Merry Christmas!

Is this not the most bad ass picture of Santa, or what?

Really I just wanted an excuse to post this pic, and to say Merry Christmas!

I'm working feverishly to get a bunch of tools finished this week so I can then use those tools to start working on my massive backlog of orders.

The fun part is the order of operations goes like this:

1. get material
2. make tools to make tools with (tongs, punches, rivet headers, rivets, etc.)
3. use those tools to make tools (hammer drifts, more tongs, cupping tool)
4. use those tools to make more tools (hammers, flatter, top fuller, etc.)
5. Use those tools to make product and fill orders.
6. Drink a beer, whew!

So that's what my week has looked like so far and will continue until it's done.

I'm also working on my website in order to clean some things up, clean up some code, add a few things I'm lacking and looking into putting a store directly on my site since quite a few people have expressed reservations about buying from Etsy.

Work, work, work. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Work, work, work...

Here's a new cable damascus piece that I finished last Friday. I forged the billet in July and tossed it into my steel pile and forgot about it 'til now. The handle is deer bone with a strip of olive wood and the guard is made of buffalo horn.

Now, back to work with me. I've have lots to do before Christmas!

Well, the Maryland Renaissance Faire is over. Once again I had a great time and got to make some epic pieces with Lloyd Studios.

After a brief rest and some visits I'm off now for the Louisiana Renaissance Festival where I'll be at Dragon's Watch Forge selling pieces by Larry House, Edd the Tinker, myself, and a host of other friends.

Come on down and see us, there is a fully working forge in our shop at this faire and it's manned all day, every day the faire is open.

I'm sure there will also be random hijinks in the forge during the week as well, there always are, and I'll be putting some pics up periodically on my Wolf's Den Forge Facebook Page as they happen.

I've got some exciting new pieces coming, some custom orders that I'm finishing up, and others are a few pieces I'm working on for fun, so stay tuned!

So Busy I Haven't Had Time To Post!

Things have been very busy since I posted last, busier than I can keep up with!

Since I last posted I've been to the International Blade Show again and got to catch up with Brian Brazeal who showed up to do a basic forging demonstration and workshop using clay (you'd be amazed by how many bladesmiths these days have never picked up a hammer and beat steel with it!).
I caught up with and got to pick the brains of Master Smith Chris Marks and learned some interesting/crazy things about forge welding damascus. And I met a slew of interesting new people, including a group of Russian smiths and engravers who do incredible work!

After that I headed out to Kansas to help out the Badger Blades guys in their forge for a month and a half and in the meantime I finished my personal blade (center-front in the picture) and a bone handled Seax (back-right in the picture) both of which were made from the same billet of damascus that I forged back in December.

After Kansas I headed to Pennsylvania for the usual shenanigans at Pennsic, then on to the Maryland Renaissance Faire where we're currently heading for the final weekend this weekend.

I've had very little time to work on anything so far this faire season accept to finally put a handle on the piece that's in the left-rear of the photo. That is a forged 5160 blade that I made back in March or so that has been wandering around the country looking for a handle and I just happen to find the perfect piece laying in the scrap pile on the floor of the shop here. From there the rest came together very naturally from things laying about. The handle for that one is elk antler and leopard wood.

During my time here at MDRF I work the booth on the weekends and during the week I work for William Lloyd of Lloyd Studios where I make scabbards, stands, and handles for some of his pieces. Since I only have mondays to myself I try to do a little forging but so far it's been limited to making new tools that I need for other projects. Mostly tongs, punches, drifts and such.

Soon my time here will be done and I'll be moving on to the Louisiana Faire where we have a full-on forge and smithy right in the booth, so that's always fun and productive.

Now that I remembered I have this blog, I'll try to post on it a bit more often ;)

And remember, have fun!

Steep Hollow Forgeworks Combo-Demo

Man has it been busy lately! Besides all the custom orders I'm working on, all the blades I'm finishing/refurbishing and events going on I'm up to my eyeballs!

It's all good though. Last weekend Larry House from Dragons Watch Forge & Foundry, John Perilloux from John Perilloux Metal Art, and myself attended the Steep Hollow Forge Works Combo-Demo in Bryan, TX.

Smiths and artists from several states as well as five different blacksmithing groups came to give demonstrations, show off their work, bar-b-cue, and in general have a good old time.

We camped out Friday night behind the forge and spent and evening drinking beer and chatting with our fellow smiths and it was definitely a good time. Saturday kicked off with non-stop demos all day including a live smelting and harvesting of an iron bloom straight from the furnace.

A representative from Anyang Power Hammers brought out a 55lb self-containted air hammer for us to play with and give us a few demos as well.

Our hosts Jeff and Alan Lee really went all out to not only put on an event well worth the drive, but one that we all had a great time attending. Thanks again, guys!

And now, back to the forge with me.

On going adventures in the forge! I've been so busy producing quick, simple pieces for my Etsy shop as well as all the custom orders I have that I haven't had time to finish anything for myself!

I am working on a new bearded belt axe to replace the one I made for myself last winter but sold to a very persuasive customer at the first show I was at, but that's a simple matter.

Currently I'm working on a nice damascus hunter for myself, seen on the left there.

So far I've got the blade billet forged out, 288 layers of 1075 high carbon and 15N20 tool steel, shaped, ground, filed, tempered and etched. I have the handle blank done, and I'm working on the guard and pommel.

The guard and pommel are being made of what I call "Scrap-mascus". I made so many tomahawks from railroad spike heads that I had a bunch of spike shanks laying around from cutting the excess off the tomahawks. As I was contemplating what to do with them, a friend said, "why don't you forge them into a billet?"

So I took six spike shanks, tacked a piece of 1075, then a piece of 15N20 to one side of a spike, 1075,15N20,1075, then another spike, 1075,15N20,1075, another spike, 15N20 and 1075 for the first layer. Then laid 1075 on top of each spike shank, then another set of spikes, 1075, and 15N20 on top of it so I ended up with a billet that's 13 layers wide and three layers deep. Forged it down and twised it, then forged it down again.

My project for today is to grind down the pieces I cut from that billet into my guard and pommel, once the pieces are done annealing, which they're doing right now in a bucket of vermeculite.

I've been posting pictures of it while it's in progress, you can find the album on my facebook page Wolf's Den Forge if you're interested in following my build process along.

Back to the forge with me.

Fund Raiser Sale

Since I've decided to embark on this endeavor full time I find myself in an interesting position, the position of having few tools to work with, little metal stock, and no shop of my own. Since I'm not one to ask for donations, I've decided to do something different.

 Every piece that I have available, and quite a few I'll be making from what I have on hand at the moment are going up for sale on my Etsy Shop to raise funds to build my business. I'd rather earn what I need than beg for it, but hey, I won't say no if anyone decides they want to donate some either.

So, please visit my shop and buy something. All the proceeds go to feed me and build my business. If you don't see anything you like or like something that is sold contact me through my Facebook Page or my Etsy Shop and I'll be happy to make you something. To those who've already purchased one of my pieces, thank you!

Links Added

I've added links to my Etsy shop and to my facebook page on the right sidebar.

Well, here goes nothing! As the days roll on I'll be posting various pieces for sale, things I"m working on, places I'll be, special events and so on and so forth. So keep an eye out as this page develops as it will be my primary business page. For now, this is a temporary site until I have time to write a better one from scratch and get some decent hosting, but I'll be working on and updating this site until that time. Once the new site goes live it will be at this address so the next time you visit after the new site is up you'll see the new one and not this page under the same address.