Tubbe

Hannes, it's just linseed oil.

Hi, I have been experimenting with a small unique (i think) project - a candle shaper. It's like a pencil sharpener for candles, to make them fit odd sized candle holders. Here is the video of the work-flow.

Hi, and thanks! ausfire, the veining texture is done with an ordinary cross pein that is quite thin and rounded. Nothing fancy. JimsShip, yes the hardy tool is just a folded up round bar. Picked up that somewhere, can't remember...

Hi, I know, this topic has been covered and documented by many smiths before. I hope my video below can be inspirational for some of you.

Thank you! I'm glad you all liked it.

Hi all. Made another video today. Hope some of you like it and gets inspired to forge your own pair of tongs. There are several videos covering the topic already, I know, but I hope to add something new.

Nice! It's probably a good idea to have some "blanks" ready in stock!

Eseemann, I tempered to blue. As long as you don't make it too hard I think you're good to go. 1045 / C45 steel is not that hard to begin with, at least not on larger cross sections.

Ok, ausfire... here is a short demo.

Haha, na that's nothing... I will try and show how it can be used.

I think it is a well known technique among power hammer tool makers. A simple "butt weld" against the die would not last long. With this you really need to mess things up for the handle/spring to fall off.

Hi, I made a new video yesterday showing how I make a spring swage. Hope it can be inspirational for some of you.

Nice nails! Many ways to do a header...

Thanks Brian. That would have been fun but I'm stuck here for most of August I'm afraid. I will follow your activities online as much as I can. Hope you have a great time!

Hi ausfire! Thanks. I started with a bar of 35mm round for my header, but as always with blacksmithing you can do things in many ways. If you find it had to forge down you could start with a bar that already matches your pritchel hole and upset it a short distance form the end. When you think it's enough to form a shoulder, cut off and continue upsetting (like forging the head of a big nail). If that makes sense... I'm impressed as well :) I have 3 Kohlswa anvils in the shop right now. Yes the company is still in business, but the new anvils are ridiculously expensive. Here's a link. A long-horn bull wall hook sounds like a nice souvenir! Instead of a plastic fridge magnet depicting the Sydney opera house......

Frosty, it's a Kohlswa anvil. Söderfors made very good anvils too :)

Thanks! Hannes, my big anvil is 182kg (400lb), and it's in pretty good condition. My power hammer is an old swedish brand usually called "ABNO". It has good control but it's quite small, total ram weight is about 25kg. Would love a 50-75 kg air-hammer in the future....

Hello again! I think I will end this thread with showing my latest creation. I finally managed to forge my first serious rounding hammer. I did it by myself with help of my trusty old power hammer. Tried to document the process, and the video is down below. The result is not 100% perfect but a good tool I think - a craftsman can always find flaws in his/hers own work I guess.... Here is also a short vid on how I made the rounding/cupping bolster I used

Nice! Thanks for sharing.

Yes I did... follow the link above for more info.

Hi, Decided to show my new nail header in action. Some more >details about the tool here!

Hi, A couple of weeks ago I decided to try and forge a nail header that extends down the anvil pritchel hole. This makes the tool more stable and fixed in position, especially when you angle the blows for the faceted finish on the head. This one is for fairly large nails, ~7x7mm hole. I got some questions on how it was done, so I made this "how-to": Here I show how it's used:

Hi Charlie. I think you can make out the linkage ratios from the "lego video" (counting holes). Small top connected at 3 and the rest is spaced 6. So the ratio is 1:2 on the pivots. The motion is exactly as the Hoecken's I believe. I have analyzed the motion in my 3d package and the travel is very linear. Near the top of the stroke it is off by 0,5% or so. The total ram travel is relative to the link lengths of cause; in my 3d model I made the travel 40cm if I remember right.

All the links need to be there for it to work and make the "hammer" travel in a straight line.

Apparently missed one link for it to work. Here is a new version and a proof of concept.