real life, your skill really will increase, ironically.

Now, I'm just poking fun. People don't know things unless they ask questions. There really are no dumb questions, just ones that are more fun to answer than others. It was so wonderful explaining the trade to folks. I was actually very surprised at the number of people just starting blacksmithing that strolled by, or people that had family members that were blacksmiths. Of course, it was wonderful making the connections and potential client connections that we made.

Below are a few pictures of our setup. It doesn't look like there's much around us, but all of the booths were across from us. We were on the edge with the most space.

Cheers! Thanks for looking!

First Commissioned EDC

I'm trying to branch out a bit and work with new things and new material.

So far, it's going well. I've recently completed a project for my good friend Nick and I had to step outside the box a bit, but overall I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Nick, who I used to work with, is not only a hell of a guy but he's also great to do business with because he's so patient. He'd been at my heels wanting a knife for a while, and so I have finally gotten to a point where I'm comfortable with my level of craftsmanship to do a commissioned knife and Nick was the first on the list.

Freshly forged

I started with an old bastard mill file we've had floating around the shop for God only knows how long. Wayne said he got the whole collection of them back in the 70's. Holy moley that's ancient! ;) So I started shaping the tip, hammered in the bevel, moved on to the handle and cut it down to size. I did a different blade style for this one. It was kind of a tanto style, with a slight drop point, and not so jagged as you see a lot EDC tanto styles being. The nice thing about working with this file as a starter material, after annealing it was really soft.

After rough grinding

I knew I wanted to do something different for the handle. I was making a knife out of this old file, so I wanted something new for the handle to have a blend of old and new. I looked into some G10 and Micarta, and fell in love with a black and OD green layered set of G10 scales. I hadn't worked with this material before, but it was fun to work. I did everything with files, a cheap belt grinder (that fried halfway through. No worries, got the two year warranty on it!), and a Dremel. I just played with the pattern a bit and I came up with something I like. Once you start polishing the material the layers really start to pop and it looks really cool. I'll be using this material more often. I got the scales from USA Knifemakers. Of course, I had a mask on while working it :)

I took the blade, and like the dagger blade I've previously posted, soaked it in vinegar over night to give it this really cool, dark patina. I learned the hard way, however, that if you don't neutralize it with baking soda and water the bad boy will rust up in a heartbeat!

After rough shaping of the handle and the blade patina process.

Finally, after polishing up the handle and sharpening, it was time to make a sheath for the blade. I really liked the sheath I made for my Nordic style skinner but I wanted to modify it to fit better for every day carry. Nick wanted a black leather sheath, and I had some green stitch that I thought would look killed with the green scales. So, here's the final product. 

Now, it's on to the next few projects! A re-do of one of my first forged knives, some spike hawks for friends, and soon a machete out of a lawnmower blade! 

Cheers! 

Benton 

Recently Completed Works at Hall Ironworks

Every since our trip to John C. Campbell, it's been nose to the grind stone. We've gotten commissioned for some new projects. Just before we left we managed to finish some projects. Here's a few photos of some commissions we finished right before the class. Both had an August 1st deadline (and were not late).

First up: A hand rail for the New Harmony Town Hall 

The ladies with a coat of primer.

Look at those rings! 

Wayne's work partner and friend, Jeff O'Risky giving us a helping hand with the installation

Gotta stick it! 

Straight as an arrow! 

I'm going to compile a photo album that is just action shots of the beard. 

Isn't it pretty? 

Arrows, Hawks, and Mountains

I would like to start off by saying "WOW! What a busy past few weeks!"

If you're friends with or follow me on Facebook, I'm quite certain you've seen my spew of pictures from the events of the last few weeks. Here's what I'm going to do today. I'll tell you about the trip Wayne and I took to John C. Campbell in Brasstown, NC. I'll then tell you about throwing some of the hawks we made. Finally, I'll finish off with some talks of arrow heads and maybe, MAYBE a sneak peak of the next knife in the works for a good friend of mine. If you're not in the mood to do a lot of reading... save yourself now. This is a long one.

So, John C. Campbell.

...I didn't want to leave this place. I mean, look at that view! 

I've had some time to think about this post. I needed time to think about this post because quite frankly I didn't know where to start. The weekend Wayne and I spent at John C. Campbell was much like the first weekend I spent in Cincinnati at a seminar for iaijutsu in the company great martial artists and a most awesome instructor. It was that same feeling of elation, not wanting the weekend to end, not wanting to leave. We had been prepping for weeks for this trip. I had been gathering supplies, conceptualizing what I was going to make, and stressing about the car drive down there. I was to soon find out that none of that was needed, none of it at all.

John C. Campbell Folk School is basically the most perfect adult camp you could imagine, set in the misty Appalachian Mountains of far western North Carolina. The school offers just about any type of craft class you can imagine. The place is extremely welcoming, everyone is nice, and my lord the food is amazing. Seriously, the second best part was the food. Everything about this place and the way it was set up made you converse and make connections with people. Realistically, it's a networking hot spot... it's awesome.

Look at that shop! ...And the beard! 

Wayne and I, of course, went for the blacksmithing class offered that weekend. It was a tomahawk and ax forging class taught by Ryan Johnson, who's president of RMJ Tactical (go ahead, look it up. You won't be disappointed). Ryan is a master and revolutionary of creating tomahawks and tactical breaching tools. Friday night after an awesome feast we headed down to the blacksmith shop. I think we spent the first 20 minutes of marveling at this shop. The place was impressive. There were 12 forges with alternating German and American style anvils, 5 power hammers, and a room FULL of hammers, tongs, hardies, chisels, and anything else you could imagine. We could have came to JCC with nothing and had everything we needed. There was a grinding and drilling room, which had two drill presses and 5 belt grinders, a welding corner with two Miller mig welders, and the front half of what I assumed to be the old blacksmith shop was full of all kinds of metal working machinery. It was just awesome, I can't say that enough. There was also the master forge, which had a beautiful copper and steel hood over it. The place was also timber framed, with each end of the timber rafters being carved into an anvil. For a blacksmith shop, the place was squeaky clean, far cleaner than our shop... but our messy shop reflects what goes on in our strange heads, I'm sure.

Ryan demonstrating the belt ax style. 

Elmer giving me some pointers on folding styles

Ryan started the class by doing a demo of the hawk design we'd all be so diligently working towards all weekend. It was a folded style hawk, from 1 1/4 in x 1/4 in x 10 in mild steel with a chunk of 5160 truck spring stuck in between for the bit. Ryan did the first one by hand and then turned us loose at the forges. I was so excited I couldn't straight. We cut our stock and tore into our first hawk. Everything went dandy until my first forge weld. I couldn't get it to stick for the life of me. I gave it a yellow heat and smacked it, then tried again and again only to no avail. I couldn't get the sucker to weld. Finally, Elmer Roush came over and helped me. He let me know I just wasn't getting it hot enough. If you haven't heard of this guy, he's one of the top authorities on viking era blacksmithing (I've already signed up for his class in March, "Viking Era Blacksmithing"). With his watchful eye I was able to finally get my hawk to stick. This one took me quite a while, I did it all by hand, no power hammer. The next two... well I changed my method a bit for those.

Forge welding... having that beard was all it took! 

The next morning, after a haughty breakfast (why had I not had grits before? I'm hooked now!), I finished up the last few touches on my first hawk. Wayne was already welding his second hawk by now. This time, I decided, I was going to use one of the power hammers. I cut my stock, folded it, stuck the truck spring in it, and Wayne tacked it for me. Then, I gave it a good heat, fluxed it, more heat to a yellowish wet look, and then ran over to the tire hammer.

POW. POW. POW. POWPOWPOWPOWPOWPOW. 

Wayne working the Little Giant 25lb power hammer

The power hammer came down with all it's might, sending molten flux 20 feet in all directions. The hawk was welded. I learned something import here: If your hawk head has dropped to an orange heat, stop working. At that point, you're more likely to break your welds back apart. When working with welded material, work at a yellow heat. Besides, your metal moves better at that point. Anyway, I had to do a few more repair welds after sizing the eye more, then some grinding clean up and it was done.

After lunch (TACO SALAD!!), Ryan did a demo of a style of ax that Elmer usually does, a cool little Hudson Bay belt ax. Then, my buddy Will McAllister showed up from Bray Oaks Forge and helped me out quite a bit on some stuff. Between a little before dinner and the end of the night, will helped me get a nice weld, do some cool clean up and filing on the hawk head and handle, and then helped me pour a pewter cap on my handle. Will is super helpful and will find a way to answer any question you may have. If you haven't seen any of his work, look up Bray Oaks Forge on Facebook, you'll be in awe. He's moved over to more Viking style stuff lately, and all of his pieces are bad ass quite frankly. Many of them have pewter caps with wooden rune inlays or a nice hardwood handle polished to a sheen with silver inlay. The guys work is phenomenal, and as if I wasn't already lucky enough to be there learning from Ryan, Elmer, and Jack from Rustick Knives, I also got some help from Will. It was just too cool.

The ax that Will helped me on. What a beaut! 

Sunday was clean up time and "show and tell". Everyone displayed some of their work had lunch, and went home. We skipped lunch because we had a seven hour drive and wanted to make it home before dark. JCC was gorgeous, full of knowledge and good people, and worth every penny and every mile driven. I can't wait to go back in the spring.

Will McAllister of Bray Oaks forge and I

Will, instructor Ryan Johnson, and I

The ladies of the weekend.

Now, some of the other things I've been working on.

I've been working on some arrowheads lately. I want to build my own arrows with my own custom arrowheads now that I've got a 71' English longbow that I love to shoot. The going is slow, because despite how easy you think arrowheads are to make, THEY'RE NOT. They require a lot of small detail work with lighter hammers that I'm not used to. It's fun for that reason, though. I have to do a lot of work that I'm not used to doing and that reveals many things I need to learn. I'll add some pictures of those once I get more forged.

Lastly, I'm working on a knife for an old co-worker of mine from back in the shoe-selling days. It's from a old mill file of the "Bastard" brand I think. It's going to be a nice little every day carry knife. I'm still polishing it and I'm on the fence whether to put a nice red oak handle on it or use some G10 or micarta that I just ordered. Don't worry, there will be pictures of this to come, too.

Thanks for taking the time to read this suuuuper long post. Y'all rock!
-Benton