Jason @ MacTalis Ironworks

It really depends what you are doing as to which hammer is best suited to the job, most smiths have at least a half dozen different hammers that they use regularly. If you want to know what is the most versatile hammer, a largish rounding hammer in the Brazeal style is probably the winner. You can use them in the stead of dang near any other style of hammer to a greater or lesser extent. My basics are the Brazeal style rounder at 4.5#, a smaller 2# rounding hammer, A large 5# Hofi style crosspein, a 3# and 2# american style crosspien, a selection of ballpeins, and a few double jacks varying from 2-4#. I plan to make a few more Brazeal style hammers, a few more hofi style and some other specialty hammers in various weights.

Reminds me Brian, I need to ring you sometime and pick your brain... having an issue with hammers. I'll try to rember to call. Mostly just a matter of having issues getting the drift back into they eye straight when coming back from isolating the faces... it distorts the hole a little, and it seems no matter how careful I am replacing the drift, it turns slightly one way or the other resulting in a slightly diagonal eye... only a degree or so, but annoying nonetheless...

That is correct Eric, the fine edge of the hot cut makes it so that either your work or the edge of the hardy will give out long before you can put enough force into it to cause any stress on the hardy hole. And no, this is NOT an approach you would use for any hardy tool with a blunt edge like a fuller, swage, etc. The surface to contact area would allow the force to drive it through the anvil and possibly crack the heel...

at that weight, probably 4" of 2" round 1045 if I am any judge of how Brian's style hammers come out ... (I've made a couple dozen now mysself)

To all the critiques of the blade itself, it is actually a rather nice example of crude fantasy style work, I could sell 50 a year on the Renfaire circuit for $75 a pop, no problem at all....

I'll give him $50 for the lot of it... i need a doorstop, and could probably get the cost of shipping covered by selling the vise...

not bad at all, though 1045 would have been a better material choice as it will hold up a bit better. Mild should be OK though for occassional use so long as you don't wallop the heck out of it. Watch for mushrooming on the struck end, and make sure you grind or forge it off before it gets dangerous.

I'm not sure about the big 3" fullers, but Brian told me he makes the 1-1/2" fuller from 1-1/2" round stock about 3" long, Used those measurements for my last one and it came out about a dead ringer for one of Brian's. I'd guess for the 3" fuller, you'd want somewhere between 1-3/4" and 2" at about 3-1/2" or so.

I'm actually plotting to pull off something like Brian's striking anvil, but with a 1/2" 1045 face forge welded to it. I have a few ideas which should make the job significantly less difficult than usual. Not that heating a mass of steel that large to welding heat is trivial or anything, but if it works out, I might just be onto something. Honestly, I think the biggest trick is gonna be to get the local FD to open a hydrant hose on the bugger to quench it. I'll post it all here when I give it a go. Thinking about a small scale test or 3 (around 15#) looking for proof of concept before I move to the big scale.

And, if all else fails, I'm sure you could talk Brian Brazeal or mysself, or others for that matter into instructing you very thouroughly on the subject by waving a modest stack of dollar bills under our noses. :D Personally, I don't find hammer making all that advanced of a matter, but you do need the right tooling and the knowledge of where to put said tooling. After you have that covered, the things almost make themselves.

when it comes to welding temp, the stuff behaves as would be expected, it is the low temp begavior that is unique..

I have faith in you. Whittaker may have ben talented, but in the end he was just a man. do your best and it will be great. I personally prefer the sets made by several smiths, as you get a unique feel to each piece.

Brain Brazeal makes a really nice pair of tongs that hold dang near everything from 1/4" to 1-1/8" or so that he calls ugly tongs. They are especially suited to holding the tapers on them cut-off hardies. Maybe we can bribe him into posting a tutorial on making them buggers, I've made a few pair, but I am sure my process is nowhere near as efficient as his, as mine involves alot of guess work and about 4 hours... LOL.

I'd heat it and bend it open, if it breaks, just stick it with a tiny mig tack ( or other modern weld) to keep it in place then forge weld it closed... riveting something like that is more of a hassle than the mig welder would be. Though, with the Iron Mountain flux, you can slap that together drop tong with no problem. The lower tacking point that stuff has gives you alot of extra time to line stuff up.

Was basically gonna post the same thing Brian did. I can't see any real benefit you'd get from it unless you were welding your stacks drop tong, on piece at a time :)

O1 and mild do make for a good contrast, but the mix is just not even close to as bright as the 15n20/1085 combo.

Just got back from the weekend SCA event here, and I had just gotten my bottle of Iron Mountain flux, so I had some good time to play with it, and I gotta say, I am sold on it. It is certainly giving a good initial tack weld at far cooler temperatures than I would expect. I have also been one of those guys with no real problems forge welding aside from the normal "trying to weld the god only knows what is in it alloy called A36", but when Brian speaks, I tend to pay attention. This stuff is awesome in it's ability to tack at the low temps, and it also seems to help with A36, as I succeeded with every weld I tried this weekend, usually, with Borax out of the box, I end up with a few failures. All of the welds held up to pretty hefty testing, and the few 90 degree lap welds I made held up in the vise, 2 of them actually tore at the steel and the weld remained intact (my definition of a structural weld). Needless to say, I am very impressed with it, and will be recommending it to everyone.

SOFA 's event is in Dayton, OH and not horribly far. i know a few guys come down from up your way every year. Actually, you are closer than I am. Well worth the trip.

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I find the local Uddenholm distribution center is more than happy to sell small quantities for local pickup. Dunno if one is local or not, but can't hurt to call

Just ordered a bottle this morning to give it a shot, I've always just used plain borax unless dealing with high alloys... figured I'd give it a shot after you recommended it Brian. I'll let you know what I find.

Try www.uddeholm.co.uk/ for 15n20, they are the primary manufacturers/distributors of that alloy.

Modern a36 steels can have god only knows what metals in them, as they just melt down whatever they get and pour it with no regard to the content of the steel. I have many a time taken a piece of mild from the forge, quenched it and taken it to the drill press where I'd have 4 or 5 holes go through like butter, then hit a section a few inches long where I'd just smoke drill bits. Then I'd take back to the forge, normalize it, and voila, those holes that were trashing bits became soft enough to cut. I suspect that some air-hardening steel made it's way into your batch. In the future, I'd recommend using 1045 for your fullers as it has a fair hardness with no brittleness when normalized, and can take a higher hardness if desired.

Often times, I'll tack scrolls with my tig just to keep them from shifting when I move them around. Not solidly, just merely a pin-spot weld so the piece can be handled as one unit.

One other thing to consider, sometimes it is the steel, especially with a-36. Heaven only knows what makes it's way into a bar of that stuff, and some alloys can be downright impossible to get a weld in. If you are struggling with the same pieces of steel over and over, try some other pieces. Ask Phil, LOL the night he was up, I couldn't get a solid weld in the pieces we were working with to save my life. But, other than that, the other tips are pretty good. Keep in mind your 3 keys to solid state welding and you should be ok: Heat, pressure, cleanliness. Extremes of any of those 3 reduce the need for the others. In our case, heat is our extreme, so you should just need to give it a brush off, and tap it together.