Alec.S

Always nice to see other people try and understand all this simple methodology of surface area contact! It makes the world go round :) haha! alec

Short answer on helping your arm - Pick up a heavier hammer and learn how to relax with it. When hammering, you will hurt yourself if you are not relaxed! alec

I do not understand... That answer gives no clear meaning as to wether you were talking about my video or the farrier! :S alce

brian - the video didn't work. Try uploading it to youtube and then copy and pasting the "url" link from the video to this post! :)

Thanks, Borntolate! George.M, At that point of the video, I am doing that because I am turning the material and I want the eight sides dead on, so tapping the anvil allows my left hand more time to turn the workpiece correctly! :) I am using my 5 pound hammer. It is the only hammer I use except for when I am making small copper rings because the faces are too wide. Then, i use my 4 pounder. Hope that helped! :) Alec

Well........ I will write this in bullet point form as I have homework to start and it is getting late! :P -I was not taught to tap on the anvil. It is something i feel i picked up as my technique progressed and i definitely feel it helps me to forge more efficiently. -The tap i think is for several reasons: -It feels natural as a means of letting your hammer drop if you are mid swing, instead of having force yourself to stop it in the air. When you are a small guy with a comparatively heavy hammer... stopping it is not an easy option. -It gives me rhythm... because if i'm not swinging... i want the rhythm maintained so starting to swing again in the same rhythm is easier. -I find rhythm an important thing because it keeps everything in time. It keeps your hammer hand and your left hand; holding the workpiece in time. It helps you lift the hammer up and bring it up in a relaxed way because you do not have to force yourself to hit at the right time. -When turning the workpeice in as controlled of a degree as possible, it lets you have more time while also keeping ryhthm. -It lets you have a break -it lets you have a split second more to examine what/how many blows need to be where/when for it to be accomplished more efficiently -it lets you take a better grip on the handle if the need arises -it lets you have a break When forging big stock. All these points i just mentioned become much more necessary. -The stock is heavy, it sometimes requires more time to turn it. -Big stock can move/bounce when an off blow is hit, your next swing will be needed not to contact where you were going to contact, other wise you would hit with all of your force onto the anvil face, so laying you hammer to one side (tapping) is necessary. -When swinging the hammer at full force, your grip tires, one must 're-grip- the handle every so often, as mentioned, laying the hammer to one side lets you do this -On large metal, efficiency is key, so examining the best course of action over a split second is often very useful, therefore - lay to one side (tap!) -Try swinging a hammer for an extended period of time on thick stock as hard as you can... it gets tiring after a while, laying the hammer to one side albeit for a split second allows to to re-compose yourself, relax and become less tired. -When forging large stock, rhythm is key because you never want to have to stop, have you also ever noticed how rhythm helps you do something with more power and purpose. Rhythm is one of the things the body it very suited to. Also, imagine working on a power hammer and stopping the power hammer completely every time you want to turn the piece, say... you don't take your foot off the pedal completely, do you? you let it idle above the work piece, while idling ..i feel one should do the same with our hand hammer, except for us, idling above the workpiece will harm us more, so, to keep us moving in rythm, we tap the anvil!... stopping and starting again is causing more stress on the 'machine' - your body! -When forging big. Being relaxed is key so as not to over-exert yourself and ultimately damage your body. due to all these reasons, i feel tapping when the need comes about to be extremely beneficial when forging anything let alone big stock! I hope my brief explanation was useful! Please do question, argue, critique my argument etc.! Thinking about why I do a particular thing helps me learn more! As does listening to all your ideas! so shoot! :) Alec Steele P.S, look at this vid - Look through my bullet points and then at when I tap my hammer.... it will start to make sense!! :)

Forgemaster... Where you talking about my video of the video of the aussie farrier?

HAHAHAHAH!!! :') lol!

A little video showing how to make a punch. This is the way Brian describes how to make it except in the situation, because i wanted a longer taper than i would on a normal round/square punch, I drew the material out for the working end with half hammer faced blows over the edge of the far side of the anvil instead of half hammer faced blows at an angle on the face of the anvil with the work piece at an appropriate angle to the hammer ( what Brian describes ). Questions are welcome! alec

Great stuff dave!!! I am very glad to be seeing all these videos you have been putting up recently! :)

I noticed you are in MS... If you really want to give your forging skills a boost and learn more than you could imagine, look up brian brazeal for a potential class. Have you been to any of the MFC meetings yet? Him and Lyle are often at these meetings! alec

it depends what type of swarf really... if it's fine and will settle much like sand with few air gaps between grains then good! if it like drilling swarf then i doubt it will be all that great! ... if you have the capabilities to pour it in through the hole on the plate you will have made for filling with whatever you fill it with... then! go for the lead! :)

Good! i am glad that helped ! :D ...The quietest your anvil will get is if it is fastened down as tightly as possible - steel on steel. It will get quieter without the lead sheet! For the legs, fill them with sand and a bit of oil. Or, the ideal thing would be to pour in lead! :P obviously, thats a demanding task though! The sand quietens the 'stand' down with extra mass and the oil stops it rusting from the inside out! For fixing the anvil to the stand, that wont get it all the way clamped down, i have used anvils fastened down with chain, and it is not as good as an anvil - drilled and tapped on the underneath and bolted to the plate from the bottom into the anvil through the plate, angle iron with a hole on the top side, angle iron goes over feet, tighten bolts on both sides of the anvil. and other 'solid steel' mounting systems! :) look forward to pics! alec

I would just like to add a little bit of information regarding anvil stands that you may find useful. Firstly. No matter how it is accomplished, an anvil needs to be mounted down to the ground, so that there is no energy lost due to vibration that does not transfer to the steel. So, let's think from the ground up. What is more solid: wood or steel? Obviously steel, so therefore less anergy will be lost if the feet are steel without wood underneath, as the wood will compress and spring with every hammer blow. The feet must have a mounting system of some sorts so that the stand can be mounted to the earth. Holes in each of the feet for bolts ( if you are in concrete ) and/or holes in each of the feet for stakes (if in dirt etc). The most solid backing for an anvil stand is a deep heavy mass of concrete either the floor or a separete 'pillar' of concrete in dirt so that the stand can be bolted down to so that as little energy is lost here. 1/2 inch anchor bolts are good for concrete. if you are staking into dirt, like me currently unfourtunaley, 5/8 or over stakes are best for the least energy loss. I currently have 2 foot long 5/8 stakes in each of my feet on my stand. the feet on my stand actually each have two holes - one 1/2 inch hole for bolting to concrete when i get my pillar poured and one 5/8 for dirt. The legs. So, the least energy needs to be lost. Hypothesise this - you have two peices of square bar - one verical with the bottom resting on a solid base of some sorts, and one where the supports are only on either end of the bar. If you were to hit both in the middle of the plane that is upwards - which one would flex more? the one that is supported only at the ends. Obviously, this is an exageration of the way in which the support is on an avil stand with 20° angle. So, thiks is the point i am getting at. We want the most backing by the earth. the best backing, as we just found out is acheived when there is direct vertical support from the energy of the hammer blow. therefore, less energy will be lost if the legs are vertical and directly under the anvil. I know that the reason you wanted 20° leg angle is for 'tipping' support so it 'wont fall over' ( if not, please tell me what your reason it btw). But, if you mount your stand and anvil down the way it should be it is impossible allready for it to tip over because it is mounted down. also, remember that your blows from the hammer come straight down 99.99% of the time, not side to side!!... So, the ideal angle for the legs is 8° / 9° / 10° (max). This is for the maximum backing, while also with some extra 'tipping support' for when you are out of your shop with the anvil and it is not mounted perfectly! I also should point out, that your legs WILL snap off at 20° with heavy hammering. They have been known to snap off at 12° when we've been striking. So, in conclusion, i would recomend not having wood blocks under the feet, and have less of an angle on the legs. Remeber to fasten the anvil to the stand, TIGHTLY! you will thank me when your anvil doesnt move at all! it makes forging so much easier! Dont believe me just by what i have said, go out and try it for yourself and you will see! Most of this information is Brian Brazeal's findings with his experience. I have tried all of this, and there is only one reason I am saying this stuff to you - it works! :) Hope that was useful! Good luck! We all wanna see picks of finnished stand btw! :) alec

really, the best surface for a striking anvil - is the one you posted the photo of... this is brian's striking anvil.. and this one is about 13 by 3 by 5 inches. The hardy hole is one inch square. an the pritchell hole is half inch round. as far as the distance from edge of anvil to pritchell and pritchell to hardy hole... That should not matter so long it is in a place where you will still have working surface... eg, dont have them so far in that you have a hugely reduced 'plain' working area. On that anvil... the pritchell is roughly an inch ( + ) in.... and about an inch and a half or so from the edge of the hardy hole.... the distance from the hardy hole does not make a difference, really.... the placement of the pritchell hole here, is because here brian was able to have the hole go clear through to the other side without being in the way of the legs. If you build a striking anvil... be sure to have the legs NO MORE THAN 8° OF VERTICAL... other wise the legs WILL break off.... even at 10° or 15° ....you want as much vertical backing as you can... this should be anchored to the ground.. so stability should most definitely NOT be an issue :) Hope that helped. alec

I bought mine for £40 with free shipping... 'galvanized spiral ducting" :) so thats like 55-60 euros or something :) alec

Fantastic! My one i ordered is arriving any day now too! alec

Glad to here you are ok, dan! :)

in response to the above statements, i would rekomend starting with a 3 lbs or OVER hammer. You will be forcing yourself too much with a ligher hammer, trying to hit it too hard with too much effort - bigger hammer, less effort. Try a heavy hammer and you will never look back and you will never be as tired again! alec

not nice......... AWSOME!!!! love it! very original! do you know where in france this is? alec

Brian's flue is actually just cammed in with the roof, it can easily be slid up and down by just un- cam-ing it from the roof. You can also have 1/4 inch hooks suspended from the roof supporting the bottom of the flue pipe. alec

i am currently looking at your youtube videos, the wind does not look too bad really, that amount of wind even when starting the fire should not affect the draft of the flue very much! Coke will reduce smoke and make fire management for avoiding smoke alot easier also! it could be a wise change unless you have a very shallow firepot! I am enjoying you youtube videos very much! I love the videography skils! very impressive! did you say in one of your videos you were using a canon 600d ? wat lens are you using also? your videos have a very nice effect that go well with the content! alec youtube name - alectheblacksmith ( only the most recent video is worth watching though! ;) )

what fuel are you using? proper fire management skills will mean that the only point in time where there may be excess smoke is when lighting. That is the only time you may have some smoke trouble - other than that the wind wont affect it - especially with the location of your forge in your shop!

just looked through all posts - exactly what Phil K was describing is what i am suggesting! Please explain why you think the wind in your shop will be too strong for that though? i hugely doubt wind would change anything.

The best flue i have ever worked with is brian brazeal's - Simply a 12 inch flue pipe - the bottom of the flue pipe is about 20 inches above the fire and draws fantastically and is very affordable the pipe should cost less than 70$ - and then you will be able to invest the savings into steel or coal or further improving shop further!. i would definitely recommend this over the previously suggested design - simplicity is key! alec