finn;-)

Books are the next best thing to having someone show you what to do, how to do it, and why you should do it that way. Knowledge is power. The best thing to do is get hooked up with a local blacksmithing association and find some people with more knowledge and experience than you have to help you up. Guidance from someone who is skilled and a good teacher is priceless, books are often an excellent source of guidance, and if nothing else inspiration. To be honest when you are just beginning knowledge is more important than what tools you have available. Practice and perserverance can make up for a lot, you can teach yourself by just responding to how the hammerleaves marks on the steel, and adapt, but you don't need to reinvent the wheel, and there is no guarentee that you will get it right;-) How you hold the hammer, how you swing the hammer, and how you work ingeneral can cripple you, or you can forge into your 70's... READ all you can, visit and learn from all the smiths you can... (This is where a dose of humility and meekness can really pay off. After you get some skill, you will inevitably aquire with it a sense of your own importance and competency;-) If you decide someone has less skill and write them off, you will never learn anything from them, and they might have some gems of knowledge hidden in with the other stuff you don't respect. Be polite, be gracious and wait for something useful;-) Christian Husband Father Blacksmith farrier farmer the rest just keeps getting in the way... ;-)

I love that line... And I realized a long time ago that I am not a genius, I am very limited by the tools I have available. With good tools I can do pretty good work, as the quality and number of tools goes down so does the qaulity of my work;-( But I really like Mike's old boss's thinking: If I set someone up on a foolproof machine, how do I know if they are a fool or someone worth having around in the shop? The problem with foolproof machines is we keep finding dumber and more dangerous fools;-) It's alright to recognise the reasonable limits of your tools, but never blame them for your inability to complete your ideas, and don't let them keep you from pushing the limits of what you can do. Ancient viking smiths NEVER had as nice a set of tools as any moron with money can buy today, but could produce things of such beauty that we marvel at them today. Neccessity is the mother of invention. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you are just too determined, adn never quit. When you read about how medieval smiths did things, and understand just how much work was involved, it is mindboogling to a modern person, but when you realize that was simple what they HAD to do with the tools, materials, and technology that they had available to them to get what they want done it makes more sense. Skill is a consequence of working hard for a very long time... People who study this kind of thing say it takes around 10,000 hours of diligent study and practice to achieve a level of mastery that leads to distinction... Famous artists, musicians, and scientist almost without exception capitalize on a powerful gift with hard work. There is an interesting book called "The History of Human Accomplishment" he has a chapter or two that deal with these concepts... Christian Husband Father Blacksmith Farrier Farmer the rest just keeps getting in the way... ;-)

Beautiful build, and I love the 3phase with a VFD. I am terribly curious how fast you can get it to cycle and just how slow you can get your hammer to cycle??? Very Cool. Is that a little toolrest to help feed the bar in level? or is it a standard fixture for mounting spring dies? Christian Husband Father Blacksmith Farrier Farmer everything else just gets in the way;-)

Part of what gives you the control over the power of the blow is of course the length of the stroke. With a really short fall even a heavy ram isn't going to delevier a lot of energy, but if you accelerate over 18" it can pack quite a wallup. So I would look at steam hammer controls, and/or the sliding limiter switches. The other thing that cushions the blow is how the ram is caught at the bottom of the stroke, by the 'uptake limiter'. I don't really know how to soften the turn around to get the really gentle soft taps (as far as doctoring the control circuits that is, I can feather an air hammer down with the treadle but how it really works is still kinda magic to me ;-) The stroke length arm, and the actuator arm on the steam hammer are great for this kind of thing but require a driver. Adjustable limiter stitches, could be made quickly adjudtsble, and you could still use a foot treadle. John's Iron Kiss hammer kinda combines both, I would explore things in that direction, tons of stroke, and the ability to use the full length of it...