Utah hammer-in, well kind of.

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
this last Saturday i had planed om doing some forging to get some knives done that i needed to get forged out. bubba-doll (my girlfriend) and her roommate wanted to come play as well. so we all headed down to the shop. we all had a great time and i must admit i love teaching people how to make knive's. here are some pictures that where taken. the forge worked great as we could use both ends and have 2 people forging at once. They admitted that i was weird for forging sitting down and that next time we will do it standing for them. I forged 2 knives out and they each did one. there knives turned out very well for there first. they just forged down the stock to knife thickness and put some edge bevel and taper on them and we ground the shape from that. bubba-dolls knife did have a nice tip on it but it was to thin and had hardened and broke off. but i fixed it for her. I on the other hand forged both knives to finished shape. the dagger had a more rounded point that i reground but the clip point is 100 percent hand forged with no file or grinder work done to it. so lets see some pictures.


1.jpg


2.jpg

this is bubba-doll

3.jpg


4.jpg


5.jpg


6.jpg


7.jpg


8.jpg


9.jpg

in this picture you can see my knife on the right and bubba-dolls knife on the left.

10.jpg
 
11.jpg


12.jpg


13.jpg


14.jpg


15.jpg


16.jpg


17.jpg

here they are after sitting all night in the vinegar. mine are the 2 bottom ones. bubba-dolls is the second from the top.


mine did not turn out as well as i would have liked but there nice. i let the girls use my nice hammer as it was lighter coming in at 2.75 lbs while i use the home depot hammer that was 4 lbs. it was quite tricky doing finish work with that hammer. the face was not even reworked so it was kinda rounded. but o well it was a blast and we had fun.
 
Cool pics, JT.

Now for my usual avuncular advice.

YOU, and those in the forge area, need to wear eye protection.

Sunglasses look cool, but do little as UV/IR protection.

A child running through the forge area with a forge running and two sets of hot steel going is an accident waiting to happen

For the love of Pete, make a work table....get the equipment and the forging off the floor. When you are an advanced and accomplished forger, you can play with mixing meditation and forging, but for now leave the lotus position to those private moments in your happy place.

While I know that it is easier to say, " OH, I planned to leave the hammer marks on and use a Forge Finish Look", - you need to work on hammer control and scale control. The finished blades should not look like they were dug out of an ancient campfire. (You may want to turn down the air more on the forge burner). Having the hammer strike true to the steel will avoid those deep dings. If you are drawing the steel with the edge of the face (a rounded face or a peen is easier) you must forge the metal smooth after the draw. If not, those deep dents will have to be ground out (taking a 1/4" blade to 1/8") or they will be there forever. Saying it makes the blade look "ancient" is inaccurate, as ancient blades were usually forged and ground to a very good surface finish. What it makes the blade look like is one that was badly rusted. I believe that once you finish those blades, and the ones you forged out the other day, you will see the problem.

I see nowhere in the photos that there is a nearby fire extinguisher, and/or water bucket.Along with a running forge, grinder sparks, and hot blades....... I also see a propane tank, a car, cardboard, flammable kids, and pretty women with long hair.....You don't want to see what the results would be in an emergency when two of these mix, without fire protection. BTW, a baseball cap with the pony tail pulled through the back is far safer. A scrunchy or rubber band can pop off at the worst time, releasing a flow of hair into the dragons breath or down onto a 1800F blade.

On a teaching note -
I like your forge mates and your enthusiasm. You have an abundant amount of energy and ideas. This is good. Learning with friends is a fun thing and it does help you learn. But,When you are on your first 5-10 forged knives, you really can't call it "teaching people how to make knives". It would be better to say, "Together we were learning how to make knives", or "I was showing them how I make knives." ( just a semantic thing mostly).

Take good care of Bubba-doll and those friends....and keep hammerin' away at the steel,too.
Stacy
 
I wish pretty girls would forge in my shop.
Stacy tends to be safety oriented doesnt he? IMO he is right. Those girls would not look good with an eye patch. This is dangerous stuff we all do. Get them some deer hide welding gloves too. Take it from us old guys, weve been on fire more than once.
 
I must admit i felt a little put out after reading stacys post but i have to remember that he just wants me to be safe and have fun.
i do get a little gung-ho and excited about stuff, i will try and be more safe. I do realize that i am just starting in the forging world but so far i love it and want to continue my journey. My biggest problem that i have seen is that i pound the scale into the blade leaving a pore Finnish. I also need to work on heat control to reduce scale formation. It is defentley harder then it looks. thanks for all the comments.
 
A welding brush (wire brush) is all you need. Every heat, brush the red hot billet as it comes out of the forge. That way you are hammering steel, not scale. Also, brush the scale off the anvil after each heat.

JT, You know I wasn't picking on you. I really want you to excel at this. As with forging, control is the main ingredient.

BTW, you and Bubba-doll will have a package coming next week.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
A welding brush (wire brush) is all you need. Every heat, brush the red hot billet as it comes out of the forge. That way you are hammering steel, not scale. Also, brush the scale off the anvil after each heat.

JT, You know I wasn't picking on you. I really want you to excel at this. As with forging, control is the main ingredient.

BTW, you and Bubba-doll will have a package coming next week.
Stacy
Click to expand...

Ya i know you wasn't picking on me ;) O a package how exciting.
 
Is her roomate single???? ;) :D

Jarod, that piece of steel would actually make a pretty decent post anvil if you turn it up on end and build a good base to support it. Having the mass under your hammer/work is the way to be.

Thanks for sharing your mini-hammer-in :)
 
so i should weld a base to the bottom of the anvil and use the 4.5" x 5.5" end to forge on. if i do that then i will weld on a thick chink of hardened S7 :D
 
That would work great Jarod. The huge face on my anvil is nice when I need it, but the majority of the time I'm working in the same 5-7" square area.

I think you'd be much happier with it as an anvil that way! (and less bent over/sitting down ;) :) ).
 
That's a really personal call Jarod. The old rule of thumb was a height that would allow your knuckes to just kiss the face of the anvil if you're standing up straight next to it.

My anvil is a few inches higher than that, just past my wrist.

That's low enough I can really whallop a piece of steel with a 12lb. hammer if I want to (I don't usually want to, lmao) but high enough to be pretty easy to see what I'm doing... especially important on the detail work.

I have thought about making a small post anvil that would be mounted so as to be damn near chest height, just for the tiny detail/refrining work. I'm talking a real minimum of tap, tap, taps... not actually moving much.
 
Yeah,
Stacy is giving good info on safety, especially eye protection.

I have my anvil much higher so I can work standing straight up, us old guys tend to have bad backs and want to do anything to preserve what's left. My anvil is almost at the level of my right elbow which keeps you from hyperextending your elbow joint. Good advice I took from Don Fogg. No more shoulder, elbow or wrist pain. Who would have thought that raising the anvil up much higher than normal would have such a benefit. Besides, working on the floor is a real pain.

Have great fun, but be safe. We all would hate to hear that either one of you was hurt.

Also, try wetting the surface of the anvil as you forge. The steam generated will help to blow the scale off the piece. Wet hammer too.

Bill
 
the only problem i see is that the bar is onley 24" long and it seams like i need something around 30-33". I have a 6-7" round of S7 that is around 5 or so inches tall that i could weld onto the top of it. any ideas any one. at my work we have a huge round of what i think is 4150 it's probably around 9" in diameter and like 8 feet long. the boss said he would sell me some but what would be a good price to offer per pound. it's just sitting there and i don't think it has been touched in years and years.
 
Jarod, weld a heavy flange to the bottom of that stick so that you can bolt it to some wood. Build a base out of something like layered plywood, 2X4's, 4X4's, etc, that will get it up to the right height. Just like a regular anvil base... only much shorter :)

You could also just build up the 2X4's around the first 12" of the stick and that would probably hold it pretty rigid.

If memory serves me right, Chuck Richards posted pics of something like this.:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top