I feel childish for asking this

A

artney_iv

Joined
Apr 19, 2013
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31
I'll just get to it.

How do I maximize the spark show when forging? Higher carbon steel? Borax? More heat?

I've got a photographer friend that asked me to create a great shot for her portfolio. I experimented some but just wasn't getting the light show that I want. As always, many thanks in advance.
 
LOL. It's molten flux(borax) that goes flying, so spinkle it on, get up to welding heat and get slappy. ;P
 
Thanks. I used a pretty healthy amount on a railroad spike earlier today in my experiments and didn't get many sparks. Any suggestions?
 
More heat

That traditional sparks photo needs more heat, welding heat or more
Overheat the steel and it will burn like a sparkler sparks shooting all over, of course the steel is useless after that.

Slow shutter speeds are impressive

You won't impress any real smiths, but it's a pretty photo


Jessie James had a promo on his Nazel power hammer in slow motion
The hammer anvil was covered in oil and grease, when he brought the hot piece in and hit it, the flaming oil went all over the place.


Have people there on fire watch, not doing the forging , not taking the photos, just watching for fire - and armed with buckets and hoses.
It's easy to set stuff on fire like that.
 
I actually had to do this exact thing a few years back for the newspaper.

Simplest way is top make a basic billet with five pieces of steel. It can be just five bars of 1/8" welding steel, since it is just for a photo. I used four 4X2X1/8" pieces, with the center piece 24" long to make the handle. I welded the ends up with the MIG.
Flux it and stick it in the forge to bring it right up to when it starts to spark. Pull it out, flux lightly again, re-heat for a minute to sparking heat , and hammer away. It will look like the 4th of July. Have the photographer stand back a good distance, and make sure he/she has on an apron and safety glasses. Everyone there should have glasses on. You can flux and pound on the billet for many heats, so do a test to see how far the flux throws before the beauty shot. The harder you hit, the farther it throws, so try blows from light to heavy.

Shooting at a slow speed will get the hammer and arm as a motion-blur and the sparks will look like meteors.
 
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