[TheForge] RE: making a living

[Jerry Frost]

Not too much to fess to Mike, they're pretty basic.

I start with about 4" of 1/2" sq. draw all but about 1" to about 3/8" sq.
draw a round taper and scroll (to hang) on the end opposite the 1/2" (head)
end. How you set the tail scroll is important to how it looks hanging on a
hook or sitting on the table top. Then I give the 3/8" sq. center section a
twist of one sort or another, cable being my favorite a pineapple twist
would be nice too. Then I forge a dragon's head in the 1/2" end, the same or
similar to the one in The Art of Blacksmithing, Iron Menagerie, etc. I make
the head a bit narrower side to side as it makes a better bottle opener.
Using a hacksaw, I cut the lower jaw about 2/3-3/4 the length of the head,
to where the jaw's hinge point looks like it should go, heat and open the
jaw, then forge a little hook to the end of the lower jaw. It'll take a
little tinkering to figure out just how far to open and just how much hook
to put in the lower jaw to make a good opener.

You can put a lot of variation in them . . . Heck, an almost unlimited
amount of variation. <grin> Some I've done are: various twists, various
curves in the body, straight body of course, various cross sections in the
tail, bodies thicker than the head, really long bodies, short bodies and of
course much variation in the head. There's also no reason to stick with a
dragon's head, horses from horse shoes are popular, goats move well and I've
been toying with making a cabinet mounted frog bottle opener. There's also
no size limit except for practicality, no reason not to make them from
pocket to floor sized.

That's about all there is to it.

Frosty
------------------------
If it ain't forged
it ain't real.
Wrought iron is.
The FrostWorks

Meadow Lakes, AK.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Linn" <mikelinn@concentric.net>
To: <theforge@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 5:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] RE: making a living


>
> Id like to hear more about these.... fess up ;^)
>
>
> mike
>
> At 11:32 AM 7/19/02 -0800, you wrote:
> >The other hot mover was dragon
> >head bottle openers @ $20 a pop. <grin>
> >