Be sure to check out Roys video on how he forges the skillet pan. His method results in a cleaner looking skillet. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-w8Y3h1IWV9Y.html
Also……. I really LOVED “the hook of the week”. Are you possibly thinking of doing another weekly item? I really encourage this. Maybe making a tool of the week or something else that you could teach us that we could do to help us in ours shops….. love your work and your methods! You sir were the first channel that I started watching and is the first video I watch each week!
Glad I saw this this morning. Time to go out to my shop and do some work. Im about to launch my first etsy store. I'll only have 4 items up but its a start and I wouldn't have gotten here if it weren't for your videos. You've been a big inspiration to me! Including all the other blacksmiths on YT. Love you guys.
I just bought a 12" carbon steel skillet and can now really appreciate the time and work involved. Thank you for sharing your skills and tips on how you made this 'spider'!
Man that looks hot! Would have been a good wintertime project... ;) Thanks for educating us! I've used a folding 3-legged spider trivet at reenactments before that you can set different sized pans on over the coals. Very handy.
@@noahnipperus7320 , very cool you're an instructor! Don't run across many of them these days. Best of luck and well wishes. Mind if I ask you what type(s) of course you teach? Knowledge is a gold standard no price can be set for. LoL 🙏 Blessed days Sir Crawford out 🔥⚒️🧙🏼♂️
Awesome Job John it turned out very nice. hopeful you get great use out of it John. Keep up the Great craftsmanship and hard work John. Can't wait to see what you make next. Forge on. keep making. God bless.
" I know I look hot, but try to control yourself " 😆🤣 you sir are great to watch for skills and humor. Also, adding or taking away the coals can control the heat better on something like this spider with static height. Be using a handmade fire rake for that. 😉
Great to see you back to making gear for the camp fire. It's been a while.This "spider" came out really nice. Looks like it wouls be a great addition to the camp fire gear.
We were under an outdoor fire ban from April into October last year. We have had more normal rain this spring, so I get to have a campfire for now anyway.
Hey John! I hope this year has given you a bit of a break and that life is treating you well. Dont forget to play that banjo and have a beer here and there 😁
Excellent video John, many times on RU-vid someone shows how to make something and it goes so smoothly. Then when we try it at home we struggle because we do see all the little tricks. This shows that practice and technique make everything look easy.
I read a book from the late 1800's that said that charcoal was the premier choice for blacksmiths in England until they started having trouble with deforestation and had no other choice but to switch to coal.
Kool skillet, John. I like the long legs! BTW, because our nearby coal mine shut down I have started using lump charcoal and getting used to it (like it, too). I noticed the bricks you were using to help build up the fire...that's a great idea and I am going to start using bricks in my coal forge. Thanks for pointing that out in the video.
I am really amazed the smoke drafted out of the chimney and not your shop windows. Great job! Need to find the video you explain how your chimney system is set up.
Nice job John 👏 turned out gr8, I noticed a couple of big shrink lines in your apron, gr8 to see it protected you both would be not nice places for big burns. ⚒😎👍
Just finished my first skillet. It was a fun and interesting task. I really enjoyed this video and I like the spider idea. This isn't the first time I've seen one but it did refresh the memory
I have a few questions for you, 1. what is it like being a blacksmith? 2. what cost does it take to start a shop like that? 3. how much do you earn typically? 4. where would someone who is interested in blacksmithing start? Thanks for doing these videos btw!
Man I would have called it when you had It in the shape of a wok but I know you had something in ur head u were working towards. A freestanding stand would be really nice and then you could put any skillet on it! Thanks for the inspiration I will try to make one seems I always forget my grill piece!
Great for campfire cooking up at your cabin! Bit impractical to be carting around camping unless you could find a way to detach the legs. Good pan however, I have tried a few but have the most success by cheating and using the bottom off an old LPG cylinder! Just have to flatten a bottom, work really well!
Have you considered a mix of lump and briquettes? The lump burns hotter but you'll get a longer burn with the briquettes. A good mix of the two will give you a little more of the best of both worlds. Great educational videos, it's always fun to watch a craftsman at work!
@@BlackBearForge Tim Dyck made a quick-and-dirty flypress die to shape some sheet steel for a tuyere protector for his sideblast forge. A design similar to what he made might work well to raise the edges of a skillet. It was basically just round bar stock tack welded to some plate scraps. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uDHPmI1cyHk.html
@@andrewtinker7537 This is kind of how I built candle cup dies. I use them in the hardy hole though by hand. Just a ring of round bar welded to a plate for the bottom and a smaller ring on the end of a 1 inch square bar to set the top.
Good afternoon, John, Not quite twenty questions. Could you use a disk blade to make the skillet? How about coke instead of charcoal? Could you show the hydraulic press a bit more? Thinking of building one. Thank you, and stay safe.
The disk blade would have to have the hole welded up and it might not survive being forged at that point. But they can just be welded up and used like a wok. Coke would be a good choice if its available.
It's a very cool skillet, but I'd agree that it's probably not too ideal for camping/hiking kit, it'd be kind of a pain to stuff in a backpack, with legs and handle sticking out in just about every direction.
Make yourself a disco cooker, a Mexican wok on legs. Lol They are made from disc blades with horse shoes welded on for handles. Disc blades come in several sizes, I think. Hubby welded 3 1-2” bolt nuts on the under side of the disc blade so that carriage bolts can be screwed in for legs.
John i understand striving for perfection in ones life. I have chased that goal my entire life. But now that i have entered well into my 50s i came to relies that hand crafted items need to have some minor imperfections to say it was made by hand and not some CNC or fully robtic factory that spits out 1000s of products everyday.
Comment on your chair used in the video. as far as I know, I was the original designer of this chair. working in the furniture factory in High Point NC. My foreman and I started with an idea and started cutting it out on the band saw. It had many functions at the time. when folded up it also doubled as a backpack frame at first so you might carry it out to your base came site while having your hands full of other items. at the time we also made other sizes, we had a child's chair and a loveseat in this same style. also made was around and square table made to the height of the chairs for some lounging around our campfire. Please enjoy our design Stan
Hi John, been watching you since before you got the 1K subccribe mark. Nice video, can I make a suggestion from one Smith to another? Make a skillet die. For that 12" disk, I'd suggest a 9" ring x 3" high the 3" is over kill but better to much then but enough. Then a 7" ring ( I know that's a huge gap) bit you could go 8 & 1/2 but I like wiggle room and a good slope, them weld a few layers of sheet metal or a heavy plate to match the 7" ring. Also attach a striking point. Heat your disc, dome it some as before, place in top of the 9" ring then drive it down with the 7" press die. Walla skillet minus handle. Just an idea, obviously math out the die size for other size disks. Thanks again John!!
If I plan to make more, I would look into it. But for a one off project, it isn't really worth the trouble. Although it might make a worthwhile followup video.
@@BlackBearForge I do understand that, but knowing you you have 2 more disks, making a tool for what might be a one off will insure you can do more faster and better if you decide to do more, plus I think the time to whip up that simple tool and use it for a one off might be faster and more skillet like. I love a wok, and basically that's what you made. Woks are great frying tools but they are not a skillet. Skillets have sharp defined angles with a very flat bottom, a wok has an either flat out rounded bottom with a curved slope to the outer edge. Both are good tools for cooking I actually prefer a wok for most frying. Just being picky and technical about the pan. It's wonderful and works well. Really I think the jig would be a good video and your have it for ever. Thanks John.
Have you ever tried to make a wok? I am working on one now and it is difficult to form the bottom without the hammer handle hitting the rim. So far it has been enjoyable making it. I have about 3 hrs in it. With my forge I can only heat about a 1/4 of it at a time. Plus tendinitis in my elbow limits how long I can swing a hammer.
I think you might need to turn down the blower a bit for charcoal it doesn't need as much air as coal. It will spark less with less air and will burn up last fast with less air.
Most of the heat is radiant -- have you tried light-colored gloves and apron? Or maybe powdering yours a bit, like with cornstarch or mineral-based like calcium-carbonate (if that's okay around the metal work)? Or some other white-wash method... whatever's safe.
It sounds like you're ready for hot smith summer. Question: do you have any tips for keeping small pieces of charcoal from going airborne? I found I couldn't run as much air through my fire as I wanted to make it hot enough for larger billets without producing volcanoes of pea sized pieces of glowing charcoal. I love your work, you've been a big inspiration.
@@BlackBearForge yeah, I was afraid of that. Although maybe I could have rearranged my firebrick (my forge doesn't have a firepot) to divert the airflow and move my fire off to the side. Thanks so much.
I was struck by the hammer you are using in the first part of the video, but I didn't catch what it's called. I have its twin brother - don't know where I got it. My brother is a smith and he didn't recognize it, thought it might be a planishing hammer of some sort. Any thoughts? Always enjoy your work. Thanks for sharing so well.
AS I mentioned these are mostly used in an indoor fireplace. But for the camp fire its much more stable than the other support and doesn't require the extra support.
So, what you were using to do the main shaping of the skillet was a base of an oxygen cylinder? Did you do anything to the inside of the cylinder to make it more solid or just leave hollow? Thanks
Looks good, now I wish I had not thrown out the bottom half of a old oxy cylinder I cut to make a bowling ball mortar years ago. Mexicans [no offence] have been using a old plow disc to make something similar for years, i just bought a new one at TSC to make one for myself. You leave the hole in them or weld it up depends if you want to fry somethin in shallow oil or not, I think they call it a Discada or something like that.
