Ethan the blacksmith

Some pictures of the 600lbs Niles Bement Pond steam hammer I recently brought up from Texas and set up. I ran it on steam to begin with, but currently I'm using air from a 185CFM diesel compressor and a 500 gallon tank, with 2'' hose connecting everything. it hits darn hard, but will be in need of a rebuild sometime soon. I built a motion lever mechanism very similar to the one Grant Sarver had, and it works absolutely tremendously. I'll make a youtube video about it at some point, but there is some videos of it running on my Instagram: @ethanharty I will try to add more pictures later, as I keep getting an error message:)

Thank you sir id saw it was just a little awkward. It was very tiring, not because it was heavy (it was less than 20 pounds) but because the motion that the handle has to travel in is a little different than in you were to swing yourself, so you end up working against the other person sometimes. If you just got comfortable at it over a few days, great power and accuracy could be achieved. it was cool how much BANG it had when it hit hot steel, compared to a normal sledge.

Maybe most of y’all know this Already, but I thought I’d post this here too. I hope everyone is doing well. Back in June, I was hired as a demonstrator for canIRON, and it was an absolute honour and one of the best things I’ve done in my short start to my career as a Blacksmith. I invited Mark Ling to come up and help me out (he’s the well known “littleblacksmith” that used to post here lots) Anyway, we wanted to forge a 2 handled sledge, as a special project. So we forged through the night, with a decent crowd, with only strikers, a two handled sledge. And we were very happy. Here is some pictures.

Your a keener;) yes exactly as you said, I am now making the hammers for Alec’s brand, and there’s now a series of YouTube videos showing the process on the first batch. It’s on my channel “Ethan Harty” for anyone who’s interested. It was a great honour to be part of this business dealing. ill leave a few pictures here incase anyone is interested.

thank you for this I really appreciate it.

Thank you, I should clarify when I’m talking about forging, I mean hot forging! Like at a red heat.

Here are some pictures of a new beautiful French “rhino piggy” I have recently acquired! 340 pounds

Hello everyone, long time no see. i have tried to melt down old copper pipes, make ingots, and then forge them, with no success. Is copper always forgable (meaning the problem could come from impurities such as the solder on the pipes) or do you have to treat or stir it the way you would with iron? Maybe anneal it lots? Help appreciated! Ethan

I recently got two new stamps made, a 1" and a 3/8" I'm really happy with them. I feel its a good stamp of approval!

As some of you know, I purchased a 1 CWT Alldays and onions power hammer last year maybe around this time. I've been extremely pleased with this hammer, however I've had a ton of problems with my hammer, most are caused by my own ignorance. for example, I had put way too thick of oil in it when I first got it, and it completely crippled the hammer. for now I'm going to post some pictures and videos of the hammer for walls enjoyment and eye candy. when I have time throughout the next upcoming weeks, ill post specific photos of problems, and how I solved them. I hope I can give back and provide some value for someone out there. I received a huge outreach from people with these hammers when I had problems, such as Owen Bush, Allen Evans, Alec Steele and many more. Kevin Willey seems to be the beaudey man, Mark Krause seems to be the pneumatic man, and I want to see if I can be the Alldays Man;) I look forward to posting about my screw ups!here is a youtube video I made detailing my hammer and here is a video using the hammer to forge a Damascus machete

Thank you very much frosty. I think that's what I'll end up doing... thanks again ethan

Thanks for the info. I'll consider that when I plan to poor the concert

Thank you very much. I will be sending you an email. I would probably mount the base for it on a pad or something like you said, but the trouble in my situation Is that my new shop space is dirt. So i would have to pour a pad anyway.

Yes that was me! Thank you

Thank you all. Yes I used 15n20, and 1084. Question for y'all: is there a real difference, or enough that they have to make like fit example, 1080,84, and 85. Like is there really enough differents in that .01% carbon difference?

the billets I forged were about 2 pounds, and when I go done, I could forge 4 or 5 knives out of them, it took many heats tho.

Thank you guys for the kinda words as always. They are in commission as mr.powers said, but I do intend to do another run of them because they seem to be popular in the eyes of Facebookers;) it was a bit big job for the little giant to weld all those big billets of steel so I'm sitting on my hands for a bit until I get shipping Inline for the new hammer.

Thank you guys!

No problem bud! It's a great hammer and I'm glad you got to see it!

When I visited matt, he had his Striker bolted to a steel stand that was attached to the pad inside the shop area. I'm wondering if I can get around the steel base by simply having a raised concrete base.

Thank you, I think they are around 16-17" or so

Thank you!

In my opinion, you should look at it this way. Basically we want to do what ever we can to minimize the amount of "wasted energy" that happens when the anvil shakes, moves, and dances around the floor. This isn't always achieved by having a bigger anvil. If you have a 600 pound Anvil on an uneven base, it's going to move no matter how you had it. If you have a 75 pound anvil and it is bolted solidly to the concrete, via our fabricated steel base, there won't be any movement at all. And from my experience, I would argue that a normal, regular sized Anvil (100lbs or so), for normal work, is more than adequate for anything and everything. If you have An anvil of this size or bigger, and it moves around, that simply means that your anvil is not secured properly. I would actually not rather use an Anvil above 400 pounds or so, because the face usually gets so wide that you have to lean over at an awkward angle to get to the far edge, especially if you are like me and you forge with your body perpendicular to the Anvil (kinda like Brian brazeal). My current anv is about 150 lbs, and it is held to a fabricated, three Legged steel base with bolts and then the legs of the base are bolted firmly to the concrete. This is the same way most striking and anvils are held down, and they perform extremely well and only weigh in total like 75 pounds. I do agree that a slightly larger and anvil does have its advantage when it comes to working surface area and mass under the horn(s), but in my conclusion as long as you're comfortable with the size of your anvil... size does not matter! What matters is how, and how well your anvil is mounted.

Ethan here, I have bought and all days and onions 1CTW Power Hammer And I am quite happy about it. It came off of an English war vessel, and the man who I am buying it from has rigged up a single phase system so that makes my life a lot easier but too the question: i've seen a lot of these power hammers put up on steel bases, and obviously that would be a good idea to increase the height. But I am wondering if, to save work, if I can simply do a raised concrete foundation that would come above the floor line maybe 6 inches. This is obviously a heavy cast-iron one piece hammer, so does it really need a heavy fabricated steel base underneath ? Anyway looking forward to the help.

Ethan here, Please refer to my post and knife making for the full description of how this all came about, but here are 12 steak turners that are forged to go with the Damascus knives for the world championship auctioneer competition at the Calgary stampede. I am looking forward to your experienced eyes to critique them;)