Tenebr0s

A while back I had the chance to try out a hammer with a hard steel face welded to a soft iron body. It was an extremely comfortable hammer to use, and I've wanted to make one like it ever since. I know that hammers in the old days were made this way, because good steel was scarce. But I'm wondering, wouldn't a soft iron body for a hammer serve as a shock absorber, meaning less fatigue for the user? Has anyone else used/made a hammer like this? What do you guys think?

Hi guys, I recently made some kataha blades, with wrought iron forge-welded to high-carbon steel. I want to bring out the grain of the wrought through etching, but this is my first attempt ever etching anything. So... some questions: I have ferric chloride - will this be ok on WI? How fine a grit do I need to sand to if I'm planning on doing a very deep, rough etch (hopefully so you can feel the grain). There are a couple pits in the iron from forging. Do I need to remove the scale from the pits before etching, or will the ferric chloride remove it naturally? Finally, if I plan on sharpening after the etch, do I need to do anything special to protect the edge during the etch?

Thank you both for the replies. I'll give these measurements a shot and see whether I end up right or not.

I recently made a steel template for my knives, and am wondering how much extra volume I should calculate for my starting materials. For example, my template has a volume of 18 cm^3, and I am figuring a 20% loss of material due to scaling and grinding, so I figured I would start with roughly 22.5 cm^3 of steel. Is a 20% loss way too optimistic? What percentage of material do you guys normally plan on losing?

Thanks, basher. What kind of fuel were you using?

Thank you for the reply! I'll be mostly using gokunantetsu - an ultra low-carbon steel they have here in Japan, and then I was thinking of using 1008/1010 shim stock as my filler. If I can the the process down, I would like to use it on some antique wrought iron I have here - but not until I'm at least fairly confident I can do it without ruining the stuff! Also, for the weld, is it ok to take the mild steel/nickel up to a full sparking heat if I don't care about carbon content?

I'm interested in welding up a damascus billet of some nickel sheet I have (.06 inch thick) with mild steel. I've read that because the nickel won't weld to itself you need to add an extra layer of steel every time you make a fold. How thin can/should that layer be? Can you use shim stock? Also, have people done this with coke/coal or does it need to be charcoal (I only have a solid fuel forge).

Awesome. I'm psyched about this. Give me a few years, and I'll be looking into buying one!

Is it possible to forge weld with induction heat without creating an inert atmosphere around the workpiece, or is the environment too oxygen-rich? I've seen lots of videos about heating/melting metal but not one example of forge welding. I'm interested to know whether anybody here has done it, and how they go about it!

Thanks all for the replies. I dried the bricks around a fire for four hours or so, and they are fine now. Set up the forge and had it firing all day today without any problems. These are hard firebricks, not the soft insulating kind, so I think they absorbed a lot less water.

Thanks for the replies! They have definitely been subject to at least three or four freeze/thaw cycles. I'm actually surprised they are still in one piece. Maybe it's just safer to pick up a few new ones at Ace Hardware. I recall they're not too expensive there, and I don't need that many since this is going to be a small forge.

I'm up in Vermont for a for weeks at my parents' place, and thought I would build a small side-draft charcoal forge. We've got a bunch of firebrick that have been sitting out in a field, and they are very wet and moldy. Do any of you guys know whether they're ok to use?

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36979-hammer-re-ground-and-heat-treated/ Thanks for the help, guys. Ground out most of the bad crud, normalized three times, and heat treated. Still a few pits in the back end, but I didn't want to take off any more steel. The balance still feels ok, and it has good rebound.

Thanks so much for the advice guys. Any chance the damaged steel near the handle would break apart during use? (After grinding and heat treat, that is)

Does anyone have any advice? My main concern is that there could be structural damage in the hammer near the handle, something that I wouldn't see after grinding. I'm new to all this : ) Alex

http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36954-burned-hammer-1/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36955-burned-hammer-2/ http://www.iforgeiron.com/gallery/image/36956-burned-hammer-3/ Maybe this will work?

All right, studying up on how to do this. Will upload soon....

Thanks for the reply. It's a Japanese bladesmithing hammer. I'm not sure what kind of steel, but probably simple carbon. It was only the back that got burned; the striking face is still fine. Sorry, trying to figure out how to upload pictures. Do I have to upload it somewhere else first to link to the url? Can't seem to just add a normal file.

A friend gave me a 3 lb hammer. It had lost its heat treat, so I decided to give it a go... Forge was running way too hot. Yep, I burned the back of the hammer, melting the surface pretty badly. I think I already know the answer, but is the hammer a goner? I'm holding out a hope than in a thick piece of steel like that, maybe just the outside is ruined. Thanks, guys. Alex

Thank you both - this is really helpful. I'll try the peining out, and just got a copy of the book. Alex

Hello all, first post here. I've been having problems with my small railtrack anvil, which I bought at a hardware outlet here in Kyoto, Japan. I guess I shouldn't expect much for the price I paid, but it seems to be WAY too soft - like, hammer blows easily leave gouges in it. What troubles me the most is that I've been getting such little rebound from it, that I can't get much of a rythmn and I'm doing way too much work lifting the hammer every time - and it's causing me some wrist pain. Is this normal for a railtrack anvil? It's small enough I could probably heat treat it in my forge easily enough, but would this help? I feel like I was getting much more rebound out of it when I first started using it - did it somehow get annealed by working the hot metal over it? I'd really appreciate any advice! Best, Alex