SJS

Here is a set I did in 2006 for an outdoor fire pit with a large metal lid. The family had a cat and a weiner dog, so I used them for finials for the handles. The handles are about 4' long and were forged out of 1/2" round for the lid lifter, and 3/4" square for the poker and shovel, the hook on the poker is forged flat and then split. The shovel was drawn free hand on a piece of 1/8" cut with a sabre saw and free hand formed on the anvil if I remember correctly I didn't have a swage block at the time I think... Original handle design had sharp fullered bead at the top and bottom of the twist... twisted right off when I did the cable twist, and had to take it out. I could have made a tool to do a rounded bead with less of a stress riser but just took it out... slightly embarrassed by the weld on the loop handle for the lid lifter but the client didn't mind and was pleased with the set. Today I would forge weld that joint, and would make the tool and do the raised bead after twisting;-)

And have the courage to fairly judge a client/contractor and walk away if they are only there to bleed you dry. There are some jobs that the grief you suffer through isn't worth the amount they are paying you. And people who offend your sense of justice and fairness should be shunned, bad contractors should reap what they sow. People who don't play fair, shouldn't get to play. A bad reputation should be a serious limitation in business... Things have gotten bigger and we all play in a Global Marketplace, whether we want to or not. But if you feed the bad dog they grow and they can bite you again. Times are hard and it is hard to turn away work. (I don't say no often enough either...) I almost always regret working for someone I don't like and don't trust. If in your gut you know you don't trust them, and its a bad deal, walk away. You need work, you just don't need bad work. Remember "you don't go broke on jobs you lose, you go broke on jobs you win and lose money on..."

Blacksmith humor, is after all an oxymoron... ;-)

I would go ahead and try the walnut, you may find it brittle, but it might last many years you just cant tell till you try... You can cut some of the bois darc and let it cure while you are using the walnut handle till it breaks;-)

Brian try to keep us posted about the Hammer Hammer-in and contest, sounds like a great deal of fun. :-)

The work shop / hammer-in model like what Clay Spencer does with the tire hammer would be GREAT... Pay your fee, come help assemble and learn about making coils and such, then take home a working induction heater... Could be a lot of fun... :-) Saving pennies, and failing that tempted to sell a kidney on CL ;-) I've got two right what is the worst that could happen... ;-)

'Some ideas are so stupid only the most educated men will believe them' Winston Churchill? A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result... If you don't learn from your mistakes, all you will have to show for them is the mess you have made...

Worldly Wisdom is the ability to learn from someone else's mistakes with out having to make them yourself... Godly Wisdom is living in faith filled obedience to the word of God, and the prompting of the Holy Spirit :-) There are no short cuts in life, but a good guide can save you a lot of time and trouble... Observe, analyze, adapt, and overcome... repeat... :-)

Actually many of the cutlers and file makers hammers that I have seen have an angle to the eye very much like what you have. I suspect that the anvils were set slightly higher for bladesmithing and the angle worked out ergonomicly to leave the hand and wrist in a more neutral position than with a normal hammer... Also it can be used to essentially set the bevel with the hammer, while you are basicly striking flat. Considerably less strain on your wrist and hand...

In situations like this you should never defend yourself (Let your friends do it...) Brian is only self taught in that he continues to question the processes and techniques that he has seen and read, and developed himself. I cannot begin to list adequately all the top notch blacksmiths and farriers that Brian has worked with but here is a go at it: Alfred Habberman, Uri Hofi, Tom Clark... Brian is also a well liked and respected demonstrator at conferences all over the US, and used to lead trips to Europe to take other blacksmiths to Alfred Habberman's shop. He is well traveled and can forgeweld very well indeed. He has very good fire control and phenomenal hammer control. He is one of the best smiths with a hand hammer I have ever watched work. Enough about Brian and how ridiculous Dan's assumptions seem... Why did he bring this up in the first place, so people would think him an incompetent goob who cant do a faggot weld... I don't think so. I think he doesn't like how weak it looks, and it offends his sense of forged things should be beautiful and functional. He is making a point about how this is taught, and how most of the time it ends up being a weak weld... Can an experienced blacksmith correct for the weakness he is pointing out? I suspect so, I think if after being for warned, by him pointing it out, that I could be extra careful to make the faggot weld long enough for it to be stronger, but I could be overconfident of my abilities;-) It could be Brian is right, maybe something like doing a drop tong weld with properly scarfed pieces would yield a more satisfying bulk to the point and a stronger joint for the hook. Now that I think about it, I seem to remember making a poker with this technique years & years ago, and being disappointed with the results from a structural standpoint... I don't have time to test it, but I will try to remember to play with this when I get the chance...

I tend to be conscious of how many heats I am using when I am demoing. Cause I am always saying, "and I've lost my heat, back into the fire now, and then I will..." But I don't tend to do simple quick items, I prefer work with lots of complicated cuts and punch marks: making dragon heads, goats heads, steers heads, dogs heads, horse heads, trammels. You ever try to forge a woman's face on the end of a bar? I have it isn't easy, and I haven't been successful yet... ;-) I like doing production work in a gasser and getting into the flow and just watching the pieces develop. I like watching the steel, almost being unconscious of my hammer, except in how it changes the surface of the steel. I like not thinking about the hammer, just knowing how the steel is going to move and change according to my will I like the impressive way Uri Hofi, and Brian Brazeal can move the steel using the techniques they have learned. It is terribly impressive to watch Brian pinch a horse head off the last 2" of a 2" square bar. I would like to incorporate more of their techniques into my own forging style, to improve my efficiency, and expand my capacity. But ultimately I don't really care how many heats it takes, I want the process to dictate that, and I want the finished product to reflect on the skill I have and the beauty of the design. I care about process and product, but I am not overly invested in speed. When I was apprenticing, I watched a big named farrier work out of my bosses shoing rig, this other guy was a hurry up kinda guy. He was slapping the shoe all over he place and throwing tools and trying to get done in a hurry. He just looked sloppy to me;-) I was unimpressed, but I watched to see if there was anything I could learn from him. I learned I really didn't like the way he worked... ;-) I like watching someone who is truly skilled work. Efficient work can be graceful and beautiful. The Japanese value quick efficient work, you don't want to be hasty, sloppy, or careless, but you don't want to be thought slow. In general that is a good goal, quick and efficient. Using a heat as a ruler occasionally to test your self and be able to compare skill levels is fun and informative, and can help with production, but ultimately its get it hot, hit it hard, get some work done;-)

So this was running on high pressure natural gas? or propane? Very cool testing thank you for posting... :-)

Do 1 you can do it. Do 10 you might be willing to show one to someone else. Do 100 you might get ten to match nicely. Do 1000 you can get a hundred to match perfectly...

Weren't the smallest sized Kerrihard hammers in the 12-15# range and they moved metal real nice. Jr Strausel made a real nice little helve hammer that move steel nice too. It might also be easier to work the kinks out on a little hammer project and then up the scale later when more mass was available.

If you don't set your self on fire at least once a year, your not working hard enough... ;-) You only have to protect anything you want to keep! Such as your eyes, your hearing, your lungs, your hands and your toes... There are NO Short cuts in life, but a good guide can make the trip shorter and much more pleasant... Wisdom is the ability to learn from someone else's mistakes, without having to make them yourself... Fatigue is a terrible teacher, you will learn bad hammer technique, and poor judgment. An iron will, and a body of flesh and bones, will often leave you with a nice repetitive stress injury... Along with... I can work much harder than my body can... If you aren't just a little bit scared, you aren't pushing your self hard enough. Challenge yourself, stretch your skills. Most people learn more with their ears open and their mouth closed. That is why God gave you two ears, and only one mouth. Most people should listen twice as much as they talk. Better to be thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt. I know just enough to sound really ignorant to someone who really knows what is going on... Please don't try and bluff your way through, it just makes you look bad... There is a BIG difference between 20 years of experience, and one years experiences repeated 20 times... If you diligently look for ways to improve, you will find them. If you don't, you will find you don't improve. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. Its nice to be important, but it is important to be nice. Most people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care...

Rockstar you are spot on. I loved the money line from the first post " People don't go out of business because of jobs they lost - they go out of business losing money on jobs they won." You see your bosses slapping their ladders against the wrong wall, looking for the big score type jobs, instead of hustling up a bunch of smaller higher profit jobs. For those of us trying to make a living doing what we love, (or even just make a little something to cover the habit... ;-) you remind us to watch the numbers. Some dead guy said the unexamined life is not worth living... Well if we don't know if we made any money, we are putting our business and families at risk. It is fine to do a few jobs here and there, at a loss because you want to do the job, but you cannot make a living doing that! Figure out which work you do that is profitable, and keep looking for other work you can do profitably. Try not to leave all your eggs in one basket, but make sure you don't neglect the basket. Do what makes you money, make sure you are making money, and in between times have fun looking for other ways to make money. If you want to blacksmith as a BUSINESS, as your day job, and not just a hobby, you have to make sure you have enough income. I have only done one architectural commission and I gave it away, other wise I never had the time, or they never had the money. I needed the kick in the butt to push me to examine what I am doing, and where I am making money, and if I can change that. I make most of my income shoeing horses, I love blacksmithing, and making really cool things you cant find anywhere else, I sell a little bit... But I am sure I can do better, and make the blacksmithing side of things be more profitable, and less a starving artist act of passion. As I get older I am slowly figuring out how to work smarter and not harder. This thread and the one on subcontracting are pushing me to be more profitable, cause isn't it more fun to be successful;-)

As the old saying says "There are two things that will result in a blacksmith going to hell, hitting cold iron, and not charging enough..." Both only end up causing you to suffer.

Yep I am a big fan of rounded transitions to the bit, and thicker up close to the boss. I have had too many fail because of too "neat" of a demarcation between the bit and the boss. Nice rounded corners, and strong taper just make for a longer lasting tool.

The forge area is like a kitchen, you have a work triangle. You move back and forth from the forge to the anvil, to the forge, to the power hammer, to the forge to the vice... Yes I realize I just illustrated a work triangle with 4 corners... ;-) Best to keep the forge separate, and attempts to recycle the waste heat are likely to be overly ambitious rather than practical.

400# with a round base should still be moveable, and the weight is down near the base unlike on an upright compressor where the weight is up in the air. Its gonna be a little hard to just throw in the back of the truck to take to demo's but still doable;-)

I've heard very good reviews of Laurel Machine and Foundry fire pots, and if I remember correctly they are thicker than 1" and very sturdy. Like I said in another post they have a fancy new website, and you need to call or email to get a price quote, but from everything I have heard they are far and away the best. I think I remember Frank Turley bought them for his forges at the school and loves them...

Good call Danny, its not like they are making any more of them (that way at least;-) and inflation and taxes its not like your likely to find one cheaper later on... Other than once you buy one of something that you spent absolutely years looking for, then you run across several in quick succession often for less money, (buy those too ;-) Good luck, and have fun.

Those are cool looking burners. Who is the manufacturer, and what is the standard application of those burners?

Yep most of us from the US can only say, "Lovely set of big fat dies on that hammer", and "she's a sexy little beast isn't she..." ;-)