Forging a Leaf

These leaves are a perfect beginner project or a great demo piece for showing people basic forge technique.

For this project you'll need basic forging gear:

• hammer
• tongs capable of gripping smaller parts
• hot chisel
• anvil cutoff tool (hardy)
• a forge
• an anvil

and some 1/4" to 1/2" bar. I'm using 3/8" round bar mild steel.

I'm using an induction forge at YuKonstruct. It runs off angry pixie dust and makes an annoying beeping noise! It's great for heating up small bars!

After heating your bar up, hammer a four sided point on it. Be sure to hold it on a bit of an angle to get an angle on both sides.

While holding the point just off the face of the anvil, hammer down half on, half off the anvil. This will create a shoulder in the material. Do this on two sides, 90 degrees to one another.

Most leaves have round corners so your should too! Knock the sharp points off the bulb you created in the last step.

BAM BAM BAM!!!! Here's the fun part, hammer down on the bulb of your leaf. Using the sides of the face of the anvil forge a slight angle on both sides of the face of the leaf allowing for a bit of a ridge to form in the center.

Using a rounded hot chisel, forge some veins in the face of your leaf.

Using a hot cut, hammer most of the way through on both sides and then break off with a pair of tongs. This saves you from hitting the hammer on the hot cut, and also stops your piece from flying off and burning your shop down.

Using the tongs continue to work your stem out.

Forge the stem down into a dull point and then first hammer into a octagon and then hammer round.

Round over the very tip of the stem to create a little pig tail, this stops it from poking into people. Then forge a back curve to center the curve on the leaf, and then continue to forge your stem into a ring.

While the leaf is still hot scrub it with a wire brush to get a nice shine on it.

I like to apply a bit of beeswax while it's still warm. Your done! Hurruzzals!