JHCC

I need to dash one of those off before I have to give back the welder (currently have on loan from the Theater Department). I really like how the angle iron is supported by the pipe.

Back in my woodworking days, an interior designer I was working with gave me a wise word: rich people don’t get rich by spending their money.

My mom still has the one I made in my “Introduction to Blacksmithing” class back in 1983. It was my first drop-tong weld, and at my first much-too-hard hammer blow, the upper piece shot across the room and burned a hole in my backpack. Making this one was much less dramatic.

Here’s a poker I dashed off when I was still in my teens. It still functions better than just about any I’ve seen.

Some kind of heavy steel pipe, salvaged (with permission!) from a local construction site. It’s about 1.75” OD and started life as a handrail on a staircase.

More treadle hammer modifications: cut the top off the head, melted in more lead (old type from the college letterpress) with a plumber’s torch, and welded the top back on. The head weight is now just over 59 pounds (up from 36). Interestingly, I figured out that it had way too much return spring before. It’s now much better balanced and very easy to stomp.

Me, I’m just trying to sell enough for the hobby to pay for itself.

The book quotes just the “Mithridates, he died old” line. When the BBC adapted it for radio in the ‘80s, they included the preceding couple of lines, presumably on the assumption that a less broadly educated audience wouldn’t understand the allusion without additional context.

I guess it does. Good for you!

Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man. Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows whom it hurts to think: Look into the pewter pot To see the world as the world's not.

"He had not yet learned that if you do one good deed, your reward usually is to do another and harder and better one.” - C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

And through the magic of a little more Paint:

Or a treadle hammer!

On a side note, the mottled pattern we see on galvanized steel is from the growth of zinc crystals as the melted coating cools. It's the same grain growth phenomenon that needs to be controlled in the heat treatment of steel, but larger and more visible.

Nice towel rack, though.

I'm just wondering when the young lady found the sword, whether or not her arm was clad in the purest shimmering samite.

Good point. I’m planning on adding some more weight to the head, which will help even more.

Ordnance ordinances?

“Trunnions”! A clue!

Well, my assumption that the two hammers were accelerating at the same rate was incorrect. When I'm wrong, I'm wrong -- or at least, somewhat inaccurate. I did a slo-mo video of hitting with both the treadle and hand hammers, going more or less all-out with both. The quality isn't good enough to post, but a few takes-away: The hand hammer does travel faster than the treadle, taking about 3/4 of the time to cover the distance from the top to the bottom of the blow. In that time, the hammer covers a slightly longer distance, as the top of its arc is slightly higher than the uppermost position of the treadle hammer. Therefore, the hand hammer is accelerating faster than the treadle hammer. (N.B.: I haven't done precise measurements or calculations, but I'm going to guess that the ratio of hand hammer to treadle hammer acceleration is somewhere between 1:6 and 1:8.) It's worth noting that the range of motion on the treadle and the linkage does not bring the hammer all the way down to the anvil. The reasons for this are complicated, but this means that at the bottom of the stroke, the hammer is carried forward by its own inertia and is to a small extent fighting against the tension on the return springs, which may diminish the snap slightly. However, this is less of a problem when you're hitting a top tool, as the point of impact is higher above the anvil than when you're just hitting a 2x4. Recovery time between blows is shorter with a hand hammer than with the treadle hammer. In sum, the treadle hammer hits harder but slower; the hand hammer hits lighter, but faster. More modifications to be made, more video to be shot, more calculations to figure....

But substantially less tender!

That was definitely a trolling comment.

For example, here’s a test piece I did a couple of months ago, just playing around: fullers down one side, chevrons chiseled on the adjacent sides, and then roll up the scroll.

No worries, Mark. Talking through things to clarify what we mean is always worthwhile. This is certainly very, very true. In fact, I only ever use mine with tooling, whether hot-cutting, fullering, putting on my touchmark -- it all goes so much easier when all you have to do is hold the stock with one hand, hold the tool with the other, and stomp. No juggling with hold-downs or holding the stock between your thighs.

Well, now you've got me thinking that I should film myself using both the hand hammer (maybe a couple of different weights) and the treadle hammer, with a scale in the background to help me calculate acceleration (a la Mythbusters, for those who know that TV program). I think my cell phone camera has a slo-mo setting....