One of the wonderful things about blacksmithing and blacksmiths is that the whole discipline lends itself to making things! And,well that means that if you have a challenge in making something you can make a tool to help!

And this is exactly what Oliver has done. He has designed a tool to help him with his sword and blade making. He simply calls it the holder. And it is a really great little tool!

Oliver is doing some amazing stuff including sword making and forge making. You have got to check out my pics of his forge here: Oliver's Forge

He tells us about it:

Will, thanks. Sometimes I make specific tools to aid me in my blacksmithing, nothing as multi creative and prolific as the various work you have crafted, but a few small items that I have found helpful. For lack of anything more imaginative that I can call this tool, I simply refer to it as the holding tool. The idea came to me after finding out that some smiths weld on a piece of mild steel bar stock to the tang end of sword preforms to use as a hand hold as they manipulate the steel to shape in the forge. I also use  tongs, but I now utilise this very simple device when forging bevels because of the control and secure hold it affords me when hammering away.

I made it from 3/16 th inch mild steel. A smaller rectangular section 2 x 3 inches is secured tightly in place with M5 zinc coated or stainless steel hexagonal bolts and nuts to the larger piece. Overall length, including the hand hold is about 20 inches. The corners of the 1 ½ inch wide hand hold section are rounded and smoothed out. The blade being forged can be secured by tang or point's end. I also use a smaller holding tool. Pictured are the component parts, and another where I have secured an old dagger shaped 'dummy blade' to the holding tool. Two small shifting spanners are used to secure each of the four bolts into place.

 

The Changing colors of steel - This tutorial, with video shows you how the color of steel changes quite dramatically as it is heated. And why this is very important to a blacksmith. The changing color of forging steel

Railroad spike forging - They are excellent for blacksmithing, typically medium carbon steel which means they heat easy and evenly and are easy to work with. You can get them pretty cheap too. I also have projects using them right here: Railroad spikes for blacksmithing

Do you like making projects and exploring a variety of hobbies?

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