After a long hiatus back to forging a few sundials. Building a foundation for two dials; at least one of these will be a donation for the Creede Repertory Theater Gala. 

The dial begins as a piece of slightly more than 22" of mild steel. Eight inches (8") is drawn out so it reached about 18".  Not overly difficult, but a nice workout for my relatively new shoulder.  

I forgot to include this bit of exploration.  I was trying to develop the techniques for making fireplace brooms and then the new hip arrived.  While recovering, I asked for antlers that I could work on while laid up. There's mostly whitetail but also a bit of elk. 

Finished the last bit of forging and got the finished patina applied. Tackled the last of the closet rods and also completed the curtain brackets. Even though I've worked out a jig for the bending, these are still a bit of a pain to get them all (mostly) even. 

Once these are hit with a bit of paste wax, they are ready for a happy customer. Given the various life events, feel good these got out early.  

Keeping the field mice out of the forge ... 

A round of heavy duty curtain rods 
​

These two brooms are for hanging in a cabin. The handles are white tail deer antlers. They are a bit longer and thinner so they can reach up and clean the cobwebs from the upper reaches of a cabin. They should definitely not be laid down in a corner as they will take on a permanent bent.

​I probably only have a couple more brooms and then I'll be ready to move on to forging.  Ran into a few issues with the scar tissue, so it took a bit longer than expected. 

Spent most of the Fall and early winter gimping around. Finally got so bad that I had it checked and found that the hip was trashed pretty bad. Finally able to get back to doing some odds and ends. Trading some elk and deer antlers for some some brooms.  

Most of the antlers were pretty bleached from the sun so the antlers were stained using  KMnO4 (Potassium permanganate) and then buffed with paste wax. 

So many things on the to-do list but I know I want to forge a fireplace set for someone building a new home. I also know that I don't want to make a traditional fireplace broom. The one's I've seen look sorta just 'stuck on there'. So I've decided to make my own hearth brooms ... at least for this project... and have begun learning how to make broom and work my way up to a broom with a forged handle.  

The first of these is the Turkey Tail broom; the blue broom is the first try and easy probably the most straightforward.  The Turkey Tail style is named for the brooms made from a bundle of turkey feathers. I messed up, but it still came out okay. 

The second broom (green) is a Hawks Tail and is the style I'll likely use in the future.  It is a bit like two Turkey Tail brooms side by side. There is a bit more that will be added to the top of the Hawks Tail broom. 

Getting back into the forging a bit and also learning about the new induction forge.  Key point: don't have the diameter of the coil too large or it will take forever (if ever) for the eddy currents to find the heat. In turn, this means that it will require considerably more work to draw out the metal.

Starting with simple steak turners based on some railroad spikes.