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Hydraulic Forging Press For The Blacksmith by Randy McDaniel


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This is one of the first reviews by Albin Drzewianowskiof my new book which came out in August:

 

Title: Hydraulic Forging Press for the Blacksmith

Author:  Randy McDaniel

Publisher  Skip Jack Press, an Imprint of Finney Co. Apple Valley, MN.   2014

ISBN:   978-1-879535-29-9

192 pages, Contact List of Suppliers and Artists, Index, and Author's Biography.

Numerous color photographs and drawings.

 

This book will not help you build a hydraulic forging press but it will help you understand what such a tool can do for the metalsmith and how to go about getting such a tool and setting it up in your shop.  Randy McDaniel, an accomplished user of this type of press, will give you the background to determine whether this type of tool would be of benefit to your shop.

 

The book starts off with  a brief history of the press and then follows up with Randy's personal journey into press work.  Next is a very important section in which Randy compares and contrasts the many types of presses out there including the punch press, fly press, and drop hammer. There are chapters on safety and press maintenance followed by 4 chapters on making and using tooling.   The book concludes with chapters on working with pipe and sheet metal and finally an excellent assortment of gallery pictures showing pressed ironwork by Randy and other metalsmiths.

 

If there is one continuous thread through the book, it is SAFETY.  Starting on page VI, Randy spells out, very bluntly, how dangerous these machines can be if proper materials and protocols are not followed.  When using 30 to 200 TON machines, there is little room for mistakes.  To quote Randy, “... They can incapacitate, maim or kill you or others around you.”  and, “Power does not ignore ignorance, it magnifies it!

 

Over the last couple of years the hydraulic press has become very popular with knife makers and has now spilled over to blacksmiths.  This book is important because it helps the smith understand how the press is different from either a hand hammer or a power hammer.  The hot metal “squishes” under the force of the ram; much different than what happens under the impact of a hammer.

 

Chapter 5 goes over PRESS CONTRUCTION.  If you are going to either build or buy a press this chapter goes over what to look for and what to avoid.   This is followed by Chapter 6 which covers the pros vs cons of building compared to buying a press.

 

Like the treadle hammer and the fly press, on obtaining a press (whether you build one yourself or you buy one), you have just scratched the surface.  The utility of this tool is in the tooling that is used in the press.  As with the treadle hammer, power hammer and fly press, little in the way of tooling is available commercially.  Generally you need to make it yourself.  Given the large tonnage that you will be using with a hydraulic press, proper design and materials for the press tooling is critical for safety and success.  Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12 cover the philosophy behind tooling, how to make the tooling and then how to use the tooling safely.  Along with the tools that are shown here, Randy has accompanying pictures of metalwork created using those particular tools.  In my opinion, this may be the most important part of the entire book.

 

The book concludes with Chapters 15 and 16 showing galleries of press work by Randy and by 15 other metalsmiths, 2 from Spain and Serbia and the rest from around the US.  These 38 pages in Chapter 16 are especially useful as they include pictures of the different presses, home-made and commercial, used by the metalsmiths along with the tooling and the results possible.

 

A very well written book, one that belongs on every blacksmith's bookshelf,  it really makes you want to get a press.  The chapters on tooling have given me lots of ideas for tooling to use under my treadle hammer and fly press.  

 

 

 

Cover1A.bmp

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