If there's one thing for certain when mucking around in the shop is that a small project idea can quickly become a much bigger project once you work out you need to make tools for the job. ;-)

Loved the longer video. I know it takes a lot more of your time to create longer videos, but it’s greatly appreciated. Thanks John.

Its kind of nice to see that even a master has bad days/mistakes in the shop, it makes me feel a little better. And of course I mean this all in good humor.

Timberine Lodge is incredible! I had no idea how much ironwork was there before we visited. I was blown away, and definitely took a lot of pictures for references later on.

It can be a two day video and I would still wach it. It's teaching me what I don't know and I thank you for teaching me.

Still so jealous of that Fontanini. What a beauty.

Blacksmithing never ceases to amaze me. We have tools that make tools to use on tools to make a tool lol

Thanks for including so much detail on all the steps, even the mishaps!

Very nice Iron work touch for the home. Well done.

Thanks John. It's very instructive to see how you work through a process, mistakes and all. It's also a bit overwhelming to a very amateur smith like myself who doesn't have all the tools - just tapering a hardy tenon or isolating a mass on the end of a 1" bar is a lot of work by hand!

Been to timberline Lodge many times when I was younger, always liked at the wood work and framing though. That's a big building made without bolts or nails from what I remember. Gonna have to go back one of these days and look at the iron.

You are my inspiration for blacksmithing, thank you so much for sharing your experience with your watchers.

Great work, John. Happy 2024 🙂

Watched the whole thing and enjoyed all of it

Thanks for letting us tag along as you develop the tools and means of forging a new piece John. It’s like having a mentor. One of your best videos yet!

John, thank you so much for this very instructional video, I can see how to adapt this for making many different types of dies. The good thing is once you've made the dies you can always go back and make more of the piece you needed if later you or someone else needs them. The part you said about not getting frustrated when things go wrong is so true in everything we do. Who knew you gave basic life lessons as well as blacksmithing lessons? Thanks for all the great information you provide, keep up the great work and here's wishing you and your family a truly wonderful new year! John V.

My projects like this involve a dozen side projects.

Everything that doesnt go the way you thought it would is a learning experience in how not to do it next time. That was a lot of pinecone grinding ...who new those things were so hard 😅 Thankyou for sharing its a great way to teach the timeline involved in reaching the goal

Pulled the second attempt out of the spring die and I thought it could be used as an acorn as well.

thank you all yt mebers and patrion

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience. You're a very skilled blacksmith, and it shows.

my blacksmithing hero!! thank you sir!! Gracias por tanto y perdon por tan poco, abrazos desde Argentina.

Always enjoy watching you create , planning out every step is a art some people don't do or as i prefer to say is follow the six P method

Thanks, this is the video I've needed. I've been trying to figure out how to make a ball sweg. I want to add a ball to the end of the tongs I make. My biggest setback, no power hammer no press. I wasn't sure if the master ball shape needed to be heat treated. Now I know, thanks. I really appreciate your videos they save me a lot of questions.

Believe me, it is our pleasure and our benefit to have the content you share. Thank you.

I have lived most of my life in the north west and timberline lodge has always been a magical place for me as a kid and as an adult. Thank you

Thanks for another great video. Love the content you have been coming out with. Would love to see more historic blacksmithing videos as well showing work that would have been happening at the anvil 150 years ago. Maybe a Lewis and Clark themed video ? They brought a blacksmith with them !

I've been to Timberline a number of times. The last time I went was after attending a demo by Daryl Nelson where he talked about the iron work at Timberline. As he explained it the style was unique because it was done by industrial smiths from the shipyards as part of a WPA project to build Timberline. The lodge itself has interesting history. My father in law talks about how it turned into a house of rather low repute during the 1950's and 60's.

Nice video John, I liked the way it was shot with minimal to no talking during the making.

Thanks for the video John, i'm looking forward to seeing how the project turns out!

I just realized I don’t even know your first name yet though I’ve been watching your videos for a few years now.😅 Anyway I was wondering if you could do a video or two on how to make an arrow head and or a spear head. I would love to be able to make my own arrowheads. Love your videos by the way. 😁👍🏽

Loved it. Thank you John.

Outstanding craftsmanship!!!

thanks for your video. It is an intensive process. And then also filming. The result is beautiful.

I’m guessing that with a little more precision is the way bullet molds we’re made back then. Nowadays a exact replica of a bullet is machined on a lathe then flutes are cut into it with a milling machine. Then it’s heat treated and made into a cutter; two blocks are simultaneously squeezed on each side of the rotating cutter to produce an exact mold. It’s fascinating how things were produced back then and how things progressed to nowadays.

Your press reminds me of the old AMKUS jaws units that you had to wait on that second stage to kick in before you would get a full cut.

really enjoyed watching you show your skills. this is not an instructional for beginners , but its what beginners need to see to encourage development towards higher skills. Happy New Year , stay warm.

It's nice to watch! more Health to the master!!! Thanks! Greetings from Russia!

Been a huge fan of the channel for a while, and one of the things I admire the most about your videos is your humility. You're not only fine with showing failures, you're happy to talk about them. I'm sure all of us blacksmiths know how quickly things can go pear-shaped and how frustrating it can be, and I think it's good that we can share those experiences and learn from them. I just started working out of a coal forge more frequently after moving shops, and just as I was starting to get comfortable with using one again, I was humbled in under a minute. I had been making a meat-flipping fork, and as I was finishing up the tines, I thought I had enough times to run and grab my bending tongs... I was wrong! They weren't in the place I thought they were, and in my search for them, one of the tines had burned half way and completely ruined the piece I had spent the better part of an hour working on. I simply looked at it, set it down, and turned off the fire with the intention of coming back later. After a failure like that, there's simply nothing you can do short of welding on a new tine or starting over. It's good to embrace your failures and learn from them in the future. Next time I need a pair of tongs, I'm going to have them ready BEFORE putting my piece in the fire! Great vid as always John :)

Thank you for sharing. Have a great 2024 and stay safe.🙂🙂

I truly love the video and the fact that you share everything including when things don't work out as planned thanks for letting us see everything

Great video, good to see the process needed to find the best way to the end result, most people have no idea the amount of work that has to be done to make it happen , thank you.

Love seeing the main shop again I've missed seeing you work in there

Excellent video as always. Great advice about thinking backwards, and it's a concept that applies to so many problems we face in life.

Great work as always. The project finished is beautiful 👏👏

Wonderful project as always!😊 You inspired so many of us to pick up a hammer and smash some steel, in your videos you explain step by step with a lot of patience the techniques. Thank you very much John for your videos! You are a great teacher and an inspiration for us hobbyist blacksmiths! Have a wonerful and prosperous new year! All the best to you!😊🙏🏻

Thanks for the excellent video! It was really enjoyable to watch this process start to finish and to see all the different tools and equipment you used to make it! Special shout out to the hydraulic press! I don't know why, but they have a special place in my heart. Keep up the great work!

Wow what a great video, thanks!!!

Cheers John that was a good vid.

Merry Christmas thank you for the video and I really like it...🎅

Wonderful video! Really lovely and inspiring. I personally loved the longer pine cones... very elegant looking...

Thanks John for sharing and for All your videos very good info again thanks for sharing God bless you all ✝️ stay safe out there

Thanks for this video. I really enjoyed it.

Nice job.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Thank you for making yet another educational and inspirational video!

Incredibly educational video as usual, thank you!!

Very nice and informative video. Best of this year😉. Thank you John!

Thanks John. Happy New Year to you both.Always enjoyable watching your videos, thanks

Ohhh! Thanks for the video!

Fascinating video John! Thank you for sharing. Really put things into perspective for me and I’m sure others.

Wonderful video and full of useful information, I like the longer shows(but I know that is a tremendous amount of work on your end!). Thank you!

Thanks again, another terrific video. Wishing you and yours a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Nice work and great video. Thanks John.my shop will never have the capability of doing that but love the knowledge you give

Existe algo místico em trabalhar o metal quente e é sempre um prazer assistir esse trabalho. Obrigado por mostrar!

Another great and useful video John. Lots of useful information for joy only blacksmithing! Thanks for the longer video and all of your great content!

Good morning John. That's some awesome work you did in this video. Very interesting to watch such Craftsmanship and you presented it so well. Thanks for sharing with us. Stay safe up there and keep up the great videos. Fred.

👍

John, can you show me how to make these with only a clay Spencer treaddel hammer?

This is exactly what I was talking about with regards to showing more complex projects. Great work! Side note: now that you’ve had it awhile, how are you liking that kanca post vice? May be in the market for an upgrade myself soon, and would prefer to buy new vs antique.

John, very helpful video, as usual. Could you please comment on why you use the press over the power hammer and vice-versa?

Great Wolf! Congratulations. Did you put it on a scale?

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

I have an armoring anvil used to form pauldrons for armor I will use I just don't know how to attach it to my anvil stand

As usual John, great video. Just one question: Why not start out with a round rod for the pine cone instead of square stock? Just curious.

When you're forging the cone in the last section you hang a weight on the stock before going in to put the grooves on, is the weight to keep it from bouncing with each strike?

Man, make me your student please

👍✌️⚒️

Yes, the whole making a tool in order to make a tool in order to make a thing. I go through that all the time. Out of curiosity, I know you used tool steel for the bottom swage but in the Mark Aspery books he shows making a similar swage but he uses mild steel and then says to case harden it. I know the stuff he uses for case hardening is basically toxic, but there's a newer version of that called Cherry Red Case Hardening Compound that's supposed to do the same thing but without the cyanide gas. Have you ever tried that stuff or case hardening in general for tools like this?

I have a hard time filing stuff that I need to be round. Is there a simply way to file round objects like a punch?

Did you get a new gas forge or did I miss that video? What brand is it?

Just saw this on the pine cone, would not a shallow v chisel be closer to the scales on the pine cone than a rounded one?

Where do you find 1.25” 5160? I have been trying to find stock big enough to make a hammer

How would you add the chisel marks into the swage

why would you not just hot rasp the top? making so much dust grinding

Surprised me, as you formed the spring dye, you didn't spin the plug, but, when you used the dye to form the "pinecone", you did spin it.

Why does the press seem to hesitate before it starts to put the hard squeeze on things? 👍🍻

This doesn't pertain to this video. I've watched all of you're forge welding videos, but I'm not quite getting it. I'm heating the pieces slowly; to a red for a couple minutes, then I turn the gas up to an orange, then to almost yellow, then a bright yellow lemon almost turning white. I get an initial weld, brush and flux then back to the heat. I repeat that multiple times slowly working up the piece, but I can't seem to get more than about 1" of weld on what needs to be about 3" before it starts trying to pull itself apart as I'm working up it. If it helps to know I'm trying to faggot weld three pieces of rebar together to make a bending fork for the hardy hole and I'm using borax for flux. Any advice would be appreciated.

Guy sounds just like ron swanson

What rpm motor is on your press? Yours is to slow and mine can be to fast if not careful with the pedal🤦‍♂️ The 2 stage on mine isn’t noticeable but it has a 3500rpm motor also. Not sure if that’s the difference or not but it’s possible.

Could you make a hammer?

SOME PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. I have watched 3 or 4 of your videos and find you Very knowledgeable and a quite pleasnt demeanor. You are an Excellent Instructor. The advice presented is from my career as a Certified Welding Inspector since 1986. At 3:38, you post the wrong order of events/procedure (twice in this video) by "Tack, Preheat, then Weld". PREHEAT FIRST!!! Then Tack, (maintain interpass temperature of 400*F for 4140) , then weld away. MANY so called professional welders (and most beginners) make this same error of sequences. I get to make them cut it apart and reweld it the correct way. Here's why... preheat is for reduction of thermal shock from the intense heat of the arc and (in this case a tackweld) and liquid weld metal deposit onto the cold base metal. The rapid cooling can cause stresses and cracking is often the result. Sometimes in the weld and sometimes Underneath the weld. 4140 is an HSLA (high strength low alloy) steel and needs to let the heat disperse slowly and evenly. Hope this helps you in the future and your viewers. to let the heat disperse slowly and evenly.

My

Should have turned it into a morel mushroom at the one point. Great vid