EWCTool

here are mine

What is your all time favorite blacksmith picture. Be it a picture of tools, the shop, the forge, the act of forging, ect.

I made this for some girl here at college. Honestly what do you think of it?

Would you consider forging all day a workout? I run track in college and over the winter break I recorded that many of my cross training workouts were days that I forged for a couple of hours. I do realize that forging does not involve your legs and your legs are the primary muscles used in track. But I consider forging an activity that raises the heart rate to a slightly elevated level, especially if the steel being forged is over an inch thick. All cross training is supposed to be is an activity other than running that raises your heart rate.

As much as I see Steel ID or metal ID come up in this forum I think we should make a forum solely for this sort of discussion. Just my 2 cents worth, and I dont want to add to anyones workload.

I have noticed that when a harder steel is stuck it creates a nicer ring than that of lower carbon steel. I know that things such as triangles should be made out of a higher carbon steel so that they ring the nicely, and does not clang. I dont trust this as a one shot deal to tell the composition of the material, but more of a clue that could help along with other tests like the spark test.

Would you agree with me when I say this?

I think this would be one of the biggest dilemmas for modern day smiths not on a large budget. I took a six pound splitting maul and ground the edge down to make a straight pein hammer. This reduced the weight slightly, and allowed for the metal to be moved with the effectiveness of a straight pein with the power from a heavy hammer. As stated above, you have to be careful not to tear up your hand and forearm up when using bigger hammers, but it will get the job done.

Yeah that would be pretty dumb to see a normal ax with a really huge blade. Not to mention unprofessional and unusable. Next time I will try to specify what I am asking. I thought that it would be implied that the eye would be modified to fit the blade and save the knuckles and make chopping straight lines that much easier.

Taking all that into consideration, let me rephrase the question.

If you were given an old ax and a piece of leaf spring and told to make a broad ax from that how would you go about doing it. And dont say it cant be done, we are blacksmiths, cant isnt in our vocabulary.

just so people know im more or less just playing around with the idea right now.

Sorry I did not provide as much detail. I was thinking of more or less arc welding as opposed to forge welding. I could imagine that would be a very difficult ordeal. I would try to get the middle welded first then work from the edges to try and get it right. I have heard of people welding leaf spring to worn axes to give add to the life of the tool. I figured if that could be done then why not just add a bit more material and make a broad ax out of it. I was thinking that if it was arc welded then the distribution of the weight would be more accurate and the balance would not be off by too much.

Has anyone ever made a broad ax starting with a small ax and a strip of leaf spring?

Have you ever hammered till your hands bled?

Sorry about the huge pictures. I think you can almost see the individual electrons doing their thing.

Over the summer I got to work with a professional blacksmith and he showed me many tricks and a few good methods of tool making. One that I really liked was the hot cut hardy. The shank is mild steel. Then the blade is leaf spring riveted to the shank. This construction makes replacing the blade easy and a new hardy is just a rivet away, not half a day of forging. How many times have you missed the metal and destroyed the edge of the hardy?

The second picture is the same picture but the leafspring is welded on not riveted.

Again I do not take credit for the designs.

I have used a Euroanvil for a few years now, and love it. It tends to ring a bit, but for the price of a very solid anvil. It is well worth the money.

I want to make an anvil stand out of old railroad ties. I can get them for pretty cheap near me. I want them because I figure they won’t rot very quickly, and I could bolt a couple together to support the anvil. Then bury them below the frost line to make sure that it is stable. Do you think that this would work?

They say that smoking makes a person’s face age faster than normal. I always wondered if the smoke of a coal forge or the heat of a propane forge constantly coming in contact with the face would have an effect on its appearance, besides from making it dirty. But working in a badly ventilated shop for some years cannot be good for your appearance.

I run track for my college and at one of the meetings they said that a sports drink will not help you unless your event is a mile or longer. I smithed all summer long and had no problem with heat exhaustion, but then again I am a bit younger and in a little bit better shape than others. To stay hydrated I kept a canteen (half a gallon) of water near the forge. Every time I would take a break to heat the metal i would take a sip or gulp of water. That along with just staying hydrated before and after helped me. On long days i would suck down a Gatorade after working.

But just sipping on that canteen while heating the metal really helped. It was a good way to stay hydrated because I was drinking often but still drinking at a rate that my body could take it.

Does anyone else look in disgust at how sharp the corners are on store bought hammers? I have noticed it more now than before. I am sure that it is cheaper to produce them that way, but when it comes to moving metal, they don’t help much. What are your thoughts and solutions around them?

The Hammer can be adjusted with a bit of modification, but I do not think that is in the plan with a 70 year old piece of equipment. The rubber sprigs were also a concern, but they held up well enough, we brought a spare rubber in case we had a blow out. That would have been exciting. The connecting arms were noted early on. We were working metal on it and then realized those arms were only inches (2 or 3) away from our forehead.

The belt drive to the clutch is located right next to the window, so we installed a guard to keep children’s fingers from interrupting the process.

I often thought what OSHA would think of our operation.

What do you think of this peice of folk art. I got to run it at a tractor show in NY. I was afraid to run it wide open because it is 70 years old, but it seemed to handle work like a 50 lb. hammer. The crank is an old hit and miss engine and the anvils are two anvils with the horns broken off with a sledge hammer, so i am told.

When I go off to college i wipe on some used motor oil. I have also seen WD40 and PB blaster used. They seem to do the job without as much mess, and dont leave the brownish film that the motor oil leaves. The key is to just keep an eye on it and apply is needed.

My roommate played baseball and whenever he got a new bat he would take athletic tape and wrap it around the handle, saying it gave him better grip. I tried the same thing on the handles of my hammers and it has really helped. It gives me a lot of extra grip and control, not to mention it helps in preventing blisters too. It works for me.

If rough hands bother your lady you could learn from Curley in the book Of Mice and Men. He keeps one hand soft for his wife by keeping it in a glove full of Vaseline.

I don’t mean to be ignorant but what is it about the Hofi hammer that makes it to great?

Along with what other people have said I feel like you lose my connection to the hammer and the metal when i am hammering with a glove on. I do not have as much control over the hammer when I have gloves on and I cannot feel those small pushes and pulls that the hammer reflects from the hammering. From those small pushes and pulls I can adjust the angle of the head to move the metal where I want it to go. But with gloves I am unable to make those small adjustments and I have to spend more time on the details.

Plus I have had a couple of instances where scale falls into the glove. That is always annoying.

Like what frosty said be careful with the railroad. They have lots of money to hire all sorts of lawyers, and don’t give an ounce of sympathy to the accused.

As to talking to the work crews I believe that a six pack would be the best when looking to barter.

Coil springs are a great source of steel, because the steel is very forgiving, but still very versatile.