Tonight’s demo is a Dragon Head. Everybody has their own ideas on what a Dragon should look like, this is Mine:) (Sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished piece. This is one I was making at the ren faire and it got sold before I had a chance to get a picture of it)

I started w/a piece of 5/8″ sq. (these can be made out of anything from 3/8″ to 2″). I split it 1/2 way from each side down the center, back about 1″, then rotate it 90 deg. and split 1 side down the center the same 1″ back.)

After I make a split, I use a blunt nosed chisel, to radius out the end of the cut and get rid of a potential cold shunt. Then I start the bottom jaw to thicken it up just slightly by hammering it down and making it thicker.

Now, I raise what will be the horns, and start drawing them out to a point to make them look like horns as well as rounding them up.

Now I bump up the nose a little bit, and I use my blunt nose chisel, straight down in between the horns to spread them out a little bit, and use a hot cutter to split the mouth.

Now after I get his mouth split, I go to the horn of the anvil and pinch down some metal to form what will become his teeth. I do this on the top and bottom jaw both.

I go to the vice, using an eye punch to form his eyes just at the base of the horns (some people put a step-down here, like a dog head dragon, but on this horned dragon I don’t think it is necessary). Then, I take a hammer and flatten the corners of his nose slightly at a 45 deg. angle, then use a center punch to punch his nostrils.

Now after I get the eyes and the nostrils punched, I shape the horns to look like what I think the horns of a dragon would look like:) Using a small chisel, you can cut in some more teeth. Also, a split horseshoe nail makes a neat looking tongue. This is used on firetool handles, any kind of handles or anything you want to put a dragon on. I neck down behind the horns and thin out the back and draw it down to a little bit of a point about 3/4″ long, bend the head forward slightly.

I do this for ladies to wear in their bodice at the Ren’ Faires. Any questions?

How would you attach the tongue?

Pig: Go inside the mouth, with a pritchel punch, and punch a hole, to receive the nail. Insert the nail after it is split, use a center punch on the Bottom side of the jaw to stake it in.

Bill, is an eye punch a tiny flat ended punch with a shallow hole drilled in ti?

Bill–nail set work for eye punch??

 The horns point outward, so if some surly naive is going sneak up and steel a hug, the dragon will get him.:)