Forge Blog

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 07:53:17 -0800

Well, it's time to move this puppy.

After using Live Journal for a while, I have decided to move this blog there. This is mostly based on ease of use and free storage space for the associated images, more then anything else. Readership levels were just about the same in both locations. So it was only economics and the interface that prompted the move. Please head over to my Live Journal for new posts. You don't have to join Live Journal to read the entries. But you will ned to join, to make comments. One of the benifits of joining is that you can get one page showing all the new updates to any journals you are following.

http://hagerson.livejournal.com

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:16:03 -0800

I did some more soapstone mold work last night. With a little luck we should be able to do a test cast this weekend and maybe have a finished article come Monday.

Today I’m writing my packing list. The list will be shorter then usual. Because, I will only need to take my tools, some stock, and maybe an alternate heat source or two (just in case I need more heat for the casting, then coal can provide).

Where I’ll be working already has a coal forge (that will already be lit when I arrive and hot and ready before I even go to work), anvils, posts vises and all the benches and heavy stuff that are a pain to drag around and set-up. You see I’ll be working in a real 19^th century smithy, right here in Southern California.

So all I should need to toss into the truck is two tool buckets, my propane forge and propane tank and the Oxy/Acetylene torch. I’ll pack-up Sunday afternoon/evening. Because this weekend I’ll be doing the pre-work for Mondays shoot. So tonight and tomorrow night I should be cleaning and stacking metal into billets for pattern welding. More about that soon as I continue the pattern welding process, photo topic.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 10:11:35 -0800

Yesterday, while cutting the shim stock for pattern welding, I took a look around my shop. I wasn’t pleased with what I saw. As you could see in yesterday photo of the coil of 1095, the floor is almost black in places with iron oxide and grinding dust. The other end of the shop is covered in the stone dust from the soapstone I was grinding on last week. The workbenches and drill press table are covered with tools and bits of projects, to the point where you can no longer see table surface in most places.

The bad news, is this state of affairs is not going to change anytime soon. With the work I need to catch-up form the last two months of emotional and physical shutdown, and the upcoming projects, I just have time for a full-blown shop-cleaning day. I will be luck if I manage to clean as I go a little and pick-up as I use areas of the shop.

And this weekend it was once again highlighted that this tendency towards a messy shop, is genetic, or least learned at a very early age.

During the remembrance for my folks this last weekend, their next-door neighbor spoke about Mom and Dad’s home. He talked about the construction of the house, and the care Mom and Dad took not to block his view. How they would get together to make the landscaping flow from one property to the next. And then he talked about Dad’s shop. As he said, the garage was 900 square feet (not kidding here, it really is), and yet there was no room and you could hardly move around in it.

And now I need to find a way to shoehorn some of that stuff into my shop. Likewise my brother has to shoehorn some into his shop. What’s left will be donated to the EAA’s workshop at the Camarillo airport. But Doug and I both have a lot of memories tied up in Dad’s shop. So we are trying to make the right choices and keep some of those machines in the family.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:41:03 -0800

Well, Saturday was the memorial for my parents. It went very well. But Sunday I needed some shop time to unwind. And now that we are past the planning of the memorial, things will get a little less hectic I hope. We will still be dealing with all the details for months yet. But I figure maybe I can get some serious shop time in before this month is completely gone.
So Sunday I cut stock, for pattern welding. And then I cut some more stock for pattern welding. And then I cut a little more. In case you have not figured it out, when I set up for specific job, I like to push several projects through that set-up before moving on.
Now the shim stock I use for pattern welding arrives in two forms. Some arrives as cut strips three to six feet long. Like this 15N20.

Some arrives as a coil. Like this 1095.

Now this coil is a much cheaper way to get the steel. But it is also harder to handle. When the coil arrived it was 75 pounds. And I need to hand cut the coil in to ten to fifteen foot strips, that I can handle more easily.
Next I take three strips of steel and put them in the saw. I gang cut three strips at a time, feeding the bundle stips forward with each cut. This is allows for fast cutting a easy handling.

I cut the steel into six inch lengths most of the time. A billet welded from a 6x1x1" stack yields one large knife blade or an ax head. It can also produce two to four smaller knives.

I now have enough cut shim stock for three axes and several knives. Some of this stock will be used in the upcoming video shoot. Some is for a folding knife commission and some is just to have material on hand. Next it needs to be ground clean and then it can be stacked in to billets (which is an indoor hand work type job).

Scott B. Jaqua
Hagerson Forge

Wed, 9 Aug 2006 15:18:56 -0800

So yesterday there was just something in the air. You could get really stoned just by breathing in.

Ok, enough of the funny stuff. I mean real stone, down in your lungs. Which is real, real bad for you. So …WARNING…… when working with stone in the shop, always, always wear a particle filtering mask.

Last night I was cutting and grinding soapstone. This is for use in making soapstone molds for casting. My wife will be carving two molds in the next week and a half. We will be seeing how much detail a flat casting with bronze can take.

First I sawed the soapstone into 1” thick slabs with my band saw. The soapstone cuts pretty nice. Much better then the jet, which was last stone I cut on it. Then I ground the face smooth on the cut slabs. This was what created the stone dust in the air. I don’t have a water cooled grinder for stone. The water, on one of these rigs, also helps keep down dust. So now there is a thin layer of very fine stone dust all over the shop. The soapstone is extremely fine and very light for stone. So it stays suspended in the air for some time. And this is a major hazard to anything that breathes.

Once again I can’t say this enough. Wear a micro particle filtration mask when grinding just about anything. The suspended particles of even the most harmless material, still present a major inhalation hazard. Call it miner's asthma, silicosis, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or black lung—they are all dust diseases with the same symptoms. And they aren’t any fun.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Tue, 8 Aug 2006 09:47:46 -0800

Well last night I played at being a gunsmith a little more. Spent about one hour in the shop and some time in front of the TV doing hand work. Finished up a CVA Kentucky Pistol kit, that I had started over two decades ago. Being so old my handy work wasn’t what it is now. So the fit and finish has problems that date back to mistakes made at the beginning. But it will shoot just fine; it looks ok from a stand off point of view and will serve nicely for some plinking.

So that it for the guns for a while I still have a CVA derringer kit. But it has never been started. So it can sit in it’s original box, for a while longer yet. If we ever do get this black powder fun day going, we have more then enough Percussion Cap pistols. What I would really like is a wheellock and maybe a Snaphaunce to play with. We have a Matchlock and some Hand Gonnes already. And of course the Flintlock reworked over the weekend.

In any case, from here it’s time to get back to the knife work and maybe finishing up some commissions. I also have a crossbow and some rapier hilts to complete. But while I have some time to work in the shop now, I also want to rest up some this month. It feels like I’m always bone tired of late. So the plan is maybe 3 or four nights a week I’ll spend maybe an hour in the shop. Then I move inside to sit down to hand work for a little bit. And maybe I’ll spend a couple or three hours on an open weekend day, in the shop.

Speaking of free days on a weekend, I won’t be having one of those this Saturday. Instead I will be in Camarillo for the remembrance and calibration of life for my parents. If you knew my folks and wish to attend, drop me a line and I get you time date and directions.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Mon, 7 Aug 2006 10:02:43 -0800

This last weekend wasn’t very productive. Well at least not in the shop. I did get a great deal done that needed to be done this weekend. But it was more a case of catching up on all the work around the house and kennel that hasn’t gotten done for the last two months spent dealing with my parents passing and trying to make ends meet.

However I did get to play for little while this weekend at being another kind of Smith, a Gunsmith. In my fathers workshop we found a Dixie Gun Flintlock Tower pistol. I recall this black powder piece from very early on while growing up. Dad tinkered with it on and off for years. And he was never pleased with it.

Well yesterday I tried my hand at it. I added on the tang of the breach plug were the original squared off one had acted like a chisel on recoil and knocked out a piece of the stock. I lengthened a reshaped the tang to cover the missing wood. I then casehardened the frizzen to get more spark. Last I re-polished and re-blued the gun barrel. I have a little more polish work to do on the reworked frizzen. But other then that, I’m waiting on some new flints from Dixie Gun.

This adds one piece to the black powder fun day at Prado Shooting Park, I trying to set-up.

Next up to gunsmith, two CVA single shot cap and ball pistol kits that need finishing. Then in bladesmithing it’s time to cut shim stock for pattern welding, finishing up a pattern welded spoon and forge a fancy railroad spike knife.

And with a little luck I’ll get more news on the TV project today. About two weeks to go before shooting my small segment.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Thu, 3 Aug 2006 14:43:14 -0800

I have said it before and I will no doubt say again. Blacksmiths are humanities original and perhaps ultimate recyclers.

Up until very recent history, iron was a very expensive commodity. Given the manual labor to mine it, the very long time spent in transit and even more labor required refining it, all makes for almost any iron or steel object being expensive in the historical context. So it is understandable that worn and used articles made of iron or steel would be reworked into a usable condition or even completely transformed into another artifact.

And today we have speculators on the London Metal Exchange to thank for steel prices, once again going through the roof. Well guess what, blacksmiths are still ready to turn used and worn out steel goods into something new. Rail Road spike knives and pieces made from welded cable spring to mind. (Funny however the county fair didn’t seem to see that point when I entered a welded cable eating utensil set in Recycled Materials. I guess they couldn’t see the original material in them.)

So does all this have a point? Why yes it does. At my work we have a lovely new automated band saw for cutting raw cast aluminum logs into slugs for use in forging our wheels. It also generates the most lovely worn-out and broken band saw blades. And they are letting me take those used blades home for free! Once I cut the teeth off the blade, what I end up with is some great M2 steel shim stock. Now M2 doesn’t work as easy as the 15N20 I normally use. But it still makes a great knife, even if it does give me a workout and a half trying to pound it out.

I’m getting ready to head over to the other side of the factory and load up about two months worth of broken blades in the back of my pick-up truck.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Wed, 2 Aug 2006 13:07:23 -0800

Of late I have been known to give that plaintiff cry of bladesmiths everywhere….

“I HAVE NO STOCK!”

And basically, there are lots of reasons (read excuses). Between a very busy schedule, a punishing heat wave and every spare moment being taken up dealing with the passing of my folks (dealing in more then one meaning of the word), I just haven’t been out in the shop for two months now.

So this means I have no stock and I’m behind on several commissions. So over the next few nights, and at least one day this weekend, it time to start catching up. And building up stock in the odd moments.

On the bladesmithing front I need to finish a pattern weld spoon that is in the finishing phases. Then I need to start on a fancy railroad spike knife. And I need to start on another Canterbury Viking folding knife reproduction. This last is my second order from the UK. Which means I really am an I************ A*** D***** (figure it out (no reason to make it easy for Mr Bush’s nosey crew))

And within the SCA I still have several well-aged promissorys, that I still need to honor. I shant ever donate a promissory ever again. Nothing kills the creative juices then have one of these hanging over my head. Custom knife orders, while they hamper the creative process, don’t seem as bad. Maybe because I enjoy this art form more. Maybe I can buy off some of those promissory holders with a knife :)

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.

Tue, 1 Aug 2006 09:32:26 -0800

Well here it is August first. There have been few blog posts for a while now, due to my schedule and the loss of my folks. But that should change here in the short term. For the most part August is pretty slow for me. So, I should be able to get some work done in the shop this month. And add to that the breaking heat wave, maybe I’ll even want to go out to the shop, pretty soon here. So I guess I’ll ramble on for the next few days about my projects and my more reasonable schedule.

A note before I start. These posts will now go on my forge blog and my Live Journal. I am trying Live Journal to see if I reach a broader audience. If that work outs I’ll move all the old blog posts to Live Journal and then link my web page there. But that is a ways off yet. So if you are reading my blog and not my journal, then you should be fine continuing on as you already have.

This month I currently have just three dates on my schedule of events. The first date is tonight, Tuesday August 1^st. The first Tuesday night of the month is when S.C. Blades, the hosts of Knife Expo, holds it’s monthly meeting. At tonight’s meeting I’ll be presenting a slide presentation on a brief history of the sword. This is my third presentation to the club. The first two being on historic folding knives and historic fighting knives. You can go to www.scblades.com for more information on the club and the meeting time and location.

On Saturday August 12^th at 2:00pm, we will be holding a calibration and remembrance of my parent’s lives. It will be at the EAA Chapter 723 hanger at the Camarillo Airport. We will be having a big screen running slide shows of the places things and people in my parent’s lives, along with refreshments and good company. If you knew my folks and would like to attend, please contact me for more information.

And just last night I was asked to add a third date to my schedule this month. The SCA, Kingdom of Caid will be holding it’s Festival of the Rose, Saturday August 26^th. Information on the SCA and the event can be found at www.sca-caid.org . The theme of the day will be A Celebration of Caid's Guilds. So it looks like I will be setting up a display and or demo for the metal workers. If I get some help I’ll take my forge out to do some demos.

Well, that’s enough for one post. Tomorrow I should be posting about projects. Both work currently in progress and pending projects.

Scott B. Jaqua

Hagerson Forge.