Awlsome

Excellent ideas guys. I like the idea of donating that bar stock to an organization for a hammer/ tool forging demonstration I participate in. I also underestimated the usefulness of existing hammer heads. It is such an irony that I had to move to get work and leave the biggest flea market I had ever seen behind me, 6 hours away - I would have totally spent the money I am now earning there (I once got 30 files for about $25, which aint bad but for the sake of a story let's say it was $12). For the past few days I have been dreaming about all the wonderful rusty hammers that could be had for scrap price. At the moment I am in a town of 10,000 people in rural Missouri, so I am kind of limited when it comes to scrap yards. I may get lucky talking to guys at the dealership in town but IDK. I never thought about using the shackle end of leaf springs as a fuller! Another fantastic idea - leaf spring anvil tooling! Anvil - you are right. I totally forgot to mention what I wanted to make in the original post... I can't remember myself because I want so many tools. Thats how I got into blacksmithing - I want no less than one copy of every hand tool and mechanical device, but that kind of goal gets cost prohibitive real quick. I also liked how you made me stop and realize that I need to set a goal/project and the steps to get there will become evident. I tend to over-analyze and constantly worry about whether what I am doing is the "best" way of doing something. But experience counts for a lot, and analysis alone won't get me anywhere in a practical sense.

I am absurdly jealous - they look fantastic! I also really like the flatter.

Thanks guys! I was worried that this kind of question had been beaten to death and I would just get a bunch of "Why didnt you search the forum better?" posts. I also got a bit side-tracked during the post and ended up asking a completely different question than I mean to. So, I'll need to start being more social or more motivated if I plan to use that 2" stock. Or wait till my brother is in town. Bending over stock and putting it in the pritchel hole is a good trick - one I will try. Tapered hardy shanks sound like a great idea, and I especially like that they seem to seat themselves in the hardy hole but I asked myself why they hadn't allways been made that way. I also noticed that the only ones I have seen with a tapered shank have been hot cutters. I got to thinking, and wonder if a taper on the shanks hardy tools with more surface area like a impart undue stress into the connection between the heel and body of the anvil. On something like a hot cutter the stress would be negligible, but on something big... would it matter? I dont know. Is it ok to make all my hardy tools with a tapered shank or would that put my anvil at risk? Thanks again

As someone who works in healthcare, I'd second all the advice of not working through the injury. It is too easy to do something wrong and screw your body up worse. To re-use a saying my mentor had "You don't get paid enough to die on the job." Get to an orthopedic guy and have him take a look at it if you can. It may be something simple that NSAIDS or corticosteroids could fix, or there could be exercises that help with the problem. If you try to work through it you are begging for surgery later on.

Hello everyone! I was/am a long time lurker at anvilfire and a newer lurker here but I have a question and decided to join the board. Loads of good stuff here - thanks to everyone who has made this site such an awesome resource! I have all the bare minimum of required tools, including a gas forge, post vice, angle grinder, 100 lb london pattern anvil, even an oxy-acetylene kit but I dont have any hardy tools, fullers, flatters, awesome hand-made rounding hammers, etc. I did get a smithin magician kit to help myself make all the tools I plan to make. I don't plan on buying a full set of top and bottom fullers, a flatter, etc and so I am going to get to work on that. I guess my question is "What order do I start making these tools in?" Right now I have a bar of 3' x 2" round 4140 stock, a bar of 4' x 1" round W-1 and a small round bar of 5" x 2.5" 4140 I am saving for making a rounding hammer. I was thinking of trying to make a hardy fuller or cutoff hardy first, but I'm stuck as far as how to do that with what I have got. I feel like I kinda need a fuller to make progress with this 2" bar stock but I can't make one out of it without serious wasted effort (I dont think). Probably need a striker or a power hammer to make headway (closest I have to a striker is a wife with a bad back). And I guess I would need a hammer eye punch and hammer eye drift first if I want to make top tool/ bottom tool sets. As far as I can figure, my mistake was buying 2" round bar instead of 1.5" or 1.25" to make top/bottom tools. What are your thoughts? Thanks, Matthew Marting