wicon

This weekend is the biggest HammerIn in Sperberslohe near Nürnberg. Organized by Peter Brunner who has made "the" german forum Schmiededaseisen. Through this forum I got aquainted to so many blacksmiths all over Germany. Some of them are in IFI too.

As for hammers google for Werkzeugfabrik Krenzer.

H. W. Holthaus, Dahlerbrück in Westfalen 

Drei Quadrate

In general I prefer monosteel blades but Achims Damascus is always something special. There seems to be more than two steels in this Damascus: The black O2 the silver 75Ni20 and the grey perhaps 1.2519 or 1.2442 or ...?

Willy

p.s.I I admire your work.

May be this rough sketch helps.

14 hours ago, swedefiddle said:

Bend a piece of coat hanger in a "U"...

Good idea, i'll steal it.

Did you read the patent?

My dies are made of 1045 hardened on the working side. They wer mushrooming too. Now I use a big Simplex soft face mallet with copper inserts: No more mushrooming.

In my opinion the bottom plate is not redundant: It keeps the things  together. I don't want to assemble  the Guillotine every time I need it.

Merry Christmas to all.

My daughter - who recently began blacksmithing too, and i'm proud of her progress - gave me a complete set of new tools for Christmas. Hammer, tong, hardie and anvil.

e

They are all made of self produced marzipan. The anvil weights 8 pounds! 

Seems the original colour was yellow. At least in Germany all tools used on railroad tracks are painted yellow. So no tool can be forgotten on the track. May be it was used when building or repairing railroad tracks.

6 hours ago, WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith said:

You have a unique vise there, don't destroy it's uniqueness.  

Please!!

Another light and portable solution

I use my little vise on the anvil.

c.baum: earlier! - see Sutton Hoo or  the letter from Theoderich "wurmbunt". I guess that the different etching in old blades mostly depends on different contents of phosphorus ( and sulphur and arsenic ). In your case the difference might be the content of manganese, C45 high file low.

jlpservices I rarely use the belt grinder. Most work is done with a cordless Bosch anglegrinder in one of the smaller blue boxes. The other one contains a cordless drill. The big blue box contains the ppe, the samples, some cordless led lighting and some other items to make life easier and more convenient. The aprons are from Angele.

Daswulf Except for these photographs I don't haul that 45kg Peddinghaus. I only shift it from the trunk to the stump and then use the hand truck. I am lazy, I am not stupid.

Ausfire No overweight, I simply leave everything unnecessary at home.

Frosty For heavier equipment I use my trailer. It has a pickup crane.

Some photographs:

Willy

It's not a hammer, it's a roughly forged sword made of mild steel with a knot in the blade. My statement on "I want to forge a sword." I mainly use it as a sign that I'm taking a break.

Willy

Great idea, but that 150kg Bêché doesn' t fit in my trunk.

Willy

This is a special setup: I forge with children (between 6 and 86 years) .

In the car (an old Opel Astra G)

Car unloaded.

Built up (without sidewalls)

Some details

Aprons, safety glasses, gloves for the kids. Samples on the right side.

This is not an Ernst Refflinghaus but an August Refflinghaus Söhne anvil. Same surname, same city, same part of the city (Milspe), same river that drove their waterwheels but different manufacturers. I don't know whether ARSM (August Refflinghaus Söhne Milspe) made these anvils like ER or only traded them under their brand. ARSM does not exist anymore since january 2018.

May the forge be with you

Willy

Your anvil was made by Carl Schlasse in Milspe ( now part of Ennepetal ). The mark is an anchor surrounded by "GEDENKE MEIN C SCHLASSE" 

Gedenke mein: remember me.

Willy

I hate it! I try to avoid tongs as long as possible.
At a meeting someone could not believe that I made those small snails with my standard hammer. so I demoed one. Nearly ready I cut of the head of the snail. The iron was to cold/the hammer blow to heavy. so the snail left the anvil. The fastest snail i've ever seen! Try to find that small piece of iron in an area of loose gravel. No chance.

Willy 

11 hours ago, Donnie said:

squish weld

9 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

For small items that would cool below welding heat just going to an anvil you can usually get a weld squishing them with a pair of warm/hot tongs in the fire---a cave fire is easier to work with for this as you can imagine.

Never thought about that. Thank you.

Willy

The trivets are triskelion pendants.

Forge welding that little stuff: Don't try to move it to the anvil. Having reached the anvil the wire is to cold. I welded on the rim of the firepot.

Willy

About 3mm and 4mm square made from tie wire and split with a saw.

Small things teach much about  hammer control. all of the work - except the forge weldings on the ring and the eyelet of the right tong - was made with my normal 2 pound hammer.

Alfred Habermann was born in Czechia (Moravia) and came to Germany in 1985.