Letter Openers

Well I made some progress on the courtyard gate but got distracted again. Are you beginning to see a trend here?

I’ve been experimenting with some new letter opener designs. I start with 7 ½” of ¼” square stock or 3/8” round stock.


I heat up one end and forge an organic looking handle.


Then I heat the other end, fuller, flatten, and then taper one edge. After that’s done I grind the cutting edge and point to it’s finished size and shape.


To finish the letter opener I darken the steel, polish the high points, and then apply a bee’s wax finish.


The grand experment continued on with eight more designs. March first I’ll be selling these at a hair salon along with the hair pins I made last week.



Hair Stickpins

I got distracted from working on the courtyard gate this week while forging aluminum.














From ¼” x ½” aluminum I forge the design. Then I rough out the tapered end. This work is done on cold metal














Then I forge out the tapered end. This material forges like butter.















Here’s another hair stickpin I forged out of the remaining bar stock. The secret to forging aluminum is a lot of annealing.

















I finish the hair stickpins with hardened coloring worked in to the design to accent the forging lines. Am I having fun or what?























Thanks to my design team for testing and
photographing the prototype designs.