Carbide hammer

H

Happychicken

Joined
Nov 14, 2018
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Hi all I purchased a carbide straightening hammer recently and have been trying to use it but have had little success in straightening warped AEL steel. I am wondering if the reason why it’s not working is I am not hitting against an anvil but a piece of wood would the wood absorb the energy needed for the straightening ? Would it be worth it for me to buy a very inexpensive anvil to hit against to help with straightening hope this makes sense thanks for everyone who comments!
 
You need the blade sitting on an anvil or other hard flat piece of steel
You need to be hammering from the curved side (concave).
It takes many (100's to 1000's) of light blows. The amount of force is something that you need to learn, but it is not hard blows. The blow should leave only a light impression. When done the surface looks textured. That all grinds away in finishing the bevels.
 
That’s a great thought! I hit the knife like maybe 50-60 times and not much happened. Grading the amount of force needed is difficult. I am more trying to match to sound of the hammer hit in the video. User error thank you all for clarifying
 
Happychicken said:
That’s a great thought! I hit the knife like maybe 50-60 times and not much happened. Grading the amount of force needed is difficult. I am more trying to match to sound of the hammer hit in the video. User error thank you all for clarifying
Click to expand...

Adding the wood is in effect lengthening the time of impact.
Think of it like a car. With crumple zones during a crash.
The car crashes into something, and the longer that impact takes the less forces the people inside take. The crumple zone give way, the frame bends, absorbing the damage.

1950's cars were solid, built like tanks. During a crash the cars were barely dented, but the people got hurt.

The wood you are stricking against is lengthening the time of impact, absorbing the forces....
 
I use a granite reference plate as my base with my carbide hammer. It's build on an 8oz ball peen hammer and I often let it bounce with it's own weight, or add a little bit more force behind it, not much. Just enough to make a slight dent. The dent/dimple stretches the steel very slightly which is what straightens the metal. Like was said, only hit the concave side, (inside of the curve) and not the convex side!!! You can often tell from the sound when it's straightened out in that area.
 
What he said!

I ruined a beautiful Cu-mai santoku by trying to straighten out a slight edge warp of the core before fully tempering it. It cracked deep into the core. A $200+ dollar mistake that I knew better than doing in the first place.
 
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