fciron

Huh, a friend was just over at the shop today telling me how much they prefer the black nitrile gloves at his place. He's got two employees so the glove have to last longer for him to pay more for them. Guess I'll be getting some when the current supply runs out.

Also, orange isn't very hot. Short and very intense heats will get the most sideways growth with the leas bending. I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve with the guide, but it probably isn't important now that you've broken out the rivetting hammer.

I like a wire cup-brush on the angle grinder for rust removal. It's quick and leaves a burnished surface that's pretty good to the hands. Hold the tongs in a vice and try not to shoot the grinder across the room. A light touch is all you need. Lewis

I'm glad Bruce straightened that out. I got carried away with clever math in my first post and didn't make it clear that the pressure switch should only be carrying a tiny fraction of the current. I need to work on explaining myself better. Lewis

I'm with Bruce on this one. That pressure switch should be controlling the magnetic starter, there is no way it's rated for a 5 horse motor. I've been running the 5 hp motor on my compressor with a magnetic starter for 12 years and have never had to fix anything. When I'm using the bead blaster it's switching on and off every 15 minutes all day long. If I'd been fusing the switch once a year for twelve years I'd have payed three or four times the cost of the starter by now. Buy the starter, it's a lot cheaper than a fire and a lot cheaper than repeated down time.

I happened into a charcoal heater (they use lump charcoal, not mineral coal.) and some more coppers a while back. It's about a 10 inch cyllinder with an removable lid; there's a flap in the lid for a flue and an opening with a shelf a couple inches above the floor. The whole thing sits on a base that keeps the firebox off the table. I'll try and get a picture in the next couple of days. Lewis

General consesus over on Practical Machinist was that the parts coming out of the bulldozer are the braces for rail-cars. This would go with the couplers being rivetted together on the other side of the photo.

yes, let's go back to being a dying art or something people's grandpas did. A little laughter won't hurt anything, but I'm afraid all the women currently signing up for the ABANA conference will be a little disappointed.

I just checked in on the Show New Post page and the "Favorite Blacksmithing Videos" thread is right below this one. Who's gonna post the Velveeta smith there?

I was thinking of this version. He seems to be a recurring character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O9kDXpvkpFM

even better they could have put all the rolls in a line. (I think the side by side arrangement let them all run off the same drive easily.)

I just hope my clients don't expect me to be leather clad and glistening when they stop by the shop.

Ooops, 1934. The first ten minutes cover steel-making, rolling, wire drawing, forging, drop-forging and a bunch of other cool stuff with glowy hot metal. All in French, but a pictures worth a thousand words. Lewis http://www.louisrena...index.php/films

I'll not weigh in on the Hofi debate. No need to go over that territory again and there are several other threads where that debate will continue nonstop. Ken, if anyone is due an apology here it may be you. Someone came on and complained publicly about your work before giving you a chance to make things right. I know the original complainant tried not to name names, but your dissertation above makes it clear that you felt the need to defend your good name. Mistakes happen and eventually one of them will slip by and get to a customer. The first person that customer should talk to is you, especially if that customer is another smith. Public shaming should be the last resort, not the first. Lewis

Looks great. I don't see how you can fail at engraving with a hammer that pretty. I've used walnut for a couple of hammer handles. It seems do OK for lighter work, like driving gravers, but I broke one when I got into some forging with it.

Francis Trez Cole yup, I said back in post #5 of this thread that I think Hofi's methods are a refinement of Eastern European tradition that we have had less exposure to here in the US. Lewis

Also, I believe the earlier comments with regards to grinders had to do with the manufacture of the rounding hammer, rather than Hofi style hammers. I still see the shape and balance as similar to Hofi's hammer. Aside from the round face none of the comments have explained how the original hammer would be inferior to a similarly sized Hofi style hammer. Uri Hofi has done an excellent job of creating a coherent and teachable method of forging. Like most things in blacksmithing, I've seen all the parts in various places, there's nothing new under the sun.

Nice! You could do much worse than get file-happy. I have an old hammer with some filework on it that I believe is a 'patternmaker's' style hammer. I should take a pic.

Larry, Thanks for doing this. I hope for all of us you're able to work out a deal that leaves all parties happy. Seems like you've had a rough twelve months, do something nice for yourself. You've earned more than some virtual pats on the back. Lewis

I'd go with the last two posts as well. They're saying that it predates WWII to a time when the swastika was simply a clever graphic. The other end certainly looks like a '22' to me as well, not the two lightning bolts to form 'SS'. Besides, what would the SS need with a log marking hammer?

That's what that hammer and the guys over on allmetalshaping are all about. Go check it out. Oregon is a little far away for me to make an offer, right or wrong. Plus you've already painted it, so you've got an investment. ;-)

There are sheet metal power hammers (like yours) that are for forming sheet rather than simply planishing or reciprocal tooling. Check out allmetalshaping.com for more sheetmetal type info, they have forums for different types of tooling. You might be interested in the 'thumbnail' shrinking dies and some of the other stuff for forming sheet. NIce work so far. Great find!

Thanks for clearing up my confusion on the cat's head hammers, Frank. I'll try again, my understanding is that cast parting lines are thinner than drop-forged parting lines because a drop forging dies usually have a gutter formed around the outside for excess material. (Excess material is required for the complete filling of the die, unlike a mold in which smaller areas are readily filled by the liquid metal.) Drop forgings are also usually trimmed in a punch as part of the manufacturing process which can leave a sheared surface that is often visible on the sides of hammers and in other parts of the forging that don't get ground to shape.

I think that's sometimes called a 'cat-head' and as eric sprado points out, they were popular with horseshoers. The ones I've seen have been on the small side, 1-1/2 lbs or less. Frank Turley may have started a thread about them some time in the past. Other than the round face I agree with your comparison to the stubby shape of a Hofi hammer. I don't see a lot of functional difference between a Hofi style hammer and a Peddinghause French pattern hammer either. (Some other makes may be longer, but the big French patterns that were so popular a while back had a tall head with the face and pein a very short distance from the center.) I assisted a class taught by Hoss Haley and he had a hammer based on the hammer of the Czech smith he learned from. All of his description of it was the same principles that Hofi uses, so I am inclined to think his hammer is a refinement on an Eastern European design rather than a bolt from the blue. (It seems that way because we were unfamiliar with it.) Lewis

Well, I may have been wrong in my earlier assessment that your entry into the fraternity of smiths was not big deal. Some one found out what I did a couple of days ago and the first thing they did was mention Jesse James. I'm glad you're doing decent work. I considered stretching the truth and telling him Jesse and I were online BFFs, but I had to settle saying I sat next to the guy who sold Jesse his power-hammer at a blacksmithing demo two summers ago. :-p Cute press.