When I was learning to forge, my instructor told me that it was vital to understand how the material would move under the hammer, with different kinds of blows. Before I even learned that, he taught me how to make those types of hammer blows consistently.
He stressed that the hammer face can be struck against the material flush and flat which would move the material equally in all directions. If the hammer face hits at an angle, then the material would move in the direction of the uptilted side of the hammer more than the other directions.
I was then told to practice on scraps of wood with my hammer. I beat the daylights out of scrap wood for two weeks before I ever hit any hot steel. He had me try to make repeated blows down the length of the scrap wood that overlapped each other by one half. You'd think that would be easy, but it took getting blisters before I was very consistent with the actual location of my hammer blows.
I practiced the different types of blows and overlapped them over and over and over. I was actually frustrated at first. I couldn't believe how difficult it was to hit the exact spot I was aiming for.
The reason for this type of practice is that if you want to shape a piece of hot metal a certain way and you hit it in the wrong place, you now have to make two hammer blows at the very least. One to fix the misplaced blow and another to make the correct blow.
Amazingly enough, the wood actually moves similarly to metal, except that it splinters eventually. So with fresh wood, you can actually see somewhat how metal will move under a hammer. In the two weeks that I practiced on wood, I went through 50 feet of scrap pine and learned a lot.
When I finally got to class (A three day forging class), I had some hammer skills that allowed me to kind of jump start into making knifeshaped objects right away. One thing that I've learned about forging is to stop and look at the steel prior to putting it into the forge, so that you know how you're going to strike it when it comes out! If you look at it when it comes out of the forge, you're losing forging time when the steel is at the appropriate forging temperature, resulting in having to put it into and out of the forge more times than is actually necessary.
As far as proper forging temperatures and colors of the hot steel, I found that when I went home to my own forge, I was overheating the steel at first. My instructors shop is much darker than my forging area, and the difference in perceiving the color caused me to forge slightly too hot for a while. I've since begun to rely on a magnet to understand the forging temperatures that I'm at, regardless of the lighting conditions. In addition, I forge the same steels (52100, W2, and 1084/15N20) and have learned how they should feel under the hammer when at the proper forging temperatures.
As you gain experience, you'll use three of your senses in concert to forge at a consistent temperature. Sight, sound, touch.
How do these senses work in assuring your at the correct forging temperature?
- See the steel! Get a perception of the color. Under different lighting conditions, you may or may not have it at the right temperature, but should be able to get it fairly close.
- Hear the steel. Listen to the steel when you hit it. Learn the sound it makes when forged at the proper temperature. This will help confirm or dispell what your sight has told you.
- Feel the steel! Feel the steel through your hammer handle. Eventually, you'll know what each of your hammers feels like when it hits steel that is at the proper forging temperature. This will be a second confirmation, in addition the sound it made when you hit it. Thus helping to further confirm or dispell what your eyes were seeing of the color.
I only use the magnet when I first begin to forge, to help me understand the color I'm shooting for under the present lighting conditions. Since I forge outside under a canvas awning, the time of year, angle of the sun, clouds, time of day, etc. all play into my lighting conditions. The lighting conditions that I deal with are different from day to day and sometimes from hour to hour, so I have to really pay attention to what I'm dealing with.
Okay, I've ranted on long enough. Just some thoughts on how I started and what I learned along the way that I found important.
