Nick

This is an interesting little oliver, mounted on the horn so it can be used with top and bottom tools in the hardy hole. It uses a striker's sledge secured in a brace. Probably best for longer anvils. I think this would be pretty useful though maybe a little time consuming to set up and take down. Not a real replacement for a striker or power hammer, though. Here's the link to the original patent from 1899, download the PDF for uncorrupted text. http://www.google.com/patents/US644589

I found this little helve hammer while searching through Google Patents. The drive and linkage isn't really anything new, but I thought the frame was interesting. It's all angle iron, and riveted together. Perhaps a viable alternative for those witout easy access to a welder? It would be fairly easy to construct and modify. The idler pulley is also directly attached to the treadle, with no joints or pivoting levers. It's interesting that the anvil post is made to be easily dismounted in its entirety to be dressed. Here's a link to the patent, from 1926, for the full text. I recommend downloading the PDF, the scanned and converted text is pretty dire. http://www.google.com/patents/US1685447

Brith of a tool and forging the big ring are a couple of my favorites, too. Here's another, forging a 15th century hoop and stave cannon:

It looks like it can be broken down for easy transport, too.

I've been using charcoal for a bit now. My firepot is deep and bottom draft (the Centaur Forge coal firepot), so maybe if I lined it with some refractory cement it would work more efficiently. I have managed to forge weld, I made a welded hasp yesterday, but getting up to welding temperature was laborious and I had trouble getting a good weld, though I got there in the end. With coal I was fairly confident in forge welding, but doing it in charcoal is going to take a lot more practice. In general getting up to forging temp. takes more time it seems. The major drawback so far is the sparks. I'm using Cowboy brand (easy to get to start trying it), but I'll pay a few cents more for 20# next time. The Cowboy stuff goes from hardly any sparks to a huge amount very suddenly, but the real issue is the sudden fireworks that erupt several feet from the forge. This isn't an airflow problem, I've got the airgate almost closed and use a light hand on the blower, and the fireworks can happen even when there's no air at all. Improperly charred wood or poor wood? A smith I know is looking for people to go in on a coke order, so I'll probably get coke next. The charcoal is keeping me running until then, though.

There's about 3' of snow on top of my smithy roof right now, but it's nowhere near new so it's not as slippery as the metal roofs now. We never got a January thaw, which would have taken some off.

Thanks, Jim :) Here is a sketch of what I'm thinking. It's only a sketch, not to scale, no measurements or details, but should give an idea. Here's the right side elevation of the hammer. For this arrangement I've based it pretty much off Jr. Strasil's. The basic arrangement of the frame, linkage, and hammer are the same. The large flywheel is located about center of the frame, supported by the horizontal brace. Here's left side elevation showing the drive only. The drive axle has a sprocket which has a roller chain attached to the treadle on one end, and a swing arm on the other. The treadle and swing arm are returned by coil springs. The sprocket has two pawls which engage a ratcheted wheel on the drive axle. Pushing the treadle down pulls on the chain, making the swing arm pivot, driving the flywheel. There's an idler pulley clutch, same as the original hammer, it is engaged by a lever pivoted on the anvil post. The lever can engage a notch to keep the idler against the belt. A good push on the treadle to get the flywheel spinning, pull the lever, hammer works. Release the lever, the flywheel may still be spinning but the hammer won't beat. I figured this hammer's size and design would be a good choice for a drive like this since it is smaller. So those are my initial thoughts. I've looked at putting the pitman in the center, too, but haven't worked it out yet.

It's all still pretty theoretical at this point. My shop right now isn't a good place for the hammer (soft sandy floor and the electrical won't handle the load if I do put a motor on), so the hammer will be built after I move to a new shop. I will make a cleaner copy of my sketch and post it.

My plan was to hew and season a maple helve myself. Finding the wood won't be a problem, I live in the middle of a forest. If I do manage to adapt it to foot power it probably won't have as high bpm, but if it does turn out to be a failure in that way I can convert to an electric motor.

Good to know it's a good hammer. This is the one that made me think of putting a power hammer in my shop. 3' sounds about right for the size I'm after. I've thought about mounting the linkage forward of the pivot like the Hawthorn and Hawkeye hammers, though I've seen some others with it at the rear that seem like they'll work (like above). Lots of ideas! I've sketched out a design closer to Jr. Strasil's, though I will keep looking at other designs. I'll post a picture of what I'm thinking of later. What I really need is my own welder so I can work on these things in my own garage. One thing at a time...

Yes, I would want to make some changes to make it adjustable, and perhaps a little bigger, along the lines of a Hawkeye helve hammer. But I rarely ever work with big stock, most of what I do is quite small, so I don't need a giant of a machine. I did some looking through the Google patent collection, and it seems I'm not the first one to have this idea. There are a few from the turn of the century that are similar, one can even be foot, hand, or belt driven. Another has a clutch lever that will disengage the helve when not in use, though instead of a pitman arm it lifts the hammer with a cam wheel on the back of the helve. The downside is that in all of them, the treadle is directly linked to the drive shaft, so it will always be in motion, as opposed to the Barnes saw, which engages the drive with a pawl. I won't be building anything yet, just getting ideas right now, really.

I've been thinking about building a power hammer, something small along these lines: Today I found a video of an old Barnes treadle-powered table saw, which works with a large flywheel and a ratchet, operated by a chain attached to the treadle. Like an old pan forge, it lets the axle rotate freely from the treadle (or tiller), so pushing down keeps the speed on the flywheel without having to keep pumping on it constantly. The chain can be seen in action in this video: http://blip.tv/popular-woodworking-videos/barnes-table-saw-4772756 That got me to thinking, could this drive system be adapted to the little hammer above? I imagine it would need some kind of brake on the flywheel to keep the hammer from pounding merrily along after the iron's back in the forge. I'm not opposed to an electric motor, I just thought this was an interesting setup. Any thoughts on the workability of the design?

We're at 56 consecutive days with a high below freezing, looking to beat the old record of 72 days.

Thanks, all :) Frosty, that's a very good idea. Ham, maybe a few Cornish hens... The customer is planning on mounting a clockwork spit jack, so he's going to have quite a setup.

I've finished the andirons and painted them (except for the spit, which is waxed). Now I have to figure out the best way to ship them!

I have similar hammers, use them for small sheet metal work.

Happy birthday, Frosty!

Thanks. I flatten out a piece of 5/8" square, then shoulder in front and behind the bit, and thin and draw out the bit with a narrow cross peen. Once the stem is drawn out it's rounded off. I cut the slots in the bit with a thick hacksaw blade.

Most everything is ready for assembly. I've got to drill the holes for the spit hooks and forge out the front hooks, and put pins on the backirons to hold a fire grate in place. Then I can put the rest together. Customer also wants a spit, so I'll make that after these are finished.

Here are some church keys I made.

Thanks, gents! I got the second finial welded on, I did it first thing and cleaned the inside of the collar with a rough round file, then again hot before fluxing. I did have a sort of a mishap, my intention was to split the bottoms and form the legs, but after getting one split I decided it wasn't then best way to do it. So I cut off most of the bottom and welded the rest back together and drew out a tenon on each, which will go through a piece of flatstock for the front legs and the back leg. This is the first set of andirons I've made, though I've been intending to make a set for myself. Other things always seem to come first... That's funny, when I finished that first finial I looked at it and thought to myself, "Why didn't I just upset that?" I'm not sure if it would have been less work in the end, though, and I need to keep practicing forge welding. I heated the bar, fluxed it, then put it in the fire off to the side while heating up the collar. When the collar is fluxed the bar comes out, they're driven together and put back in, but the collar was a little cooler than the bar. Didn't have any trouble with heating them to the same temp or burning, but this is really heavy stuff (for me anyway!), the collar was 1/2" thick and the bar 1" in diameter.

I'm working on a commission for a set of andirons based on an antique French pair. The front bar is 1" square with ball finials, they will have a double spit hook in the back and a single in the front. The customer requested a very rough, hammered, uneven shape and finish. I forged the ends of the bars round and made the collars. The first one formed The second one didn't weld (I'm pretty sure it was due to the fire not being clean). I had to recut the gap on the collar, and it will be the first thing I do next time I light the forge. Since I wasn't going to be doing any more welding today I made the back double hooks. Still need to punch the holes. That's where it is right now, after I get that finial welded and forged I'll split the bottoms and form the feet, and make the back legs and front spit hooks.

Thanks again! Frosty, I was also thinking it's meant to be a boat or galley, something along those lines. My next striker will be pattern welded, hopefully more eye candy ;)

Many thanks, gents :) Chichi, it is comfortable to use, you sort of pinch it in the middle so your knuckles stay clear. Basher, the eBay listing will disappear soon, but here's a post from Oleg Axes (the seller) from Kiev, he always has interesting stuff but is vague on details (all he gave was 'unique early medieval ornamented Fire Steel'), so unfortunately I don't have any information on the original's origins. http://axesandotherss.blogspot.com/2013/09/blog-post_4801.html

I made this fire steel today, based on an original artifact, possibly Kievan Rus. The original was on eBay without much info, but I liked the look and wanted to try it. The frame and pile are mild steel, the base is a harrow tine. The hardest part was actually making the frame. I used two nails in the vise as a bending jig for the pile. The original was made with thinner stock and was more slender, something I'll work on for the next one. This turned out to be a very good sparker, too. 5 1/4" long.