forgemaster

When you get that big glob of molten anything in the laces/top of your boot/anywhere, run for the water tub and just stick your whole foot in it. Looks as funny as all get out to anyone else, but wait till it happens to them. Dont waste time trying to undo that boot just run for the water tub. Speaking from experience here. Phil

Hi guys Its a hand drill wrench, the photo actually has it upside down. The pointed bit goes against a stong arm arrangement that you clamp or attach to whatever you want to drill or you can even use a chain going right around say a boiler or such with a plate so as the point has something to stick into. The drills used will have a square tapered shank that will fit into a square tapered socket the end opposite to the pointy end. To use, you have a spanner on the hex section which winds the pointy bit out (its on a thread) as you turn the drill around using the ratchet handle. Slow but it was used before Mag drills and rotabroaches. Still usefull to drill large holes for example on steel bridge repair, where you havent a large amount of holes to drill but the position is difficult re headrom etc for a mag drill. We used strongarm with a big rightangle air drill to drill 10off 27mm dia holes in our 5cwt massey anvil which was still in situ, to repair a broken dovetail. We placed a large slab of 100mm plate on the hammer bed plate as close to the anvil as I could get it, then welded a piece of 50dia bar vertically and swung the strongarm off that so as we could reach all the marked hole positions on our anvil. Cheers Phil

As above, spring steel normally has about .6% carbon in it, along with a fair amount of chrome (5160 or XK9261S). It is really always an oil hardening steel, water is just too severe a quench for it. When you quench the punch, be sure to stir the punch around in the oil while you are quenching if you are using the one heat method, while going around also move up and down about 1/2" so as you dont get a stress point at the line where the oil is. As John said also about tempering punches when you use them they normally lose their temper any way. We normally just quench the punch in oil then use without tempering. Cheers Phil

Hey Dale I was just telling the truth. Its a shed with some old machinery in it. I'm still learning, old smith told me when I was 16 amd a 1st year apprentice, "son the only time you stop learning is when you're dead". Better to understate slightly, then to brag and be caught out. When Damo gets me the photos I'll send you a picky of the new tongs we made for picking up hot pieces of steel, one pair of hollow bits,n a pair of pickups. Phil

Hi guys I have a little shed with some blacksmithing tools in it just west of Newcastle at Kurri Kurri, I do a bit of blacksmithing here now and again when time permits. Made myself a couple of tools too but I'm still learning. I hope to be moving to a new shed sometime this year, I was looking at having a get together here before we move though. Cheers Phil

Hi Bully The warmer the air the better, the air as it comes thru the fire has a somewhat cooling effect, especially at the bottom of the fire. Steel works go to a lot of trouble and expense to warm the air blast that is blown thru the tuyeres into the blastfurnace to prevent just this happening. You have it happening for nothing, use it to advantage rather than going to extra trouble cooling it. Phil

Hi Dale I was going to put the doors back into the boiler and run it for our last blacksmithing open day before we leave this shop, my current run of employees have not seen the steam hammer run. Yes it is a boiler, Maxitherm automatic super economic dryback oil fired, I think its rated at 140HP we run it at 90PSI saturated. Havent used it since we installed the massey 5cwt. Boiler is out of cert at the moment, but that only requires a phone call to get the inspector to call and inspect it. The boiler attendant thing was one of the reasons I went away from it, I've got a cert but none of my boys had, so if the boiler was running i cold'nt leave the shop. Also it was just not economic, if we wanted to use the hammer for 1 hours work and the boiler was cold it would take an additional 1.5 hour to get up steam pressure before hand, with a massey you just press a button and away you go. One of the competition has a double arch massey 1 ton hammer down at Hexham on the hunter river, they run it with 2 really big air recievers and a bank of air compressors, (the air recievors are actually the old lancashire boilers that they used to use when they used steam). The guys that work there still reckon that they have to stop after about 30 minutes to allow the air pressure to catch up. I'll let you know when we are going to have our blacksmiths open day anyway Dale. Cheers Phil

Hi all I often get asked, "phil I'm looking to buy a steam hammer, how big of an air compressor would I need to run it". When you work it through they always loose interest. Just for fun though, going by the size of the blokes head to the size of the cylinder I would figure that hammer to have a 10" piston with say 21" of stoke, allow say 80 full blows per minute, powered in both directions. 10 x 10 x 21 x .78 = 1638 cubic inches x 2 (to fill the cylinder both on the up stroke and the down stoke) = 3276 cubic inches of air needed per stroke (OK i did'nt deduct the area of the rod from the bottom of the cylinders volume but that will allow some margin for error) convert this to cubic feet = 1.89 cubic feet of air per stroke x 80 stokes per minute = 151 CFM of air deliverd at pressure to the hammer. Massey recommends between 45 to 80 PSI air pressure to run a steam hammer on steam or air. Air compressors are rated on CFM of free air pumped(free air cfm to air delivered at 100psi needs an 8 to 1 compression ratio) so for 80psi, at a guess we use a 6.5 to 1 compression ratio, gives us a free air cfm rating needed of 981 CFM. Pretty big air compressor. Allowances can be made for waiting in between heats, running at a lower pressure etc to allow the air comp to catch up, but if I was looking to use a hammer for any real forging, I would seek to have an air comp bigger than what I was going to need, I would hazard a guess that that hammer to run properly taking into account any allowances would need a 750cfm air compressor. (that would need a 187 HP motor jus so you know)) We used to need a 250 rotary screw diesel air compressor to run our 3CWT steam hammer, then we converted to a 30HP steam boiler which handled it easy. (general rule is 10 horse power of boiler rating per CWT of hammer) Hope all this made sense Phil

If you are going to try to modify the leaf pack, and I'm assuming from the photos that you want to bend the spring leave on edge rather than on the flat ie, to joggle the eyes sideways, (next time take photos that show orthografical projection ie front, side, top views, its hard to tell what needs doing when the shot is on a 45 deg angle) you may be able to bend it by warming the leaves up to the greasy stick temp, we will set leaves at that temp and you can bend spring steel fairly happily at that temp without affecting the temper. Just remember not to go too hot. Greasy stick is about 480 to 520 degrees. Spring is fairly user friendly and will tollerate a bit of heat abuse normally. You will probably need to use a press to bend it, whether you can get the amount of bend you require before the leaves start to twist sideways is another thing. If you can't get the bend you need at greasy stick you will have to go up to 850 deg and then reheat treat the whole thing. We used to harden and temper everything up to front main leaves ford loiuisville primemovers (which were if I remember about 90 x 20 stock x 1800mm in size) when I started my apprenticeship up on the NSW north coast using a fairly large forge fire. We'd run the leaf back and forwards thru the fire till it was orange then bend it then quench it in quenching oil all in one operation, then back on top of the fire and heat it carefull up to greasy stick to temper it, then set the leaf to it's mate while still hot. If you can't get hickory to use as a stick we used to use old hammer handles that were Aussie spotted gum, worked just as well. Cheers Phil

Not a press definitly a hammer, sides we often work in singlets, so not that out of left field. Phil

Hi all We burn waste oil in our furnaces. We have also had the stack emmissions tested in regard to pollution, harmful compounds etc. The main emmissions from waste oil you will get are sulfur dioxide, soot (carbon). The testing we had done was done for a development approval to relocalte our business into town. As far as the report was concerned we have about as harmful emmissions as a fast food resturant. The only thing I will note about burning oil is you will likely end up with a carbon(coke) deposit on the opposite wall to your burner if it impinges on it. These carbon deposits (we call them old men) normally build up over a month then get to heavy and break off. The only problem with this is it takes some refractory with it each time it does so. We have also had this problem burning straight diesel. Having said all the above we do buy our oil from an oil supplier, who normally sells us good quality waste oil with a minimum of water, antifreeze, etc in it (normally). One problem we do have with oil is the grade does vary occasionally and can be hard to light when cold. Preheating does help. We use an oxytorch to help light them. Any questions I'll try to answer them. Phil

Hi all We have a tagging hammer that has dies set fairly high ie lower chest level. It is really hard on the back after a while as you are holding your arms out in front of you, and supporting this with your back. We also have a 2cwt alldays that I tried to raise the bottom block up to a nice level, I have managed to get that at possibly just the wrong height also, as it is a pain to use (backwise). Our 2 masseys however are as they were designed with our 5 cwt bottom block being 28" from floor level and I can forge under that all day with no problems. yes it means you have to bend a bit but it seems easier. What I am saying is find a height that you already use, ie your anvil height, and work from there. I feel everyone will be different in what they like relative to themselves. cheers Phil

Hi all IMHO anything that you can do with a flypress or a treadle hammer can be replicated with a power hammer, you just need different tooling. A well designed hammer will be able to give a single blow, squeeze, drive, etc. Yet a flypress will not substitute for a hammer, and a treadle hammer will not substitute for a fly press. A treadle hammer would be a better purchase for someone starting out than a flypress. I've owned a fly press for many years and only really used it 3 or 4 times in that time. Easier and quicker to use the Massey. Cheers Phil

Hi all classed as a helve hammer, the helve is the wooden arm, it provides the neccessary whip. Useful for forging in swaging dies, or drawing tapers from the front of the hammer, drawbacks are that the dies are not parralell except for when they are die to die or if the dies are set to be parallel on a certain size, like a leg vices jaws, they move in an arc. Cheers Phil

Just watched Dale's video, I've been doing this for a few years now so I'll give you some pointers. The bloke in the video is over reaching ie he needs to stand closer to what he is hitting. Don't need to go fast, you are'nt a power hammer, slower with more force accurately will allow you to do it all day with less effort. (id be suprised if dales striker can keep that pace up all day) You are using a hammer on an anvil not an axe, pick or mattock. Dont swing the hammer like an axe, ie keep your hands in one place. It helps with accuracy. Dales swage block is too high for a striker it needs to be lower to allow him to develop a better swing. Where I started my apprenticeship in Belligen NSW we had 2 anvils set up, one was the usual height, the other was much lower to allow a proper swing using an anvil tool on the job (eg a flatter, swage etc). Where possible use the top of your thigh to give the end of the hammer handle a bump to assist in raising the hammer back up. (easier to show the principle than to explain it) When you start to train a striker, get a smaller hammer and place it on your side of the anvil, then tell your striker, "thats for you", he will give you a dumb look, then add, "Yeah you hit me and hurt me, I'm going to hit you and hurt you back". Always works a treat! If your stiker does'nt work out, get a power hammer. Cheers Phil

The pins are normally a case hardening steel such as 4317/17cnm06/en36. The tracks themselves are as I recall normally cast. Only guessing but something like Nihard would be likely. En36 is fantastic for dies, just make your die as needed, then take it up to approx 800 degrees C and throw it into water. No need to temper it. In use just make sure that you keep cooling it between heats. We have forging dies that we made over 7 years ago from En36 heat treated as I described, that have made 100s of jobs each without any deformation or wear. Cheers Phil

I have a Davy press broucher that shows where an approx 108 tonne hammer was replaced with a press capable of heavier work than the hammer. The press was of 5000ton capacity. This hammer stood 63 feet high, had built on top of it a pivot supporting 2 x 200ton post cranes. The anvil block for the hammer weighed 1000tons and was cast in place. Davy acutually replaced the hammer by building the press inside the hammer frame and leaving the hammer frame there thereby allowing the 2 post cranes to be utilised for the press. Big stuff!!!!! Cheers Phil

I have known many really talented smiths in Aus who have tried and have gone broke. In this land we don't have a long tradition of quality handforged ironwork such as places like the UK or Europe. The blokes I have know have been tallented, have been good sellers, have targeted the right markets, have made quality products, etc. The main thing that they have not to my mind done is embraced technology. if you are going to go into this to make a living then you are going to have to at least try to pinch work off the fabricators. When things are tough, everyone will try to give a better price to beat the comp. When things are going well, it does'nt matter so much. I'm not saying sell yourself short, but you have to use whatever tricks you can to do more work in a day for less effort. Sure make quality, by hand, with correct jointing, etc tennons, fire welded, but you have to be quick and you have to be good and it has to be quality. 100 years ago it was no different, if Klaus could make 5 waggons for $1000.00 and Herman could make only 4 waggons for $1000.00 both to the same level of finish, who would have got the job. Maybe Klaus used that modern wonder electricity to drive his shop, herman still used a steam boiler to run his shop, herman needed a fireman to stoke the boiler, a fuel man to go get the coal, an apprentice to wind the forge. Klaus only needed himself and 1 helper, who had the lowest costs, who did more work for a dollar. If 250 years ago someone had invented the MIG welder do you think the smiths then would have shuned it, hell no, "hey look at this great new tool, no more firewelding for me." Blacksmithing has done itself a great injustice in modern history by taking the attitude of we aren't going to use technology because thats just not the way its done, thats' cheating, to make this job easier. In business you need to think how can I do this job better, quicker, etc. Most of the time you can answer these questions only by having experince. When I was an apprentice I was taught by a very learned smith how to make the jobs I made. There was no scope for, "how about we make a tool to allow us to stamp these in one go". It was "this is the proper way to do this job now just do it". We used to have 5 men working a 1 ton hammer to forge hydraulic piston rods at 6 per day. One man forging, one man to hold the tools, one man to operate the crane holding the weight of the job,one man to drive the hammer, and one man to help get the job out of the furnace and just generally assist I now have 2 men using a 1/2 ton hammer to forge the same 6 hydraulic piston rods a day, we have an electric pendant controlled crane that the hammer driver controls with his left hand, the hammer he drives with his right, we have a tool holder that holds the swages, neckers, stop pads on the hammer block. We have a remote control furnace door that the hammer driver can open without leaving the hammer. We work smarter not harder. Oh and we still get the same time for these rods with 2 men as my old boss did with 5 men. I'm not trying to brag here, just trying to give people ideas what can be achieved. Phil

As stated above SS can be many grades, it can be hard to cut with a saw but easily dented as in a crosion resistant grade, it can be easy to sharpen, hold a good edge (as in a scapel) It can be heat resisting but not be able to be tempered. It all depends on the grade you are preparing to use. For example to anneal austenetic SS you heat it to about 900-1000 deg cent and quench vigourously in water. If you were to do that with a martensetic grade that would nearly cause it to turn its self inside out, there are horses for courses, yes you could use SS for an anvil but for a good anvil it needs to be the right grade. Cheers Phil

When I was a 16 year old 1st year apprentice an old smith told me, "Son, the only time that you stop learning is when you're dead". I can normally learn something from every smith that I visit, even if its only "thats a bad way to do that", at least now I know that my way is better. On hammers I watched a drawn out contest a couple of years ago. The rules are still the same, use a hammer that you can control, and is comfortable for you to use, keep the steel hot, only work on the bit that you can finish in that heat, work the metal, don't just bludgeon it to death, make the hammer an extension of your arm. I saw blokes using a 7lb hammer to try to draw out 1/2 round, they lasted about 2 minutes before they cramped up, I saw others that just bashed their piece of steel anywhere, they achieved not much, I saw some that used a tack hammer and tried to go as fast as a sewing machine, they cramped up too, others whaled into their steel till it was as cold as charity. You can normally hear a good smith working before you see him. Steady rythmn, make every blow count, don't drop the hammer below the face of the anvil, (you just have to lift it up again). Rabbled on enough now. Cheers Phil

Hi all Couple of tips on tongs. -Make the reins thicker towards the eyes not thinner, thats where they will break first, taper the reins more as you get away from the jaws. -Right handed tongs look better than left handed tongs, right handed tongs are when they are laid flat the top rein goes to your right hand. -The other place most tongs break is where the jaw joins to the eye, try to have smooth radii on all these joining fillets. -Set your reins parallel to grip the stock you are working, don't have the reins set pointing in or out. -If you are going to use tongs to forge under a powerhammer use a link to hold the reins together, many a smith has got the scar running from his mouth upwards to his eye. Thats caused by the tongs flying up and hitting the face when the job has come out of the tongs and they have flicked up. I missed and got my eye brow 40 stiches (20 internal 20 external) depressed fracture of the skull. -Always inspect your tongs before use for cracks and other defects. -Not a criticisim but an observation, the tongs shown have the reins leaving the eye on the same side as the jaw, they should be offset. -Good work they are about 500% better than my 1st attempt made with my little brother swing a sledge in the back shed at home during my school years. -As you progress hang onto them, it is good to be able to look back and say "these were my first pair that I made", unfortunately I don't still have my first pair. Cheers Phil Thats' a hammer not a toy, hit it don't play with it!

Hi All I started my apprenticeship in 1982 (yes you can still serve an apprenticeship in BS in Aus, when you finish your time you get a trade Certificate from the Government, stating that you have completed your apprenticeship in whatever trade) We attended Tech College 1 day per week for three of our 4 years of apprenticeship where we learnt trade theory, calculations, metalurgy, welding, cutting, workshop practical, (eg firewelding, drop forging, hammer work, anvil work, ornamental smithing, etc, beer drinking). After working for a boss for about 12 years I decided to go it on my own. I had grand visions of making gates, candelabra, bakers stands, etc. The reality was that just about every metal fabricator In Aust who owned a ute welder oxy set and an angle grinder had the same idea, just they did'nt plan to use "authentic" blacksmithing to make their living. So I ended up getting more work of the industrial nature, tools for railways, tools for steelworks, lifting gear, eg hooks and shackles, lately we have been getting more and more outright forging work such as gear blanks, solid forged rings etc. We have gone from a 1cwt hammer and a forge fire to a 400 ton forging press and 3 oil fired furnaces at the moment, and we are soon to move to an 800 square metre workshop. We now employ 2 apprentices full time, we will start another 1st year apprentice in the new year and we are always looking for good tradesmen smiths. We should see turnover approx $500,000.00 to $600,000.00 AUD this year. We are still blacksmiths doing blacksmithing work as has been done for 100s of years now. OK we will use a mig instead of firewelding coupling rings on chain assemblies, but if you had to weld 20 of them a day what would you rather do, drag assemblies weighing 150KG each between the forge and hammer/anvil or use the MIG I reckon the MIG is a good idea. So to we use a seeing eye cross carriage profile cutter, remember I am doing this to make a living, not to preserve a time in history. If blacksmithing is to survive we have to embrace technology not shun it. I have wanted to be a smith since I was about 8 or 9, I'm 43 now. If you want to do this for a living you have to realise that you are a business man now. Your work must be good, you must make a product that there is a market for, you must be able to produce enough to sell to pay yourself a wage. Its no good wanting to get a salary of $50,000.00 per year if you work each day for 10 hours and only make an article thats worth $150.00. If you want to pay yourself a wage of say $20.00 an hour you will need to turn over approx 2.5 times that an hour to be able to keep your head above water, ie you need to charge your work out at at least $50.00 an hour plus materials. I normally work an average of 60 to 70 hours a week, thats broken up between working on the shop floor swinging off hot steel, cutting stock for the next day, repairing tools and equipment, quoting, chasing orders, accounting, OH and S requirements etc etc. If you have it where you live do a small business course, write a business plan, learn some accounting skills all these help towards running a business successfully. I recall the statistics for small businesses failing are somewhere around 75 to 80% fail in the 1st 12 months. Most don't plan to fail they just fail to plan. Oh and one other thing is Cash flow, many small businesses have been profitable but have gone to the wall because they did not have cash flow. I'm talking about cash flow inwards not out. If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them if I can. Cheers Phil

Having used a brand new Anyang 1cwt at moonys (i had to set it up first of course), i was impressed by its forging power compared to the massey 1cwt we have at our shop. However our massey is I guess over 40 years old and still is a good hammer. Don't know how the anyang will be after that sort of life. They seem a nice hammer that is simple and seemed easy to control. For blacksmithing, simple is the best I reckon so long as it works (like some of my employees, although its often hard to get them to work). The cosmetic finish was OK however I was a little disapointed in the mechanical finish of the hammers ie fit of pins in the controls, play in the priming handle of the lubricator, slackness of the fit of the control handle to the control valves. As stated earlier in this post, the hammers need someone with some fitting or mechanical experience to go all over them and just rectify these little things. Apart from that I feel that for the money paid for them, they are not a bad hammer. However professionally though if I had to choose between an old massey in fair condition and a new anyang I'd go the massey every time for industrial use. For hobby and occasional use, I think they will be a good hammer. The only thing that I would add to this is I feel that they would hit even better on a good concrete foundation, the one we set up at moonys was just done quickly on wood. Cheers Phil

xxxx xxxx What a jump, going from mild to H13, H13 is what we used to call Hot Die, we still use it for punches to punch the eyes on rail spike hammers, blob punching in a die through about 80mm of 4140 at 1100deg in one go using a 250KG hammer. H13 holds up fairly well but my blokes insist on cooling the punches in water which ultimately stuffs them. We normally get about 20 to 25 hammers punched before the punch is RS. If you are using H13 it will be important to get the heat treatment right, and be careful of your heat when and if you forge it, as I remember it can be fairly easy to burn. Good luck Phil

Sad to see it sitting there all clean, would look better with a pile of scale around the anvil, bit of oil here and there. Would be better to see it in operation and being used to make real things. The general public looks at that and does not really appreciate the true power and visual and aural effect that a working hammer demonstrates. I guess its about a 10cwt hammer.