Crazy Ivan

Columbian. Excellent anvils.

If you don't want to get too crazy with forging out a drift, you can readily reprpose an ironworkers bull pin. The round taper and length is already there for you. The ones ive owned were a 41xx alloy. Somewhere in the ballpark of 4140. All you need to do is forge it out oval and if you chose, put a handle/struck end taper on it. Should do the trick nice and easy for a 2 lb hammer. Otherwise, I use h13 bar stock for my drifts.A 1.25" x7/8" oval or square taper is where you want your finished depth to end up at generally. My drifts are 14" long give or take. I don't measure the length. As long as your hand isn't burning up while drifting, you're good. As Thomas said, power hammer and press drifts are much shorter from 2"-4" commonly. H13 is ideal IMO

Short answer: if I can make it myself, but better. I'd never turn my nose to a good deal though, regardless.

I've heard of them and will definitely be looking into them for my next pair. I bought the Georgia's because I wanted to try a pair of cowboy boots. It's a big difference from the flat soled "ironworker" boots I've been wearing my whole working life but my back was starting to tell me I needed to buy a pair of boots with a heel. I will say, it is nice to not have to replace shoelaces so often from scale and sparks burning/weakening them. I still have my danner tachyons but swapped them out with the cowboy boots for work (80% of my day). P.S. I've noticed that even though I'm not even South of the mason Dixon, I'm starting to accidentally dress like a "good ol boy" lol.

I spend a minimum of $200 on my boots and don't expect more than 6 months out of them. The comfort is well worth the price however. Brands I would recommend are thoroughgood, danner and Chippewa. Georgia boot is what I'm wearing now and man does it make me miss my danners. They are not bad boots by any means but being on your feet 12+ hours a day, you can feel the difference. Wish I didn't think to try and save $50 and skimp on comfort I know and trust. I spend money on two things.... Boots and camping/hunting gear. Everything else I can either make or buy cheap. I never skimp on boots though.

Forge it! Forging hardy tools is really fun if you're anything like me. Heavy forging is really fun. Draw down a shank and upset the rest into your hardy hole. Since its a 1.5" hole I'm sure it should be fine to do heavy forging over the hardy hole. If your feeling un adventurous, yes arc welding a shank onto your tool will work just fine.

Just got my new stamp today. Very happy with the quality! It's a lot better than my older self made ones. I'm not much for meticulous so sending out for it was well worth it.

Thanks for the wishes everyone. It was a good day filled with forging, dogs, some beverages, some more beverages and a surprise dinner and cake from some "adoptive family" here. That makes for more than a good day in my book.

Whoa, I actually forgot until I saw this lol. Thanks for the reminder and thanks for the wishes!

You've already got solid advice here. Run your machine on reverse polarity around 90 amps and go up from there until you like your results. Should do the trick. Also, aftrist is right. If you are learning to weld, 6011 is the rod to teach you. It strikes easily but will also stick during welding very quickly if you bump the rod on the work. It's a great way to learn how to control arc length and rod angle. Puddle control will come in time. Start with stronger beads, then once they are consistent, try weaving "up n back" to create the "stack of dimes" look. The slag is stubborn as can be so a decent chipping hammer is in order. Luckily, making one is a quick easy project :).

I may not be all that old (27 this Friday) but I can definitely resonate with this sentiment. Growing up dirt poor in a "at risk" neighborhood may have played into it but still. I used to take the subway as to the end of the line and play around in the woods by myself, or with friends. Hikers would see us and wave. Nobody called DSS or DYS or child services or whatever it may be called where anyone lives. We has slingshots, bb guns, made fires (sometimes out of abandoned probably stolen and dumped) cars, climbed trees, went swimming in ponds made rope swings and walked around the cities at the tender age of 12 years old. I'm not gonna evven say the other stuff we used to get into. Nowadays if a kid that age is more than 30 feet from their parents, somebody reports it. How are kids gonna learn if they don't screw up once in a while? Once they are 18 and out of the bubble wrapped world they are brought up in,what sort of culture shock does that bring? Now as to the "this generation everyone gets trophies and is equal no matter how hard they try" well....who was it that gave us those trophies and taught us those things? I'm glad I barely skated by that gap even if it was under poor circumstances.

That would make for a cool video. I'll just say I left my 16 lb sledge in my other pants so I can't do it that way today lol. I did the layout for my hardy holes and pritchel holes so that they will not interfere with the leg placement. The legs will be welded right to the plate for mine.

I've thought of hot punching, and drill/chiseling but since it's 2" thick s7 that would be a real PITA. I've got a torch that can handle it, but I don't want to wait 30 minutes for a good pre heat to get a clean cut so I think I'll just bring it up to a good heat in the forge, then burn it with the torch after that. I can hot drift to finished size under the 30 ton press. Definitely need to e able to slow down the drill press more, and luckily the motor we've got on it can handle a rheostat so I'll probably rig that up in the future. Unless of course I find a larger set of pulleys 1st which would be ideal. The base will be thick walled rectangular tube. 3 legs and tap conned to the floor.

Yes, my drill press is not slow enough to drill a 1" hole to drift square so I need to decide how I will get the hole in there. I could either drill a bunch of small holes and burn out the rest, then drift to size or heat the side where my hardy hole will be enough to preheat so that I can burn it out with the torch. Otherwise the preheat will take too long with just the torch. Whichever route I go I'll end up drifting to final size.

Looks like an earlier PW to me. Trenton also had flats on the feet but I've never seen a Trenton with the CWT stamps on it. There's my guess.

Just got a 2" x6" x16" block of s7 for a striking anvil. It's in its early fetal stages right now, but I'll try and keep photo updates of the fabrication progress.

When you care as much about the handle feel as you do the aesthetic and balance of the hammer head, I figure it's worth the extra effort. I always said a poor handle can make an expensive hammer worse than a $3 hammer.

I use a draw knife and a 1.5" contact wheel on the belt grinder. Sometimes I preshape them on the wood lathe. Depends on how I feel going about it. The wood lathe gives me an oversized round blank to work with which I draw down and sand to oval by hand. Helps to keep things consistent. I start with 6/4 hickory slabs for them.

Feel free brother. I don't own a trademark or anything. I'm not that type of person anyways. I'll make my money and if you like what I make, make it for yourself all you want. I was inspired after using Jymm Hoffman's hammer. He has "odd" bulges on his handles too only much differently. I'd only ask that if someone asks who's design it was that I get due credit. ill see if i have a pic handy. If not, ill make one monday and take one.

Thanks for the replies. Matto pretty much cleared up the wonkey looking handle design. As odd as it may look to the eye it it a real treat in the hand. Bud, the fullers help in a few ways. One is that I like the hammers I make to be kind of stalkey to start out with so the fullering gives the hammer "reach" for using the edges without the handle getting in the way. Same time, the center of gravity is as close to the handle eye as possible so that off axis blows do not transfer to your wrist with the hammer head torquing. Make sense? My hammers do not go out the door without being perfectly balanced in the center of the mass because I think the over all feel of the hammer is greatly benefited by its center of gravity. I've had far less joint pain since I started making and using my own hammers, but that's partially because I suit them to what I've found that I need over all these years. So far I have had nobody who uses my hammers tell me otherwise so I'll keep it up

4140 rounding hammer with isolated fullers on the cheeks hung on a hand drawn and sanded American hickory handle, burnt and finished with a BLO, turpentine and beeswax mixture. I don't usually make 2 lb hammers since they don't seem to sell as quickly. I just wanted to take it easy on this one lol.

Send me a PM. I need to re-up on 4140 soon anyways. I might be able to help you.

Leather tool is my guess.

Looks like the lower die of an open die hammer.

You know PABA has a website right? http://www.pabasite.org/event-calendar.html All the info you need to get there, what's the days plan, and times.