[TheForge] spring swages for bark texture

[Mike Linn]

I agree with most of Ries response except for making your own..  his way
will work but its much easier to take 2 blocks and dish out a shallow curve
in each one. A 1/4 moon shape is all you need. Next run a bunch of random
weld beads down through the length of the cupped area. Turn them cup to cup,
weld on the spring handle and viola treebark swedge..

check out the AFC website for more tooling stuff...

http://afc.abana-chapter.com/tech.html

mike


> If you do want to make your own, the trick is just to use a cold
> chisel, and chisel up a piece of round bar the size you want to
> texture, about 2 or 3 inches of it, at the end of a piece about a foot
> long. Then make a blank spring swage- make the spring out of 1/4" x 1
> 1/4" or so flat bar, make two blocks out of 1" x 2" x 2" mild steel.
> Weld it together, then heat the business end of the  swage in the
> forge. Put the chiseled up piece in between the swage, and whack it.
> Presto, you have a spring swage. Its a good idea to relieve the edges
> where depression starts- make it more oval than exactly half round.
> Just take a grinder and open up the sides a little.  That way you can
> rotate the piece while you are forging it and it doesnt get stuck like
> it would if the swage fit exactly.
>
> ries