Inside: In forging a twisting bar, the beginner blacksmith can add to their skills and tool kit with this blacksmith project. This blacksmithing tool can be a great help to the beginner blacksmith as you practice twisting bars of steel.
Here is a great beginner blacksmith project, forging a twisting bar. It seems when ever I was at a county fair or somewhere watching a public blacksmithing demonstration, before I entered the craft, I can remember being mesmerized as the smith and whatever he was making the final step or two would take that ordinary object and put a twist into it. Well as I am continuing to learn to forge and have done many twist of my own using an adjustable wrench or tongs if it was thin enough, I have decided to make my own official twisting bar to assist me.
I got the basic idea of this overall design out of The Backyard Blacksmith on pg. 107. If you would like a copy you can purchase one here in this link. I like this design because it accommodates the two sizes that I use most, 3/8 and 1/2 inch. I also wanted the ability to hang this tool on either the rack or wall, so I added a hanging loop on one end, tapered and twisted the handles, and tried a small finial on the other end.
The challenge I faced on this project was creating the s-bend in the middle of the bar. There may be an easier way then what I did here, and since this I have been trying to think of a jig set up that could be used to complete this step. I forged the half inch bend first then bent the three eighths second. Then I tapered out the handles to twelve inches, finishing with a finial on one end and the hanging loop on the other. Be sure to have another piece of stock ready, so that you can try it out to see if it works.
I hope this blacksmith project inspires you, let me know how your forged twisting bar turn out as you learn to forge.
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