Finished Butcher

I just wanted to put up a quick post about my finished butcher.

I am really happy with it, the only thing that kinda annoyed me was that i shafted it on the wrong side so im gonna have to change hands when using this one. Adrian said i shouldnt use a wedge next time, just use rubber.

Finished Butcher

Well the butcher is finally finished and ready to be shafted on Wednesday, it took a little longer than i thought it would but i got it finished and i am quite happy with the finished result.

 Finished Butcher

 Finishing off the eye

I also finished off and heat treated my leafing hammer so i will be shafting both of them wednesday. Expect a picture Wednesday evening.

 Finished hammers ready for shafting

More Tooling up

Just a quick post about some more of my new tools, while ive been making some great head way with tennons i wanted to started drifting out the holes to put them in so i could get that down to a method.

So on Friday i made up a new 25mm by 3mm slot punch and a 12mm by 20mm drift.

These are the two, i made the punch up from an old chisel i started in the first year and never got round to finishing so with a little forging down i re shaped it to the new purpose. The drift is just a piece of 10 by 25mm section, regular mild steel that i forged down to size on the power hammer.

I did a few pratice holes and as i did them i changed the tools to match, my first change was i took some advice to leave the cutting edge on the end of the punch, this was just slicing though not giving great edge quality so i took that off which made it better but not great yet. So i had a talk with one of the third years, Sam and he suggested i take the sharp corners off the tools so it wants to push rather than cut as it goes in. After that it started going through quite nice, i still think there is room for improvement so i will have to talk it over with Adrian tommorow see his thoughts.

 

Hammer Making

I usually have my monday mornings free so i decided that i should go forge and stay all day, maybe put monday mornings to tooling up with hammers, tongs maybe even into some more niche tools to expand the tool box.

Well yesterday i got started on it and made alot of progress, i got one set of tongs ready to be riveted and got the EN9 ready to punch to make the butcher.

Above is the hammer ive been making in my tech sessions aswell as the steel ready for the punching, i will be finishing both on Monday morning.

I am also thinking i will be posting about what i make every Monday evening what ive been doing.

Tooling up

Il keep it breif people, only a small post about some tongs i made yesterday. I needed some hollow bits to hold 25mm square well to make up my butchers, and other hammers in the future so i made up.

I am really happy with them, i dont make alot of tongs because i find difficulty in lining up both of the nibs and making them look right but the last few pairs ive made have turned out well so i think i should make more. I am thinking of a pair of bolt tongs will be the next set.

Obviously i couldnt have finished these tongs without the help of the Tong Guru himself Big Joe. 

Tennon Joints

Its been a while gang but ive been learning stuff recently so i thought i would post, in my most recent project ive set out with the ambitious goal to finish a gate for a commision.

With that goal comes alot of techincal problems such as ive never fully assembled a gate myself just helped in the past, and ive never drawn up completley a gate so im learning alot about fixings.

The first fixing ive learnt yesterday with Ambrose was the Tennon joint.

Picture below shows the one i was taught on, i was striking while Ambrose used the tools to forge it up out of a piece of 25mm square.

After we were finished with Ambrose's tennon it was on to doing my own, its a pretty simple method just need to go at an easy pace and not to rush spots.

First off you need get yourself a piece of bar and upset the end, now when i say upset i mean really get some meat in there, put a bit more than you think you will need in there. Trust me it helps later. 

This is where you will need a striker and a selection of top tools, for this you need a decent flatter, setting block and a butchers block. Start off with the flatter and flatten off one side completley, then upset it more and flatten it again. Using a piece of 25 i went right the way up to 60mm in the end of mine to give it more strength.

Once you have done this working in another one of the edges so only one edge is pretruding, with the flatter work over the top edge so it isnt square all the way across, if it is square it makes it difficult to do the next step.

The next step involves marking off where you want to cut with the butchers block and cutting in only so far, once you have gone in a few mm switch to the setting block and hammer down the top end leaving he bottom section, keep repeating this till you have pushed the 50mm down to the oringal 25mm.

After this you want to start marking off the sides, staying in line with the top edge, work down one side till you have a nice lip then flip it over and use the lip as guide to put on the anvil. Then work down the other side to make a lip on both sides.

If you have followed this right you should just need to clean it up and you should have something close to a tennon.

Here is my first attempt.

Quite happy with it as a first try, i had a little trouble as you can see on the top lip because the butchers block slipped. It wasnt particular nice bit of kid using the college one so i am planing to make my own on Monday, look out for that post going through the making.