Hammering technique?

U

unky_gumbi

Joined
Aug 28, 2009
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So I was just looking for a little advice on hammering technique from some of you more experienced forgers. Any suggestions or good books to read to give me a head start for latter on when I give forging a blade a go?
I am not planning to try forging anytime soon as I would like to get a few stock removal knives under my belt before giving the hammer a go.

Thanks in advance
George
 
Although you can get a lot of good advice from all the sources mentioned so far, there's nothing like actual hands on practice to make the motion and your mind "click". One thing that most good hand forgers share is muscle memory. They have performed the operations to the point of developing muscle memory.
Using a hammer with the proper face makes a great deal of difference....a forging hammer should have a convex face...the degree of the convex is somewhat of a personal preference issue.

Many of the Blacksmith and Farrier schools teach students by having them strike clay until they can achieve the shape of imprint that the instructors dictate. The biggest thing to remember with forging is that its about finesse...NOT brute force!
 
Thanks for the info guys, I would love to go to the hammer in but I am a full time bike mechanic, I don't think my boss would give me the time off in the hight of the bussy season :(

I will be giving the clay thing a try, I just happen to have some laying around the house

And I will be looking into Mr Caffery's videos and books

Once again thanks for the insite
 
Let the hammer do the work; which means developing a rhythm as you forge.

If you can get both of these to work for you, forging by hand can be fun.

Fred
 
Ed Caffrey said:
Although you can get a lot of good advice from all the sources mentioned so far, there's nothing like actual hands on practice to make the motion and your mind "click". One thing that most good hand forgers share is muscle memory. They have performed the operations to the point of developing muscle memory.
Using a hammer with the proper face makes a great deal of difference....a forging hammer should have a convex face...the degree of the convex is somewhat of a personal preference issue.

Many of the Blacksmith and Farrier schools teach students by having them strike clay until they can achieve the shape of imprint that the instructors dictate. The biggest thing to remember with forging is that its about finesse...NOT brute force!
Click to expand...


Fred.Rowe said:
Let the hammer do the work; which means developing a rhythm as you forge.

If you can get both of these to work for you, forging by hand can be fun.

Fred
Click to expand...

these 2 posts are a great starting point. much truth in both of them. Get out there and bang on some hot steel till it makes sense to you.

Jason
 
I am sure someone will weigh in and try to sell you a hammer :rolleyes:

The clay trick and wooden hammer is great practice, practice turning it from round to square and back again, drawing a taper, setting a shoulder, and I suggest trying that on hot steel before forging a knife.
 
I can't really add anything but to follow their advice and try to find a smith in the area. There's a lot of things that you can read but don't make sense until you see and do.

Search youtube, there's lots of good vids on forging blades, there's also lots of bad vids on forging blade too :D

Keep your elbow tucked in to your side similar to when you grind.

Stop when you're tired.

Use a hammer that's 25% lighter than you think you can swing. There's not much more useless than wildly swinging a 4# hammer that you can't control when you can get a lot more done with a 2.5 or 3#.

A good anvil helps a lot more than new smiths believe.

Anvil height is critical and very personal.

Holding onto a long bar of steel is easier than hanging onto tongs.

A whomping stick or wooden mallet is invaluable as a forging tool :D

Well that's all I can think of now. The clay is a neat way to understand what's happening.
 
So I have decided to give forging a try in the summer and am going to be picking up some supplies over the next couple of weeks

I will be using a railroad anvil to start, need to decide what tongs to get to start off with, looking at these

And what hammer from there selection here

I will be ordering the forge plans from Scott Beck, why this one? Because like me it small cheap and portable
 
I'm certainly no forging expert, but I can point you to some info, especially Canadian suppliers.

Farrier’s tools like you have in the links are as specialized as bladesmithing tools and there may be overlap in some areas, but not others.

The links you posted give me no prices, so as you mentioned, $ is a factor; I’ll show you what I can with that in mind.


Hammer
As mentioned above, some forum members are selling hammers.
Ed Caffrey, and Tai Goo maybe some others.

Ed $ 150 - expensive but god read the descriptions
http://www.caffreyknives.net/Angle%20Pien%20Hammers.html

hammer1.5and2lb.jpg



Princess auto Cross-peen $ 6 needs work but cheap as hell
http://www.princessauto.com/tools/hand-tools/striking-tools/2940081-28-oz-crosspein-hammer?keyword=hammer

2940081.jpg


The cross peen is the traditional forging hammer, also called, blacksmith hammer, German pattern, locksmith pattern…

They are cheap and you can replace the plastic handle with a nicely sanded and oil rubbed hickory handle when you have melted that one off.

As purchased, you need to dress the face to round off the sharp corners.
The straight pein is used to draw out steel; it is quite extremely sharply pointed and also needs rounding out

Especially once you have a forge to heat them with, you can start with cheap ball peens and sledges then fuller, twist, grind, taper….whatever shape them to meet your needs. . Ed Caffrey's hammers are good examples that have also added angled twists for ergonomics


Forge plans for 5$ ?
Indian George does it free
http://elliscustomknifeworks.hightemptools.com/ForgeGallery/My_Homepage_Files/Page11.html

And he is here on the forum, if you have questions.

You can buy Insawool, Satanite and ITC-100 all in Canada. Pottery supply houses are distributors for Thermal Ceramics products.


Tongs
Very specialized to fit the stock you are holding, I have seen other more experienced users recommend “wolf“ tongs
http://www.centaurforge.com/Peddinghaus-5_16-Wolfs-Jaw-Tongs-15-1_2-Rein-Length/productinfo/6175010400/

A lot of users simply keep the stock long enough to hold onto.


Anvil.

Go ahead and get a rail track anvil, but you may be unhappy with it. It has a hard face, but is crowned and acts like a drawing die.

The rule of thumb for anvil weight is 20 x the weight of the hammer
(Someone yell at me if I’m wrong) so minimum 60 pounds for a 3 pound hammer, more is better. The weight includes the base which some people make from sand or concrete.

Google “post anvil”
A large area is less important than flat, slightly radiused edges, smooth face, weight underneath.
Everybody has their own version and can be at scrap rates
http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php?showtopic=8527

post-1951-1191452265.jpg
 
Thanks for the info, the links I supplied are from a distributor, not a retail store.

As for the P auto hammer,I have a couple of friends that work there so I may be able to pick up a couple for the price of one :)

I lookd at IG's forge plans, but its a veturie type and supposedly the blower type uses less fuel, so the5 bucks spent for the plans would be saved in fuel cost in the long run. I could e wrong about that though so I hope someonewill correct me if I am wrong

The piece of rail is free and temporary till I can find something more suitable. From my limited understanding, the peice of rail would be better then an anvil shaped object in the long run. I wont be attempting to forge till spring and being that I am in Winnipeg thats a long ways off :(

Mr Caffrey is a bladesmith that I greatly respect, and maybe in time I can afford to purchase some of his hammers, I am sure that they are works of art and perfect for the job, just a little pricey for a noob like myself.
 
unky_gumbi said:
I lookd at IG's forge plans, but its a veturie type and supposedly the blower type uses less fuel

Mr Caffrey is a bladesmith that I greatly respect, and maybe in time I can afford to purchase some of his hammers.
Click to expand...

IG's forge is blown, not venturi.

See the squirrel cage blower attached in the top left of the last photo.
Blower Part # 16-1032 Vendor: Surplus Center - www.surpluscenter.com
IMG_151.jpg


When you are ready, you can adapt them to use a PID controller like the plans Stacy has posted for accurate HT temperatures

I agree Ed's hammers are nice, I posted them as an example of how you can adapt a hammer to suit your own needs. It looks to me as if they start as a small sledge/club hammer. Every smith has lots of hammers adapted for different uses.

On Ed's hammers, notice the slight crowned face, the high degree of polish on the face and the rounded peen compared to the straight cross pein.
 
You can do good work with a cheap hammer, it just takes work to get it nice. Don't worry about swinging a 4# hammer, unless you're a framing carpenter swinging a hammer all day you're not going to have the muscles to do much with it. Use a 2.3-3# hammer to start with. Straight or angled peens are nice but you can do a lot with a cross pein and I still use my 4# cross for 80% of my forging. I'm looking at making/buying a Japanese style hammer but that's in the near future.

I started with a similar anvil as the one shown, my first anvil was a 8# sledgehammer in a bucket of concrete.
 
This is what I love about this forum, so many people wiling to help out and give advice. To be honest I just looked at IG's forge, I tend to have a one track mind and had already read about the other forge and and din't look to closely at IG's:o

So I guess I can put that 5 bucks in the Ed Caffrey hammer fund:p or donate it to IG.

Once again, thanks everyone for keeping me pointed in the right direction. Time to give the Indian George forge a good studying and hunt down the parts to build it up
 
I've heard a few recommendations (many on a blacksmith forum) that the best way to use railroad rail as an anvil is to set it on end as a post, maybe with a flat welded across the top.
 
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