Tubbe

Hi, I just found this thread and this design is really interesting. I decided to play around and without any extensive research at all this is what I came up with. I found it plausible that when you use two copies of the exact linkage one can optimize it by removing the "middle" part and replace it with a vertical link. Yet to be confirmed in reality.... but it looks good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSTH7ROm-9s Youtube link not owrking

Thank trinculo! The hammer is an old swedish brand called "ABNO". Yes the upper die is just held in place by a "set screw". Simple and seems to work alright.The wrap handle is welded at the handle eye (loop).

Thanks! For those who are interested, here's a video I made showing me forging another hot cut.

Small update. Finished a "Brian Brazeal" style hot cut hardy a couple of days ago. This one is made to fit my big anvil with a 40mm hardy hole, thus the slightly odd proportions. Forged from 50mm round O1 steel. Probably not ideal steel... It air hardens quite a bit during a "regular" normalizing, and I'm unsure of how brittle it may have become. It's a good edge though! Lets see how it performs.

Hi, Norcal! The handle is made from 8mm (~5/16") round and is about 13-14" long. Yep, keep on hammering... some planing ahead also helps getting the result you want.

Yes, correct! A bolster might work too, but as you drift and forge the cheeks they continuously "grow" so there is no set shape until drifting is done really.

Steven, the punching was done on the anvil from both sides. Nothing special there. During drifting I forged the cheeks, and to protect them (when driving the drift) I used simple 3/4" blocks on each side of the eye. Not sure if that answered your question?

Thank you very much!

Thanks Gergely. The V-shaped cutting edge... Plain old filing, free hand. Nothing fancy. :)

Hi, Forged a cupping tool! Some day I will try and make a rounding hammer and this tool is one step closer to that goal. It's 8cm across (~6,5cm actual dish), 9mm deep and has a 4x4cm shank. Mild steel. I didn't have any useful rounded fullers to forge the "dish" so I actually started by forging/grinding/making a "ball fuller". Made from 56mm round 4140.

Thanks Forborg. Actually I don't think size matters that much :) On the handled punches the eye is ~ 16x25mm. The larger eye drift I made is tapered from 7x14mm to 21x30mm over a distance of 260mm. Total length, including handle, is 500mm. I forged a hammer using these tools. It's in a separate thread since it's not really related to Brians work. >Take a look here

Oh, I like that one.

Thanks everyone for the kind and warming comments! I had fun and hopefully my post can inspire others in their tool making.

Hi. For quite some time now I have wanted to forge a hammer. During the winter I finally got hold of some suitable steel, 40x40mm 1045 / C45. Prepping for the hammer I made a larger eye punch, drift and tongs that could hold 40mm bar. Link to this >here. Started with a piece of 40x40x110mm. Here the eye is punched and drifted. I forged down a peen and it went quite well. My power hammer flatter broke on me so I left the hammer marks from that, but that don't bother me. The pictures below shows my grinding of both peen and face. I hardened and tempered it, using a heated drift to draw the temper to a dark straw color on the face and peen. As a final temper pass I "baked" it in the oven at 240 deg C for about 1,5h, although maybe not that necessary for this type of steel. For the handle I reworked a piece of an old sledge handle, unsure but I think it's ash. Rubbed some linseed oil on for a final touch. Total weight 1.4 kg including handle (head 1.2 kg). Ready for action!

Thanks for your encouraging words. As you might have guessed I'm making these new set of tools to help me forge my first hammer! Don't know if it's really "Brazeal style" related but I'll add some more posts to this thread. Not that I urgently need a new hammer, but it's a challenge to see if I can do it... One step further towards this goal is a larger drift. This one is forged from 30mm O1 steel. Not ideal steel for this application but it was nearly for free so... The stock I'm planning to use for this hammer is 40mm square, so I need a new good pair of tongs for this. Decided for simple flat jawed ones. Forged from 20mm square mild steel.

Hi again. I'm waking up an old thread - New addition to my tools! Forged this larger eye punch, which I believe will hold up for more heavy duty work. Forged this one out of a 3" long piece of 1-1/4" car axle. Being alone, the hardest part was making the tapered working end. I used a guillotine tool with fullering dies, but even with my largest hammer (4.5lb) it was hard to avoid fish mouthing so I had to correct for this every second heat or so... Any tips making tapers on short, fat pieces of bar other than applying more force?

Nice work! Good thing starting small... great exercise for bigger hammers in the future.

Amazing frog! Your own design?

Hi, I have remade a set of hinges for an old chest belonging to my father. Not much to say other than it was a fun little project. A bit tricky to make it all fit but in the end a pretty nice result. The rivets are made essentially as nails and assembled from the inside and then riveted cold on the outside. Stock used: 25x4mm

Really nice glass table! Is the middle ring secured to the legs in any way?

Besides aesthetics, I think the main reason to fuller behind the face is to move the face of the hammer forward from the handle without increasing weight, right? Very nice hammer!

If you paint, be ware that it will burn off on the hot parts. Even stove paint isn't going to last at high heat.

If you don't make a tapered shank, I think you take away half of what's great about this type of hot cut. When it "locks down" in the hardy hole it more or less becomes a part of the anvil and you get rid of secondary rebound and bounciness. You never pound on it like a swage, so no worries about splitting your anvil...

Here's Johns post regarding tenon making: http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/29317-tenon-making/

Hi, and thanks again for the comments! Made another one, more like a budget version really, which is welded on the back side only. I don't like arc-welds, but I do like the "planar" surface. Maybe I will try and rivet the next one :)