Tradition

[sparkamp]

I see that that even some amateurs are using Power hammers . What for ? . To me it is more important to develop the skills of hammering . One needs to get the feel of the hammer and the iron . Fair enough , with commercial repetitive jobs one can see the need for it . But , with all due respect -----what are blacksmiths strong arms for ???----- Lets not loose the most treasured thing in life -----Tradition . No offense to anybody , These are my thoughts . Kind regard to all , Alan.

[matt87]

Smiths traditionally used low carbon wrought iron rather than the c. 20-30 point carbon 'mild' steels used these days. They also often had helpers with big sledges.

[ApprenticeMan]

Alan, you want to talk tradition? Power hammers in one form or another have been around since before roman times, in the form of water powered beam helve hammers. Power hammers are as big a part of the blacksmith shop traditionally as most any other.

I think however the argument can be made against LAZYNESS .

[Rich Hale]

I also feel that some of the folks new to smithing are not spending enough time on learning basic skills. There are a handfull of tasks that should be done until they become as easy as turning the key in a lock. Ability to move those chores to the right brain along with the muscle memory patterns that go with it will get a smith farther down the road in less time without the frustrations of being unable to finish a piece due to lack of basics.

[ThomasPowers]

Tradition for pretty much the entire span of this our Iron/Steel age would have us with *several* trained strikers in our shop as "hobby shops" are non-traditional.

I can afford 3 trained strikers so I do what was traditional in such cases and equip up!

BTW I have no electricity in my shop currently is that traditional enough? (Had to park my powerhammer at a friends place in the country for about a decade...)

[mike-hr]

My elbow has a finite number of hammer blows in it. I don't know what that number may be, but I hope it's one more than i need before I die. A lot of forging is isolating a length of stock to a dimension, then making that section different than original. I use a guillotine fuller to get that dimension, and feel just fine PHammering the original section to pretty close, and finishing with a hand hammer. I haven't seen anyone yet who was competant at power hammer forging with out having a strong background at the anvil first. That's a great question, and i feel worthy of my best guess of a response. At local hammer-ins, we all still love getting one to eight strikers together and see what can happen, but I would hate to pay for that many employees.

[Fionnbharr (finn:-)]

Rich Hale had a most excellent suggestion. Master the basics before moving on. Doing things a hundred times til you can do it in your sleep practically is the way to really honestly develop your skills. Being able to show off the fruit of those skills will earn beginners the respect we all crave.

Sadly, most people don't have the patience to take the time, and do the dumb repetitive work that is required to get really good at this. Everyone wants a shortcut, but in the long run there are no shortcuts, some paths are better than others, but still it is a long road, and takes a lot of effort to get good at this or any other art or skill. A power hammer adds capacity and potential(, you have a greater capacity to make mistakes, and a greater potential to hurt yourself and your tools;-) Seriously you can work bigger stock and take on more ambitious projects with a power hammer. But that doesn't make you a better smith really...

A Great smith can do Great work with mediocre tools, look at all the medieval iron work. By our modern standards their tools were uniformly substandard(, for the most part, the highly decorated armourers tools that were used to impress rich clients rock;-). A good smith can do better work with good tools, but he still isn't going to bump up to doing great work, just because he has all the latest and greatest tools. (To be honest I fall in this category probably, cause I find my tooling more limiting that I would like;-) A beginner is going to do beginner work, it will be easier with really nice tools, but it will still be beginner work. Once you really know what your looking at, and can see the processes in the design, it becomes easy to see, who is an artist, who is a master, who is a journeyman, who is a beginner, and who just has poor taste;-)

Learning to do the work with just basic tools will add tools to your mental toolbox, which you always have with you (atleast until you forget things like I do;-) But Mike is also very right in saying none of us know how many hammer blows we have in our arms, and lightening the burden of the stupid part of the work is a Godsend. My hands creak and pop when I flick my fingers out to full extension, and sound aweful, and don't feel too good either. I need to do all with in my power to protect my hands, so I can continue to make a living, a power hammer helps with that. If this were just a hobby to me, would I cough up for a power hammer (probably not, if money were still tight like it is now;-( but I might build one as a fun project to enable me to embark on other fun projects;-)

Another issue is how you begin to think if you have a power hammer... Volume become very important, you can work a larger volume of steel. You can isolate material, and do all kinds of wonderful three handed tricks. Including drawing out those lovely long tapers in heavy stock. But power hammer work requires you add another drawer to your mental tool box, because translating hand forging techniques to the power hammer isn't always easy or obvious...

I would talk longer, but I am on baby duty, and she is being cranky... ;-)

[Dale Russell]

G'Day all , long story short i had shoulder surgery about 4 yrs ago , find swinging even a 2 lb hammer these days hard ,, i'm an " amateur " , still love my days in shop but need that extra help a power hammer ( in my case a 15 kg Anyang ) will offer me .

Dale Russell

[Lamey Knives]

Remember, its just another TOOL, and a tradtional one in my view, it does not "replace" the hand hammer or knowledge to use it.

I used a hand hammer for about 10 years before I ever used a Power Hammer. I primarily forge knives, about 99.5% of what I do. So im working with either tool or high carbon steels exclusively. The primary steel I use is W-2, in round bar form, from 1-1/4" up to 2" rounds. A power hammer sure makes working that big round bar much easier than doing it by hand, tried it both ways.

To me a Power Hammer DOES NOT REPLACE the hand hammer, it AUGMENTS the hand hammer. I do this for a living, and the power hammer is the prime tool in my shop for effeciency, and that is extremely important when every dollar you make is from that shop.

I do agree that a 'smith should learn to use his hand hammer, learn the basics, learn what to hit, why and where. I relate it to bladesmiths that start making pattern welded steel (damascus) before they even learn how to make a good knife out of plain carbon steel. The difference is you can learn the basics of your craft and still learn to use a Power Hammer. As a matter of fact if you learn the basics, and learn to use a power hammer, your craft will have more room to "breath". Just opens up more opportunity, and if your also trying to make a dollar, it speeds things up WITHOUT sacrificing quality or "tradition".

[dablacksmith]

power hammers are nothing but a bigger mussle that dosnt wear out... if you cant forge a power hammer just proves it and can hurt you... but if you like working in bigger stock (anything bigger than 1/2 inch) they are almost mandatory . Ive been forgeing for 25 years and havnt always had a hammer... most of what i make i dont need one but .. it limits what i can economically make . I will have one running soon and am looking fowards to it. As far ans beginners useing um i can understand it . I have a couple of friends that have a fairly weak arm ...And some of them will never be able to swing a hammer like i do but they can still work bigger iron with a trip hammer . as far as "tradition" ive heard this argument many times but ... hammers are traditional! trip hammers go back in history in the americas to the 17th century ! and much earlier in europe! and all ironwork was at one time or another "industrial" if you read the book "pounding out the profits" you will see that power hammers were used for many things some of them fairly small (knife blades). so i figure when i hear the argument about tradition that the person dosnt really know history .. the first mechanical hammer built similar to a little giant was patented in 1866. prior to that trip hammers and steam hammers were in abundance ! now your village blacksmith might no have had a hammer... he had 3 aprentices in stead ! also he was not doing a lot of makeing he was more a repair man..