Recent projects

[rule34]

/
OK. The Basics start with The anvil and hammers. There's more to the anvil than just hitting stuff on it. Its mass under the steel helps to concentrate and reflect the energy back into the piece. The main body is generally a mild steel or wrought iron with a hardened steel work face. Modern anvils are more likely cast steel due to how cheaply steel can be made now.

Depending on the work you're doing you work on different areas of the anvil. Drawing out, or lengthening the steel can be done anywhere on the anvil but is more efficient when working over the horn or the near or far edge. It concentrates the force of the blow onto a smaller surface area.

Basic squaring up, working a flat bar, or shaping a knife can be done on the waist where the anvil has most of its mass.

Making circles can be done several ways depending on the size and tools on hand. You can form it around the horn, use the step and the work surface of the anvil and gently bend it to a radius that way, or use a cone mandrel that comes in a number of sizes up to 4 feet tall.
I can do quick videos to show all off this if you want but I don't have a big ass mandrel yet.

The hardy hole is for tools. If you need a tool you can make it to fit in there. I'll actually take pictures of the ones I've made and put explanations by each. My main tools are the hot cut hardy, to cut steel over with a hammer when it's at least red hot, bending forks, and a guillotine tool for fullering and making tennons.

Pritchell hole is for when you are punching through steel mainly, it allows the slug, the piece of iron punched out of an opening, to drop away from the work surface so you don't forget it's there and set your hand on it...again. you can also use it for drifting, enlarging, holes. I start bottle openers like this.


Hammers, going from left to right
My three main hammers
Diagnol Pean hammer- one angle that works well for drawing out, or lengthing steel, one slightly round for general work

Rounding Hammer- all purpose. The round side can be used for widening, drawing out, and shaping. You can change the angle you hit with it to increase the force and shift the steel in a more controlled manner.
Flat face is for planishing, or smoothing and squaring up surfaces.

Dog's head or cutler's hammer- traditionally used for knife making and swords, is forward weight takes some getting used to.

Ask questions. The more I teach the better I learn and understand myself.

I have a friend who is a blacksmith, he has several pristine high dollar anvils. He has made wear plates to fit on top of them. If he ever caught you hammering on the anvils without the wear plates you would never be seen again

[Blast]

/
OK. The Basics start with The anvil and hammers. There's more to the anvil than just hitting stuff on it. Its mass under the steel helps to concentrate and reflect the energy back into the piece. The main body is generally a mild steel or wrought iron with a hardened steel work face. Modern anvils are more likely cast steel due to how cheaply steel can be made now.

Depending on the work you're doing you work on different areas of the anvil. Drawing out, or lengthening the steel can be done anywhere on the anvil but is more efficient when working over the horn or the near or far edge. It concentrates the force of the blow onto a smaller surface area.

Basic squaring up, working a flat bar, or shaping a knife can be done on the waist where the anvil has most of its mass.

Making circles can be done several ways depending on the size and tools on hand. You can form it around the horn, use the step and the work surface of the anvil and gently bend it to a radius that way, or use a cone mandrel that comes in a number of sizes up to 4 feet tall.
I can do quick videos to show all off this if you want but I don't have a big ass mandrel yet.

The hardy hole is for tools. If you need a tool you can make it to fit in there. I'll actually take pictures of the ones I've made and put explanations by each. My main tools are the hot cut hardy, to cut steel over with a hammer when it's at least red hot, bending forks, and a guillotine tool for fullering and making tennons.

Pritchell hole is for when you are punching through steel mainly, it allows the slug, the piece of iron punched out of an opening, to drop away from the work surface so you don't forget it's there and set your hand on it...again. you can also use it for drifting, enlarging, holes. I start bottle openers like this.


Hammers, going from left to right
My three main hammers
Diagnol Pean hammer- one angle that works well for drawing out, or lengthing steel, one slightly round for general work

Rounding Hammer- all purpose. The round side can be used for widening, drawing out, and shaping. You can change the angle you hit with it to increase the force and shift the steel in a more controlled manner.
Flat face is for planishing, or smoothing and squaring up surfaces.

Dog's head or cutler's hammer- traditionally used for knife making and swords, is forward weight takes some getting used to.

Ask questions. The more I teach the better I learn and understand myself.

I have a friend who is a blacksmith, he has several pristine high dollar anvils. He has made wear plates to fit on top of them. If he ever caught you hammering on the anvils without the wear plates you would never be seen again

That's a bit much. I do have a saddle that I made for when I'm cutting with a chisel to protect the face of the anvil but they are meant to be used, mine have likely all been through multiple lifetimes of use. I have one that I can definitely date to the 1860's. I need to refaced that one though. It's work face had broken free when I rescued it from the scrap yard.

Animal it does take a while to learn and a decent amount of space. It helps to have instruction but not needed. You'll still learn, it just takes longer.

Later this week I may actually try to make a simple video to upload showing some basics like anvil rebound and heating and moving the steel. You have a split second between each blow to assess the last, move the steel how you want it, ensure it's hot enough, determine how hard you need to hit it, what angle the hammer needs to be, where you want it on the anvil surface, and sometimes even regrip or spin your hammer to use the other side.

Thanks Ricrude!

[rule34]

/
OK. The Basics start with The anvil and hammers. There's more to the anvil than just hitting stuff on it. Its mass under the steel helps to concentrate and reflect the energy back into the piece. The main body is generally a mild steel or wrought iron with a hardened steel work face. Modern anvils are more likely cast steel due to how cheaply steel can be made now.

Depending on the work you're doing you work on different areas of the anvil. Drawing out, or lengthening the steel can be done anywhere on the anvil but is more efficient when working over the horn or the near or far edge. It concentrates the force of the blow onto a smaller surface area.

Basic squaring up, working a flat bar, or shaping a knife can be done on the waist where the anvil has most of its mass.

Making circles can be done several ways depending on the size and tools on hand. You can form it around the horn, use the step and the work surface of the anvil and gently bend it to a radius that way, or use a cone mandrel that comes in a number of sizes up to 4 feet tall.
I can do quick videos to show all off this if you want but I don't have a big ass mandrel yet.

The hardy hole is for tools. If you need a tool you can make it to fit in there. I'll actually take pictures of the ones I've made and put explanations by each. My main tools are the hot cut hardy, to cut steel over with a hammer when it's at least red hot, bending forks, and a guillotine tool for fullering and making tennons.

Pritchell hole is for when you are punching through steel mainly, it allows the slug, the piece of iron punched out of an opening, to drop away from the work surface so you don't forget it's there and set your hand on it...again. you can also use it for drifting, enlarging, holes. I start bottle openers like this.


Hammers, going from left to right
My three main hammers
Diagnol Pean hammer- one angle that works well for drawing out, or lengthing steel, one slightly round for general work

Rounding Hammer- all purpose. The round side can be used for widening, drawing out, and shaping. You can change the angle you hit with it to increase the force and shift the steel in a more controlled manner.
Flat face is for planishing, or smoothing and squaring up surfaces.

Dog's head or cutler's hammer- traditionally used for knife making and swords, is forward weight takes some getting used to.

Ask questions. The more I teach the better I learn and understand myself.

I have a friend who is a blacksmith, he has several pristine high dollar anvils. He has made wear plates to fit on top of them. If he ever caught you hammering on the anvils without the wear plates you would never be seen again

That's a bit much. I do have a saddle that I made for when I'm cutting with a chisel to protect the face of the anvil but they are meant to be used, mine have likely all been through multiple lifetimes of use. I have one that I can definitely date to the 1860's. I need to refaced that one though. It's work face had broken free when I rescued it from the scrap yard.

Animal it does take a while to learn and a decent amount of space. It helps to have instruction but not needed. You'll still learn, it just takes longer.

Later this week I may actually try to make a simple video to upload showing some basics like anvil rebound and heating and moving the steel. You have a split second between each blow to assess the last, move the steel how you want it, ensure it's hot enough, determine how hard you need to hit it, what angle the hammer needs to be, where you want it on the anvil surface, and sometimes even regrip or spin your hammer to use the other side.

Thanks Ricrude!

He uses them all the time. He has also built his own pneumatic hammers. Says he likes his shoulders and elbows to much to do it all by hand. He makes his own Damascus and makes knives primarily.

[Blast]

I actually do limit who gets to use my good anvil so I understand what he does.
I haven't played much with pattern welds or damascus, my forge is a bit unreliable for that, but I'm in the process of building a new one. The latest buzzword craze coming out is wootz steel or crucible steel. Gives an interesting pattern and dates back to BC in the Asian subcontinent. The way that some people do it though is only in name and not process.
I really like mixing it up and making everything, I have seen how well lessons learned in general smithing translate into blade smithing.

[CentralTexasCrude]

I actually do limit who gets to use my good anvil so I understand what he does.
I haven't played much with pattern welds or damascus, my forge is a bit unreliable for that, but I'm in the process of building a new one. The latest buzzword craze coming out is wootz steel or crucible steel. Gives an interesting pattern and dates back to BC in the Asian subcontinent. The way that some people do it though is only in name and not process.
I really like mixing it up and making everything, I have seen how well lessons learned in general smithing translate into blade smithing.

That idea about downloading some instructional videos sounds pretty good.

[Homebrew]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

[stonedmegman]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

Take my $$$.

[Animal]

is that all made out of one railroad spike?

[Biker]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

Well done!

[Homebrew]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

Well done!

It certainly is! Just not by me,just something that I saw on the intranets.

[Blast]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

Well done!

It certainly is! Just not by me,just something that I saw on the intranets.

I'll have one roughed up tonight. My actual plan for this evening in the shop was to get several bottle openers done to start stocking up for craft fair season and a couple of stores I have things in, but this looks like it may only take about 45 minutes or so to get it rough shaped. I actually am even going to try streaming it on twitch on the off chance anyone wants to watch. Just dm me for the channel name.

[Blast]

is that all made out of one railroad spike?

There is a lot of steel in one spike, depending on the gauge. I've got big ones that will work. It's a simple matter of drawing the blade out.

[Animal]

is that all made out of one railroad spike?

There is a lot of steel in one spike, depending on the gauge. I've got big ones that will work. It's a simple matter of drawing the blade out.

For "drawing the blade out" do you use a hammer or do you have one of those big pile driver things that i see on those blacksmith shows?

[CentralTexasCrude]

is that all made out of one railroad spike?

There is a lot of steel in one spike, depending on the gauge. I've got big ones that will work. It's a simple matter of drawing the blade out.

For "drawing the blade out" do you use a hammer or do you have one of those big pile driver things that i see on those blacksmith shows?

Neither. He just uses his head.

[Homebrew]

is that all made out of one railroad spike?

There is a lot of steel in one spike, depending on the gauge. I've got big ones that will work. It's a simple matter of drawing the blade out.

For "drawing the blade out" do you use a hammer or do you have one of those big pile driver things that i see on those blacksmith shows?

Neither. He just uses his head.

Well, he is a jarhead, so...

[Blast]

No, I don't have a power hammer, and I don't use my head, the anvil couldn't handle that. To be honest more than a couple of other smooths have made comments about how hard I can hit and how quickly I've shaped the steel.
Anyway I had to upset the real spike a bit, i mean force it back upon itself. So this was my second attempt tonight. This attempt took like 20 minutes at the end of the night, I'll finish it up tomorrow and Make a couple more. Not the best pictures. I'll get better tomorrow.

[stonedmegman]

No, I don't have a power hammer, and I don't use my head, the anvil couldn't handle that. To be honest more than a couple of other smooths have made comments about how hard I can hit and how quickly I've shaped the steel.
Anyway I had to upset the real spike a bit, i mean force it back upon itself. So this was my second attempt tonight. This attempt took like 20 minutes at the end of the night, I'll finish it up tomorrow and Make a couple more. Not the best pictures. I'll get better tomorrow.

What's a smooth?

[Blast]

No, I don't have a power hammer, and I don't use my head, the anvil couldn't handle that. To be honest more than a couple of other smooths have made comments about how hard I can hit and how quickly I've shaped the steel.
Anyway I had to upset the real spike a bit, i mean force it back upon itself. So this was my second attempt tonight. This attempt took like 20 minutes at the end of the night, I'll finish it up tomorrow and Make a couple more. Not the best pictures. I'll get better tomorrow.

What's a smooth?

A smooth is an autocorrected Smith.

[Blast]

Just an idea for you, I thought it looked kinda cool.

Take my $$$.

Second attempt. One more and I should have it nailed down.

[stonedmegman]

Impressive

[Animal]

The handle/blade proportions are off. The handle needs to be smaller in proportion to the size of the blade part. Also the twist needs to be tighter. I'm a world beknown blacksmith critic.

[Blast]

The handle/blade proportions are off. The handle needs to be smaller in proportion to the size of the blade part. Also the twist needs to be tighter. I'm a world beknown blacksmith critic.

The issue with the blade proportions as is, when I got done updsetting the spike it, shortens by almost an inch, reducing the overall space. As I have it now most people could get a still hand on the handle. To get the proportions correct I need to draw out the handle a bit so that I could lengthen the blade. This would make the handle thinner and affect the comfort. I can get the twist tighter or do variations on the twist but I need a bit more weight on my leg vise. I Haven't finalized the locations of equipment enough to want to bolt it down.
My other option is to forge Weld on a bit more material, perhaps even forge welding in a high carbon bit too make the blade tougher as opposed to the soft iron of a rail spike. The down side of that is my normal forge draws propane too quickly at the psi I need to get the heat and freezes up in winter, and my coal forge needs the doors open and it gets chilly in the shop letting all my heat out.
There is a third option that I am working on, a new, more efficient forge
My third version is going to happen tonight where i try some other changes. I may even do a version where I put a handle on it. This should be a good selling item this spring and summer.

[stonedmegman]

[Animal]

[Blast]

How half-assed