FieryFurnace

I made these dies for forging tooling. The taper angles are for a specific type of tooling. The dies were made from 4140 with 5/8-inch backing plates. The dies work really good for what they are intended for! Since I took these pictures, I countersunk the bolt holes to get the bolt heads down a bit, and then I also softened up the near side radius on the shallow taper die.

I'm continuing to mull over the info. One question for now. Those of you who do use an alternate floor surface in the forge area, how do you fasten down you tools? Power hammer, anvil? I just put some four foot stake in my big anvil and that seemed to work ok. What do you all use?

The vise leg doesn't have to go all the way to the floor. Just make sure there is some sort of heavy support under the leg. Here is a picture of my vise. The leg is short and doesn't extend to the floor. So I built this support. It's a piece of pipe that fits around what is left of the leg. The base and angle supports are 3/8-inch plate. Solid as a rock!

I feel so good that I did a craft show instead of the conference that weekend. Ohh yeah! After three days of sitting in the VERY hot sun, and 8 hours of driving, I cleared a grand total of about $40. I think I should have attended the conference and dumped the show! See you all next year!

This post here doesn't really answer the question of which to build, but I've got to point out that even though EVERYONE ignored this post, it's the most sound advise out there to ANY smith starting out. Before you put a bunch of cash in a power hammer, learn fire control, hammer control, get a GOOD anvil, good hammer, learn how to MOVE BIG metal efficiently with a hand hammer WITHOUT killing your arm, etc. If you grab a big piece of metal and try to forge it and it takes forever, and your arm is shot, and your hands have blisters, and you've rattled your teeth out of your head by the time you are done, then you aren't ready for a power hammer. If you can't figure out how to move metal efficiently on the anvil, when you go to the power hammer, all you will accomplish is the mutilation of metal faster than you were doing on the anvil. I am a FIRM believer in Brian Brazeal's hammer techniques and since following his instruction, my efficiency has GREATLY improved and energy use has dropped. However, even prior to his class and prior to owning a power hammer, forging RR spikes was not a difficult or overly time consuming process. As an example, with comparitavely poor hammer technique, I could forge a RR spike into a crucifiction spike in 30 minutes, and forge a RR spike knife in an hour or so. Having said that, I'll address the original post topic. I have already told Trip that without question I would go with the tire hammer. Trip is wanting to forge metal more than work with tooling. He will use tooling under the hammer, but the primary purpose of the hammer would be moving metal. The same tooling used under the treadle hammer can be modified and used under a tire hammer on the flat dies. You can use tooling AND forge under a tire hammer, but you can't use tooling and forge under a treadle hammer. A treadle hammer shines with tooling and repousse. It doens't really matter how much you can leg press, because a treadle hammer is a WHOLE different galaxy. We are dealing with a no brainer. TIRE HAMMER!

I got back from Paducah Kentucky just a few hours ago. I just sent an email off to Lewes. Hopefully he'll be able to point me in the right direction. More info to come as things progress!

Thanks for the info! I will be in contact with Lewis! I'm tired of talk, talk, talk. It's time to get something going. I'd like to have monthly meetings with high quality demos/classes/workshops, regular news letters/info on smithing, etc. There are enough smiths in Kentucky to make this work. It's time to band together. I'm out of town now, so hello to all from Paducah Kentucky. More info after I get back home and talk to Lewis.

Thanks guys! This piece is shipping off today! The client has been waiting for voer a month now. (I'm keeping pretty busy these days.) The next custom job in line is two circular chair bases. One is 24-inch the other is about 18 or 20-inch round. They will have forg welded tabs with scrolls. More on all that later. I've got a show this weekend, and if I do good, I'll have plenty of work to do to get ready for the next show.

Kentucky does not have a pro-active blacksmithing organization! I think there is a group of guys over in the far eastern side of the state, but nothing central and nothing that will attract the bulk of smiths from across the state. The Kentucky Blacksmithing Association (KBA) folded some time back. I want to get it going again. Does anyone know who has the legal information regarding the KBA? On a thread sometime back, someone said that someone still had the non-profit information and other legal documents for the KBA. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the KBA expressed on a previous thread.....now it's time to get the ball rolling. Who is currently "in charge" and how can I get in touch with them? Thanks!

Sure wish I could go! I've been planning on attending all winter and spring, but I booked a show on that weekend. Bummer! Steve is a great demonstrator......definately worth the trip. Y'all take pictures for me!

I've got 3/8 valves on everything and it runs fine. When I update I'll probably go to 1/2. Before making any major alterations to your air plumbing, double check to make sure the ram guides are not too tight. If you are sure they are not, removed some of the guides and double check anyway. Also, make sure there is not any GREASE on the ram guides. Use a medium weight motor oil or WD-40 in a pinch. That alone sped my hammer way up!

Yeah that's pretty much what I'm thinking. The area between the forge, anvil, vise, and power hammers would be a softer material. I am wanting to rearange the shop a bit before I do this though. I know what you are talking about with the pads being in the wrong place when you rearange. My tire hamme pad is right where I want the forge. LOL

Here is the altered end.

Keep in mind those blowers you saw are priced at $500 and $800. This simply means nothing! Just because someone prices an item at a certain price does not mean it is worth that. I will grant you that you have an unusual blower, perhaps even qualified as very rare. This, of course, makes it more valuable. A good smooth-working standard champion 400 is worth $200. "Worth" being defined by what a patient man can buy one for. Yours is rare and thus more valuable, but a blower of that size, regardless of condition and how rare it is, is worth very little to your every day backyard blacksmith. You are going to need to sell this sucker to someone with a very large industrial forge, a collector, or a smith that just wants bragging rights. (Or someone with a mine that needs a bit of fresh air. LOL) That's your market, and I doubt that market is going to want to hand over their Little Giant when they can buy a good, big electric rig for $400.

I'm liking the idea of the fine crushed gravel for the main forging area. Concrete elsewhere! This will allow me to get the torch and welder close enough to anything in the shop. I also like the idea of the wooden blocks on end. The level of moisture in our shop though, would probably make that impracticle. The shop is was built at the bottom of a hill and gets a lot of drainage. I have done a rediculous ammount of grading and ditch digging to help fix the problem. I'm about half done with the grading. I'm thinking the plastic layer beneath whatever flooring we use, will help with moisture. Thanks for the ideas!

I like the fullured grooves idea! Does seem it would help. I altered the tip as the client requested. I'll get some pictures before I ship it off. The tip is now a flat diamond like a snake head.

So folks, I'm wondering! My blacksmith shop and my dad's wood-working shop is one building. The main shop area is a 20x60 building and we each have half. My dad has a full wood working shop and of course I make chocolate covered strawberries over on my side of the shop. ;) Right now the entire floor is gravel. It is a pain to roll my torch cart around, impossible to move the welder, and dad's tools are stuck in place too. I initially was planning on pouring concrete over the entire shop, and I do have the funds to do that. This is not an "I don't have the cash" thread. I don't particularly care for working on concrete. I am noticably more tired when I work a full day on concrete. However, I need the smooth surface of concrete for the welder and torch. I am thinking about on my side of the shop, pouring concrete around the welding table and other portions of my shop and doing some sort of other flooring in the main forging work area. The question for me is, what do I use? I want whatever I use to be level with the concrete. How about sand? Maybe a finer gravel? Maybe something else? I can't just use the gravel that is there because, I want the work area to be level with the concrete and also, we are laying plastic down between the current layer of gravel and whatever we use for flooring. The plastic is going to be a moisture barrier, which is sorely needed. What are your suggestions? OK now my dad's side of the shop has nothing to do with fire. It's all wood-working. We've talked about doing all concrete, or doing concrete slabs for each machine and something else in the areas between. Once again, what are the recomendations here? Wood floor? Sand? Finer Gravel? Thanks for your input ahead of time!

Ohhh I'm getting soooo excited. I always like when you get enough pieces done to lay it all out and sort of see the finished project. (Then it seems like there is an endless list of tweaking before you can start on assembly.) Looking great! Can't wait to see the rest of the progress!

weight wise a 15:1 ratio that would put your anvil post at 750 lbs. (for a 50 pound head, if I'm reading you right, you are saying 15 x 50 = 750) Wow! The posts we used in the NC tire hammer build last year were between 6 and 8 inch solid rounds. They weighed an average of about 420 pounds each. My tire hammer has a 7 inch post and does just fine. It would be interesting though to use one with a post closer to your ratio and see how much more efficient it would be.

I've been keeping track and will post my results here at the end of the month. I've got two shows this month and will count that time and track what I make at the show. I looked over my notes from last week, added things up, and was very pleased with my results. We'll see how I do this week!

yeah mine is 1.25-inch as well. What kind of anvil is that anyway?

yesteryearforge: yeah those are nice but are of little help to people that done have the tools to make and the tools to use such a jig. I believe that is the point of this video. Trip: experiment! :D LarryH: EXCELLENT! I have a swage block with a shovel form, but I like the idea of forging it using the anvil. (Well I actually like the ring method better.) Thanks so much for taking the time and the energy to produce this video. I think an important part of being a good blacksmith is being aware of the MANY forging surfaces on the anvil. It's not just a face, a step, and a horn. Your video shows how to be mobile around the anvil to get to and use the various forging surfaces available on the anvil. I think it will help everyone who watches it with an open mind, understand a little more and become a little more efficient in everyday work. I'll definately be trying your methods out! Thanks again!

Spare tire clutch on a rusty hammer is simply a motor with a round solid pulley which rotates a tire. (Just like the tire hammer.) The drive rod on the rusty is then placed off center on the tire so that when the tire rotates the rod moves up and down creating the sea-saw motion of the helve hammer. A break pad can be rigged to stop the tire so that you gain hit-stop controllability. (That's important!) I've never used a rusty style or any style helve hammer, however, in theory, I would consider the spare tire system superior to the v-belt pulley system. Check out the online gallery of rusty helve hammers accessable from the rusty helve hammer site. Many of the hammers pictured there are run off of spare tire systems.

http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/21026-split-crosses/page__hl__%2Bmaking+%2Bsplit+%2Bcross

I would got with a minimum of six months each with Brian Brazeal and Mark Aspery. Both have some excellent techniques. Having survived 7 days with Brian, I'd love the chance to try six months. I've never met Mark, but I've emailed him once, and he seems like a nice guy. After that, (having a foundation in good technique) I'd like a year or more with an established full time blacksmith working on large scale pieces to give me experience in using those techniques to make a large number of pieces work together. I don't know a whole lot of large scale blacksmiths, but I think I'd like a spell with Rory May or Andrew Molinaro. I've never met either in person but I've read a lot of Rory May's posts and he seems like good guy. Andrew Molinaro offered me a position in his shop (Artisans of the Anvil) about a year and a half ago. (Wish I could have accepted but I had too much going on at the time with construction here.) He also seems like a great guy! I really like both of those guy's work. Just something about the style or something that I like more about other smiths I've seen!