ofafeather

If you pay full price for one of Mark's books, you did not pay enough.

After actually working through it, if you would not pay double for it, read and use it again.

There is a reason you are not finding them used.

His book arrived yesterday and I have been thrilled reading it. Can't wait to go out and practice!

Hi, all. Just had to have the rotors replaced on my front brakes. I asked them to save the old ones for me and now have a pair. Anything useful to do with them? What are they made of? They are from a Prius.

Thanks!

Eric

Yeah ... I found out about the DVD at the end of a YouTube video where Hofi talks about his hammers (the video gave absolutely no useful information about how the hammering system works though).

So now ... after shelling out OVER $150.00 (after shipping) for this new hammer, I have to shell out more money for the "instruction manual"?

That's 2 hits to my wallet ... I got a problem with that. I don't appreciate those kinds of marketing tactics.

I realize Hofi hammers are hand made high quality tools, but I think that it should at least come with a pamphlet or instruction booklet explaining how to use the hammer properly. People could still choose to buy the DVD afterwards if they need a more visual tutorial.

As much as I respect all that Hofi has done to revitalize the blacksmithing trade and pass on his skill, I have to say that this experience has not left a great impression on me, especially when I think about what other tools I could have bought with that money instead. Instead I just ended up with a high-priced hammer in my tool box which I still don't use as often as my other hammers. I do use it, and I'll probably, gradually, use it more often (since I did pay a lot of money for it), but I don't think I'll ever buy another Hofi hammer.

For my future hammers, I'll probably look to Nathan Robertson or maybe even Brian Brazeal - I like the look of these hammers and I'm interested to find out how they feel. But I probably won't buy another Hofi.

Sam, I agree with you about the hit on the wallet. Went through it myself. At the same time, I just bought a hammer from Brent Bailey. It's fantastic and cost about the same as the Hofi. Didn't come with instructions, either(although Brent did spend a lot of time with me on the phone). If you buy a hammer from Brian Brazeal or Nathan Roberston I don't think you'll get instructions either. (Does Brian sell his hammers? I want one!) If you take a hammer making class with Brian you'll come away with a lot more than a hammer (from what I hear and can tell by watching his videos).

The thing is, Hofi is a fantastic smith with the certain style and philosophy. Just like any other smith, if you want to learn from that person you either have to take a lesson in person, watch a video or read a book. It's just the way that it is. You mention marketing - Hofi really doesn't market. Try finding a distributor for his products. He's not selling his system. He's a working smith who also teaches. He's selling a hammer of a certain design that happens to work with his style of smithing. WE market for him.

Someone made a video of him teaching about his ergonomic technique while he was doing a class here in the states and that is sold to people who are interested in learning more. Other smiths have similar instructional videos to teach certain skills that they feel they can share. It's just like any other DVD or book out there. Pay to play.

Would it be great if it came with the hammer? Absolutely! Instructions would be fantastic for those of us who are learning on their own. Maybe they'll just jack up the price and include the DVD? Who knows.

I was hoping to take a class with Hofi this past January but it was during the week and I couldn't get off from work. I would go take some classes with Brian Brazeal if I were closer. Maybe next summer. For me for now it's a book here, a video there, time spent on the forum. Most importantly will be hammer time and the limited time I can spend with other smiths (rare) at a hammer-in.

Anyway, just my impressions.

Not if you PUSH the blade into the material. I have a 3HP 20" DeWalt that I picked up off CL here that I was looking to also use as a chop saw. Pull the saw out to the end, and lock. Clamp the material down. Turn saw on, and push the abrasive blade through the item.

Good thought. Amazing how versatile the radial arm saw can be considering all the housing can angle, bevel and lock in many positions.

When you say 20", what does that measurement mean? I called mine a 9" because that's the size of the blade it takes. Does yours take a 20" blade?!? I guess at 3HP it might at that. Must be some rig!

Sure! You could use any drying oil that way. Raw linseed, walnut, poppyseed, MANY possibilities. None of them make good sense in most cases though. Almost invariably good finishing oils are much more expensive than needed for quenching purposes and the scale and charcoal introduced by the quenching degrades the oils for finishing purposes. Therefore it makes good sense to use different oils for each of these purposes. You will usually need larger quantities of your quenching oil and finishing oils go a very long way when used on metal surfaces. So you could usually buy them in small amounts.

Makes sense. Okay, good quenching oil?

A radial arm saw climb cuts. That is where you pull the blade in the same direction as the blade is pulling itself. Climb cutting in steel by hand would be very dangerous, I would just use it for wood.

I was thinking along the same line.

On 8/10/2010 at 5:26 PM, son_of_bluegrass said:

The modern way to "boil" linseed oil it to add chemical driers to it. It generally isn't boiled anymore (some specialty place carry it at quite a mark-up). Frequently the chemicals contain heavy metals (cobalt is common). I try not to breath the fumes and vapors from whatever oil i'm quenching in but to minimize my risk even further, I avoid using oils that may have such additives (motor oil, ATF, anything that says "boiled" etc).
Of course, it's your body. You need to decide what risks you are willing to take.

 

Is there a good oil that you can safely use as a quench and finish?

 

Can boiled linseed oil be used for quenching or if you use linseed does it have to be raw? I know you can use it for finishing. Can you dip "warm" metal in it? Thanks!~Eric

I saw a radial arm saw with a belt gringer attachemnt that was used as a poor mans surface grinder at an NWBA conference a few years back. I think that would make a hand tool.

brad

Well, got the radial arm saw. Ended up just costing me the sweat to haul it and a little gas! It's a great 9" DeWalt from the 50's. Pretty neat. Think I'll just use it for wood for now. Thanks for the input.

Eric

BTW, if you do buy tongs (and I have) I'll add my voice in suggesting Off-Center brand. Grant Sarver is a member of this board and he makes excellent tools that he backs with a lifetime guarantee He'll replace them even if they get run over by a truck!

Cool but... can't afford it :mellow:

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought. While the radial arm would be more powerful I don't think it would be great for cutting metal either. Thanks!

Hi, All. I have a standard chop saw for cutting wood. A friend of mine is offering me an old radial arm saw for next to nothing. i am wondering if that would be useful at all to me for cutting metal? Doesn't seem like it to me (maybe I'm missing something?) but can I put a metal cutting blade on the chopsaw to use it for cutting metal or does it have to be a specific type of chopsaw? If I could do that then I could set the radial arm saw for crosscutting wood and use the chopsaw for metal. Any thoughts?

I think you covered it very well, ofafeather.

Thanks, Brian! I'm learning.

Cheers,
Eric

I have just started trying to learn how so it has been frustrating.

Me too! Maybe I'll try a different piece of steel.

Please correct me if i am wrong..... but i recall someone telling me that bettween the handle and the hammer he would put silocone.....

There is another thread around somewhere - he uses a construction adhesive http://www.sika.com.au/cmc/Datasheets/tds/Sikaflex11FC_tds.pdf

This is to secure the head and to absorb some of the impact so it doesn't travel up the handle.

Hofi made hammers are great tools in a specific style. There is a DVD out there on the Hofi ergonomic system - I bought mine from Glen. Hammering styles vary so much. The Hofi approach is geared toward two things: limiting the impact if hammering on the body and maximizing the effectiveness of the hammer stroke. Mostly it involves increasing the velocity of the hammer by using the joints in your shoulder, elbow and wrist to create acceleration. The grip that he uses is more with his fingers than his hand. The handle is more rectangular in cross section, though some of the hard angles are removed. His fingers, loosely holding the sides of the handle near the head, guide the orientation of the hammer to the anvil. The basic stance has the hammer handle parallel with the anvil. The handle is short because a longer handle would hit the anvil in this orientation, especially if you are holding it closer to the head.

Someone mentioned using the edge of the hammer to fuller the material and that's what Hofi does. His fingers control the angle of tilt of the hammer and once it's heading in the right direction it becomes almost a throw - the shoulder starts it, then the elbow adds more acceleration, then the wrist. Lastly, he uses his fingers to the hammer pivot forward in his hand to get even more acceleration. At the moment of impact the grip is loose. A tight grip would put impact on the body and would also stop the rebound of the hammer. Because of the loose grip the hammer head is balanced. What they really mean by that is that the center of gravity is near the eye. Many hammers are weight forward on the main face. That means if you are using a loose grip the face would not stay in the orientation that you want. For other grips that's not a problem because you control orientation more firmly with the hand.

Hofi explains the rebound as being important to the start of the return stroke. He uses the rebound of the hammer to start the up stroke saving a lot of energy over having to lift the hammer from a dead stop.

That's kind of it in a nutshell. Not sure how well I explained it but there it is for what it's worth. That's said there are lots of smiths who produce amazing work with many styles of hammering and hammers. Personally I think that this system has merit. I am learning that there is more out there, though.

That said, here's a great thread you should read by Brian Brazeal. This was very enlightening for me and influenced my next hammer purchase (Brent Bailey). I'm not positive, but I believe that Brian's hammers are also balanced, again meaning that the weight is equally distributed on either side of the eye. Watching his videos you can understand why. He uses both faces equally and with good effect tilting the hammer to control which "die" he uses (read the thread!). Notice too that he prefers rectangular handles because he tilts the hammer to some degree for much of his work.

Both Hofi and Brian worked with Alfred Habermann who no doubt influenced them both. Maybe Brian can add to this.

Definately unusual with an elongated neck and jaw area.
Outside of that it has alot of the features of the PW post vises I've seen, So I would guess that it is a PW.

I agree but wouldn't you think it has a special use?

Yeah, I think the jaw dimensions are odd. Normally you would think that jaws of that length would have much more mass to support them. If it didn't have a post I would have said that it was a vise used for saw sharpening http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/faq.html (scroll down a bit). There would be no reason I could think of for it to be a post vise though.

Perhaps there was some special use. The smith would have more access to the underside of the stock than in the standar post vise configuration with a thicker neck.

Don't ask me how it happened, I'll admit nothing, but I just ordered some well needed tools and supplies from Blacksmith's Depot and checked my receipt. To my surprise, what did I find included in my purchase? My subconscious wins again! Well, I held out for a little while and at least made an effort to search out the used venues and the library. I may be without coffee for a few weeks (or days ) but I'll die with The Skills of a Blacksmith V.1 in my hand!

As an alternative to bookfinder, abebooks.com lets you set parameters for inside the US or worldwide, search by title, author, ISBN, price, etc. Sometimes you get different responses if you change search engines.

Lindsay (lindsaybks.com) and Dover (doverpublications.com) reprint out-of-copyright books on metalwork and other things. Dover also has books of copyright-free designs on every imaginable subject. Got an order for a cowboy motif gate, or sea life firescreen and are stumped? Viola! I can't draw flies, but I can run a copier/enlarger and a plasma cutter.

Pieh and Centaur blacksmith supply houses sometimes have sales and closeouts on books on their websites.

edwardrhamilton.com only sells closeout books. Sometimes you get lucky there.

Can you tell I'm an ink addict?

And if you are really cheap, inter-library loan. By having a library card, you can get the desk to borrow a copy of almost anything from anywhere. See if something is worth $50 or $1500 to you. That's the only way I could afford to look at the American Bowie Knife book, which gets bid into the stratosphere on flea-bay.

I love books and craft books are typically one way - they come in and don't leave. I usually like to own books like that and will go back to them again and again. While not cheap, I'm a big fan of the library. I have a few blacksmithing books on the way via inter-library loan. At least I can see if it's worth dropping the money on them at some point. I usually don't have a hard time buying a book at Amazon in the $20 range. When books jump to $60 - $150 it's just not as simple. American Wrought Iron used is still $50 and the library has it so for now... Unfortunately I don't think Mark's books come on to the used market frequently so... Well at least I know there's a market for it if I ever want to sell it!

Thanks for the references. Will check them out.

There was a series of pictures linked from another thread looking at the dragon's breath to help determine the reducing/oxidizing nature of the forge.
http://www.spaco.org/Blacksmithing/PipeForge/PipeForgeAndPropane.htm
its near the bottom of the page, and the dragon's breath should look the same whether blown or atmospheric.
Phil

Phil,

Thanks for the link. I remember coming across that last year when I was researching forges. It is pretty interesting. The forge I have is atmospheric (Venturi) so I can only control air flow with the choke plate. I think someone with more experience with this than me could probably give us more specifics but I'm guessing that closing the choke a bit, especially at higher PSI will help. Typically I would say that the dragon's breath on my forge looks like the center picture but I will look more closely today when I go out. In my first experiments with welding yesterday I was amazed at how much material disappeared. Is that a sure sign of oxydizing? I wonder. I've just been reading a fascinating post on fluxes on the MAF. http://www.metalartistforum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=5907 Don't know if there is a policy on linking to other forums and I apologize if there is.

Don, Good point. Will try that. I have a couple of other plans in mind, too. I don't think this would make a good empirical study on problem solving because I don't really have the patience to try every variable one at a time. Here's the gist, though.

Close the choke a bit to allow less air therefore less oxydizing fire

Preheat the forge to a higher temp, heat the stock with a lower blast for even heating and again less O2

Use less flux - made a mess and really eats into the bottom plate. Very glad to have that extra plate to protect the forge

Maybe try with no flux - not sure if this can be done in a gas forge but I should be able to see the change in the metal surface better

Prep the surface of the weld area

I'll see if any of that makes a difference. Also considering getting a flux like Z-weld made for gas forges.

Oops! Sorry Don and John. Need to give credit where it's due. Thanks for the ideas, gentlemen.

Here's where I stand. I use a propane forge and made a few attempts using 1/2" square mild steel and borax. I heated the stock and put a notch in it with the hardy ~ 1/2 way through, wire brush and bent it over. I put flux on it with partially liquifies upon contact. I tried a few different ways of heating, bringing it to red, wire brush and flux then heat or just bringing it up to temp in one heat. I can't tell if I'm getting it hot enough or not. It's at bright yellow or white, hard to tell and definitely hard to look at with naked eyes. The flux clearly bubbles, runs and looks like sweat. Don't know if that means the metal is getting to that liquid/solid state or not. I made a few attempts at the same weld on one side. Finally the piece fell of where it was notched so I drew that end out a bit to use as a handle and started on the other end. Same process. Made a couple of attempts but no luck. Any suggestions?

As far as oxidizing or reducing in a propane forge, I do have a choke plate and can somewhat control the air intake. I usually run 3/4 to 7/8 open on the choke. Also, could I be using too much flux? I have a mess of slag on the bottom plate of the forge. Glad I planned ahead and only use this one for welding. Also, whats the difference in fluxes made for forge welding with gas forges? Do they really help?

Okay. Trying a faggot weld a la John B's suggestion using 3/8 square stock. How long does it usually take to get up to welding heat? I am wearing #2 green glasses for this and can see the flux running like heck but have yet to see the surface get "slippery". I've pulled it out a couple times thinking that might be it but know go. Also, looks like it might be losing some mass and there is some slag that I can't brush off even with the heavy brush. Am I on the right track or doing something wrong? Using Borax for flux. It seems to melt on contact with the hot metal.