navasky

I got to play with some singing bowls the other day and liked them so much that I decided to make my own. This one is copper but next time I'd like to try with bell brass or some kind of bronze (anyone know where to get get bell bronze sheet?) It ended up sounding a little different than the professionally made ones but it does indeed sing and is pretty fun to use. I'll try and get a video clip of it in action up soon.

It's a genuine Peddinghaus single horn pattern, I have one just like it.

Meant for someone on the East Coast but not for me. Then I saw her face: 31 kg Peddinghaus single horn for $75 + tax from an estate sale. I passed it over at first since it looked suspiciously like a cheap cast anvil and I had forgotten to bring a ball bearing, but I went home, did some googling, and came back the next day and grabbed it. I guess everyone else thought it looked suspicious too. Edges are perfect and rebound is even better than my Hay Budden.

Oops you caught me, it is indeed styrene butadiene copolymer.

There's the double s driving hammer but I have no idea how effective it is.

No it's a standard hourglass shape. I figure that way metal wedges can be added or it can be re-handled in the usual way later on, plus once the glue dries it forms a mechanical lock as well as the adhesive one.

I do it pretty much how Hofi does it here but I use shoe goo instead of sikaflex. After the glue has had a few days to dry I soak the end grain at the top of the handle in linseed oil.

That looks great, impressive work.

Thanks for the comments guys. It's not too pretty to use but so far I've been scared to throw it in the bucket with the rest of my hammers and scuff up the handle. I've done some test hammering with it but haven't used it extensively yet. I think 51200 will make a fine hammer as long as you get the temper right. I used a propane torch and drew the face to straw and the rest to blue but with a heavier hammer I would try to get the face a little softer.

I recently found a roller bearing that I thought was the perfect size for a hammer for sheet metal work. A little slitting and drifting later and here it is. The head is a bit over 1 pound and I left the face fairly hard. The handle is apple which turned out to have some beautiful grain near the end, I'm hoping the knots won't weaken it too much. The head is attached with polyurethane glue. I don't use wedges anymore unless it's for aesthetic reasons and I have yet to have a glued head come loose. Thanks for looking.

Lol, I spark tested the Welch's but the orange liquidy sparks with no branching were inconclusive... I'm excited about the hex anvils, I want to make up some hexagonal wooden bases to match them.

Here are some soon-to-be post anvils that I got from a machine shop estate sale. The round one is 4140, the hex pieces were unmarked but were in a big pile of tool steel. I also picked up a few random pieces of tool steel and some vintage paper micarta.

Have you been quenching the hawk in water while forging by any chance?

27" long, about 3/16" at the thickest point. I'm a big fan of your stuff by the way, but maybe you could already tell. Yeah it's basically a dha with a nontraditional handle. lol I rubber-impregnate all my wraps. They're more slippery when wet than bare cord but less so than an epoxied wrap. The wrap itself provides enough texture that I've never had to seriously worry about losing my grip.

Forged from 4140. The handle is hammered aluminum with a rubberized cord wrap. I haven't got a chance to use it yet but it feels great in the hand.

I'd like to think the implementation is somewhat original but yeah, it's basically just a mashup of an ulu and a bearded axe. Feel free to make your own and let us know how it works on the fish.

Thanks. I don't plan to find out since I've spent too much time on the handle at this point to risk breaking it with a bad throw.

It's mostly done for looks and can also make the wood a little grippier. I like to do it before I fit the head, my theory being that it dries out the wood, shrinking it, and letting you get the head on a bit tighter.

Sadly I spend most of my time in an apartment in Sacramento these days so no loud forging or grinding. I still have a small work space in the East Bay though and you're welcome to visit next time I'm there but it won't be for a while. PM me if you're interested.

Yup it's been on a couple backpacking trips with me. Works great and even splits wood a little better than expected.

Yeah that's where I tested it, it bounces a ball bearing about 30%

That go mai looks great!

A friend gave this to me yesterday. 20" x 20" x 2", 225 lbs. It appears to be mild and the rebound is a bit disappointing but I'm planning to make a Brazeal style anvil/swage blockish thing out of it.

Oops, pics were working yesterday, I don't know what happened. Here they are as attachments. A forward facing point on the axe blade is a good idea that I might work into a future revision. I don't want to add anything up towards the spine though since I like to rest my index finger there for fine control.

This one is ATS-34. There are 4 hidden pins in addition to the one that's visible.