David Gaddis

Very neat project! How about posting some specs on what you have rolled with it. Diameter of the rolls? How much effective squish can you go to before getting the dreaded wave form buildup in the front of the rollers? Have you rolled any Damascus? Inquiring minds... Carry on

Welcome to a new world. I have used one son-n-law to help strike in a somewhat confined area, without experience of any type. He is a big guy and we use big hammers (12-16) for striking. Inexperienced folk can be rewarding once they get their eyes calibrated with their hands(statement made by Lyle Wynn). And those of us with experience still must calibrate our swing with our vision. If you can build a striking anvil you will appreciate it even more when you do not use one. WHY? Because a striking anvil is much lower to the ground...allowing room for the bottom tools PLUS the work item PLUS the top tool...to match the apex of the swinging sledge. This become so very evident by attempting to do the same project at a working anvil's height. That would place the sledge quite a bit higher and a whole lot less comfortable. Striking anvil may max out at 24 inch high and a little lower is acceptable. Communication is required. The striker must learn the proper nod or signal to release the swing. That will be lesson number two after eye/swing calibration. Carry on

In our neck of the woods all creatures are know as "how to be best prepared for a meal". Here you have brought a new creature to us to enjoy, so I guess I shall eat it with my eyes! Again your artistic ability has been shared with us and we do so very much appreciate it. Carry on

Not everyone can get such a good deal on 4140 and such due to many marketing obstacles. Frustration is going to be the first animal to get control of because you are in need of basic tools. But the mast basic tool is your mind. If at all possible spend some money on gasoline to visit some smiths operating within driving distance and spend a full day there. That experience will be well spent money. Down here we use spring steel (coil spring) as our "go-to" tool steel for punches and other hand tools. Trouble is learning how to straighten it for a usable item. There a few tricks of the trade that make that process a little faster to learn, if shown by another smith. That process helps build confidence. I think one of the best dollar expenditures is one or more of those Hate Freight 4-1/2 grinders for 14.99. I use them as well as the expensive version and rarely can tell the difference in performance, as we do not use them continuously like a manufacturing facility. Good luck on your endeavors. Carry on

Looking good Carry on

NICE...Indeed!

That is a pretty nice looking stand there Mr VaughtT. One thing I do not remember seeing addressed here is to implement a follow through hole beneath the hardy. Sometimes drifts and other tools need to be driven completely through from the anvil surface down toward the floor. Most people would enjoy using your stand. Carry on

YES...YES...YES Less than 10 degrees off vertical...unless: The vertical line from the anvil base must travel through the interior lines of the legs. 2 in legs are minimum and 4 in legs are better. When you have the legs splayed out at 20 and 30 degree angles the legs themselves hinder the walking spaces nearby. With one leg under the horn you can actually lean against the horn while forging to acquire a more stable working stance. Some people like this stance. Basic geometry points toward a 30 degree leg angle but that ends up way out in the floor disrupting walking spaces. Footings need to be 6 in circles or ovals(backyard measurement techniques) with a bolt hole for mounting securely onto the concrete. You will be glad you spend the extra trouble to make them thicker than 1/2 inch in the end. Anvil bases for me now must be thicker than 1 inch, unless it is a transportable one. Yes to the oils and sand. That technique does definitely reduce noise. And it was proven more than one time at Brian Brazeal's on those striking anvils. Reflection: the idea here is to reflect all of the energy from the hammer to the anvil and back to the workpiece as a sandwich. SO does than anvil absorb energy? Mine does not...it reflects everything back up and becomes very efficient. Otherwise just let it wobble(vibrate) around the floor or mount it in sand. Nothing like forging on a sandbag...just requires a few more heats. Exceptions: If you are gonna use you hardy as a twisty-turning station then a wider floor stance could be of interest. I use my vise to my twisting operations. Floor space is at a premium in my crowded shop. Anvil height: you should already know how high you prefer your anvil prior to building your good stand. Higher makes intricate work nicer and much easier to see yet a bit lower is much nicer for really heavy hitting. We use a striking anvil for the heaviest stuff...very low working height (24...26 in). That is very effective for using bottom tools and top tools simultaneously on our projects. But please be certain of what you want and where you want it mounted. Do not dismay though because anchor bolts can easily be ground off level to allow for the new location. Good luck and Carry on

Good to see some more of your work. I really enjoyed your "horse" project. It carried me along so well that I felt that part of the story belonged to me. Carry on

from the skillets that I have made I have determined that it is imperitive to keep the steel blank very secured to the anvil form by some technique. Recently an extra thick spacer is clamped onto the piece while allowing enough area along the edge to apply heat, working the metal. I have heard that some skillet smiths are making some 3 and 4 inches deep. Now that would be a very intersting project for me to witness. When all that metal is raised from flat to vertical(ish) one finds a whole lot of extra metal to deal with. With the raising process it is easy to start a cold shut and the taller the skillet wall difficulty increases rapidly. A true celebration should be in place for the smith to free form a skillet and keep the bottom as flat as my anvils and frame allow. Not saying that it cannot be done by any means, but I honestly feel it to be extremely difficult. As far as a flat bottom goes, there should be little if any wrinkles. The wrinkle may look "old timey" but a magician could not cook a decent plate of cornbread in one...I think. If anyone feels there is a need for more private views of my project please PM me. For the originator of this thread I appoligize for hijacking this item. Maybe someday I may do you a favor as a small repayment. Carry on

Thomas...do you form your pots hot or cold? How about annealing or stress relieving? We could enjoy some pics of the operation please. Carry on

I make these quite often and quite differently. A skillet must have a completely clean flat bottom, but I like the look yours has a for a rustic view. If you check back there are a bunch of pics that I posted in April this year. Good luck with your project Carry on

IF people will look closely at your tongs Brian they may notice that you keep everything round until the last minute as you make the Habermann corner. Many of us that have made these without the pictures make the mistake of drawing out the pinchers as rectangles and end up with all sorts of catty-whompus shaped objects. Just saying....but your pics show a good working story here. Carry on

Like many people here we surely would like to see some more detailed step-by-step pics of the creation. I like the unusual leaf design as well as the bottom detail of the bloom. And some would like to see hoe to make the compound rounded petals..please. Carry on

It nice for us old geezers to watch you young whoopersnappers communicaing with each other about the skills you have learned and shared together. That is an inspiration. Carry on

Anyone using a drift the way we do will soon discover that they sometimes become severely stuck in the hole as the metal is cooling at a rapid rate. All sors of techniques are used to disgorge the drift only o discover that the tool is "red hot". Call it what you like about normalized or stress relieved etc, but the immediate need is to quickly cool the tool so that it can be used again ....yes quickly. Most are aware that the tool should air cool until black prior to dunking into fluid, yet may still quench immediately! Most drifts do not have very much sideways energy placed upon them as their main direction is vertical into or out from a hole. Drifs can wear out from repeaed heats causing scaling, or from heating and then flattened with the flatter or set hammer. Scaling means metal being lost.

Thomas...how about posting a pic of your tool..or PM me a pic. I cut a lot of rounds with the plasma and it seems to always have a stray blowout somewhere. Maybe it is just me. Carry on

One thing Brian does accomplish...without any fanfare is: NEVER LETTING THE MATERIAL GET OUT OF SHAPE! So what does that mean? You watch the Youtube and the pics do not show all of what is going on. Folks, watch the shine line to see where the hammer just fell. And do not try to move too much metal in one dimension. Watching Brian and you will see the metal jumping out leaving a shine line where it was just hit. The hammer has already left the scene but the shine line is still there. And about moving too much metal in one dimension: See Brian turn the tool over back and forth several times, keeping the planes of action true or repairing as he goes. He does not go too far. Then when it come time to finish, by "forge to finish" there is a little metal left to square up, or round up the edges, yielding a perfect job. But Brian is a master in what he does. We can learn to do the same by Not getting into trouble...Not moving too much metal so there is non left to make the repair...Not advancing our shine line properly as we forge. And I still have trouble too...because I am not a master....but I am getting better.

My first SOFA event. After a 12 hour trip and camping in the field with the lights on I learned to sleep with a well lite tent. But the fellowship was oustanding.. Nice to see some of the previously made friends from other events. So now I am looking forward to next year. Carry on

You are going to enjoy that hammer for a long time. Carry on

I forecast some hard learned lessons to be learned in the future...from this project. Carry on

It is not going to be as difficult as you imagine. We made 5 of these a few weeks ago in one evening. penetrate the eye properly using a multi-shaped chiseling punch. Then start the drifting process. If you do not put such a large hole into the blank then the amount of metal to be displaced along the cheeks will be minimal. If the bulge of the displaced eye metal is less then you may not need to re-forge the cheeks to draw then in perfect alignment. That process in itself is more trouble than making the eye. We make our eye a straight taper as the wood is NOT wedged and is treated as "likely to be replaced" often. That means that in usage the handle and tool must be set tight occasionally by hitting the handle onto the anvil. The reason it is treated as "likely to be replaced" is because of heavy strikes by other than well seasoned strikers. IN other words the handle is broken quite often by new-bees. While you are making the flatter go ahead and create a set hammer too. Both tools are almost identical in construction...except the edges. ANd both tools will offer much better quality control of your projects. Carry on

If the welder weight very little...there is generally a reason. It take a big iron core transformer with multi-staging to give you all those different power settings. Cheap most likely does not weigh much...which convers to NOT GGOD QUALITY...which also means something you cannot get rid of economically! Buy a reputation ..like the ones stated above...or you will have pure junk. What do I have? Lincoln...MIller...and an old Hobart. Several multi-tasking units ...even aluminum gun...mig..tig..stick. Been working for years and I have seen enough young guys purchase junk to be capable of warning others. Good used big name should be your beginning...after some proper schooling. Carry on

Mine is a Milwaukee also. It performs very nicely...unless the material is thin...where there is not enough magnetic holding ability. Although I have never used them others said that Hilti products were always high quality. Check on annular bits...as they cut holes much more easily. Difficult to resharpen for me though. Carry on

I need a forest of those right now! They are beautiful. Carry on