Hofi

No !!!!!!!!!!!!
We tilt the hammer allways out wards and then ther is no problam
only vrty rear we tilt the hammer towerds us and that is only for a short time
hofi

Archipile I do not see the thread as a DEBATE it is more information about a very interesting problam in the blacksmithing craft for more the 1000 years now.
The idias are coming fron different aproch,education,cultuer,tredithion and belives
you read learn try and muster what you think is ''best for you'' as many americans say
but use you comonsence and make you desicision by lots of thinking ang trying the systems.
I have prepered a compleat different aproch to the slitting and punching a hole or a decorated hole but this is to long for the thread it will come like a BP sorry abou thar
Hofi

On 02-10-09 Isaid I will answer the questions in due time , most of the time I stand for my words but this time first I was very very busy with lots of tools forgong for Germany ,England and the USA,(hammers,tongs,chisles,punches,drifts )and other projects and my photograffer in the last two month is which is studying electricity is going through ''sevear exams''on the subject ,so i''ll try to do my best with what we have in hand.

Divermike enplanes it al very well I will try to go more in details.
When one looks at the BP on can see in the sequence of the photo's that my wrist is moving 45 degrees from the start raising the hammer to the end hitting point. this is very important part of the raising of the hammer and the accelerating down forging hit.(will be explained more later) .

I (or we) are having a problem with the photo;]'s of the BP the photo's are still photo's we can NOT show how it is in the reality of the dynamics swinging movement of the forging In the dynamics I even more loos my grip on the handle and the palm of the hand is more parallel to the anvil one use the shoulder joint , the elbow, the wrist and the pivoting of the hold of the hammer in the palm of the hand between the fingers when the thumb is NOT pressed to the handle from the side it only supports it.

Why I hold (do not like the word hold) the hammer handle in a very loose grip?

1 our power is limited the harder we hold the handle the less power we have for forging

2 If one holds the hammer strong he can NOT accelerate the hammer and get the max velocity

3 in the friction of second when the hammer will hit the steel I loose the grip completely and we already have the aim we have the velocity the hammer do not need us any more ''let it go''

4 then the hammer bounced because of the reaction and I use the wrist and the finger pivoting to raise the hammer and make the leverage between the hammer head and the shoulder shoeter and then it is very easy to raise the hammer

5 I one hold the hammer loose Nvibration will come to his hand
very impotent is to understand why the palm of the hand must be as more parallel to the anvil and NOT right angle to the anvil .
when raising the hammer and the palm of the hand is right angle to the anvil the wrist is moving to the limit of the joint and damage it but if the palm of the hand is almost parallel to the anvil there is NO limit to the movement and therefore NO damage.

Also very impotent is that when I want to tilt the hammer and forge with the edge which I do very often I change the angel between my thumb and fingers and not by changing the angle of the palm of the hand.

As for you question on my standing and forging ai adid not understand and therefore can not answer.
as for what Gerald B wrote with 85 % i complitly disagree!! and this forum is NOT the place to discuss it. I was invited to demonstrate in England 6 times foue times for BABA CONFERENCES ANS AND AGM and twice as a sole demonstrator for the farrier assoc in their centinary not because of my beuty.
in my last demonstration in iron bridge 2007 I gave a lecturer about my system of forging and more then 50 hammers were sold to day more the 300 hofi hammers are being used in England.

the time that some one is or was spending near or with the ''black material'' dose not make him necessarily a good blacksmith or teacher.
one can forge fantastic design but from the point of view of the hammer use he can be very bad. in 1994 I gave a lecturer in England again about my system and one of the blacksmith which is a very good friend of me now said '' mr hofi I am a son of a blacksmith grandson of a blacksmith 7 generations this is the first time for me to hear a lecturer about a hammer '' my answer was yes you were born to your fathers and grandfathers hammer and you never asked a very simple question WHY?

AS FOR YOUR LAST PHRASE I would leave the baby and get rid of the dirty water for me the dirty water are the bad things that the tradition is carrying with.
Hofi

If one ensist to do it on the anvil the easyest way is to ''GO'' with the slitter fast as deep as you can and get a very thin layer dowen on the anvil face hit it a bit more but very easy only to cool the bottom until it is darken then turn over and put the slitter on the darken mark but tilt the sliter a bit and hit then the corner will start to cut and the slitter will shear it like scissors.

Alwin the calculation of the shrink /expansion is acc to the BP
the length of the slit no. on big od steel the calculation differs acc to what you want to achive
Archipile on thin matirial to make sure you get a clean cut after the first hit open the vice a bit gigger then the slitter and finish there the pice will fall dowen in the openning
Hofi

You mean 6'' slit long half of pi x d no! I made the length of the slit 5.11''
means 130 mm because i wanted to get a nice hole all around. I went in with three gradualy growing drifts the last one was the same size of the cross beam and then after i heated the ''eye'' and pushed it in the ''eye'' shrinked on and hold the construction together.
I use a lot this shrink calculation in many places in furnituer or other places that i want a good hold with out welding or rivetting .one of the coffy tables that i produce a lot (and i wan the first prize in a disigen competition in jerusalem netional museume) of the is based on the shrink hold and many tools too.
Hofi
hofi

One can forge a flatter in many wawy that were mentioned above or can ''fabricate'' the flatter.
Cut from a 2x2'' a 1'' slice and cut from round 1 1/4'' another 2 1/2'' long piece kneck it 1 1/2'' from the upper part and weld a good weld in the middle of the squar slice hold warp the kneck with 3/8 '' steel and creat the handle or hold in the kneck with a per of loacking tongs and this locking tong will be good for all the different flatters you may do in the future see sample of small flatter with loacking tongs above in the photo
Hofi

three photos were missing

a latice work from 4''x4'' and in proportion the same from 3/4''
the tungsten slitter for the hydropress and three chisels for hand forging
chisel/slitter order 40 assorted diameter 1/2''-9/16''-5/8''-3/4'' 10 each
and the cuting geometry.befor and after grinding
the BIG 4'' was forged at my smithy by a group of 5 people three strikers
8 lbs hammer one holding the tungsten chisel and the drifts and one on the fire. the first heat took one hour then another 13 heats to finish al together 3 hours.
Hofi

IS IT WORTH THE RISK???????????
Do not drive a car ! very risky the cause for lots of death and injery !!!!!!
Do not go to sleep in bed !! Most of the people die there !!!
Do not eat GARBEGE food very very risky !!
Do not smoke ! very risky
Do not drink alcohole and drive this is duble risky!!
Do not miss and hit the anvil ! you''ll get the hammer in your forehead very risky
and last DO NOT FALL IN LOVE this is very risky !!!!!!!!!!!! i am in love now for 53 years
with the same woman VERY RISKY !
EVERY steel one uses for tooling 1045,4140,4340.s1,s7,m4,h13 is risky if NOT forged and used properly and according to the technical datta of the steel
EVERY THING THAT WE DO WHILE FORGING IS RISKY WE MUST PAY ATTENTION TO SAFTY AND THE RIGHT WORKMAESHIP ALL THE TIME !!!!
HOFI

I Think that frightening any one that the H 13 IS DENGEROUSE is not the right way to explain the RIGHT use of a tool or the the steel it is made of Brian.
Iam forging tools made from H13 now more then 20 years hundreds of chisels,punchs ,drifts and asorted fullers for Germany and here in Israel NONE of was
split shatered or broken because people use them RIGHT. IF YOU MISS USE ANY TOOL IT WILL OR BRAKE OR SHUTTER OR CAUSE YOU DAMEGE OR ALL OF THEM TOGETHER!!
I my self was hit in my forehead and operated from a shrapnel piece of a cooled chisle
made from 4140 from the other side of the room when a demonstrator made a mistake and missused the chisel.
as for the price .I have H13 chisles and all the other tools of my school for more then 20 years and they will go at least 10 years more what is 1.5 $ velue of the steel comper to 30 years of forging and I forge a lot belive me it is 5 cents a year and you work faster easyer and get better results.
Hofi

you DO NOT HAVE TO PRE HEAT just weld as simple as is .the plat is miled steeI again
NO NEED to pre heat .Element is 110 % right
Hofi

SORRY
Forgot to say that ALL my slitters,drifts,punches.hotcut chisles,fullers are forged
out of H13 only the big once to slit the hammer heads all sizes the axes are made out of
TUNGSTEN
Hofi

I allways do this job of slitting and drifting with two or if a very big job three slitters of the same size . if you use one slitter and you must cool it some times three times for slitting one hole in that time you lose lots of heat but if you have two or three slitters in the line you never loose time and heat and slit the hole faster and easyer.
the bigest comition I had was three big enterence doors and three window railing consisting on 1250 holes in 20mm round steel ( o.8'' ) with this tree slitter system.
Hofi

For more information

BP 1050
BP 1051
BP 1035
BP 1025
Hofi

HERE I attuch yhree photo's of my anvil with the stand ,tray,water can. and hardy tools, fork,cutter,and the base for the cone not finished yet.
you can not see the guid pins. in to foto's I sent before one can see very clear the pins in the base plate and the two holes in the bottom of the anvil
hope it is clear now
best
Hofi

The suction of 12x12'' chimney will be only a bit more effective then 12'' round
hofi

When one use a round chimney then 100% of the area is working as suction
but if one use a squar or rectangle chimney one have to deduct the corners because all the 4 corners are causing big friction and the air in the corners is mooving very much slower.
To calculate the righ area when useing sqar or rectangle one have to diduct aprox 15% off from the calculated area.
12x12''=144 less 15% =122.4 squar ''
hofi

To my humble opinion the 5/8'' plate is too thin .
But if you have no choise you may use the plate and connect the ''legs'' with a triangl or t shape crossmember in 1/3 of the hight of the legs from the bottom this will hold the constrction together .
But again the thicker the plate the better !!!!!!
Best
hofi

Avadon
here by I atuch two pic's of fast drawing that I made .Hope it will clear and answer your question
Hofi

My name was mentioned here several times and i woul like to make my ''anvil stand'' system clear.

Pic 1 the complete anvil stand consisting on 1 3/4'' steel plate cut acc to the anvil base pattern, grinded the legs are 2''x4'' hollow rectangle 1/4'' thick cut in 23 degrees a plate with an 1/2'' hole drilled welded to the bottom of the leg to secure the anvil to the floor from traveling. The plate is cut with an extension on the prichel hole sid to get more stability,more comfort when forging and for a place for the water can.

Pic 2 the slot cut is under the prichel hole to let the drifts and other tools to get to the floor and for many other uses.

Pic 3 -4 in the bottom of the anvil there are two holes that seats on the conical pins to prevent the anvil from moving on the plate.

I use skaflex 11 fc to glue the anvil to the base to prevent the noise completely and absolutely ! (i never take the anvil apart) but if one wants to be able to take them apart smear the bottom of the anvil with a thin layer of oil before putting the anvil in place on the sikaflex.
Hofi

CHRIS
FIRST OF ALL ''CONGRETULATION''
When I forged my first hammer 22 years ago (different from todays style) it took me
6 hours continuasly forging ,I was so happy and so very much joy thus when I came home I told my wife '' moove a side please to night I sleep with the hammer''
It was LONG time ago but I still remember this fantastic joy !!
Hofi

There are many sizes of this type press so I cannot answer the question.
I only saw it working.
Iis a very dengerous machin ! it is foot opperated and many people dameged sevirly one hand because of it.
If you are going to use the press for your production pay attention that both hands ar out of the ramm place!! and do not let children to play with!!!!!!!!!
HOFI

This excentric prerss was used to cut lether patern with assoeted dies in our small
lether factory. the stroke is all ways the same but the stage hight is adjusted with the wheel on the bottom
HOFI

sorry wrong button
ALWIN
I do not agree with your statement on paragraph 5 hammering section
'' DO NOT USE YOUR WRIST'' to my opinion and experience the wrist is very important in speeding down (velocity in square) and raising up the hammer while forging. If one holds the hammer right with the palm of the hand almost parallel to the anvil with the thumb on the side and hold it light no harm and damage will happen.
Hofi