FieryFurnace

"Trip" AKA Chase, left yesterday after staying here for four days. Since I had all the hammer making tools out anyway, I decided to make a hammer today. This hammer is going to be one of five pieces I submit to the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen for review by jury, to try to get allowed into the organization. I figured that, part of what defines the blacksmith as the king of craftsmen is his ability to make his own tools. So, hopefully the jury will think so too. The hammer is made from 2-inch solid 4140, cut into a 4-inch billet. It has the most pronounced cheeks of any hammer I've made. It is of course the Brian Brazeal inspired blacksmith's rounding hammer!

"Trip" will be in touch Brian!

Hey thanks for all of the complements! We sure did enjoy making all of these little toys, and I am pleased with the results and time. Chase's striking habits GREATLY increased as he swung the 13.25-pound sledge for the entirety of the operation. This thread is not for, and IFI does not allow advertising of items for sale. This thread is simply to show the progress of two young smiths working as a director striker team, making hammers for four days. Chase is currently working on video editing the footage he took, and will post a video of our work when he's finished.

Post number 1,501 for me! LOL We finished two more hammers today before Chase left. Not too bad seeing that out of four days, we only spent about two and half of it forging. We spent a half a day at the steel yard and a day hauling coal! I handled one to show Chase how to, then sent him home with the box of handles, hammers, and wedges. He will finish polish and handle the rest. The tags give the finished weight of the hammer prior to handling!

I'll second this post!

Here are the weights finally. 2-inch solid round 4140 stock, cut in billet lengths of 3.5-inches, 4-inches, and 4.5-inches. 3.5-inch billet yielded a 2-pound 13-ounce hammer. (45-ounce) 4-inch billet yielded a 3-pound 4 ounce hammer. (52 ounce) 4.5-inch billet yielded a 3-pound 9-ounce hammer. 57-ounce) I have not compared finish weights with the starting weights but my data showed that from the starting billet size to the finished hammer, prior to rough grinding, hardening, tempering, and polishing, the weight loss per-hammer was .25-pounds. This number stayed consistent regardless of the starting billet size.

Here are the four hammers we have done so far. We did not make any hammers today as we spent the entire morning loading and unloading around 3000-pounds of coal. We hardened and tempered the four hammers shown in the pictures above, this evening. I also cut out some additional knot-free handle stock for the hammers. Tomorrow we are hoping to do another two hammers before Chase has to head back home. Chase will be posting photos of the grinding and tempering a little later.

It really keeps the stock hotter, longer, hands down. If and when done correctly you can actually take and increase the heat in the bar. It would probably be difficult to show on video, but it can be seen in person.

Hi Alec! Never really understood what the larger beveled edge does for you. Maybe you could elaborate? The one from the pictures is a smaller billet, that we used. We used a smaller rounded edge on that size, but I did make sure the larger billets got bevelled more, however, I suppose billet size would not affect whatever positives come from the rounded edge. I must have forgotten, so like I said, please elaborate! We worked from 8:30 A.M to 12:30 P.M. and made two hammers. Here are the hammers so far! Here are the two we made this morning. Here are the two from yesterday! And here is the hardy that Chase directed yesterday evening. I was very pleased with the results especially seeing that was his first time on the director's side of the anvil. I'm keeping data on billet size, starting weight, weight after rough grinding, and weight after finish grinding. I will post said data when we are done making hammers!

The volume on the smoke of entrance to the smoke shelf if plenty....I made sure of that. The flue pipe is 6-inch. I would have preferred 8-inch but the entire system, including the triple wall stuff through the roof and the insulation box through the ceiling are all 6-inch. I could always put a decreasing plate just inside the door to decrease the door opening. I do not believe this would affect loading, and it would be handy for ash build-up. I allowed a lip for the ash, but it is on the small side. I have noticed that in just burning a fire last night! the stove is really tight! I put an oak chunk in last night at 10 A.M. and it was still in one piece at 5 A.M.

I work with a wall-side forge using a side draught hofi-style hood. It works good, no complaints! If I had the floorplan to do it though, I would put a center-mounted forge. With a wall mount the stock needs to go into the forge parallel to the wall that the forge is against. That way you can get long stock in. The problem with this is, you only have a 90 degree working range around the forge. Draw a ling out parallel with the working side of the forge, and parallel with the wall that the forge is against. That's your 90-degree work-space. With a center mounted forge, you have a 180 degree work space. Draw that same line parallel with the working side of the forge. There's your working area. So with a center mounted forge you have twice the work space, before you have to start walking around the forge to get to the power hammer. Right now, I've got to walk around my post vise to get to my striking anvil. I've got to walk around the left side of my anvil to get to my air hammer. I've got to walk around the right side of my anvil to get to my tools. It works, yes! But, the opportunities for work space are increased with a center mounted forge. The only advantage I see to a wall mount forge is you don't have to cut a hole in the roof, because you can do a hofi-style hood straight out the wall.

I was once working in a class setting. There was a woman in the class, a couple forges down from me. We were working on different projects but using the same power hammer, and so we had to watch out for one another. Obviously we couldn't both come out of the forge at the same time with a hot piece of metal. How do you ask someone if they are about to swing a hot piece out of the forge? In the rush of the moment I ALMOST yelled across the blacksmith shop to a woman, "ARE YOU HOT?" I got about half of the word "are" out of my mouth and decided to rephrase! :D

Well to conclude this saga! We installed the stove today. It got 6 coats of high heat black paint before installation. It was a pain to move, but we made it. It really goes well on the hearth. (we built the hearth more for a stove this size. The other stove looked out of place and we planned for it to be temporary.) I put all of the firebrick in. That pretty much went according to plan, although I did not account for spacing when I added the smoke shelf. This made it to where I couldn't really get a full firebrick in the back middle. You'll see a shorter broken brick in the back middle there. I had to cut several brick with a masonry chisel and that worked well. Here you can see the smoke shelf! It seems like it's doing it's job well! It will take a while to learn all of the quirks and figure out how to run the stove properly. It's going now and is doing well! I want to raise the chimney another three feet to increase draw. (Get it above the ridge line!) The draw has never been awesome but it hasn't been a problem with the old stove as it had two doors. When the load door was open the ash door got closed, and the other way around. That way, it always had draw. However, with a single larger door, the smoke wants to come out as much as go up. Increasing draw by getting the pipe above the ridgeline would be a plus! Thanks to all for following this thread!

Self contained hammers are noisy, but for what they lack in silence, it is made up for in control. I've never used an Anyang 33, but I have used a similar 100+ pound hammer, a similar 50 pound, and a self contained 400 pounder. They all were great with precision hitting. If you see yourself doing a lot of tooling work I'd recomend the self contained hammer. If you want to put metal between the dies and beat the crap out of it in a hurry, you can't do better than the tire hammer. It puts out a lot of wam in a little amount of time. I've forged 2-inch solid square 4140 on mine. Clay uses tooling under his tire hammers and you can get tooling plans from him or through him as well. However, I dislike using tooling under a tire hammer because the single hit controlability is just not there. I've had mine for over a year and use it nearly every time I'm in the shop. I also use a 60 pound compressor run air hammer on a daily basis. I do all my hand-held tooling under the air hammer and my forging under the tire hammer. It just depends on what you'll be doing more of. If it's going to cost you $1500 to $2000 to build a tire hammer, and you decide a mechanical hammer is what you need, I would strongly suggest shopping for a 25 pound Little Giant. If you shop around, you should be able to get an OK one for that price, and they are hard working forging machines. It will save you a lot of head scratching and a lot of time. I would also strongly consider looking into getting a stronger power service to your work space.

The spade ends are called dutch hearts! The 1/2-inch top and bottom fullers are used to endent the metal. However the curvature that leads into the tip and the hollow area in the spade, by the "stem" are forged with a hammer and mandrel or sharp horn. (That hollow area is called the cusp.) After you've begun spreading the material you alternate between spreading, and placing the back of the "spade" on the sharp horn and hitting the area by the point with the hammer! It's a REAL pain in the neck until you get used to it. If you want to, you can come up sometime and and I'll walk you through the hinge making process and help you make the tools too. There are other finials as well like the bean finial (looks like a kidney bean,) and a round finial. Just let me know ahead of time so I can make sure I have the stock on hand!

Here are the pictures of the hinge barrel tool! I finally got my picture uploader working. This one shows the positioning of the tool and the hinge piece in the vise. The hinge stock is scarfed on the end and then bent at a sharp 90 with enough material past the bend to allow material for the hinge barrel and about an inch or so for welding. Here is a close up of the hinge barrel tool. The blob is a rough forging of the approximate size of the hinge barrel. It's just something to form the barrel around. The way it works is, you clamp it all in the vise and bend the hinge stock around until it hits the vise. Then take it out and nock out the hinge barrel tool. Place a piece of stock in the hinge barrel that is the size of the hinge barrel. (3/8-inch barrel = 3/8-inch stock) Then close the barrel up around this piece of stock, tightly making sure everything is alligned. Open the scarf slightly to allow the piece of stock to fall out and allow flux between the area to be welded. Flux and then weld. I like my first welding blow to be kind of a pulling hammer blow, pulling the hinge barrel slighly tighter than it was. This allows a drill bit to clean out and true up the barrel. Hopefully that all makes sense. It's a simple process only involving a few heats in decent stock sizes. 1 heat to scarf and bend 1 heat in the vise with the barrel tool 1 heat to close the barrel, knock out the sizing pin, and flux 1 heat to weld

YVES: We used a wood stove for several years to heat our mobile home in Georgia. It was a store-bought fisher, and was 3/16-inch or 1/4-inch plate. We ran that thing pretty darn hot sometimes, and we weren't the first owners. It got used frequently but never warped or changed in any way. The current stove that is in our house was given to us! It was in pitiful shape. It was made from something like 16 gauge sheet metal. It was half rusted out half burnt out, and warped like crazy. The door still shut, but did not seal well. We encased the entire old stove with 3/16-inch plate. I fill the entire box up with wood in the evenings. It has never warped or changed. The current stove I'm building is 1/4-inch plate steel. I do not foresee any problems with warpage. Plate and sheet metal are a pain when heated and cooled. They do not retain their flatness in the least. Even when clamped down, you can still have a piece warp when it has been heated and cooled. However, thicker stove (3/16-inch and 1/4-inch in my experience,) does not seem to be affected. I assume it has something to do with the fact that it has support on all four sides. There is just too much resistance from too many angles to allow the steel to warp. It probably would Martin! Good sugestion. I used a favorite of mine which is put the corners together with a little gap in them. Then put a piece of 1/2-inch round in the corner and weld it all from the backside. It finished the corners out nicely, and does not require any grinding or slag removal as the weld is all interior. That last run of rivets inside the box would be a pain to get at though! LOL I got your picture this evening Jonathan and now my uploader won't work! I'll try tomorrow afternoon!

Got the legs welded on yesterday! We've started the buffing! Here is the stop for the door handle. Here is a close-up of the feet. They were made to resemble a "claw-foot." The material used was 1.5-inch solid mild steel. The first two took 6 heats and the last two took 5. 3-heats to upset, 1 or 2 heats to fuller in the claws and check back the upset, and 1 heat to cut. Here are the four of them before they were attached. It's warmer today so I'll be working on painting it. P.S. I still forgot to get that picture Jonathan, but I will remember today!

3/4-inch diameter!

Jonathan, I forgot to get the picture of the tool tonight. I'll try to remember to get it tomorrow! Here are some updates on the stove. I welded a smoke shelf / spark arrestor on the inside. Then I made the chimney pipe collar, welded it to the top plate, cut the chimney hole, and ground it all down. Next I welded 2-inch flat bar all the way around the lid to create a stepped-down lip. I got the lid welded on today. After the lid was welded on, my dad and I flipped the stove and put it on a roller cart, so that I can get to the stove bottom to attach the legs. I welded some plates to the stove bottom where the legs will go to help distribute the stove weight in a wider area than just the leg stock diameter. The legs are made from 1.5-inch solid round. I am forging a sort of simple "claw-foot" design for the legs. This is done by creating a justified upset on the ends, and then using a small diameter fuller to creat the claw-foot look. I've got two feet done, and will finish them up tomorrow. I finished the damper-slide assembly and it all works well. I also wrapped 1/4-inch round bar around the square pipe that is the handle guide. Thanks for the suggestions and ideas John B! Finally I bent the backside of the handle around so that it latches properly, and I also welded a stop so that when the handle is in the open position it catches at a good angle. Picture time! Here is a picture of the bottom with the leg support plates welded on. You can also see the lip around the top (which is currently on the bottom.) Here is one of the feet! Nothing fancy, but I am pleased with the way they are turning out. They are taking six heats with a striker to help with the fullering! Ok now! Back to the door! Here is the damper slide! Here it is in the open position! And finally here is a close up of the wrapped handle guide!

People use water all the time to control fire and put out their fires. If that's your cup of tea, have at it. However, water is not needed to put the fire out if you do it correctly. That prevents the ash sludge and mess caused by extenguishing your forge fire with water. As far as fire control, I have no problem controlling my fire without water. Is that saying you are a bad blacksmith if you can't do that? No, not at all! However, once again, it isn't a good idea to mix water and coal if rust prevention is in your agenda. When I build a forge, I want it to last a long long time. I've been using the forge I just sold for the last two years, and there is no rust on the forge pan. Different story if you are using water. I've worked on both sides of the spectrum here. It doesn't matter what you do as regards using water or not. Whatever floats your boat. However, from my personal experience and from observed experience, I prefer not using water to control and put out my forge fires, having found satisfactory means of doing both without the use of water.

Rake the green, non-burning coal to the sides of the firepot away from the heat. Green coal can ignite and spread flames around quite quickly. Rake everything else towards and away from you, level with the firepot. DO NOT dig down into the firepot. After a day or forging, all that's down there is ash and clinker for the most part. LEAVE IT ALONE! Spread all of the burning material out a little (just don't leave thick clumps piled up.) Your forge will be out in 30 minutes. If you insist on excavating your entire firepot to put your forge out, you will just break up your clinkers into tiny pieces and mix the ash junk in with your good coke. Leave that stuff alone and in the bottom of the firepot. In the morning, you can sift out the good coak that's left in the firepot, and then run your ash and clinker through the clinker breaker into the ash dump. Stay away from pouring water onto your forge. Water, mixed with green coal, equals a rusted out forge in no time at all.

I put in a smoke shelf today. Jonathan: I make a hinge-barrel tool. The one I made for these was 1x1/4-inch flat bar. Will try to get a picture of the tooling. The hinge barrel is made a tad small and true bored with a drill bit.

The hood rests on the chimney so it takes two people to move it. Once it's out from under the chimney, a set of handtrucks grabs the lower angle-iron leg brace and acts like that set of wheels.