That's a beauty mate. I like the heart. It doesn't upstage the handle, but it makes a great highlight. The business end is great too. I love that 'no weld' idea, and the result is stunning.
I'm going to have to mention this to my blacksmithing buddy. I just recently got a wood stove but hasn't made it over to his place yet to work on a poker. Since I call my shop Twin Oak Creations, after 2 big twin oak trees on my property, and mostly cast copper and bronze, I was going to take some copper sheet and cut a fairly large Oak Leaf shape out of it. Then when I make my poker, I'm going to take the copper leaf and bend it around like a handguard on a saber. Haven't decided if I want to cast a copper or a Golden Bronze ball to screw on the end of it as a finial yet though. I'm kind of thinking copper since iron bar, copper handguard, golden finial, might be a few too many colors.
I'm always impressed with your ability to draw down large material by hand so quickly. My elbow hurts after only 20 minutes of hammering. We appreciate seeing how to do it by hand but I'm sure most of us won't mind you using the power hammer or press to save your body. I for one want to be able to watch your videos for a long time to come so go ahead and use the "toys". Those of us who don't have the toys yet will eventually build our collection. Great video again John!
Oh, you didn't see the entire drawing out process. There aren't to many left watching if I show 30 minutes on that one step, so its heavily edited. I also used the power hammer a bit in the part that was cut out.
Love this design John. This turned out very well. Can't wait to see more videos soon John. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge on. Keep making. God bless.
Thanks for the video. Encouraging special attention in drifting to make the heart move symmetrically would have been something I missed while I will try this some day myself. Thanks for including the nuance.
I appreciate how you try new things and experiment in your videos rather than getting everything perfect before recording. It's so nice to see you whip out products consistently high quality that you are practiced at making, but any time you are trying a new technique there are going to be some bumps and even a master smith can't expect to get it perfectly without practice.
Great video. I made a few of these last week. I did most of the heart shaping on the tip of the horn. I applaud you for trying something new on video. I do this all the time in front of the public and always tell them that's how you learn. And making mistakes is never bad. It teaches you something every time.
Ah, I had a similar experience with this idea. I ended up drifting the hole round again, skipping the chisel part, then hammered it slightly oval so I could fit it around two pins on a bending jig (you almost did in the video, I noticed). Once I got it over the pins I used a chisel on top to form the sharp center while maintaining symmetrical lobes over the pins, and was able to taper the bottom down to the body from the pins.
Hallo John it is a nice Tool you made! For the left and right side would a butchertool a way to shape the heart! I have to try this out! Thanks for your time and you work it's always a pleasure to watch! A happy new year to you and your family! Soon!👋👋👍👍👌👌
I have forged a long time on a cheapo accaiao anvil 66lber. I use a random piece of 4"x ?" X ?" For a larger anvil face. For me, if I am to make a bottle opener, when I use the horn of the 66lber they "want" to form a perfect heart with no effort of my own. It could be the positioning of my anvil to the edge of the stand - not allowing a full circular rotation. The large face anvil anvil, aforementioned, I use has a hole either end in which I drop a hayfork that I have always used to drop a hayfork as a mandrel for final rounding. Ive never made money making bottle openers, but only made them as gifts because bottle openers are as simple as a a pair of pliers/ countertop/ lighter-in-pocket/teeth-of-the-brave/chisel/obsolete(given most bottling companies.... But back to the point... I get a perfect heart shape from my wonky ass anvil. Upward to 3" diameter with occasional use of hardy fuller. I don't care for a heart finial personally, given I am a dude, but V-day approacheth. Heck i don't care much for decorative finial at all given coal pricing and restrictions right now. But endure some will, endure some wont. Its been a warm winter in Alabama though and I really need to get my ass in the field and shoot somethings for our freezer for the summer months. Adios muchachos.
I like the way you did the fineal to get the heart shape. I thought of a wide sideways oval, creasing it with the edge of the anvil, then forming it up from there. I am sure no mater how it is done it would be finicky! Thank you for all the inspiration and direction.
I’m so thankful for people like you. I hit my first piece of hot steel yesterday, for my birthday, and it was almost spiritual. I “forged” a coal spreader since I don’t have any blacksmith tools yet. It’s an ugly little tool, but it means the world to me right now. I used corn for fuel and it worked out great. The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to draw out rebar on a harbour freight anvil. Haha, the anvil looks worse than the rebar now. Anyway, I’ll get a better anvil if I stick with it, but not before a beat a hole down the middle of this one (should only take a couple days😆).
Great video! Ia few video ideas if you want some ideas… love to see a video on correcting common mistakes novice smith make like punching a hole off center etc. (2) how much time can you save forging the same item using a power hammer vs. hammer and anvil. Just a few ideas. Happy new year!
I am always impressed with whatever it is that you make, but I am just as impressed with your ability to continually hit a piece of iron Where you want to hit it. I imagine you can leave a guy with an eaqually impressive hand shake.
Going to give a go at this one John! I'm going to start with 3/4 octagon, since that's the material I have on hand. But first I have to complete my smithing magician that I bought at Bam in March of 2021. Should have gotten it done before this. But you know how it is, other projects got in the way .
Great idea, I have tried to forge weld a poker with out success. I had to stick weld it. I am going to do one of these. It covers a great deal of the art of blacksmithing
if you need help learning to forge weld Christ Centred Iron Works here on you tube has a great video on it, top guy really knows his stuff, very technical without being hard to understand :)
Happy New year BBF! Thank you for last video, explaining your work both retail and video. Most think its simple; its not. Look forward to more on the induction forge - its something I considered once I find a good anvil...
Hello John This Poker looks very nice and usefull not like this light and slim pokers you can buy in a market It is a very teachfull Video with alot of little Tricks and skills that i can use in my work Thank you for that Take care all best wishes Yours Frank Galetzka
Love it! Great video. Speaks to me, as I'm so the guy that says oh this will be kuul n I see it working this way. Then , well uhm, nit so much! I see it happens to you to and it gives me hope! Lol. End result is good. And keeping in mind your final thoughts will make a huge difference in actually making this project in the future! Thanks for sharing God bless and happy new Year! Crawford out 🙏🔥⚒️🧙🏼♂️
Figuring out what tools you need and how to make them is part of the fun. I'm personally finding myself doing more tools lately so I can increase the variety of stuff I can make.
At 5:30 you nearly invented the perfect tool for making the heart-top. A couple round bars the right diameter and spacing apart might let you hang the ring over them and chisel down between them to form the top of the heart?
Greetings John, Although this channel is about Blacksmithing, would you please do a video of your career in the FD? Thank you! Take care and stay healthy.
G'day All, Matty D. here, great vids last year, great start to this one as well. Thanks very much for your hours you put in John. Induction Forge Question - when you were heating up the handle end of the poker...... Could you have used the induction forge? At what stage would you decide to use a gas forge over the induction forge? What are the main influences you find that make you come to the conclusion of which forge to use eg. weather, length of material etc? Kind regards, Everybody stay Safe and Well
right now the shop is below freezing in the mornings, so the gas forge is my first choice because it puts out more heat. But other than that is just has to do with how much of the project will fit into the coil.
I found myself wondering about a triangular drift with rounded corners and a piece of small angle iron upset and closed up a bit on the sides to make the shape easier. The gap from the legs of the angle iron would be great for getting that drop in. Just a thought.
Oh, but so many people do mind. On the other hand its tough to beat your body up when you don't have to, so I do think this year we will see the big tools more often
maybe take down the depth of the heart too, give you more length to work with for less drifting work too, and personally i think would look a little nicer, if it was say the same depth as the bar is collared to above the handle? hope that makes sense :)
Man, having that line chiseled in there really does make a nice difference. Looks like a twisted pair! Thanks for your time and instruction, John. What was the wooden stump procedure for? Is there a good way to control the twist spacing to be even (1st heat) or is it just with hot/cool spots where you want it to twist more/less?
Maybe use a slot punch with a sharp edge on one side, like a knife, so you can cleanly define the bottom of the heart? Might could use it to cut in the heart deeper if you cool the top of the heart before hammering. Absolutely no idea if it'd work, but would a special purpose heart shaped drift be possible? My thinking is that you could bridge the punch in the vise with the poker in it and use another punch to clean up the top of the heart by squishing material down into the drifts groove. Just spit-balling though.
John, you did not complain or nothing, so I am guessing that 3/4 inch mild stock is not a big deal to draw out by hand, least-wise not on a big Fontanini anvil.
Hi John, really appreciate the effort you take with your videos. Question regarding shape of stock: do you predominantly use square stock over round stock? Some times it appears that time and effort are spent turning square stock into effectively round, and would it be easier to just start round. I know this depends on the project but so many (majority?) of items end up round. Thanks again for your videos. Steve in Western Australia
generally I try to start with material that matches the largest cross section of the finished project. So a 3/4" square poker handle starts with 3/4" square bar even if the remaining areas are eventually rounded over. Another option is forge welding the round to the square.
Thats a toothed carbide blade made for the purpose, as is the saw. I'm not sure if you can run that style of blade in any chop saw, the RPM may be different. I reviewed that saw here - ruclips.net/video/fnikbR4epfg/видео.html
John I have a question. I have done a fair amount of metal fab in my life but am new to blacksmithing and when I draw out a square bar I always seem to get a slight twists in the bar. Is this just a matter of practice or is there any technique that will help keep it straight?
It probably means you are striking one edge first instead of striking flat. So it may just be a matter of adjusting your swing or it could be anvil height is too high or too low.
That's a beauty mate. I like the heart. It doesn't upstage the handle, but it makes a great highlight. The business end is great too. I love that 'no weld' idea, and the result is stunning.
I’ve been a subscriber for about a month now and I love that I can go back a binge watch all of your videos. I love this channel.
I'm going to have to mention this to my blacksmithing buddy. I just recently got a wood stove but hasn't made it over to his place yet to work on a poker. Since I call my shop Twin Oak Creations, after 2 big twin oak trees on my property, and mostly cast copper and bronze, I was going to take some copper sheet and cut a fairly large Oak Leaf shape out of it. Then when I make my poker, I'm going to take the copper leaf and bend it around like a handguard on a saber. Haven't decided if I want to cast a copper or a Golden Bronze ball to screw on the end of it as a finial yet though. I'm kind of thinking copper since iron bar, copper handguard, golden finial, might be a few too many colors.
I'm always impressed with your ability to draw down large material by hand so quickly. My elbow hurts after only 20 minutes of hammering. We appreciate seeing how to do it by hand but I'm sure most of us won't mind you using the power hammer or press to save your body. I for one want to be able to watch your videos for a long time to come so go ahead and use the "toys". Those of us who don't have the toys yet will eventually build our collection. Great video again John!
Oh, you didn't see the entire drawing out process. There aren't to many left watching if I show 30 minutes on that one step, so its heavily edited. I also used the power hammer a bit in the part that was cut out.
Yes John, I was thinking power hammer 🤔👍
Love this design John. This turned out very well. Can't wait to see more videos soon John. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Forge on. Keep making. God bless.
Thanks for the video. Encouraging special attention in drifting to make the heart move symmetrically would have been something I missed while I will try this some day myself. Thanks for including the nuance.
Love all your videos. You are a great teacher. Thanks for passing along your knowledge.
Projects like this get me thinking... Have about 10 ideas on making something like this ... Maybe a heart shaped drift?
Great job John. Enjoyed watching the video during my lunch break
I appreciate how you try new things and experiment in your videos rather than getting everything perfect before recording. It's so nice to see you whip out products consistently high quality that you are practiced at making, but any time you are trying a new technique there are going to be some bumps and even a master smith can't expect to get it perfectly without practice.
Sweet poker to go with your sweet wood stove. Loved the video John.
Love the idea John. Great idea. Again you are inspiring me...
Great looking poker. In my opinion the heart turned out great. Thanks for always sharing.
Good looking poker you made John, thanks for sharing with us. Fred.
Happy New year John from Wales. Enjoy the videos , one of these day's I'll have a go !
Well done sir, I like the split point, Looks better than the forge weld. Thanks for the insight!
Nice project for the new year.
I really like that heart finial, nice work John!
Nice one!!! I need to go back and watch the vid about the adjustable hold fast. I kind of dig it!!!
I like the heart,I don't have use of the poker but belive I want your handle for------ I'm thinking
Thanks Mr Switzer for your teaching Sir
Great video. I made a few of these last week. I did most of the heart shaping on the tip of the horn. I applaud you for trying something new on video. I do this all the time in front of the public and always tell them that's how you learn. And making mistakes is never bad. It teaches you something every time.
je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse année pleine de projets
That's great. I've always forge welded mine, but I like that just as well.
I've seen him forge weld them before in another video. It seems like John likes to showcase various ways of doing things.
Ah, I had a similar experience with this idea. I ended up drifting the hole round again, skipping the chisel part, then hammered it slightly oval so I could fit it around two pins on a bending jig (you almost did in the video, I noticed). Once I got it over the pins I used a chisel on top to form the sharp center while maintaining symmetrical lobes over the pins, and was able to taper the bottom down to the body from the pins.
That's a great idea!
I love your content. Inspires me to do blacksmithing
durable , rugged , Georgius !!!
Hallo John it is a nice Tool you made! For the left and right side would a butchertool a way to shape the heart! I have to try this out!
Thanks for your time and you work it's always a pleasure to watch! A happy new year to you and your family! Soon!👋👋👍👍👌👌
I'm definitely going to have to give this a go. Thank you for the inspiration. 👏👏
That's a classic. All the style of a basket without the hassle!
I have forged a long time on a cheapo accaiao anvil 66lber. I use a random piece of 4"x ?" X ?" For a larger anvil face. For me, if I am to make a bottle opener, when I use the horn of the 66lber they "want" to form a perfect heart with no effort of my own. It could be the positioning of my anvil to the edge of the stand - not allowing a full circular rotation. The large face anvil anvil, aforementioned, I use has a hole either end in which I drop a hayfork that I have always used to drop a hayfork as a mandrel for final rounding. Ive never made money making bottle openers, but only made them as gifts because bottle openers are as simple as a a pair of pliers/ countertop/ lighter-in-pocket/teeth-of-the-brave/chisel/obsolete(given most bottling companies.... But back to the point... I get a perfect heart shape from my wonky ass anvil. Upward to 3" diameter with occasional use of hardy fuller. I don't care for a heart finial personally, given I am a dude, but V-day approacheth. Heck i don't care much for decorative finial at all given coal pricing and restrictions right now. But endure some will, endure some wont. Its been a warm winter in Alabama though and I really need to get my ass in the field and shoot somethings for our freezer for the summer months. Adios muchachos.
Looks nice, and thanks for putting the link for chop saw review.
Lovely work of art!!!
Thank you. I came across your channel a few months ago. Really looking forward to see what you do this year. Happy New Year everyone. ✌❤
Замечательно, Джон. Отличный проект. Желаю здоровья!!!
I like the way you did the fineal to get the heart shape. I thought of a wide sideways oval, creasing it with the edge of the anvil, then forming it up from there. I am sure no mater how it is done it would be finicky!
Thank you for all the inspiration and direction.
Interesting concept. Tight up my alley. I like the finicky things. They make for more of a challenging project. 👍
I use the split point method on 10mm bar for pokers, I just upset the end first to get enough material to do the split.
I’m so thankful for people like you. I hit my first piece of hot steel yesterday, for my birthday, and it was almost spiritual. I “forged” a coal spreader since I don’t have any blacksmith tools yet. It’s an ugly little tool, but it means the world to me right now. I used corn for fuel and it worked out great. The hardest part of the whole thing was trying to draw out rebar on a harbour freight anvil. Haha, the anvil looks worse than the rebar now. Anyway, I’ll get a better anvil if I stick with it, but not before a beat a hole down the middle of this one (should only take a couple days😆).
Way to go. Keep heating and beating.
Great video! Ia few video ideas if you want some ideas… love to see a video on correcting common mistakes novice smith make like punching a hole off center etc. (2) how much time can you save forging the same item using a power hammer vs. hammer and anvil. Just a few ideas. Happy new year!
Happy new year and hope this new year is as good as last year. That poker to me is perfect.
Happy new year!
Beautiful work! Love the techniques used!
I am always impressed with whatever it is that you make, but I am just as impressed with your ability to continually hit a piece of iron Where you want to hit it.
I imagine you can leave a guy with an eaqually impressive hand shake.
Awesome vid as usual. Thanks and stay safe!
Very cool to watch that turn into something beautiful. Great design.Thanks, Clinton
Going to give a go at this one John! I'm going to start with 3/4 octagon, since that's the material I have on hand. But first I have to complete my smithing magician that I bought at Bam in March of 2021. Should have gotten it done before this. But you know how it is, other projects got in the way .
Thanks John, nice job! Happy new year!
Happy new year!
Pretty nice job John.
The poker looks great! Thank you for the video.
Heart making technique is cool. Always seen spliting stock and drawing each end to make heart. This is something new. Great video👍👍🔥🔥💥💥
Glad you liked it!
Sweet! Wish I had your talent.
Great project for the start of the year.
that tundout rellly nice
Always good stuff!
Very beautiful 😍 thank you , good man
Great work as always!
Great idea, I have tried to forge weld a poker with out success. I had to stick weld it. I am going to do one of these. It covers a great deal of the art of blacksmithing
if you need help learning to forge weld Christ Centred Iron Works here on you tube has a great video on it, top guy really knows his stuff, very technical without being hard to understand :)
Happy New year BBF! Thank you for last video, explaining your work both retail and video. Most think its simple; its not. Look forward to more on the induction forge - its something I considered once I find a good anvil...
Right now I'm not using it much because using the gas forge helps heat the shop in the winter.
Nice project and as always a really good video.
/ Emil from Sweden
It's always a pleasure and a inspiration to watch you Mr. John. Thanks and Happy New Year to you and your family.
Happy new year!
Hello John
This Poker looks very nice and usefull not like this light and slim pokers you can buy in a market
It is a very teachfull Video with alot of little Tricks and skills that i can use in my work
Thank you for that
Take care all best wishes
Yours Frank Galetzka
nice job
Very nice design
That's a beautiful poker. Personally I like the proportions of the heart just as they are.
I will as well but I think I will make a bending fork that was a great idea there
I was hollering at the video until you pulled out the oval drift. 😆 then i was appeased
Hi John, Happy New Year. I like the way you've done the heart. I will try it too. Thank you for this inspiration. Greetings from Germany.
Happy new year!
I like the hook proses John , It will help buy not having to get to welding heat . Cheers . :)
Love it! Great video. Speaks to me, as I'm so the guy that says oh this will be kuul n I see it working this way. Then , well uhm, nit so much! I see it happens to you to and it gives me hope! Lol.
End result is good. And keeping in mind your final thoughts will make a huge difference in actually making this project in the future!
Thanks for sharing
God bless and happy new Year!
Crawford out 🙏🔥⚒️🧙🏼♂️
Thanks for video! The one thing Im realizing is I need soooo much tooling for blacksmithing!
Figuring out what tools you need and how to make them is part of the fun. I'm personally finding myself doing more tools lately so I can increase the variety of stuff I can make.
Idea for next video; Drifts for heart shape objects.
Awsome as usual
Very nice!
Добрый вечер ! Хорошая работа ! С новым годом и наилучшими пожеланиями !!!
Happy new year
Please do a video on making “trade tips” for arrows
At 5:30 you nearly invented the perfect tool for making the heart-top. A couple round bars the right diameter and spacing apart might let you hang the ring over them and chisel down between them to form the top of the heart?
I was hoping it would fit, adjusting the size of the starting slot would have made that work quite well
Greetings John, Although this channel is about Blacksmithing, would you please do a video of your career in the FD? Thank you! Take care and stay healthy.
I will give it some thought, but most likely it would be on my personal channel ruclips.net/user/johnswitzer
@@BlackBearForge Thank you John, I didn’t know you had a personal channel.
Very nice! ❤️
Nice marchmallow roaster.
Good morning
The RUclips algorithm is broken I didn’t get a notification that this video was up
it can be a flaky system for sure. But it always pays to check every Sunday morning
G'day All, Matty D. here, great vids last year, great start to this one as well. Thanks very much for your hours you put in John.
Induction Forge Question - when you were heating up the handle end of the poker...... Could you have used the induction forge? At what stage would you decide to use a gas forge over the induction forge? What are the main influences you find that make you come to the conclusion of which forge to use eg. weather, length of material etc?
Kind regards, Everybody stay Safe and Well
right now the shop is below freezing in the mornings, so the gas forge is my first choice because it puts out more heat. But other than that is just has to do with how much of the project will fit into the coil.
This is an amazing video. Are you ever going to work on any of the viking tools you made
Thats a long term project. I'll be doing a little here and there over the years
Nice video, good instruction as usual. I surely hope off camera you used the power hammer to draw that out! That's a lot of work there!
I did for part of it.
Parabens , muito bom!!!
I found myself wondering about a triangular drift with rounded corners and a piece of small angle iron upset and closed up a bit on the sides to make the shape easier. The gap from the legs of the angle iron would be great for getting that drop in. Just a thought.
Its an idea worth checking out
It’s hard watching you draw out the poker by hand with the power hammer in the background. Use it we don’t mind
Oh, but so many people do mind. On the other hand its tough to beat your body up when you don't have to, so I do think this year we will see the big tools more often
maybe take down the depth of the heart too, give you more length to work with for less drifting work too, and personally i think would look a little nicer, if it was say the same depth as the bar is collared to above the handle? hope that makes sense :)
Hi John. Do you think a V shaped drift would help with the heart? Maybe you could grind one from some heavy angle iron?
Man, having that line chiseled in there really does make a nice difference. Looks like a twisted pair! Thanks for your time and instruction, John.
What was the wooden stump procedure for?
Is there a good way to control the twist spacing to be even (1st heat) or is it just with hot/cool spots where you want it to twist more/less?
Straightening the twist without deforming the crisp edges.
Maybe use a slot punch with a sharp edge on one side, like a knife, so you can cleanly define the bottom of the heart? Might could use it to cut in the heart deeper if you cool the top of the heart before hammering.
Absolutely no idea if it'd work, but would a special purpose heart shaped drift be possible? My thinking is that you could bridge the punch in the vise with the poker in it and use another punch to clean up the top of the heart by squishing material down into the drifts groove. Just spit-balling though.
Its an interesting idea
I like the heart shape, but I think it should be bent to one side a little bit to hang on the rounded part of the heart. Just a thought.
John, you did not complain or nothing, so I am guessing that 3/4 inch mild stock is not a big deal to draw out by hand, least-wise not on a big Fontanini anvil.
I complained a lot, but just to myself
I would imagine that if one were to do a number of these heart-holes, it might be worth it to make a heart shaped drift.
Could you make a heart shaped drift? To refine the shape?
Hi!
Ooh, new hardy hold down? Got a vid about it?
Yep, just a few weeks ago
👍👍👍👍☕☕🍩🍩 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Hi John, really appreciate the effort you take with your videos. Question regarding shape of stock: do you predominantly use square stock over round stock? Some times it appears that time and effort are spent turning square stock into effectively round, and would it be easier to just start round. I know this depends on the project but so many (majority?) of items end up round. Thanks again for your videos.
Steve in Western Australia
generally I try to start with material that matches the largest cross section of the finished project. So a 3/4" square poker handle starts with 3/4" square bar even if the remaining areas are eventually rounded over. Another option is forge welding the round to the square.
@@BlackBearForge thanks.
What kind of blade is on your chop saw? Love this project, looks great.
Thats a toothed carbide blade made for the purpose, as is the saw. I'm not sure if you can run that style of blade in any chop saw, the RPM may be different. I reviewed that saw here - ruclips.net/video/fnikbR4epfg/видео.html
@@BlackBearForge Thanks John :)
John I have a question. I have done a fair amount of metal fab in my life but am new to blacksmithing and when I draw out a square bar I always seem to get a slight twists in the bar. Is this just a matter of practice or is there any technique that will help keep it straight?
It probably means you are striking one edge first instead of striking flat. So it may just be a matter of adjusting your swing or it could be anvil height is too high or too low.
@@BlackBearForge Thanks! I will try and be sure that I am striking flat. That is likely the problem.