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I Forge Iron

SJS

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  1. Looks like a pretty good start, but it doesn't look finished...  The tool making curriculum teachs you to forge as close to finish as you can.  If it were me I would keep forging on that, and give it a bit more cup, forge the edges up a little more, and planish the cup more.  You could just take a right angle grinder to it, and smooth out the dings and polish it up, and you would have a decent cupping tool, but it would be better to forge closer to finish, and then polish it good.  The better you forge, the easier it is to finish.  A few more minutes of forging can save an hour in finishing, and the better the finish on the tool, the better it works.  You want the cupping tool to leave a smooth round face on your hammer, as you work the hammer head in the tool.  Another suggestion to help reduce finishing time, is to wire brush after each heat before striking, and then again before reheating.  You don't want to pound scale into the tool, and on the last heat just keep wire brushing til it is practically cold.  Scale is hard on your abrasives.  A few flapper discs for your right angle grinder will slick it up pretty quickly, then I like scotchbrite pads or wheels to blend it in a bit, and then I use emery compound on a buffing wheel on a bench grinder to get the final finish.  You can use the same tools to get a nice finish on your hammer faces.  The other trick you can use is just to soak the tool in strong white vinegar overnight, rinse it real good, and then use a wire wheel on a bend grinder to clean all the scale off.  After you get it polished up the way you want it, get it warm and wax it cause it will want to rust when it is so clean....  A scale finish is somewhat rust resistant so a lot of people just leave it all on except the working bit, thats cool too.  Sometimes I go overboard;-)  My preference is to make tools that show off my skill and dedication... YMMV

  2. I have taken cheap 2# engineers hammers (double faced) and reforged them into diagonal piens, and straight peins.  If I still needed a cross pein that I liked I would do the same to get that.  I have a double diagonal pien that is one of my favorite hammers.  I once used the double to forge a large colonial ladle out of around 3"-4" of 1" square, it ended up over 14" long.  I don't draw points with the pien much at all, rather I use the edge of the anvil and a bottom fuller.  I tend to use the pein for texturing, precise shaping, setting down, shoulding, and drawing stems or necks.... I like lots of different hammers, and use a wide variety to get whatever effect I am going for...  I have probably 4 or 5 straight peins, from 1.5#-6# in hand hammers and an ugly 14# straight sledge... I regularly find uses for all the hand hammer sized ones.  The 14# sledge is an excellent doorstop...  I really like the Hofi style hammers, but lost my Tom Clark hammer out the back of the truck, in a moment of senility...

  3. Nope, I haven't given up on you, your doing a good job.  I am just a cautious person, especially after having hurt myself with repetitive stress injuries.  Like I said I prefer trying to help people to not have to make the same mistakes I have made...

    The hammer cracks could be the surface essentially case hardened, and the inner core of the hammer was considerably softer than the skin. So the core deformed and the skin cracked.  Are you sure of the quality and specs on the steel you used? Did you soak the heat into the head?  Did you just quench the faces? (Sometimes that works fine, sometimes you are better off quenching the whole thing and then tempering back the eye hard...) They are a blemish, but won't affect how the hammer works, just repolish it more oftern and keep using it till, it looks worse, stop before it fails of course... ;-)

    As for using larger hammers, use them as you need to, but try to work in such a way that you need them less... Try to work the larger stock when you have a striker available.  Work hot, and reheat often, stay within the ideal forging temps of the steel you are working.  A ton of people work well past the low end of the steels actual forging temp, and some guys pull the steel out below the proper temp.  Make some smaller tools, set hammers and fullers, that focus your energy in a smaller area to do more work with the power you have available.  There are lots of smaller projects that are cool

    Mark how old are you right now, 14? You have a long life ahead of you, be patient. With the amount your working right now, you will develop the muscles, to increase your hammer weights with time.  

    Right now, you can use your whole body to an extent.  Just be very careful about over exherting your back.  You can use your legs a bit, and your core some, but your arm is what lifts and guides the hammer. You stack your accerations to get the hammer travelling as fast as possible, not as hard as possible, as fast...  Kinda like a golf swing, if you try to muscle it you will always mess it up.  Right now with your mass, trying to muscle a heavier hammer is a loosing proposition.  Raise the hammer high, pull it down fast, and allow it to whip over at the end of the stroke, accerating over the whole distance.  Keep your elbow close to your body line, maintain your loose grip, enough to provide the guidence the hammer needs, but not so much that the vibration feeds back into your arm,,,  It is easy to get distracted, even obsessed with the results of the hammer, while you are young and learning it is important to pay attention to your technique.  Taking videos of how you work, and look at the ergonomics of what you are doing, think about what you want to work on, what you need to change to do this better.

    I remember reading that the Japanese have some interesting thoughts on craftmanship. A good craftsman works quickly and sure, but isn't hurried and rushed. Ideally the craftsmans use of the tools is graceful and efficient. Someone who is really good at what they are doing makes it look almost easy, like you could do it too.

    The other option to increase your capacity in the shop is to build a Hydraulic press and a few power hammers, or atleast a treadle hammer.... 

  4. What style of rose?

    What finish do you want for the finished project?

    If your doing a Russian Rose, ie one piece wrapped rose. You can get all your prep work done, and then wirre brush it hard with a wire wheel on a bench grinder, and polish both sides.  Then you can take a torch and apply heat to the bends and wrap it up. Should get very little scaling, then you can wire brush the outside of the base.  If you leave it too open then the little bit of scaling will show inside the flower.

    With a Composite Rose, ie one assembled out of several peices.  Some guys cold work all the pieces, and wire brush or sand the sheet first before they even start. If you do hot work the sheet pieces, you can shape them up 60-80% of the way, and then use the wire brush on a bench grinder for the outside, and you can get smaller wire brushes that can be chucked in a drill or a die grinder, and slick up inside the bell of the flower.  Then when you assemble the rose you, tenon/rivet, or solder or braze the components on to the stem.  After it is assembled you can close things up a bit more if your gentle and careful.

    Chemical cleaners like vinegar, and OSPHO or some other Phosphoric acid paint prep, work for painting. Like everybody mentioned you need to neutralize the acid in the vinegar, pull it out of the vinegar rinse with water and dip into some water with some baking soda, then rise again, then dry quickly and apply finish, before it can flash rust.  The OSPHO will convert some of the scale to iron phosphate which will be nice and black, but will have a lot of white dust on the surface.  Hit the white powder with a wire brush to smooth all the surfaces you can reach.  I would like to experiment with OSPHO more, haven't been totally satisfied with the results, if I could get the whole surface to covert to iron phosphate that would rock...

  5. Sorry it has taken a bit to get back to this thread, I was on the road, and couldn't remember my password, and my stupid phone forgot it too, and couldn't remember the password to the old email account that my IFI account is linked too... lol

    Mark my concern with the style you have developed is that you will wear your back out. What I see is that for you to be able to work as ambitiously as you would like, you have to push, or exceed, what your young body is capable of.  I have no idea how to teach a smaller person how to work larger stock by hand, without teaching them to build their hammer muscles up over time.  When I teach, I ALWAYS encouraged younger and smaller people who were interested in learning to size their projects to their physical prowess, and or to use power tools.  I prefer to teach full grown men who do hard physical work, to start slower than they think they can. It is always safer to ramp up to bigger projects, by building your skill and your strength with smaller ones over time.  I remember seeing many of the early videos from the Young Smith's International working, and they looked young and ambitious.  They were working really hard, it looked like they were streching... To my eye they did not at the time look particularly skilled, graceful or efficient, but the work they produced was good so who am I to judge.;-)  The latest vids from Alec Steele look great.  He has obviously polished his skills, and imporved his efficiency greatly, and he is still super enthusiastic. I applaud his successes, and yours and Matti's as well.  You are producing good quility work, and it shows good judgement, and proper finishing skills. I enjoy your youth and enthusiasium, but I worry that how you are working will end up hurting you in the long run.  Always the trick in blacksmithing is to work smarter and not harder, to find tools and techniques to help make the work easier, safer, and more successful.  Ultimately it is still a VERY physical skill, unless you are working with power hammers and presses.  Neccessity is the mother of invention

  6. AMEN to what Thomas said... ;-)

    LB/Mark that doesn't look like a technique you will be able to employ when your 60 to me... There are lots of things that you can get away with while you are young and resilient, but will make you old and crunchy faster. I can't aurgue with your results, you did a fine job tapering that bar out.  My question is such a technique truly sustainable?  I don't rememeber Brian Brazeal using his whole body to generate enough power to do the work? Admitedly Alec Steele might use more of his body like what you are doing... But to my point Alec has a smaller frame than Brian does.  Hopefully you have great genetics and will grow to be a strapping young man who looks like what people think a blacksmith should look like.  If you look at pictures of Brent Bailey when he demoed the first time at an ABANA conference he was a skinny whip of a kid, now he looks like he has been body building...  If you learn to swing a smaller hammer, and develop your arm and to a lesser extent your body, you won't end up wearing out your body too quickly being forced to use it to move the larger hammer. Patience, it isn't fun, it isn't sexy, but it is still a virtue.  People who can be patience and delay gratification are more successful in general than the average.  I could be wrong...  You might stay a little whip of a man, who is super athletic and can forge like that when your old? You might be really relaxed and doing everything else right, you just had to do a little inovating because of your small stature and big asperations. But that would wear me out ;-)  I know you respect Brian a lot, you might ask him?  I tried to find a YouTube video of Brian's hand hammer technique where you could see the rest of his body, and couldn't?  I've seen Brian at conferences probably 10 times over the years, and I don't remember him moving that much when he forged...  Mark your punching stuff out way above your weight class, I just don't want you to get beat up doing it. 

    On anvil height, traditionally anvils for Heavy work were set lower, for striking top tools, and larger work. Which works great for striking top tools, and larger work... You need to watch your ergonomics, when you are doing flat work on the face of the anvil though. There is always a sweet spot, where the anvil is at just the right height for the face of the hammer at the end of your normal stroke. Anvil height is very finicy, and its hard sometimes to find that sweet spot. When the anvil is set too low you have to crouch, or bend over more, or extend more, or it changes the angle of your impact. Compensating tends to cramp your style, and your body, weither the anvil is too low, or too high.  With a low anvil you need to trust your technique and not feel the need to get your face close enough to see just what is going on, otherwise it is a strain on your back. WIth the anvil set too high you have to bunch up your arm and your shoulder, and again its not easy on your back...  If you can afford it, it is really nice to have multiple anvils set up in the shop at different heights.  A nice big heavy anvil set low for heavy work, or with a striker, and another anvil set higher for lighter work... When my main anvil is riding around in my truck, its way too high, on my portably farrier's anvil stand its just a little too high, and my shop anvil is set just a bit low for heavier work.  The anvil never being right at that sweet spot, does bother my back a bit... I should do something about that...

  7. Error on the side of the best tool you can afford.  I Love a nice quality Cobalt bit. They stay sharp, and hold up so much better for me.  If you are drilling forged items, planish with the hammer at low heat and wire brush at the anvil as you finish your forging.  Then allow it to normalize, don't quench it, just let it cool naturally.  Once its cold, power wire brush the surfaces, to remove as much of the scale as you can, then center punch (which will likely remove the critical scale you would otherwise be trying to drill through) then drill your hole.  Don't forget to clean the backside of the piece as well, the drill bit has to cut there too...  I prefer to use a drill press so I can see how the bit is cutting better, and I have a better idea of feed pressure...  Be careful, on pieces that you burned slightly in the fire... Sometimes that increases the carbon in that area (or something???), because it gets supper hard, and its practically impossible to drill, and a pita to even grind...

    I have some nice S-7 punches and I tend to hot punch, and counter sink my holes hot, saves on the drill bits;-)

  8. " There are two things that will send a blacksmith to hell:  Not charging enough, and trying to work cold iron!"

    "If you play with fire, you are going to get burned"

    "You only need to protect the things you would like to keep..."

    "Everything in a blacksmiths shop, should be considered hot, til proven otherwise..."

    "let the hammer do the work."

    "work Smarter!  Not harder"

    "put it where it will do the most good"

    "Punch HOT, shear the biscuit cold"

    "If you can't hold on to it safely, you can't safely hit it..."

    "If you need a grinder to pretty up your weld... Then that makes you more of a Grinder than a Welder doesn't it..."

    "Power tools get you done faster, one way or another... You can screw things up alot faster with a power tool..."

    "Hold on loosely, but don't let go. If you cling too tightly, you're gonna lose control..."  Definitely applies to hammers;-)

    "The time to think is while the iron is in the fire, that is when you plan out what to do next.."

    "Don't hurry, and Don't rush. Move quickly and confidently from one step to the next"

    "A good craftsman isn't hurried and sloppy, and they aren't a slow worker either.  A good craftsman works with a smooth efficiency that makes it look easy."

    "Neccessity is the Mother of Invention"

    "We struggle to overcome the limits of our tools and materials..."

    "Five more minutes at the anvil, saves an hour at the bench..."

    "DO the best you can, it shows..."

    "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."

    "A craftsman is know by his tools..."

    "take time to sharpen the axe..."

    "Tradition is what has worked consitantly in the past: with their tools, their materials, and their skills.  It is not the only way, nor even neccessarily the best way..."

    "If you want it to look like it was made 200 years ago, the easiest way to get that look is to use the same materials and techniques they would have used."

    "Form follows function"

    "Take the time to make the proper tool for the job"

    "A Master Craftsman can do incredible work with limited tools, the rest of us benifit greatly from really nice tools..."

    "If it's still ugly, You quite too soon..."

    "There are no shortcuts to aquiring skill, but some paths are quicker than others, and it never hurts to have a guide who can show you the way..."

     

  9. Original post question...  You need to go around and try as many different hammers as you can!!!

    I have played with steam hammers, self contained hammers, modern air utility hammers, and a variety of mechanical hammers.  I find mechanical's to have a steeper learning curve, they will eat your lunch faster, and be rude about it;-)  I get to hang out with Clifton Ralph, and Kurt Fahrenbach, and worked with them too. I know that they like mechanicals.  I recognize a mechanical hammers economy, and their efficiency, but I find them harder to work with...  A mechanical is still better than doing it by hand, but I don't have an intuitive "feel" for most mechanical's...  A friend of mine has a 100# LG that Kurt and Clifton both say is very well mannered... It occasionally tries to eat what I'm working on, it did that a few times, so now I have trust issues;-).

    I feel much safer using tooling under an air hammer (steam/utility/selfcontained.)  I can't guarantee that I'm going to be able to tease the right blow out of a mechancial, whereas I can sneak up on the the tool with an air hammer. I can get all kinds of stuff done with an air hammer, and feel safer doing it.

    I shoe horses full time, I don't get to play in the shop 6 days a week. If a mechanical was an extension of my right hand/right foot it might be different. But I want the tool I'm using to increase the likelyhood of success, and not force me to start all over...  I found that for me it was easier to learn how to use an air hammer, and it was plenty versitile.  When my Bull 90# utility hammer worked it was wonderful, when it was out of sync it broke, and I dont have the free time to fix it. My biggest complaint about most smaller hammers is that they don't have enough air between the dies, and manners;-) I like doing flat die forging with tooling, Clifton has been a big influence on me, just can't make me like mechanicals;-)

    Question to the Original poster?  What do you want to do with this hammer? make damascus? make tools, forge hammers? give your arm a rest;-)

     

    And Joel You suck;-) you have a Hackney, you just flat suck. One of the rarest and most interesting hammer designed, I was sure that they were all but gone to the scrappers, and you have one... You suck lol

  10. I have seen some very good blacksmiths demonstrate who seem to never pick up anything other than their favorite 2# hammer. With the right technique you can move a ton of metal. Part of the trick is to ALWAYS let the hammer do the work!  All of it!  No trying to help the hammer out by PUSHING it deeper into the metal. You get the hammer up, you put it on the fast track heading down, and then you're just there for guidance.   Energy is Mass x V2. Velocity tends to be more important, because you get more energy out of your blow if it is faster...  Mass gives you Inertia, which carries the hammer deeper into the steel when you are working.  So light hammers tend to upset the surface of thicker steels, without moving the core. Heavier hammers tend to be able to move the core of what you are working. One of the mistakes that a lot of people make when they use a small hammer is Driving it home, gripping too hard and trying to squeeze extra work out of the hammer. Lift it high, swing it fast, repeat as necessary... Generally a 2# hammer will get the same amount of work done as a 4#, you just hit it more often.  Fatigue messes with you as you are trying to swing a heavy hammer too fast, too long. You start to compensate, your form shifts, and your technique gets sloppy.  You could be doing everything right, you might be using your 3.5# hammer like a pro? I can't tell, but I know what I have done to myself, and can provide a cautionary tale.  Godly wisdom is doing things God's way. Worldly wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes without having to make them yourself...  Self evaluation, and good judgement are priceless (good judgement normally comes from actually learning from the consequences of poor judgement...)  Always keep an eye on your technique, your accuracy and your speed, when any one of them starts to falter switch to a lighter hammer or take a little rest, and refocus...  I have watched YouTube videos of guys striking, and to my eye it is painfully obvious that they are swinging the biggest hammer that they can "use", I put use in quotes because if they reduced the weight of the hammer by a bunch they could use it faster (with more energy!!!) and more accurately.  They would have gotten the work done faster with a lighter set of hammers.  But I understand being hyped up on testosterone, I have picked up 300# and 500# anvils, but I am old enough and wise enough to no longer recommend such things;-) But you better not bet me that "if you can pick that up you can have it..."

    As you get stronger, and you build muscle memory, you can and should learn how to use a heavier hammer (4-8# hand hammer>)  Since you seem to be getting the tool making bug, you will need to be able to swing a bigger hammer to drive punches, upset faces, and fuller cheeks. I just want you to suceed, meaning be able to play with the nice toys you make for a long, long time. You have to take care of anything you would like to keep, eyes, ears, wrists, shoulders, elbows, tendons...

  11. The other big consideration when making a hammer out of a fancy air hardening super steel, is that it will likely be considerably harder than your anvil face.  Redressing your hammer face is preferable, and easier than cleaning up a ton of divots from misplaced hammer blows. There are reasons that people use the alloys that they do for specific tools... I still miss occasionally...

  12. Good Job LB.  It is wonderful that you are taking the time to make lovely tools.  Self discipline, and patience are marvelous character traits, and will benefit you all your life.  Having nice tools to play with is pretty great too...  Don't dismiss the small hammers, they definitely have their place. Don't rush the big hammers, it is too easy to give yourself repetitive stress injuries. When I was young my favorite hammer was an 8# hand sledge, but now I'm not even 50 yet and my favorite hammers are 2-2.5#. Having an iron will ruling over mere flesh and bones, leads to injuries in my experience...  You are getting a good start, take care of yourself and use good judgement, so you can do this for a Long Long time...

  13. It all depends on what type of work you do. I use tongs for all kinds of things and I am always looking for ways to improve my processes by making tongs to do things better.

    About making tongs..  You don't have to be well rounded. If you just want to make hammers, that's fine. If you just want to make bottle openers, you don't need to have a bunch of tongs, and you don't need to be able to make tongs...  If you get the tool making bug then make all you want, make them as nice as you want.  Blacksmithing is at its base is a tool making craft, but we are free to focus on whatever floats our boat.  Is it a good idea to acquire the skill to make tongs and get good at it, of course.  But if you only have a limited amount of time to spend forging and you would rather do something else...  I always advocate that you take a disciplined approach to learning blacksmithing, which includes learning to make tools that you can be proud of.  I think in general we should have the discipline to try things we aren't good at, and push through till we are good at them.  I want to have a mental tool box full of skills, and a shop full of tools that show off those skills.  In times past the craftsman was judged in part by the quality of his tools, which is why some of the OLD tools we see are just beautiful...  DO what makes you happy, and hopefully do things that make you BETTER too :-) 

  14. If you keep forging till they look good, they will look good when you are done...  IF you settle for something less, that's your call.  A big part of blacksmithing is perseverance.  Tongs can be a great beginner project, but they can also be very frustrating, if you don't have proper guidance, and stubborn resolve...  If you are stubborn, observant, learn from your mistakes, and are not be discouraged you will do fine;-)  Lots of ways to skin that cat, pick one and practice.  Then maybe pick another and master that process too.  You will build skills to put in your mental toolchest, and actual tools to add to your shop, a Win Win in my opinion,,, ;-)

  15. I don't like most hammers... And I really don't like most hammer handles... When I find one I do like I try and buy it.  I love finding one that feels just right.   I find I like Czech/Hofi style hammers in general. I like Nathan Robertson's hammers too.  I haven't had a chance to play with a Brain Brazeal hammer, but if the handle was close to right I would probably like them too.  I have made hammers that I like, and I modified a bunch of hammers to what I like.  When I am really blessed I am given a flea market find hammer( my old 2nd best helper sledge is an 8# rounding hammer, that a friend found at a yard sale and gave to me... It had been my favorite helper sedge till I made my 6# with Nathan, John and Doug :-)  I still  try to pick hammers up for a few bucks at a flea market or garage sale.  I have a hammer rack full of hammers that I should reforge and rehandle or selll, because I have no use for them as they are.  I have had hammers that just felt good, and then I changed the handle, and couldn't tweak it to feel nearly as good as it had.  Something intangible was lost.  Sometimes I hit it out of the park, and when I rehandle, its just right, and better than before... I am not a one hammer guy, I have two or three main forging hammers, then maybe six other hammers that I use for various specific tasks.  All that to say, sometimes the fancy dancy custom hand made hammer, might just be worth 140$ or more.  If it feels right buy it...  If you get lucky and find something for 2$ that feels like magic in your hand, thank God and buy that too,   If you tinker with your hammer head and your handle and make something that does exactly what you want and feels great, more power to you...  In general I find I like the custom hammers more than any new store bought hammer, some of the old store bought hammers do feel great but you have to get lucky, or you have to do a LOT of soul searching and figure out WHAT you like and WHY, so you can replicate that reliably...  Which can be harder than it sounds.

  16. All good points. To add to what Phil said, you need to dress the working edges of your anvil.  Ideally you have several different radii along both long edges of your anvil.  If it isn't yours to dress, or you want to wait till you are more comfortable with the idea...  Just make a hardie block with 2-4 different radii, it will help you with this, and it is useful for stems and necks on other projects. Using half faced blows on too sharp an edge will get you a coldshut/stress riser.  I am a big advocate of softer transitions in tongs, the sharp transitions look good to our eyes, but they don't work nearly as well.  Form follows Function, and it don't matter how pretty it is if it don't work, or it won't last...

  17. A rural or industrial Oil Supplier will be able to order "quenching oil" lots of different grades and speeds.  Plain hydraulic fluid works a bit better than multigrade motor oil. Some guys HATE the smell and how slick it is and use peanut oil, or other veggie oil, but they will go rancid on you, and for some people that would be a worse health risk than the used motor oil... You don't want to breath this stuff any way...

    A steel 5gal bucket with a lid near the door with a fan, and nothing flammable near it, cause it will flash and catch fire, that's why you need the lid...

    I would expect the pins to be a wear and shock resistant alloy,(probably Nickel, Chromium, maybe some Vanadium??? Just guessing...)  You might try just letting it air harden/ normalize, and see how it does???  If it's not hard enough then do an oil quench...

  18. I have a 2x48 Baldor belt grinder (Which I think I heard was designed originally by Jim Baston), and it is nice, I like it, I love it.  Can't imagine life without it, but I can't get all the latest and greatest belts in that size.  For general blacksmith shop sharpening and shaping a decent 2x48 is fine.  The 2x72 just opens up so many more options in belts, and they aren't much more expensive than the 2x48 belts.  If I were trying to do knifemaking and bladesmithing professionally I would get a heavy duty 2x72 with a 3 phase motor & VFD, or the variable speed DC motor.  Time is money, belts are money too.  I like forging blades, and I like making steel, but I hate fit and finish... no professional knifemaking for me anymore...  A man has to know his limitations, and I have to be able to feed my family;-)

  19. How marvelously diplomatic of you Patrick ;-)  and very well said too.  

    J what do you want to do with YOUR hammer? as Patrick noted the IK is designed more along the flat die steam hammer lines, which has a bunch of pluses.  The Blu MAX system has the quick change die set up, and a lot of die options off the shelf.  Which school of thought are you leaning toward?  Flat die with lots of hand tooling, or switching out dies, or just leaving narrow flat dies in that act like gentle drawing dies, or the most barbaric option combo dies lol ;-)  Blu guy use tooling too, and John does have die options, but like Patrick said they really seem to be designed differently...  If money were no object I would buy the IK, but I'm a flat die guy...  My father-in law 'stole' a Blu at auction with 4 sets of dies... I wouldn't turn my nose up at it;-) 

  20. Anyway that gets you what you want, and doesn't get you hurt is valid.  I like to forge close to shape, wire brush to clean most of the scale off, then take it to the belt grinder and slick it down and finish the edges the way I want them.  I have a fair amount of fancy tool steels, that air harden so I try to make sure everything is right before I let it cool off.  If you have 4140 that is great, most people would just forge it out and allow to normalize (just air cool for 4140 which is an oil quench by the book, and and occasionally a water or interrupted quench to get the most out of it...)  But you could weld a collar on a piece of 1" square AS36 hotrolled, and dress the cut end with a right angle grinder. (be sure to clean the weld on the anvil side of the collar, don't want to chew up the area around the hardie...)  Heat just the face, and then water quench, polish it back up and use as it full hard.  It won't stay that way, and I wouldn't drop it, or accidentally hit it with the hammer, but you will be laying hot steel on it, and forging it out, you will draw a temper in no time;-) and using mild you want to get the most life out of the tool you can.  If you have been around for a little while and have mixed up a batch of "Super Quench" use that to get the best possible work out of mild steel.  Better quality steel is still better, but "super quench" can help get the most out of mild steel tooling.  Forged would be preferred to fabricated, but whatever gets you what you want.  If you want the practice forging out hardie tools, thats cool too.  All depends on how you want to go about skinning that cat, and what would be the most fun for you.  You could just cheat and buy one, too.... :-)

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