Rashelle

Thank you Mitch, Ian, and Vaughn. Working on the lines, I'd end up doing a little work, then taking a good look at it, and deciding what needed to be changed. When I first received the billet to be used I was like uhhoh, that's big. Then I was like will I ever use it? After that was they must have a lot of confidence of myself and Dean. (There were two of us from Fort Vancouver entering the contest and received both billets for us. Myself and a third person struck for Dean and Dean and Andrew struck for me.) (Not sure who struck for who doing which tools at this point, we will finish Andrew up a hammer in awhile too for triplets.) Then was my last reaction, Cool this is gonna be fun, lets make it a bit different from my daily use rounding hammer to give me more options. Now it's been used a bit and I love it. It won't become my regular use hammer but it will be used regularly.

Thank you Dave. I had to figure out a way to make it stand out. I had no idea what the competition would be. I've been called competitive in the past. So with that as a given I had to go with a nice flow, lots of contrast, and make it pretty. Rashelle

Here are some of the pics from a hammer I forged recently. With a striker not a power hammer. Not sure of end weight of hammer but the billet would of been about 6.44 lbs. As it is a large hammer intended for me to use when I want a striker but don't have one around I went with a round face with short radius edges and an absolutely flat face. I can literally spin it on the anvil. So it moves the metal aggressively then cleans up nice. The pictures aren't doing the purple coloring justice. It was a contest hammer and the billet was supplied. The billets were a higher carbon content then I'd normally use on a hammer so taking and tempering it to blue/purple was intentional. It's not for striking other tools only hot metal.

If they are suppose to be on the same side. Next time twist the hook. It looks round so no one will know it was forged to hang opposite, once twisted. That's my thought if I understood the problem correctly. I might not of, of course. Ok I went and reread the whole post again. You did twist it after. ......... Grrrrrrrrrr time for bed, my brain is mush.

I really like the split. That would go good incorporated on the bottle openers I like forging as the crossed vine look is perfect for the leaf I like making the handle.

Cool. It's good to hear that we helped.

Hey I like pink. It's purdy.

"Smooth is fast" is part of a shooting quote. I don't know it from a western. "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, fast is lethal." There are more applications then shooting.

Looks cool. You might want to curve the leaf tips down so they make more of a scroll and won't poke holes or catch onto your clothes. Normally when I do a leaf hook I scroll the end of the leaf over as if I was doing a regular tapered scroll. Sharp pointy hooks for holding kitchen implements (where nobody can stick themselves onto them) with small holes and blunt hooks for fabrics. Let the intended use dictate the type of scroll, along with aesthetics.

Thank you rockstar. The large eye cheeks help give surface area contact between the hammer head and the handle. The more surface area contact with an hourglass eye and a good fit the more secure the hammer head. I am not sure which person Brian Brazeal or Uri Hofi, but I'm pretty sure one of them quoted Alfred Haberman (in english translation, heehee) as saying (I can't remember the exact saying darn it so I'll put it in my own words) "the hammer eye is the house for the handle."

I don't know how accurate this book is but I have a book titled scissors. It is from Magna books and is a translation from an Italian book. Text and photographs by Massimiliano Mandel.In the beginning it thanks Giuseppe Crippa, the Giuseppina collection, the museum of archeology in Konya Turkey, etc.

I'm another one who in grade school used to use either hand. Until teachers started making me use right hand only. I now tend to use either hand mainly specializing in certain tasks but then switch off as the first hand gets tired. Though I hammer primarily right handed, every once in awhile I use the left for a short period of time as it'd be the more convenient hand.

Isolating what will become the faces is a better choice of words then me using the word separate. So it is a practical design in that it helps serve a purpose while forging. It isolates/separates the faces from the cheeks. Bringing the face further out. Which allows the heal to be used (more) in moving the material. For example with the hofi style hammer that is short and compact it is harder to use the heal, much easier to just flip it around and use the crosspein. But since the rounding hammer lacks a straight or cross pein the heal is used. My wrist doesn't like that movement so much so unless it's just a couple of blows I switch from the rounding hammer to a cross pein. I think we are all saying basically the same thing. I'm not the best at wording things though. Rashelle

Turn the hammer not your wrist so much. The fullering grooves separates the face from the cheeks. It also brings the face of the hammer out, like you said. So with the face further from the eye you can then use the underside of the hammer to move the metal like a cross pein. So sides of hammer move metal like straight pein. Underside on edge of anvil, this time tilting your wrist some works like a cross pein. So back to like you said tilt the hammer, not turn your wrist.

I, for one, appreciate it Andy. Like Frosty I think that those tongs would be an interesting type to try.

Cool Looks good to me. I liked the video. How well does it work?

It'd be interesting to try. End result though is, it seems to me at least, good contact and good heat are more important then what flux is used. I play around with flux formulations a bit. None of them seem to be a magic flux. Flux, no flux, whatever works for you is what works. But back to the subject. I have not tried 4140 shavings. I have tried successfully, no flux, sand, borax, anhydrous borax with iron, borax with iron powder and/or boric acid, iron oxide with borax, with/or without boric acid. I also have some ammonium chloride for trying in mixes. All of the above in different proportions. Including bought flux such as iron mountain. The most important thing is do the weld right and you will get the weld, not what flux was or was not used. (Note the above is speaking for myself others can speak for themselves. experience vary.)

If you are thinking of using 4140as an additive to welding flux. You are adding chromium and other alloying elements, such as manganese and molybdenum, to your weld. If you are having troubles forge welding adding alloys to the mix will only make it harder to weld. Powdered iron or at least simple steels would be better then an alloy, if you are experimenting with flux's.

Does the rivet just need to be tightened? If so a tap or so with your hammer ought to do it. If it's crooked and really needs removing is it loose enough to slip a hacksaw blade in without risk of marring the reins or boss? If so that may work. Otherwise you could use a dremel or file and remove one of the rivet heads. It'll have to be your judgement call as to what will work best but there are options. There is also the option of chiseling the rivet off.

GNJC makes a good point. "loud alarms, dogs and evidence catchers i.e. barbed wire and cameras." Well lit areas, movement on the premise, good security. Motion lights are another useful thing that someone earlier commented I think. With cameras obvious and hidden ones are good. Fake ones only scare off the "honest people".

Doesn't have to be a bad dog. In fact "bad" is a bad word to use for dogs. One or more dogs will discourage casual theft. Even small ones that bark will. There are exceptions. You can also poison proof train your dog. Depending on where you go with that, that can get complicated. Dogs do help, usually. Have had friends off and on borrow the rottweilers and mixed breed descendants from me in the past. Have also had one of my dogs break loose and get people that were casing the place. Secure premises that look secure with motion lights can also help. Well lit area inside a fence with dogs even better. Not full proof though. Sorry to hear of your stuff getting stolen and being broken into. Make the place visibly more secure if you can. Try to be pro-active and deter future crime, rather then being re-active. Things can still happen but can lessen the incidence.

That's it I just found the link. So much for my memory. I could see how that particular jig would be useful for upsetting with minimal doglegging. You could try using a longer jig then stops put in the bottom to correct for shrinkage, possibly another slot starting a tighter fit. Each slot could be used for different sizes.

There is a video out there, I can't remember who's at the moment. Where the blacksmith does the upsetting for his tong reins in a series of perpendicular chambers. He heats a few at a time. Puts them in a vertical slot, (each in their own slot) locks it closed, then uses a sledge. Not a very good description but hope it made sense.

Stormcrow I like the axe and the versatility of being able to use as a tool and as a weapon. I like functional multipurpose tools. Even though I don't normally comment much I do usually enjoy your contributions to this site. Bikecop I am former military LE dog handler, and also formerly civilian alarm response. So I sunk 11 or so years of my life into working for the criminal justice system. I very easily see why to go abut doing entries in the way people choose to do them. I personally got an adrenalin rush from doing hostile and possible hostile entries. If I was on duty I did the entry. In fact in one situation I was actually picked up from walking along the road, when the responder who would be scene commander recognized me, and put me on duty, as he was responding, so I could go in with an entry into a credit union. I found it very amusing to find myself in that situation. Especially as this was years before cell phones and I had a several more miles walk to go. Needless to say I got a ride to my destination afterwards. :D As for my younger years that was also interesting, lol.

With a modification to the jaws such as a socket or piece of pipe you could have adjustable bending forks, for radius'd bends. Mounted in the vise or hardy hole. Or keep the jaws as is and to the top weld a socket fitting and you could then put different sockets in for different sizes. Using the jaws for sharp angled bends and the socketed tops for radius. I hope I worded this understandably, I'm about wiped out from work.