After making a bunch of different stuff, such as a potters wheel and pots with it, painting etc. I got interested in carving wood and stone. I noticed that all of the best chisels were made by blacksmiths by hand! So I decided to learn blacksmithing to make some chisels, got a bunch of books and did too much research before I finally made my first forge.
After a few years and joining a local blacksmithing group I still hadn't made a chisel yet, got hooked on making more artistic stuff with the forge and anvil. A very fullfilling diversion from my original idea of what I was going to make!
Now I have my greatgrandfathers blacksmithing hammer, which my grandfather had brazed a metal handle onto. I anealed the head, ground off the mushroom(it had lost it's temper when the handle was brazed on), filed a proper profile on both sides of it(it was a machinist type hammer), then wraped the metal handle(which used to have leather rings on it) with twine.
The twine wrapping works GREAT, wraped tightly, one has great hammer control, the twine absorbs sweat from the hand, and gives a cushion from the hammer blow. I greatly prefer it over a wooden handle.
Caleb Ramsby
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