Subject: Re: demonstrations

From: Mike Linn <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 Aug 1996 08:42:44 -0500

At 01:33 AM 8/4/96 -0800, you wrote:

>Another good demo is a dragon head bottle opener. The audience loves it
when I >cable twist the body, it's kind of a long project for a demo though,
so I have >to keep the patter going. A good way to approach this kind of
thing is to 
>keep several in various stages, that way you can do a little on each one 
>and still finish one in a reasonable time.
>

>Dems my two cents,
>	Frosty
>-- 

Could you give a brief discussion of the dragon head bottle opener. I havent
seen anything like that down here and it sounds very interesting.

thanks,
mike
                                    _///_
                                   /(o o)\
===============================o000o=(_)=o000o====
               Michael Linn 
            Artisan Blacksmith
              AFC Web Master
 http://www.the-matrix.com/afc/index.html
==================================================

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From: [email-masked] (Frost, Jerry)
Date: Sun, 04 Aug 1996 13:22:54 -0800

> seen anything like that down here and it sounds very interesting.

Sure Mike:

The dragon's head is based on the one described in Alex Bealer's "The 
Art of Blacksmithing" amongst other animal heads used as finials for 
fireplace tools. There's a good description of forging the heads there, 
I don't know how to describe it here without pictures.

I start with 3/8" sq, 30-36" long as I like to avoid using tongs as much 
as possible. I rough forge the dragon's face first, leaving the details: 
nostrils, eyes, horns, etc, till after the other heavy work is done. I 
forge the head a little narrower, side to side and deeper, top to 
bottom, than the one in Bealer's description, this makes opening the 
mouth easier and lends greater definition to the head. 

Next I mark the bar about 4.5-5" from the end of the nose with a chisel, 
this is the cut off mark. 

Then I make another mark about 1/2"+ back from the forehead, this is the 
back of the head. I make this mark with the rounded edge on my anvil on 
the top of the head. 

Next I forge the neck down to about 5/16" round, about 1/2-3/4" back 
from the marks. I keep the neck straight with the jaw line so all the 
step is behind the top of the head, this defines the back of the head 
nicely.

Next I fuller all four sides of the bar from just behind the neck, to 
within 1/2-3/4" of the cut off mark about 3/32" deep. I use a cold 
chisel with a 3/4" face ground to about a 1/16"- radius, the edges are 
similarly radiused, as the fuller. This is also one of my veiners.

Once it's fullered I break the corners (flaten them slightly) to match 
the flat section between the corner and the near edge of the fuller.

Next I twist the fullered section till the fullers close up on 
themselves. I like to brush the scale off before I do this as it tends 
to get caught in the fullers when they close up. The twisting is the one 
time on this project when speed is important. I preset the jaws on the 
leg vise to the head, (smooth jaws) and have the slack tub handy. I heat 
the body as evenly as possible to a high orange or low yellow, quench 
the head and neck, quickly chuck it in the vise and twist it closed. A 
watering can is also a good way to quench the head and neck but I 
prefere to dip it in the tub.

I like a cable twist for the body, better than a straight twist, I think 
it has a more organic look and it's more popular.

The next step is to hot cut, draw out and scroll the tail. Either a 
straight scroll or reverse scroll looks nice. The reverse scroll, with a 
little veining, makes a nice fish-like tail for a water dragon, or with 
a little more work it can be made into a bat wing looking tail.

Now it's time to finish the head. There are two approaches to opening 
the mouth: hot cut and saw. I prefere to saw the mouth, as it's much 
easier to make a functional bottle opener, though it's less 
aesthetically pleasing. At demos I've found people like to see the mouth 
hot cut, interestingly enough, they don't seem to care if it works as 
long as they get to watch it being made.

Hot cutting, I mark the jawline with a cold chisel so I can find the 
mark with the hot cutter, then through punch it at the hinge point with 
a small punch, I use a nail set. Then I hot cut it and form a hook to 
the lower jaw so it'll catch a bottle cap. It takes some fine tuning to 
get the gape and hook of the jaws right.

Sawing is just that, I hacksaw along the jawline and finish it the same 
as above.

All that's left is to finish the face, I like nail sets for the eyes as 
they form nice orbits and leave an eyeball, nice effect. For the 
nostrils I like a blunt center punch and back it over the rounded corner 
of my anvil face.

There are good descriptions of forming: horns, teeth, ears, etc in 
Bealer's book. The general techniques can be used to form spines, frills 
and such. I've played around with: horses, unicorns, goats (lousy bottle 
openers, look stupid!) and carnosaurs. I also think: birds, snakes, 
alligators and sharks would make cool bottle openers.

Last step is brushing the scale and hot waxing. I like parafin, lamp 
black and turpentine.

The cable twist is the most time consuming aspect of this project, all 
that fullering. I've been intending to make a spring tool for this but 
just haven't taken the time.

I know you asked for brief but, uh, oh well,
	Frosty
-- 
If it ain't forged
It ain't real
wrought iron is
The FROSTWORKS

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From: Jim McCarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 1996 09:51:06 -0500

> it has a more organic look and it's more popular.

Jerry, I'm with you most of the way but what is a cable twist?

-- 
Jim McCarty
Father Helias Forge
Taos, MO
Editor Rural Missouri Magazine
Newsletter editor, Blacksmiths Association of Missouri

³Foolish consistencies are the hobgoblins of little minds³