Suggestions Needed! - Turning A 3lb Sledge Into A Swinging Flatter

[chandlerdickinson]

I have posed this in a couple other sites and was met with mixed response....  Some were constructive and some were critical but when posting I asked a question and nobody seemed to answer that...  

 

The Question was

 

Have you ever tried to do this no striker, simple tools, hammer and anvil only?  If so what can I do to reduce the 5 hours of hammering and/or to get a wider face on the finished hammer?  

 

I would like to do this again but don't want to find myself spending 5 hours at it again....

 

So please, especially if you have done this or something like it... give me some tricks...  

 

 

Thanks

 

[Glenn]

Look into a anvil tool to help reshape the hammer head. Brian Brazeal shows this type tool in his videos.

 

>This is an example

Instead of a striker you can use a spring fuller or a guillotine tool.

 

tooling for the hammer

Start at 9:39 to look at the tooling. The tooling is the same for hand hammering, just takes more effort by hand.

[PaulKrzysz]

Make a tool like the one shown here

 

You can then upset the steel with a sledgehammer to the shape you want (Like making a rivet), once it is upset, punch and drift a eye hole.

[chandlerdickinson]

i was able to get the fuller okish... i tried a spring fuller but it was not very effective...  guillotine might have worked but have not built one yet... but to flatten and spread the head out just didn't work too well...  the swage block in the video above would be useful but how much do you think it would cost to by the steel just to make that?  I am sure I am not the only guy out there going to flea markets and buying hammer heads and wanting to turn them into specific hammer styles because we don't have money to buy stock..lol...

 

thanks for the pointers!

[ThomasPowers]

Do you really need a lot bigger face than the sledge? The force gets distributed so a face just the right size is more efficient.

Personally I don't work much that a sledge wouldn't cover. (and tend to use the screwpress now anyways)

[PaulKrzysz]

You might be too hung up on how a flatter should 'should' look like.

 

As Thomas suggested, just find a sledge, anneal one end as the striking end, dress the other end and use it.

It does not need to have a large, upset, square face. Especially when working alone, a 2.5'' square face could be too large.

[Eddie Mullins]

It some point I  plan to build a flatter, and my intention is to weld a larger face onto smaller stock. I have some 5160 (read as leaf spring) I think will do a nice job for the face.

 

I am admittedly still pretty new to smithing, but what do you mean a swinging flatter? You do not intend to use it as a top tool, but rather as a hammer?

[chandlerdickinson]

Thanks for the comments... I was not really working toward a specific shape as much as I was trying to get a wider face. I call it a swinging flatter because all I have seen as real flatters were a receiving tool hit by a sledge. I intent to swing this one mostly as I work alone and intent to make a brass hammer soon for those time I might be able to strike this one. Thanks again for the comments and suggestions

[ThomasPowers]

I find that the gentle rocker face on my swedish cross pein does a great job of leaving a smooth flat face on my work with proper hammer control.

[rockstar.esq]

Chandler,

 

It's my understanding that the reason for a gentle crown on a "flat" hammer face is to counteract human error.  A truly flat face swung into the work tends to leave scars where the edges of the flat strike the work.

 

I made a "set hammer" out of a little cheapo engineer's drilling hammer.  I annealed the entire head then used an angle grinder to flatten one side  and chamfer the other.  The flat side is probably 2" square.

 

I left it soft to reduce the risk of chipping.  I don't wedge the handle on since it's easier to fix should the striker break it. 

[Francis Trez Cole]

An other option to make a flatter Just weld a piece of metal to one face of the hammer I used a piece of 3"x3"x1/2" it works great time spent making the tool 15 min.

[David Gaddis]

I think francis is mostly correct here..except there will be a conflict by many when welding hardened metal without pre-heating.

we have started using set hammers and flatters anfd found the quality of out work to improve greatly. Personlly I think the set hammer should hve differentially hrdened face with a soft satriking surface. As for a swinging flatter i see little real good here when some type of welded surface or widened face will surfice for the the flatter job. two years ago we made 5 flatters by striking and it consumed the whole afternoon. Th quality was outstanding and it remains a prized tool.

 

So here I should suggest for a simple one man band to weld a flat plate about 2-1/2 or so square and about 1/2 or 3/4 thick to a nice drilling hammer head, while being sure to soften the striking surface to prevent shatter.

 

enjoy this project.

 

David G

 

carry on

[arkie]

I didn't have a flatter and needed one in a hurry one day...no time to try to forge one.  As David mentioned the "one man band", and Francis' comment as well, I made one with a piece of axle, 3/8" plate and a handle of 1/2" bar with a pineapple twist.  Wish I would have had some 1/2" plate instead of the thinner 3/8", but so far it's holding up well.  This one is not a hammer but is a struck tool.

 

I did preheat the axle and plate with a propane torch for a considerable time prior to welding.  The welds look like Fido's B*tt, but they have held up well.  Some day I'll make a real flatter. 

 

[Frosty]

A couple thoughts here. I vote for Francis' suggestion though it isn't necessary to use a hammer for the body, almost any piece of steel an inch or better will do. Planishing with a hammer rather than a top tool is a matter of muscle memory and skill. Good things to develop.

 

Many years ago there was a place in Anchorage called Bob's Closeout and it was a font of cheap stuff from appliances, furniture, tools etc. etc. Whatever came in in the container. I picked up quite a bit of stuff for my, then, mudroom shop on the mobile home. There were always a bunch of Chinese hammers and the ones I kind of wondered why about were just square faced blocks from 500gm to 2,000gm. I think they just sawed sq. bar to size and punched the eyes though the faces had a nice finish.

 

Anyway I picked up a couple sets and have used them as planishing hammers, sharp edges and all. They work fine but believe me you have to strike parallel to the work's face or the edge will leave chisel cut marks. Wicked good practice, even after I radiused the edges.

 

My favorite is a turning hammer Metalmangler (Mark) oversaw as I made from a piece of broken Ford pickup truck axle, Mark's pickup unfortunately. It's square in profile so I can work right against a shoulder planishing. One of these days I intend to make another, heavier square profile turning hammer I like this one so  much.

 

So, that's it. If you want a planishing hammer just flatten one face of one you like. If you want a flatter no need to upset such heavy stock, welding a face onto an appropriate body is sooooo much easier and has no down side. It's easy greasy, it's a top tool so it doesn't need a hammer handle, just something comfortable in your hand and of a shape to make positioning it a matter of reflex with practice.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[anvil]

my critique, which you don't want, is your use of a flatter as a swung tool.

also I would dress the crosspeen to 1/2" flat instead of being so sharp and rounded.

as far as upsetting the end, no matter what you now know just what is meant by " an upsetting experience" :)

as far as technique, I wouldn't weld on a handle and swing/ drop it as you did. I would make sure the working end was a good ( deep soaked) yellow, and the other end kept cool. then use an 6-8 lb single jack along with your lighter hand hammer to upset.

next hold the material in the horizontal and use your lighter hammer, a 1-1/2 lb, and get a good dome.



to get more width, the cruder way would be to hang it over the edge of the anvil and use your crosspeen from the center working the dome down and out rotating to do all 4 sides. this will put a lot of dings in your fullered area and need cleanup later on.

the cleaner way is to make a hardy tool like a side hack with a radius better matched to the radius of your fuller and proceed as above.

most important--- keep her hot. when she's yellow, she's mellow, when red she's dead!

experience will decrease time and suggest new tools to reach your ends.

I think your way of doing this is a great way to achieve your flatter, and what you will learn is money in the bank!

by hammer in hand, and no striker! Excellent! Not to mention the beauty and esthetics you have achieved already.

[chandlerdickinson]

Thanks for all the comments and suggetions!!!

[Timothy Miller]

I once hand forged a flatter.  I upset the end of a 2" truck axel made the widest face I could about 3" round.  I then punched the eye.  It was a job.  Those masons hammers are sometimes higher carbon steel, thus harder to forge. The current trend towards 1045 hammers may have made you think it was less of a task than it really was.  That hammer was probally more like 1060 as a masons hammer it needed some abrasion resistance.  I did have acces to a swage block to form a nice sholder.  I wanted it to look like a classsic flatter a mark of pride and skill.  Forging a flatter with no other tools than an anvil and hammer is a even harder job.