New hot forging baton

One

One

Banned
Turned from 1/2 of an ash baseball bat billet,… 18 inches long and about 2-3/4 inches in diameter for a good solid dead blow or "shwock"!

Handy for bending, straightening and adjusting the profile of knife blades etc., without the risk of denting or dinging the piece as with a steel hammer.

DSCN6027.jpg


It's ebonized just for looks, so that the char marks won't show as much.
 
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Nice work. I use a large oak dowel a less dense chunk of plywood and a hand sledge to straighten things up after the blade leaves my stamp press - simple and works like a charm.
 
I just use a bat or a rubber mallet. The mallet smokes and leaves little rings of rubber on hot blades, but no big deal. I used to use a rawhide mallet, but it stank too badly when hitting hot steel. Ugh.

nice - the "ebonizing" - that was done with vinagaroon? I saw you do it in another thread but I forgot exactly how it was done. I like the idea, and want to play with it some time.

looks like a good schwocker to me...
 
Looks alot better than my 2x4, I've been meaning to make something a bit better, but I'm sooooo lazy. Great looking thwacker there!

Zeb
 
One said:
Turned from 1/2 of an ash baseball bat billet,… 18 inches long and about 2-3/4 inches in diameter for a good solid dead blow or "shwock"!

Handy for bending, straightening and adjusting the profile of knife blades etc., without the risk of denting or dinging the piece as with a steel hammer.

DSCN6027.jpg


It's ebonized just for looks, so that the char marks won't show as much.
Click to expand...

I recently traded one of my large culinary knives for a small Jet Lathe with a bunch of tools etc like to make ball point pens.

Haven't made a Pen yet but have made & sold several wine stoppers etc. I will make some knife handle soon too!

Wood Turning is a load of FUN!

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
Kevin, On this one I had to add some tannin. Some woods work fine with just plain vinegaroon (steel wool dissolved in vinegar) if they have enough natural tannin in them. The iron in the vinegar solution reacts with the tannin to create the “die“, which is really more like a patina for wood. If the wood doesn’t have enough tannin, first you have to make a tannic solution, from water and either pecan shells, acorns or dock root etc. For this one I just crushed up some pecan shells and let them soak in water. The solution was simply brushed on, allowed to soak in and dry. After that, the vinegaroon was just brushed on and allowed to dry. Some times you need to repeat the steps a few times to get a good patina. The two step ebonizing process can be used on just about any natural materials (and some synthetics) including bone, antler, fibers and woods. If it's a denser material like bone, you need to soak the piece in the tannic solution rather than just brushing it on.
 
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Some of the keys to a good “shwocker” are weight, length, balance, grip and a bit of give/recoil. They also need to be durable. I’ve experimented with all kinds of stuff including most of what’s been mentioned here. So far, this size and configuration is by far the best,… sort of like an elongated wood carving mallet. Before this one, I used one with the same configuration out of oak, but it got pretty chewed up after about a year and a half. Maybe the ash with last longer. We’ll see. Maple bat billets are also available, but they cost a bit more and don’t have as much give and recoil as the ash and transfer more shock. I search and searched for the right turning stock at a reasonable price and finally decided on the ash bat stock, which is also nice because it's already round.

It’s actually a handy multi-purpose tool as well. I’ve used them as a baton in conjunction with a cutting tool for splitting wood, as a demolition tool,… and it seems like it would also make a handy self defense weapon.

... Here Zombies. Over here!

“Camp town ladies sing this song”
“Doo da… doo da”
 
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That's less...manly than the last one I remember you posting, Tai. :D Looks good, though. Schwock away!
 
It’s the unisex model.

“A hunting we will go
A hunting we will go

Hi Ho the dairy-o
The zombie in the dell”
 
i want to see a video of this in action showing how to straighten a bent blade with one.

singing optional..
 
Thanks for the info Tai.
I use aqua fortis on a lot of stuff. This seems sort of similar, chemically obviously. You don't have to add heat, though. I wasn't sure if heat was part of this process as it is with a.f.

I wouldn't have ever gotten the tannin thing.
thanks again.
 
No Kevin, you don't have to heat it. It's done cold, though it can help speed up the process a little by having your solution luke warm if soaking is needed for bone and denser materials than wood. Since most of the materials will float in water when soaking, what I’ve been doing is putting the tannic solution in a plastic bag with the materials to be “died“, squeezing the air out and tying it off.

Drying and oxidation seem to play a significant role,... but not so much heat.

Here's a mountain lion femur bone and sterling silver handle I'm working on... same two part "patina" on the cougar bone.

DSCN5593.jpg


Note: If you are making your vinegaroon solution in a jar, be sure and put a tiny hole in the lid so it can gas out.
 
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