Tag: blacksmithing

Roubo Style Holdfasts

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn WorkshopLeave a comment

A couple of months ago, I went over to a local blacksmith’s shop to take a class on making Roubo style holdfasts. I’ve been following Jamie Gier on Facebook for some time now and I knew he lived right down the street from me, but when I saw him making holdfasts on his page, I contacted him to see how much they would cost.

When he told me they were only $60.00, but he could teach me how to make them, I jumped at the chance and scheduled a time to meet with him after work.

When I got to his shop, he started by throwing a couple of steel rods in his furnace and heating them until they got hot. Then, he sent each one over to his power hammer to draw them out until each rod was about 16″ long.

That’s when he gave me the reigns and had me finish up drawing out the rods until they were about 20″ long.

Next, we took the steel bar over to his other power hammer and hit the middle of the bar into a form to create the 90-degree bend. This is what I’m doing in the photo here, but there is no photo of the actual form. sorry.

Next, I formed the goose head shape of the holdfasts between two round heads and played with how the head of the holdfast should look.  Took some trial and error until I was happy with the result.

After the holdfasts were shaped, Jamie knocked off the burrs from the steel with a wire brush and coated each one with boiled linseed oil. I ended up with four holdfasts as he loves just being in his shop and making things.

The next day, I drilled a hole in a scrap piece of wood to test the holdfasts. They almost worked. Unfortunately, they were off just a few degrees as the pads weren’t hitting the wood where they should be.

I showed Jamie that they needed to be adjusted, so I went back over a few weeks later. He threw the holdfasts back in the furnace and adjusted the pads down about 6 degrees.

The next day, I tested them again. Sure enough, that did the trick! I now have four usable holdfasts in total but will only need to use two at the most. I drilled some more 13/16″ holes on my bench so that I could have total reach with holdfasts. The holdfasts are pretty big, with each one having a swing of 18″ in diameter.

Having a guy down the street who is willing to teach me blacksmithing is a godsend. While I was at his shop adjusting the holdfasts the other night, he taught me how to heat treat some plane blades I made for my Stanley No 48 plane out of O1 steel.

We had such a good time together that we’re talking about making Japanese style chisels next, as it’s something he has always wanted to try. This is going to be fun!

If you want to follow Jamie on Facebook,  here is his link.  https://www.facebook.com/jamie.gier?mibextid=ZbWKwL

You can also follow the blacksmith group, the Goshen Historical Society School of Blacksmithing, on Facebook as well, of which him and I are members of.

Making Herb Sticks

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn Workshop4 Comments

Last weekend my wife and I were cleaning up our booth in the antique mall when she decided to take things out that weren’t selling. One of the items was a bag of silver plated spoons that had been in the booth for six months, when I mentioned I could make herb sticks with them. I remember us talking about making herb sticks from old spoons several years ago but it was one of those little projects that never got done. So, I grabbed the bag and took them home to see if I could figure out how to do it.

Making herb sticks from old silver plated spoons is not my idea as I’m sure I’ve seen it done somewhere else, I just can’t remember where I saw it. The idea is pretty simple. Take an old spoon, flatten it out and stamp words on it.

The first thing I did was stick the spoon in my bench vise and squeeze the hell out of it. It flattened the face but there was still a bubble in the middle.

I then took it over to my blacksmith vise and squeezed it again. You can see in the picture that the spoon is actually tapered to the front so simply squeezing it in the vise will never get it perfectly flat.

I brought the spoons outside and smashed them on my anvil. I’ve owned this anvil for several years hoping that one day I would start making my own hardware and tools but it hasn’t happened yet. Actually, my wife wants me to sell my blacksmithing tools but I’ve been dragging my feet for months. I really don’t want to give up my dreams of having my own blacksmith shop even though we need the money.

After I pounded the hell out of the spoon, I taped it to my bench anvil and punched words onto the face. The tape does two things. First, it holds the spoon to the anvil so I can work with both hands. Second, it acts as a guide to line up the punches so that the letters will look somewhat even. I bought the punches at Harbor Freight for about $10.00 so they are nothing fancy.

Once I punched a bunch of words onto them like, lavender, sage, thyme, basil, etc. I painted over the lettering with black paint. Then, I rubbed over the face of the spoon with steel wool to make the paint stand out inside the lettering.

After a couple hours of work, I was left with a couple dozen herb sticks. We’ll take these to an antique design show in the spring to see how they sell. I’m not sure what I’ll charge for them. Maybe $4.00 – $6.00. If they sell well, I’ll make more. If they are dogs and no one wants them, I’ve learned not to waste my time repurposing old silver plated spoons.

I posted these pictures onto my Instagram Story last weekend and a few people gave me positive feedback telling me it was a really cool idea. Hopefully, I’ll have an excuse to use my anvil a lot more and my wife won’t make me sell it.