Show me your mechanical hammer

[Ten Hammers]

25 lb Kerrihard. I can attest to Junior's Depew working well. Knocked the snot out of a piece of 1 " square and drew it to a nice fine end in one heat. Wish I had one.

[oakwoodforge]

Here is my baby, LG 25 #

[Daryl]

Here is my 25# Jardine, the Canadian Giant. Purchased it from a good friend last Autumn. I have since made a brake for it and mounted a 2hp 115v motor on the top. As the hammer will soon be lineshaft driven, I left the pulley flat and machined a flat drive pulley for the motor.
I used to have a 15# Kerrihard, nice little hammer. At the time I needed other 'stuff' and horse-traded it away.

[irnsrgn]

I can't figure out why everybody is putting a brake on their LG's, my 50 Lg stops when I let up on the clutch.

[skunkriv]

Having a brake on a mechanical hammer is handy when you are using tooling. Butchers, spring fullers, hacks etc. They stop when you want where one more lick might ruin your piece. You can also ease the hammer around and stop it in the right place so you can do just one blow when you need to. It also lets you stop your hammer in the up position so it is easy to place your tooling on the die.

Over at Sid's last weekend Phil Cox made an anvil on a 25 and many of the operations required one hit or very soft controlled blows.

Jr.-Sid had four Depews in the lineup outside. The two big ones were about the same. The two smaller ones were bench models that had been put on frames. One had the wood helve and a coil spring and the other had an iron helve and a leaf spring.

[irnsrgn]

aah, thanks skunk, I only used my 50 for drawing plow lays.

[skunkriv]

Though I have talked with a lot of folks about sharpening plow lays over the last 23 yrs I had never actually seen it done until last weekend at Sid's when Bob Bergman sharpened two on the first 25# LG ever made. He gave a long talk on it and Phil Cox had a lot to add. Bob had sharpened many as he was taught by the smith he bought his shop from in the 60's. However he was never a farmer. Phil had a lot to add about both horse drawn and tractor plowing. He showed how the line of pull went from the horse through the rigging and to the plow so it would pull straight and at the right depth depending on the type of ground. Bob said how in the 60's he would do maybe 50 plows a year that decreased over the years to 30, 10 and then nothing. Over the last several years he gets 2 or 3 in the shop every year from people plowing at antique power shows etc. Though he works on megabuck architectural projects he is still a country blacksmith and takes on any job that comes in the door.

PS-Jr-Thank you for thanking me so I can have my thanks registered on the thank you meter

[irnsrgn]

thru the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's, my dad and uncle used to do at least a hundred lays a day between them, except for the 40's and early 60's when I was in the Navy, I either ground or polished every one of them. now you know why I can't hear.

[HWooldridge]

Twenty years ago, I would resharpen sweeps on occasion but have no call for it anymore. I did have one guy come in and want three lays done for a mule plowing competition. The plow work is gone.

[kevan]

Here`s mine. 40kg tup Anyang, Smooth, robust and really great control.