Update:
I moved to my new house. It's deep in the woods where I can blacksmith without being too noisy.
I also built my forge and mounted my anvil on a stump.
I found an 8" x 3/4" steel bar and have been making it into a pair of tongs using Larry's instructions: tong making - Blacksmith Picture Gallery
and have been mostly successful so far.
I had a few questions though, about hammer technique. I figure that now that I have an anvil, a forge and a set of hammers, I should learn as good of hammer technique as I can so as to preserve my mostly healthy arm.
I've read what I've found on hammer technique (including this thread: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f7/hammering-technique-10/index4.html ) and seen a few videos but haven't found answers to these specific questions.
Keep in mind that my experience is entirely limited to working a 3/4" steel bar with what I think is a #3 hammer.
1. When I hammer I inevitably get tired in my wrist. It's not really pain, my wrist is just tired of picking up a hammer every second. I've trying choking up, and I'm going to try using a lighter hammer (I don't know how heavy my current one is but I think it's #3). Is there anything I can do for this? Or is this just because my body isn't used to lifting relatively heavy objects in that manner and my tendons get tired?
2. I've been looking for videos of good hammer technique and haven't seen anything that really shows the 'best' way to use a hammer. I imagine that the 'best' way is variable based on 1. Body build, 2. Hammer, 3. Type of strike, 4. Material being hit. However I'm still learning basics like where the elbow should be located, how high to raise the hammer etc.
3. When I don't have any metal on my anvil face and I hit it with my hammer, it rebounds. When I put some bright yellow steel on it, my hammer hits it and is dead. It seems like 100% of the work in lifting the head is done by my wrist. Is this normal?
4. Has anyone every heard of putting the anvil at a bit of an angle (Such that the anvil face is leaned towards the user maybe about 20-30 degrees). This would detract from the power of gravity forcing the hammer down but would make it much easier to raise the hammer away from the anvil, distributing the load between the flexor muscles (which are doing almost all the work currently to raise the xxxx thing) and the extendors.
5. How does me being tall with long forearms and relatively thin affect how I should hammer metal?
Thanks!