Private Entrance

I like the hardware on your right hip. The neighbors come over and give you grief when you're running the forge?

Picking my son's soccer tourney month to do something like this is tactically unsound. I think I only got about 6 hours at the forge the entire month of May. In the grand scheme of things, I didn't get squat done. Finished a couple of things I had started before, but overall the output was depressing. :(

In my house, if the GFCI goes off, it shuts off electricity to all three bathrooms, the master bedroom, the outside outlets and the pool pump. Yes, it's odd, but because of that I'm not surprised by what might be connected to a GFCI anymore. And no, I'm not an electrician either. I don't even play one on TV. :)

Yeah, but think of all the attic space you have... ;)

Wow. That's pretty cool. I couldn't find much about Sleg doing a Google search, other than that there was such a company in Davenport in about 1905.

Went out and looked at mine today. It's marked 'Sleg Iron Co, Davenport, IA' right above the HB logo/stamp.

My 115# HB has similar markings on it from a company that previously owned it. I don't remember exactly what it is, but will try to have a look and post it over the weekend.

I remember that article, too. Here is a link to it that I found: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/metalworking/4303543

Unbelievable. Amazing.

This was taken at the end of the session I finished the chisel & slitter, and put the start on the warhammer head. The slitter I ended up using is 2nd from the left, the chisel in the middle. The head itself is on the left, before I drew out the spike and tried getting the shape of the hole right. The other two items are a RR spike that was in progress at the time, and a trailer hitch ball that I turned into a hardy tool. That was a pretty good day, IMHO.

I saw a picture of one somewhere, either here, or Anvilfire, or in Complete Modern Blacksmith and remembered it when I was trying my hand at making a chisel out of a big u-bolt I had been given. I had extra bolt left over, so took a crack at making a slitter. Then I decided to see if it worked (actually if I remembered correctly and shaped it close to correctly) and the rest is what I explained earlier. I had thought the square chisel shape would do better for slitting, but was very surprised that the actual slitter-shaped tool did its job so well. Seemed counter-intuitive to me at the time, but after using it, it made a lot of sense once I saw it working.

I haven't hot rasped much of anything, much less without a handle. Didn't even consider that. :) My thought has been that space is usually at a premium for one reason or another and the handles always seem to get in the way. I will give the golf ball thing a try. I've a couple rolling around the shop I can use. Thanks!

Phil, I had second thoughts about the wedge when was putting it in, but that was the first one I found when I was doing the prototype handle, and since this was a 'I wonder what would happen' project pretty much from start to end, I figured I could live with it. I've got another spike laid out for the next hammer, and have shaped the hammerhead side, and actually measured where the slit is going to go, so I'm expecting much prettier results on the next one. I also found an old sledge handle that I am probably going to use as handle stock. And thanks for the reminder about the background for photos. I had a 'duh' moment when I thought about it the day after I posted it. :) Thomas, thanks for the reminder about getting other people interested in what you are doing and the help that can be. Most of the people I know (wife, kids, neighbors) think I'm nuts. Another big chunk think it's kinda cool, but aren't that interested, but every now and again I find someone that is curious and kind of excited, and they are the ones that turn up with the occasional chunk of scrap or an old hammer or something. Hopefully i can find one of those guys at the scrap yard.

I'm going to have to try the golf ball handle thing. I generally despise wooden handles on files and usually take them off and hide them once I've worked in a shop long enough. I find they do nothing more than get in the way. However, a golf ball might be enough to improve the grip but be small enough to hang up on things. I've never gotten the 'handle your files for safety' thing. I don't use them on anything moving, like a lathe, and I've never been injured by the tang on a file, or heard of such a thing happening, and I'm not quite sure how you'd pull that off. Anyone able to enlighten me?

Those are nice. Both of them look better than my 1st pair of tongs or punch. Hopefully my 3rd set of tongs turns out as nice as yours. :)

That's a good idea, Kwisatz. I can tuck it in the bottom of my toolbox when I go. Probably be the week after Memorial day. Might be Memorial Day itself, if the yard is open and my son's soccer tourney ends soon enough.

I'm using a brake drum forge, and I generally keep the drum full of coal/coke, and pile more coke on top of stuff as it's heating up. I have a couple of slots cut in the edges of my table so I can work on longer lengths of material and have them stick out the ends/sides. The higher fuel height helps get the heat to those things that I can't actually fit lower in the drum. Seems to work for me.

Depending on how long the session is, I go through maybe 5-10# of new coal, and maybe another 5# of coke (that I've saved from previous fires). I pay about $20 for 50#, and at this point I wouldn't consider using anything else. Can be a little tough to get started (usually that's operator error) but coal is worth it, for sure. IMHO, of course. :)

Ooooooo.... brilliant idea. Add it to the list. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for your comments! Thomas, I've been keeping an eye for stuff I can turn into punches. Haven't had much luck yet, but I'm planning a trip to the scrapyard with that on my list of things to do. I have a couple of broken (hammer) handles that I'm saving for a worthy project - I didn't think this particular item warranted it. Didn't think of mop, etc, handles. I have a couple of them lying around that I will dedicate to the cause. As to the horseman's hammer, that's exactly what I was thinking of when I handled it - pretty light and quick, good for one hand, and not going to throw you off balance when you swing it around. Glad I was on the right track in my line of thought. Forge welding caps would be a good idea down the road... have to get that skill squared away at some point. :) Thanks again!

This is the first warhammer I've attempted to make. It started out as a test of a slitter I had made, and when I realized that worked, I figured I should and try and do something productive with the spike I had just slit. From the side, it doesn't look too bad, imho, but from the top down you can see the flaws that result from a) not making sure the slit you are creating is centered correctly and 2] not having a proper drift to open up the hole for the handle. I tried using the horn from my anvil and I think that might have exaggerated the problem some. While I wasn't super excited about how it looked, I wanted to get a feel for the weight and balance of it, so I handled the head with a length of dowling I had lying around. You can see how the crappy wood split when I drove a wedge into it (@ about 6:00 in the second pic). Suprisingly, it feels pretty good in the hand and has pretty good balance. Definitely something I'm going to work at improving, and I really liked making it. Next one I hope to be worth a decent handle, if nothing else. :?)

Heck of a lot better than my first pair. Or my second. And probably my third (which are in progress). Very nice.

I do pretty much the same as Glenn. It all goes into a five gallon bucket of water once the fire's out. I let it and the forge cool off for a few hours. I sort through the bucket, putting the coke and coal into the coke bucket, clinkers get picked and pitched. The fine stuff in the bottom of the bucket fills holes in the garden. I've started saving the dry ash from the forge in a metal can. Once I have enough, I'll use it for annealing.

My wife and kids think I'm nuts. Most of my friends think it's pretty cool. Some people just don't get it. No one really believes that anyone does this sort of thing anymore. In fact, my wife was surprised to find out that there was a forum on the intertoobs with a bunch of blacksmiths from all over the world on it. Personally, I don't care what any of them think. It's a bloody hell of a lot of fun, and gives good exercise for my brain, which I really need since I started working in an office again. PS - good on you for the way you solved your problem. Hopefully it's a long term solution. Keep a sharp eye out, though.

Very nice. I wish I had more time at the forge to build my skill level up enough to try stuff like this. :)