Straightening pliers handles

[tombear]

Since I am suffering from a bout of poverty brought on by the holidays and can't afford to buy a rushlight nip I am cobbling together my own.

At the flea market I picked up some old pliers that will form the metal part of the device.

I intend to cut back and reshape the jaws and straighten one handle and then grind it into a spike to go onto a wooden candle stick. The other arm I want to straighten, grind flat and then bend back into a U shape.

My question is what sort of tempreture/ colour do I require to heat up the handles so I can straighten them. All I have to use for a anvil is the head of a 10lb sledge hammer. I've hand vices and molegrips to hold the job, a full set of ball peins up to three lb to whack with and a blow torch. I've plenty of files and grinding gear for the finishing.

Also, how was iron work blackened? I probably have vsome gun black somewhere...

I've just picked up a old (but unused) B & D wood lathe from a charity shop (£15!) and found a servicable old style electric drill to fit on it on a carboot (£1!) So I will be doing the candle stick part myself when I have scored some suitable chisells. The last one I made was on a pole lathe back in 1991!

Thanks!

Tom

 

[Matt.S]

A cherry red (viewed in the shade) will do, and you shouldn't need more than a few taps with the hammer. I suggest you cool slowly rather than quench. Ironwork can be blacked in various ways, probably the easiest is to rub some veggy oil onto the surface then apply enough heat for it to blacken.

 

[tombear]

having a couple of hours to myself and what I hoped was a suitable pair of rusty old pliers to use

I bit the bullet and had a go at turning them into the metal part of a rushlight nip.

Unfortunately the only vice I had access to was a little screw on job and the only heat source a rather wimpy blow torch.

It took a prodigous amount of time to heat each section up to the cherry red recomended to me by Mat (cheers!) and if I'd had a decent heat source and a real man sized vice the whole lot could have been done in 20 minutes rather than three hours.

Half way through the obvious occured to me, if I removed most of the metal I was intending to the heating up process would be a lot quicker, and indeed it was after I applied a grinder and a power file to it.

Anyroad, tomorrow I will finish the hand filing (including removing "Elliot Lucas" from the other side ;-{D)., derust it and blacken it.

For a first attempt I'm pretty pleased with it and bar the problems mentioned above was incredibly easy to make. I used a second hammer head as a mandrel for bending the end up, I could have done a smoother curve but the torch was starting to splutter so I called it a day.

The spike will go into a wooden candle stick suitably cut down and with a steel collar heat shrunk on to prevent splitting. I'll either find one in a charity shop or, when my chisels arrive turn a basic/rustic one. I've been looking for illustrations of 18th C wooden candle sticks but so far have only found one.

Cheers!

Tom

 

[Matt.S]

Looks good mate, quality result! Remember, you can bend hot steel by hand, might be a little easier than holding your anvil up to the work! You could probably increase the efficiency (thus heat time) of your torch by adding some insulation. When engineers do a little brazing or heat-treating with a torch from time to time, they often make up a simple hearth with three fire bricks: a corner and a floor. It keeps more heat in rather than letting quite so much dump into the air. For just one or two little jobs I expect housebricks might work better than nothing, but I don't know much about them so be careful. Fibreglass insulation might also work in a pinch, but again don't quote me on it. You might be able to do something with dry sharp sand, vermiculite or perlite (available from garden centres) too. Different parts of gas flames have different temperatures, so if you have a little play with some thin steel or some wire you can probably find where you should be holding the steel for fastest heating.

Just a few tips off the top of my head, thought they might be useful if you make any more or for someone else reading this thread.

 

[tombear]

Cheers! I think I was heating up the vice more than anything else!

I think the builders left chunks of the stone they built the back of the living room fire place out of although I should be able to find some fire bricks from somewhere. I'll be certainly be doing some more metal bashing, its kind of addictive!

I just regret not picking up the portablle (cavalry) forge when I could have a few years back!

ATB

Tom

 

[jdlenton]

nice work that i may have to give that one a go :You_Rock_

 

[Matt.S]

I'll be certainly be doing some more metal bashing, its kind of addictive!

I just regret not picking up the portablle (cavalry) forge when I could have a few years back!

You aren't wrong there!

Probably the simplest forge you can make is a hole in the ground, say 8 inches across and 4 inches deep (these dimensions are far from set in stone and to be honest are probably overkill for anything smaller than three-quarter inch steel). Add a piece of pipe so that it just breaks into the 'wall' of the hole near the bottom, preferably at a slight downwards angle. This pipe doesn't have to be big, heavy or special -- I've used the handle off a burned-out shopping trolley and 22mm copper pipe before. The trick is to not let the pipe stick into the fire, and to keep the ground around the pipe damp. Blow air into it using anything you can -- foot pumps work but are tiring. Better are those little electric airbed pumps you can often pick up for a couple of quid in end-of-season sales, or find in the loft, or at a car boot sale.

In use you ideally want to keep the hole filled with burning fuel, and a similar sized pile on top, though you don't need to do this if you're short of fuel. Try to slide the work into the fire horizontally rather than dropping it down into the hole.

Use anything you can as fuel. Lumpwood charcoal is excellent but depending on how fussy and frugal you are you can use anything from scrap wood to house coal to dry dung.

 

[tombear]

I finished the metal part today and blackened it some as advised.

To try it out I knocked it into a chopping block and it does the job!

Actually it works quite well this way and if the dips themselves weren't so fragile would consider carrying it like this and mounting it as convenient.

And yes I did try burning it at both ends! excuse the quality of the pic but it does show the amount of light given off.

ATB

Tom

 

[spamel]

I reckon that is a great job, and perhaps some sort of carrying tube for the rushes would give you a lightweight carry option. How about bamboo? Failing that, look for some dead giant hogweed stems, they would work although not as strong as bamboo.

 

[tombear]

Cheers!

Bamboo sounds like a damn good idea, I need to get some wide stuff to make a knitting needle case for herself anyway.

ATB

Tom