Self made gloat

[Don C Peterson]

Nearly two years ago I bought a pair of holdfasts from TFWW. I love those things. The only problem I've ever had with them is that I didn't have a few more.

This weekend I went out to volunteer at Old Missouri Town 1855 for their Music Festival. Of course it rained all day so there weren't many guests out, but I took the opportunity to make myself some extra holdfasts at the blacksmith shop.

They aren't perfect, but they work fine and they only cost me $5 for materials and a few hours of my time.

96930

I couldn't resist including a pic of our kids in the outfits my wife made. Our oldest son has a small frog that he was hoping to take home with him...

[Don C Peterson]

I forgot to mention that the one on the top is the Gramercy holdfast, the other three are the ones I made. Two of them are just how they came out of the forge, the other one has been cleaned up with a hand grinder.

[David Tiell]

Nicely done! But you also forgot to mention, did he get to take the frog home?:D

[David DeCristoforo]

"They aren't perfect..."

So much the better. You will get much more pleasure out of using these "imperfect" tools made by your own hand than you would ever get from the "perfect" ones you bought.

[Don C Peterson]

Nicely done! But you also forgot to mention, did he get to take the frog home?:D

Uhhh...no. I was pretty sure that the frog had suffered a lifetime of trauma in the catching and holding and that it wasn't likely to survive the ride home.

[John Schreiber]

What a great experience. Have you done blacksmithing before? Were you able to test the hold downs as you were making them? What kind of adjustments were you able to make to make them work?

I guess I'm curious about the whole process.

[Alan DuBoff]

Nothing more satisfying than to forge a tool for your own use. I don't know, there is something about the basics of heating up steel and forging it into shape.

Those look pretty darn good Don, a coating of oil or beeswax while they are hot will go a long way to adding a protective coating on them.

Good show, maybe it will encourage me to fire up the forge and pound some metal...:)

[Don C Peterson]

What a great experience. Have you done blacksmithing before? Were you able to test the hold downs as you were making them? What kind of adjustments were you able to make to make them work?

I guess I'm curious about the whole process.

I've done a bit of blacksmithing before. That's how we got started going out and volunteering at Missouri Town. About 4 years ago, my wife went out and took a class on soapmaking and saw that they offered blacksmithing classes too. A friend and I went out and did the workshop and had a blast, so we signed up to do another one.

I started with bar of 3/4 mild steel. Working with stock this thick is a two man job and a lot more work than the smaller stock I had used up to this point. We work with a coal forge and a manual bellows so you are working pretty much all the time either pumping the bellows or hammering steel...

As for the process of making the holdfasts, it is pretty simple. Heat up the stock where you want to cut it, have your assistant lay the stock on the swedge and then whack away at it until it's cut. Then heat up the end, pound out the flat, then heat up the area where you want to bend it and whack away at it...rinse and repeat each step until you are happy with the results.

Lastly, I need to figure out the best way to attach a leather pad to the face of the holdfasts.