New forge instruments

I want to make a new set of forge instruments. This set will consist of a slider, a shovel and two ladles (a bigger one for water and a smaller one for borax).

As stock for the handles I use four 10x10mm squarestock.

Stock for the handles

I twist the handholds to increase the grip. I do the twist with the heated stock clamped into the vice with an adjustable wrench.

twisted handle

The ends of the handles I forge into eyelets to carry a ring later on. Before bending the ring I thin down the stock to the tip and do the first outward bend in one step.

Thinned down tip for the eyelet

Then I bend the eyelet using the anvilhorn.

Bend eyelet

Slider

For the slider I flatten down round about the last 10cm of the squarestock with the peen of the hammer.

Peening out the panel

When the needed width is achieved I smooth out the hammer marks with the flat side of the hammer.

smoothed out panel

Then the panel is bend 90° and the slider is finished.

Finished sliver

Shovel

I make the shovel head out of 2mm sheetmetal steel. It is a can construktion and I made the template in inkscape.

To cut out the outer perimeter I blue dyed the sheetmetal and scraped in the perimeter according my template.

Shovel outer perimeter

Then I cut everything out with the sheetmetal sheer.

Cutting out the shovel

The cut out for the welding is  more complex. I scrape in the cut out and then cut it with an angle grinder cause my bandsaw wasn´t able to cut 2mm 😦

Sraping the cut out

Cutting with the angle grinder

Before welding I preform the shovel by doming it into the sandbag….

Predoming the shovel

..till all welding lines match.

Ready for welding

I welded all the seems with a TIG-welder….it was my second try. It is nit beautiful but it stands firm enough.

Welded shovel

After grinding the welds I Refining the shovelrefind the form and planished everything up.

Refining the shovelform

I welded the handle on which I gave a slight curve before.

Welding on the handle

and the shovel is finished.

Finished shovel

Ladles

I weld the ladles as cans out of tubepieces and sheetmetals. For the smaller ladle I use a tube with 30mm diameter and a 2mm thickness, and for the bigger ladle I use 60mm diameter.

I do the welding with an MMA welder.

Welded ladle can

And then I just need to weld on the handle in an slight angle.

Welded on handle

And the ladles are ready 🙂

Finished forge ladles