Rashelle

Daswulf I understand that it is for future protection. I just felt I needed to add in that sometimes, some people do abuse and then wrap hammer handles. It's just one of the things that makes me cringe and hesitate when I see. Though it could be a bargaining point if I bought used hammers, heehee. Nothing wrong with that either, though I tend to prefer to make my own. Typed things online can come across different then their tone would of in person.

Frosty already mentioned some of the issues. I feel the need to mention one more and that is with a soft wrap around the hammer handle you can NOT see any damage to the handle. Thus the potential for a catastrophic failure is increased. I will hesitate before picking up and using someones wrapped handle. As most wrapped handles that I have seen were due to someone damaging the handle, and an inability to see further damage.

Brian Brazeal, Mark Aspery, ABANA videos, Alec Steele along with others of Brian's students. Brent Bailey. Those are what I can think of offhand.

Ok grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, I can only write in italics now.

Whew you caught what I was trying to say Spanky. I think I could better get to the point I was making by saying don't belittle your own work too much cause not only can a person look up to another and say "wow, wish I was that good." But that others can look up to you and say the same.

When one asks themselves that, it becomes a loaded question. Publicly asking oneself that becomes even more loaded. As long as one is not claiming ranking or titles not bestowed on oneself then to me at least practicing to learn something is becoming the thing. So when I personally think about it, I think of myself as a blacksmith. (It is my occupation, to the point of going weeks without a day off.) When I compare myself with Brian Brazeal, Darryl Nelson, Mark Aspery, etc. Even though I know them, I can not in conscious compare myself to them in the same boat. I'm a beginner in comparison. I suspect there will always be someone, who one can look up to and say "Wow, wish I was that good." I will compare myself with everyone who is better then me. I will then compete with myself to meet their standards, and thus always fall short, pushing myself to get better. I do not though allow myself to look down on one less experienced, as we all start as a beginner no matter what we do.

But on the other hand I got scolded a few months ago (and rightly so), in real life, for praising one persons work, yet being down on my own work, which was markedly better then theirs. In effect, in arrogance I was saying, this for me is not acceptable, yet for you this is good work. That though not worded or meant that way is wrong. You will always be able to find fault with your own work, which again is a good thing as it shows you know you can improve. But don't fall into the trap of humility, where it becomes wrong. (Not false but wrong, you can be humble about your skills and accomplishments but don't let it thus belittle others.) Hope that made sense.

I personally like a pretty flat face on my hammers, (at least on one end ) but I think I'd still recommend radiusing the edges and possibly crowning the face a little bit more. Hard to tell from pics. Makes me grin looking at the hammer pictures though. I enjoy hand made hammers and tooling.

Cool. It's addictive making your own tools. The hardest part is punching the hole. From there it's much more smooth sailing. Heehee now make another one....... or ten. You might want a little more radius on the edges of your face. Looks nice, congratulations.

I seen one like Thomas describes where the handles rotate around to form a sheath when not in use also. More of a protective cover then sheath.

testing fifth try at the disappearing post bug:

GRRRRRrrr

11 tries still can't post

18 and enough I give up

Ok, maybe it's a new bug. I posted a reply a little bit ago and it showed up as posted. Now it's gone. So in short:

Instructional content project. A simple J hook. It shows drawing out, scrolling, bending, twisting, shouldering, punching. You can do different scrolls, twists, and finials. You can even make a leaf finial and or chisel in the twists adding in some chiseling or fullering to the list of skills.

For a website instructional how about a simple project like that and show the variation twists, scrolls, finials, etc. Lot of different skills that way.

(Hmmmmmmmmm I like this version of this post better anyways, better then my first reply, heehee.)

My preference is slab handles. Rounded corners, a little round on the narrow sides. I like a slight bulbousness on the end but rarely bother putting one on a slab handle, as that means starting with bigger wood worked down by hand. If I use a tool store handle, I aggressively bring it down to my small hand size.

Hmmmmmmmmm, I like the idea of a J hook with a forge weld.

Split it over size, seal the ends, stack so even airflow (but not enough space to bend), season.

Thomas answered that better then me. Hazards of not being the best at wording things and running out the door. Remembering when tapping down to get a high spot or a curve out of something, three points of contact. Two on the anvil being the low, the third up which is hit with the hammer or bopper, or even a handy 2x4, heehee.  over Sometimes one of the two is the tongs or however you are holding the material such as when straightening out a overbend in a hook. By placing the hook over the horn, pulling back with the tong hand and tapping on the near side of the piece.

It's a butter knife (you could make a letter opener version, or as I plan on doing sooner or later some steak knives), so I wanted the back to be straight for scraping the sides of jars. As for curvature very little counter curve and addressing it mainly as I go as needed. I use either the hammer at hand (mostly the hammer) or a wood bopper if I let it start curving too far.

Ok here's a pic of my normal forge butter knife. I'd usually go for a more blunter tip for this but this is the one still floating around.

I'll try to remember to take a pic tomorrow. I've been using them to show the hardening then tempering, oh and the occasional don't do this, for students before walking them through theirs. When I don't have an actual knife needing hardening.

Adjust the blade design a little and you have a butter knife. I've demo'd similar ones from coil spring for smaller one's, and have done some butter knifes from mild for kids. Did not think of doing a mild drawn and twisted handle for a butter knife though. I may have to act on this thought and get some stainless to make butter knives now with a modified version of this.

Another option would be an anvil like Brian Brazeal uses. I can't think of a description for it at the moment though other then could go something like a swage block on it's side with built in bottom fullers, hammering face, and butcher. Which is not a good description but sounds like a good idea, lol.

Well you're near enough to me. One of them would make a good start on a striking anvil. PM me if you're interested in a trade or just want to get rid of one of them. As is one in a stump would also make a potential anvil for a starter or someone using a block to show all you need is something heavy to hit on.

an electric Volkswagon?

ROFL you got me. MMA, and situational self defense.

I use a cone mandrel for making round and tear drop shapes for the base of candle holders after slitting the bar. You can also use it in bottle openers. I just realized even though when I forged some copper rings and used a ring mandrel I always have to slightly squish my own personal rings as my fingers aren't round for comfort. That may or may not have something to do with prior squishings of said fingers in my past. Hm thinking about it more may be why I never wore the couple gold rings I had as I didn't want to squish them out of shape, and the silver ones I made I think I squashed a little also but rarely wore. May have more to do with making and feeling ok about squashing them as opposed to not making them too.

You can use it to open up a tear drop eye shape instead of a ring shape for the base of things also. A ring doesn't have to be round. Every use of the horn (other then heavy drawing out) you can do with the cone mandrel, just like mentioned above a different perspective. So rings, bases of things such as candle holders, scrolls, bends, 3d forms like Thomas pointed out, cup end forming, etc.

I really like my Nimba Titan also. I have the stump set up so I can pull the "feet" off from below to drop it down 4" and occasionally use it as a striking anvil with tooling in the hardy while making hammers. put the feet back under and raise it up and it's my larger of my travel anvils.

The more thought into a post the more chance of forbidden.