I had the chance to go down today and visit John Larson at his Iron Kiss Hammers shop outside Baltimore and see what he's been working on. For a while now, I've been hearing about a custom, one-off hammer that John had been working on. This one is the largest Iron Kiss to date. It's got a 160lb tup, and a 20:1 anvil:tup ratio. For those not good at math (like me 
), that means the anvil and baseplate (what's considered the anvil mass) is 3200lbs! Add the weight of the rest of the machine and it weighs in at just about 5000lbs. This is one beefy hammer! In addition, this hammer has S7 dies (I believe from Brian Russell) rather than the standard 4140 dies as it's new owner will be feeding a steady diet of stainless steel. The dies are a combination fullering/flat die set. The fullering side is very aggressive so you've got to be careful but man do they move some steel...
Here are a few pics of the Hammer. It has an 11" wide cabinet, 20" deep throat, and a 10" usable stroke height (I think that's what John said). It also has an 8 1/2" diameter tup as opposed to the 8" that is used on the 150lb hammers.
Front of the hammer. The baseplate is 5" thick! Notice the foot rest attached to the front of the cabinet. John designed his hammers so that you rest your toe on the foot rest and operate the treadle with your heel. It seems a little backwards at first, but after 5 or 10 minutes of using his hammers it feels very natural and causes a lot less leg fatigue (for me anyways) that using your toe for the treadle causes.
A closeup of the foot treadle setup. That's a piece of plywood the hammer is sitting on. That's all the "special footing" John's hammers need. I've even used them set up on dirt and they work great.
A closeup of the dies. These S7 dies from Brian Russell are very solid. A bit more aggressive on the drawing side than I'd personally like, but they do really move some steel. This also shows off John's "Octagon" tup design. It's apparently a lot of work to machine, but it keeps the dies very well aligned. It also allows you to position the die holders at any of the 8 positions available so the hammer can work for you lefty's too.
A couple of pictures of the side of the hammer. The big lever is for adjusting the stroke height. All the way up is a very short stroke (good if you're using long tooling under the hammer), and all the way down causes the dies to "clamp" in the down position. There is also an adjustment for stroke speed which can come in very handy as well, and as John and I discovered today, can make a big difference in the dynamics of how the hammer runs. Quick blows work really well and do get a lot of work done, but if you increase the stroke height and reduce the speed, the hammer REALLY starts to move some metal.
So, I started to do some forging. I began with a 4" long piece of Don Hanson's 2" W2 round. The pictures below show the stages of forging. Each picture is one heat's worth of forging (except the first picture, that's the initial heating). It should be noted that the first two heats I didn't maximize the forging potential as I was getting used to the feel of the hammer. The pictures are after each forging step, with the heat that was still left in the bar.
Initial heating. Man, I love taking pictures of forging with coal
One heat of easy forging. The firebricks will be used for scale. That's about 1 1/34" square by 5" long.
Two heats. I started at the end of this heat with the fullering side of the dies. You can see the rippling of the surface that shows how agressive these dies are.
More pics to come in more posts I've put the max in this one and I'm waiting for the rest to upload right now..
-d
), that means the anvil and baseplate (what's considered the anvil mass) is 3200lbs! Add the weight of the rest of the machine and it weighs in at just about 5000lbs. This is one beefy hammer! In addition, this hammer has S7 dies (I believe from Brian Russell) rather than the standard 4140 dies as it's new owner will be feeding a steady diet of stainless steel. The dies are a combination fullering/flat die set. The fullering side is very aggressive so you've got to be careful but man do they move some steel...Here are a few pics of the Hammer. It has an 11" wide cabinet, 20" deep throat, and a 10" usable stroke height (I think that's what John said). It also has an 8 1/2" diameter tup as opposed to the 8" that is used on the 150lb hammers.
Front of the hammer. The baseplate is 5" thick! Notice the foot rest attached to the front of the cabinet. John designed his hammers so that you rest your toe on the foot rest and operate the treadle with your heel. It seems a little backwards at first, but after 5 or 10 minutes of using his hammers it feels very natural and causes a lot less leg fatigue (for me anyways) that using your toe for the treadle causes.
A closeup of the foot treadle setup. That's a piece of plywood the hammer is sitting on. That's all the "special footing" John's hammers need. I've even used them set up on dirt and they work great.
A closeup of the dies. These S7 dies from Brian Russell are very solid. A bit more aggressive on the drawing side than I'd personally like, but they do really move some steel. This also shows off John's "Octagon" tup design. It's apparently a lot of work to machine, but it keeps the dies very well aligned. It also allows you to position the die holders at any of the 8 positions available so the hammer can work for you lefty's too.
A couple of pictures of the side of the hammer. The big lever is for adjusting the stroke height. All the way up is a very short stroke (good if you're using long tooling under the hammer), and all the way down causes the dies to "clamp" in the down position. There is also an adjustment for stroke speed which can come in very handy as well, and as John and I discovered today, can make a big difference in the dynamics of how the hammer runs. Quick blows work really well and do get a lot of work done, but if you increase the stroke height and reduce the speed, the hammer REALLY starts to move some metal.
So, I started to do some forging. I began with a 4" long piece of Don Hanson's 2" W2 round. The pictures below show the stages of forging. Each picture is one heat's worth of forging (except the first picture, that's the initial heating). It should be noted that the first two heats I didn't maximize the forging potential as I was getting used to the feel of the hammer. The pictures are after each forging step, with the heat that was still left in the bar.
Initial heating. Man, I love taking pictures of forging with coal
One heat of easy forging. The firebricks will be used for scale. That's about 1 1/34" square by 5" long.
Two heats. I started at the end of this heat with the fullering side of the dies. You can see the rippling of the surface that shows how agressive these dies are.
More pics to come in more posts I've put the max in this one and I'm waiting for the rest to upload right now..
-d
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I'd sure like to run one. The clamping feature would be real slick for many operations.
John's shop is very nicely equipped. What never ceases to amaze me is the efficiency with which his shop is designed. He built even this monster hammer all by himself. There are no shop monkeys to help relocate things, etc. The fact that he can manage that is a testament to his ingenuity IMHO.
