Ironduck

interesting design.  With all the air currents flowing under, and cooling, your forge shelf, does the chamber get very hot (all things being realitive)? 

Too beautiful to use - definitely a display piece. 

Very nicely done!

OD, I'm shocked that none of the experienced Smiths on this site haven't commented about your choice in metal.  Do you really dislike your anvil that much that you'd use 95pt carbon steel on it?  (a good bit higher concentration than is warranted - 45pt might be a better and safer steel.)  You should always want your hammer a bit softer than your anvil (a hammer is a good deal less expensive to replace or repair than an anvil).  Hopefully someone PM'd you, but that doesn't help the other new smiths that might see this chunk of steel and think that it's OK.  You asked for advice, so that is my contribution (find some 1045 for your first hammer - also a tad bit easier to forge than 1095). 

Ben Smith is the closest to being on mark.  They were used by linemen to twist hard drawn copper overhead lines (making what was known in the 40s, and there about, as a Westinghouse splice).  You needed two sets of the "crimpers", as shown, with a proper space between them and then they were rotated about the axis of the wires that were placed in adjacent parallel grooves.  Some time during the 50s it became common to place the wires in a copper sleeve first and them twisting the bundle.