Dave Budd

try doing a search for zipmax  ;)

I'd love to be able to have a forge in Widecombe. My cousin was doing the old family tree thing a couple of years ago and it appears that before the family moved to the South East in the middle of the 19th century, the last member was the smith in Horrabridge. :)

Andy asked me this question in pm yesterday and I thought to help the discussion along I would post my reply here as well (maybe get others' brains ticking  )

its a tricky one. There aren't that many hammers surviving and its almost impossible to determine which are for forging and which are for other craft purposes (after all a lump hammer is very similar in many ways to a forging hammer, but not normally recognised as such). Even if you look at associated find groups and decide that these hammers are a blacksmith tool kit because tongs and other tools are found with it, you still have to decide if it is a hand hammer or a sledge. A 5lb brian brazeal hammer would be considered a sledge hammer if you stuck it on a long handle! From what I've seen looking at the archaeology, the same weights of hammer that you would find in a modern forge (say 400g to 6000g) are pretty well represented in any time during the last couple of thousand years. Though the largest hammers seem to be smaller (nothing more than 4kg I know) in antiquity, this could also be down to the fact that it is a big lump of expensive metal just as we have very few anvils

So, baring that in mind. I know of (and have references for):

Iron Age/roman (all from the UK) forging hammers around 800g, some smaller hammers found in iron working contexts between 30g and 350g, larger hammers (often with swages cut into them) 1500-4000g
Viking: mastermyr 600-750g ALSO sledges at 1600-3300g
Saxon: York 650g


So a bit tricky to generalise I would say As for hammer weight and injury, again very much conjecture I feel. I developed tennis elbow late last year and I had to find a solution. Trawling the net for advice from other smiths (a lot on IFI), some folk went to lighter hammers and other to heavier. At the time I used a 1kg hammer all the time and could use a 3lb for short periods. I had always preferred the idea of a light hammer going fast for long periods. Since that is how I was working when I developed TE, I tried lighter (750g) and it was worse due to the more repetitions and force that I had to put into the blow. So I tried a heavier hammer (2kg), but with a shorter handle. The tennis elbow largely cleared up. I put it down to not needing to swing so hard to get the same movement in the steel. I can now swing that all day just as I once did a hammer of half the weight. 

hope that helps 

The idea that the hammers were generally smaller could also be attributed to that fact that every smith would have at least one striker, so he didn't need to hit hard all day long. Also, iron is softer than steel, so it doesn't require so much force to be applied to move it at forging heat (bit of a generalisation I know). Mostly I think it's impossible to say since there is such a huge variation in hammer types and some have very specific uses, we just don't have a good enough sample from the historical record.

In terms of my own experience with the tennis elbow, I think that a large part of the improvement was a change in technique that goes with the combination of a short handle and a heavy head. You can't hold let alone lift a heavy head on the end of a long stick if you have tennis elbow! You can, however, hold close to the head (or a short handle), lift and drop. That helped to bring me more inline with the work and so I think a lot of the actual improvement was in my overall technique, despite me thinking that it was OK in the first place (even when I see old footage on video of me forging, I can't see anything wrong with my stroke or stance?)

yep that's the book :)   I've just heard about another, similar, book about medieval leatherwork from London. So I shall be looking for that one too!

Thanks folks. I had intended to do more iron/shear steel stuff, pattern welded blades and more tools, but time as always got away from me  :rolleyes:

Stefflus. I really don't like sheaths that aren't made of good thick leather and have a welt to stiffen and stop the edge cutting the stitches, but sadly the archaeology is against me there :(  I found a great pdf of a book about leather finds from York, mostly 5th-12th century but with some earlier bits too. It is were lots of sheathes and descriptions of how things were constructed both at York and elsewhere. There is a little variation with the dates, but basically they are either sewn up the back (centrally or off to the side a little) or sewn to the edge like a modern sheath but with no welt. I think the key is to sew the sheath damp and very tiht, so that the leather is pulled together and thus in the way of the blade, also to mold the leather away from the blade so it hits the side not a crease (a little like in the other style). Just to be a little more sure I have dipped them all in hot wax to harden them further, but I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to!  Sadly there is no evidence for wooden blade catchers other than on swords

Yep. I will be there :)  I've been working on some suitably historical tools and knives to take with me

maillemaker has just reminded me of another eejit that I met once.  Whilst I had a decent audience during a demo, he stepped over my barrier rope and lit if cigarette on my forge!  Luckily I was so shocked that I just froze where I was, otherwise the bar that was about to travel from fire to anvil would've likely hit him in the face!  

Also, when you have sharp knives/tools out on your table, why do people have to check to see if they are sharp by touching the edge? not just the edge on one, but the edge on EVERY SINGLE SHARP TOOL!!!! 

that reminds me of another of the most often questions:  Is that normal (or just) charcoal you are burning?  I've started to say "no, it's special charcoal"

i often get asked whilst demonstrating at shows with my iron age forge set up (hole in the ground, simple bellows) can get hot enough to forge. This is WHISLT i am beating hot steel!   Often followed by them describing me to their friends as a neolithic blackmsith

I also get a lot of folk asking if the knives I sell are made from mild steel. 

And of course, there are a huge number of folks that assume I also shoe horses. 

i've had stock with cold shuts rolled into them. Whole 6m lengths have had a crease running down their lengths and only show up when i start forging. If the problem persists with other dimensions of stock, then chances are you are working too cold.

its just a shame that it also falls on the same week(end) as the Wilderness Gathering. I was hoping to be at this event for the duration, but the WG is my biggest earning show of the year, so can't miss it  :rolleyes: .  I'll try and get down for the first day, but will have to think of the logistics...

some how I missed this thread until this morning!  I will rearrange my plans and see you all for a spell this afternoon :)

i made some copper and brass cups recently that had brass or copper legs attached, I went the route of riveting with copper rivets.  If I wanted to join them without pins then I would use silver solder on account of its greater strength than soft plumbers solder. If you have three seperate legs, then you may need to get three types of silver solder (each has a different melting point so you can do multiple solder joints on an item)

there was somebody on British Blades (i think) a while back who was selling tong blanks that he had plasma (et al) cut from plate. The tong pieces were 100% identical and all you needed to do was to twist (or forge) the jaws into position and then round the reins off.

i've used a cold tinning solution for printed circuit boards for this purpose. It's quite a thin coating of tin, but on the cup I've been using seems to be holding up OK. You mix up a bottle of nasty smelling liquid and fill your cup, leave for some hours and then pour it back in the bottle :)  Obviously you need to wash the cup out to get id of the chemicals, but the tinned surface is pretty good.

depends on the steel, type of weld, environment, etc.I mostly weld tool steel will stick at a bright orange but mild needs to be a bit hotter. At least thats my experience

yep, I'll be there with my ground level forge :)  Though I don't know how much forging I will be doing :(  I burnt my hand last week (not too badly) and an infection got in there (much more of a problem).  still, life goes on.

The Gathering is a great event for all the family and I hope there are other UK folk able to attend. 

I can't add anything useful that hasn't already been said about technique. A question pooped into my head based on you original post though.

You say this failure to weld is happening while making a hawk. Are you making this hawk from mild with a steel edge, or is it a single piece of leaf spring? I ask because I know some springs (containing chromium) don't like to stick to themselves, no matter what you do. 

that's gotta be one of the neatest little retorts I've come across :)  Sadly for me, I don't think I've ever come across a 30 gal drum in the UK. Most of our drums are plastic these days and I don't think that will work so well :(

the only single source I've found online is the one tha you have likely found:  http://netlabs.net/~osan/Mastermyr/ImageLib.html   If you click on the images then most are good enough to copy from (at least I have done). I've stumbled across individual pictures randomly elsewhere.

I gave in and bought the book on the find earlier this year and it has much better pictures :)

a blackbird has built a nest (and is now raising chicks) in my stock of steel on the racking behind my workshop. In the past I have seen robins next in the cast bed of a friend's lathe and in the motor housing of my pillar drill!  :rolleyes:

in the UK the borax that was once found in the supermarkets has been almost totally replaced by 'borax substitute'. I've not heard whether that stuff works or not, but being that I don't live anywhere near a place that sells it, I've not tried. Instead I just buy bags of pure borzx from ceramic supply companies. Potters use it for glazing, so its used in large quantities and is very cheap and very clean :)

even though you make lots of pokers, they can be as tricky and fancy as your mind can conjour!  Look at the animal heads, baskets, etc I use them  (and coat hooks) to practice elements like that rather than cock up on a  larger job, yet stillgie me somethign that (if it comes out ok) can still be sold

unfortunately suggesting things to push your skills will depend on where they are at now ;)  Would making a hinge swivel on a pintle push you, or does it need to be a petled rose with some leaves firewelded on?

Adding to what John has already said about the shapes and sizes varying with the specific craft activity (also individual smiths and local geography).  The thickness and distal taper will vary according to the use not just the shape and size. Some are weighted with thickened tips, others are pretty well uniform thickness and some are thicker at the handle end. All depends what you are using it for ;)  Most modern ones are either flat (very cheap to mass produce) or only have a distal taper (such as Bulldog hooks, more costly but not so much as tapering from edge to back.).

I've made more than a handful and they are not a lot of fun to make by hand, especially if you are making a 10-12" Devon pattern such as I often get asked for (living in Devon and all). That size I normally start with something like 40x8mm stock, with it tapering from 10mm at the handle (I thicken it there) and 4mm at the tip (the 8mm start gives the extra width I need here). They are normally down to a couple of mm at the edge before sharpening. The hardest part is the bend at the front, especially if you are forging the bevels in as I do.