Brasilikilt

Hey all

I really like it when people choose to revive the religious and cultural practices of their ancestors.
It's really too bad when people in the prison system tweek and mangle the Norse mythology into some racist/white power bull crap.

ANYWAYS..........

I took a close look at those Mastermyr hammers and was especially interested in the Sledge hammer 20:69.
24.5 cm's long which is roughly 9 5/8", weighing 3370 grams which calculates into 7.43 lbs........A pretty hefty chunk of iron.

I'm would like to get as close to this hammer as I can, but given my inexperience and limited forging time, I might end up with something quite different.

Class is tomorrow, so we'll see what happens

take care and thanks for your input

Iain

Here's a suggestion

Look into any local historical sites around your area.
Lots of times they have volunteers who demonstrate how things were done back then. I'm sure there's some old Spanish Fort or reconstructed settlement where they have a smithy set up.

That's what I would look into first.

Good luck!

Iain

I think you did a really good job cleaning her up.

Now ya have to get your forge put together and see how it works!

Have fun :-)

That is such a beautiful setup!

One of these days I will have my own little version of that :-)

Hey all, I've never posted pics on here, but let's give it a shot



Here is the hammer as it is right now. I very carefully read the advice you all gave me, and decided NOT to bite off more than I could chew and scaled the hammer down.
Right now it's about 10.5 lbs, but started with some extra material on each end to allow more room for shaping and potential mistakes. I will be happy if this hammer ends up in the 6-8 lb range.

I scrounged a hefty chunk of 1 1/2" mild steel plate and cut it down to size using the track burner. I then cooled it off and drilled a 1/2" hole down the center to aid in hot punching the hole wider.
I went over to the welding machines and tacked on a length of 3/4" round stock to act as a handle (Charlotte, they didn't have any tongs big enough at school)


When I was moving that chunk of bright orange block of searing heat, man was I glad to have that bar to hold on to!

I had help from a couple classmates to do the hammering and punching out of the hole. We used a tapered mandril which goes from about 1/4" up to a little over 1". After pounding that punch in the hole and sticking it back into the forge about 10 times, we're a little over halfway done
(I get help from them, and in turn I will put handles on the tomahawks they're making..A good swap of services I think.)

The good thing is that we all had a lot of fun doing it, and got progressively faster and more efficient with the process.

I will keep you guys posted on the progress

Thanks again

Iain

Hey Dan

You and I have talked before. I was the guy with the Americorps award trying to take your class..remember?
One of these days I'd like to visit and check out your operation.

Take care

Iain

Wow.....so much stuff to study in this picture.

It's not often you see people black smithing in knickers vests and bow ties

The anchor hanging from the rafter!?!? :confused:

I especially like the display boards on the wall showing all the tools and such.
They still do the same thing at the carpentry school I went to.

Check out the guy in the middle rear part of the photo near the belt-driven machine......He certainly seems a little irked about something

It looks like the kid up front is possibly forge welding a chain link? and the kid to the left has what looks like a nail header?

Boy I wish they sold those anvils at Harbor freight!

Thanks for posting this photo!

Ha ha

I so totally in the same place as you smithing wise. We've been making this exact same stuff in class (including fire pokers)

I know it feels good......and to use it for beer, even better!

You might want to keep your eyes open for an broken handle off of a hammer or something to use on the end.

Anyways......good luck in your smithing

Iain

Hey Thomas

Thanks so much for steering me toward the Mastermyer tool kit!
Not only have I aspired to forge a lot of my own tools for reenactments, (looking at that old kit is giving me TONS of ideas) I think my friend would really appreciate it if I used a 1,000 year old sledge dug out of the muck in Sweden as inspiration for his hammer.

I will have to see how everything goes in the cut and/or forge with this hammer. Since the decision to make it a lot smaller has already been made, it will be a lot less time consuming to forge than the original #10+ size I had in mind.
I don't remember seeing a spring fuller in my school's shop, but rather a fuller that operates similar to a guillotine.

I've been looking at the pictures, and can't find any dimensions or weight listed for the #69 or #70 hammers, but think a weight of about 5 pounds should still have plenty of heft to it and swing nicely.

Once again, your comments are golden!
Thank you

Iain

Navren, it's great to see that you have had some success!

One of the other students in my blacksmithing class mentioned forging gun barrels, and I just so happened to have a copy of Foxfire 5 handy!

I am also anxious to see what you will do with them!

Have fun

Iain

Hey all

I figured I would let you all know how the project was coming along.

I did find some large chunks of steel at school including a longish bit of round stock which is about 2 1/2"-3" thick (about the same diameter as a croquet mallet)

I did also find a solid block of steel which is 4X4" by 5" long. All of your comments relating to how big of a job this is really struck home when I picked that sucker up!
That block weighs a hefty 23 1/2 pounds!

The design of the proposed hammer was cropped and made much smaller when I swung a conventional 8 lb sledge hammer around for a while........gets you tired after just a bit!

I'm thinking now that best way to do this is to start with the round stock and cut it into the rough shape using a saw or torch.
It will probably be easier to drill the eye hole and then drift it open larger to bulge it out.

After that, I'll heat it up in the forge and beat on it to flatten out any sharp edges and give it a more rounded appearance.
This hopefully will also disguise the fact that I "cheated" by cutting it into shape rather than forging it

As always, I'm open to any comments and suggestions you more experienced smiths choose to share with me regarding my plan of action.

And thanks a lot....you have all been a big help

Iain

Hello again!

You guys are giving me some very good reasons as to why I shouldn't make such a huge hammer.
The reasons why I gave the weights I did is because my Jedi-Viking friend said that it *should* be between 9-13 lbs.
My black smithing experience is quite limited, and after reading your comments I have a feeling that reality differs (more than I am aware) than the forging that happens in little smithy operating in my head


It will depend a lot on what kind of materials I can scrounge if I don't use that chunk of 1" welded plate steel. I really like the idea of drilling a hole through a solid chunk of square/round stock.

Eddie, when you say "blow an eye in it" are you talking about using an air carbon arc machine?


Anyways, I have my class tonight, and I will discuss what you all have explained to me with my instructor, and see what happens.

I have much more to write, but I'm getting booted off the computer here :mad:

Thanks so much!

Iain

Hey Fellas

There's some great advice here....Thanks!

Steve Sells, do you have any pictures of your hammers?

This hammer needs to be the real deal, and I know it sounds crazy, but he's basically a modern-day Jedi who rides a Harley.
This is a perfect opportunity to further my knowledge of smithing and make a good friend very happy at the same time.

I don't remember seeing any large round stock at my school, but I will talk to my instructor and ask if there's anything hidden away in the scrap pile.

But seriously, is it *really* that difficult to sandwich one flat piece to another?
I know that it's tricky and requires skill, so I'm willing to bust my butt if I end up learning something!

In our shop we have all manner of industrial metal cutters, a power hammer, welders and a forge that gets near nuclear temperatures, and my teacher who has been smithing for quite a while is there to guide us with whatever projects we're doing.
I'm thinking that my chances at success are pretty good, but it never hurts to ask around

If worse comes to worse, I'll just bevel those plates on the track machine, arc weld a bunch of filler in the beveled groove and then pound it into submission.

Seriously fellas....I really like the input I've gotten from you all and it's no doubt going to be very helpful in the long run.

Take care, and I'll keep you posted.

Iain

Hey all

I have a good friend who is very much a practitioner of the old Norse religion of Odin and Thor.
I recently discovered that the hammer he uses for ceremonial purposes is just a regular 5# sledge you would buy at Home Depot!

Since I started my smithing class, and have access to a real hot forge/power hammer, I figured that he needs to have something more suitable

After asking him about it, he says that I should just forge whatever design I am able, but the ideal weight will be somewhere between 9 and 13 lbs.

The easiest way I see is to get a chunk of steel, pound it into hammer shape, and then punch a hole in the center

My only concern is where do I get a block of steel that big?

I do have a welding practice piece made from 2 hefty 4" x 6" chunks of 1" plate welded together down the center with a backing strip behind it.

I was thinking that I could use the industrial cutter at school to chop it up, stack the chunks and start pounding away at it with the power hammer, perhaps adding more plate steel to add mass as needed.

That's my plan.....

I welcome any thoughts, comments, suggestions

Let me know if my idea is on the right track, or poke it full of holes and let me know where I am going wrong.

Thanks

Iain

I have an opinion on this topic that not many have. Most people tell young people to find what you love and do it. I say, do something you like that supports what you love. If you do what you love it becomes work. Everyone I know that ‘does what they love’ has mixed feelings as you have expressed. It is not so much doing it everyday. It is the having to do it everyday to survive. It is the dealing with clients on the mundane. It is the never having time to fulfill your own dreams because you are trying so hard to fulfill someone else’s.

Winston, I agree with you wholeheartedly, and I did exactly that.

I went to the local Community College and took an AWS welding certification course. When people asked me why I chose welding, I told them that it's the closest thing to blacksmithing that is (supposedly) still in high demand.
I like welding, but I don't yearn for it as I do for pounding iron, leather work, or making powder horns.

Welding pays a decent wage, which hopefully will be enough to maintain my family's lifestyle, and hopefully improve it. With the family financial situation taken care of, I can go ahead and do what I want in my free time.

Blacksmithing combined with my other crafts are a way to have a lot of fun making the things I want or need instead of buying them, and having the satisfaction of knowing you made it yourself!
Plus there's the added bonus of people checking out your wares and asking "How much do ya want for it?"
I love having hobbies that tend to fund themselves :-)

Excellent topic!

Iain

Hey all, thanks for the words of encouragement and advice.

I did go and update my information so those of you who want to know my location, there it is!

The more that I think about having the facilities to forge metal, and a seasoned professional to help guide the way, there are so many tools and utilitarian things that I have wanted over the years that I can make instead of buy.

Case in point....I recently got a Shopsmith E and have been doing a lot of wood turning with whatever wood chisels I had laying around. They work okay, but I know that proper turning chisels are going to make life a lot easier.

Now I can use those old railroad spikes I've had laying around operating on the notion that if they make good knives, they will also make good chisels? and hammer them into something I will use often.
Saves me $50-100 that I might spend on any decent set that doesn't come from China.

Thanks again for the responses

Iain

My arm is sore and I woke up from a dream where I was using a drift to make an axe head.
I came home to show my wife the fireplace poker I had made and she was less than enthused.....even though she mentioned that we should get one!

I've had the bug for quite some time, but to suddenly be in a shop where the forge is alight and the tools are just sitting there waiting to be used.....needless to say I was quite enthusiastic during the entire 4 hour session.

Our teacher definitely seems as though he has been smithing and welding for quite some time, and showed us the proper technique for putting a point and taper on some 3/8" square stock.
The assignment was to make a coat hook, but I did a fireplace poker instead.
I think next week I will try for some chisels to use with my lathe.

There are far too many things I want to make now, and am fighting the urge to go out and start buying up tools to set up a smithy here in my yard.

Is there anyone in the Portland, Oregon metro area who would like an enthusiastic helper from time to time?


Anyways.....take care everyone

Iain

Wow....definitely sounds like a book I should look into getting

thanks for the heads up

Hey fellas, thanks for the warm welcome

The framing hammer idea comes in from looking at a collection of tools from an 18th century British naval carpenter. It basically looked like a mini sledge hammer with claws on one side.....It'll take some practice, but I'll get it eventually.

There is a local historical site not too far from my house where I can volunteer.
The great thing is that they have a fully functional reconstruction of the blacksmith shop that was there, complete with swage blocks, post vises, a few anvils, this huge metal cone with a groove running down one side, every sort of hammer you can think of and a huge brick forge with the gigantic double stage bellows mounted on either side.
It seriously is a wonderful place for a smithy.

The problem where I live is that the neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate hearing "tink tink tink tink" for hours on end, so volunteering there is I think my best option.
It's also great so that I can figure out what tools are used most for the type of things I plan to make.

Thanks again

Iain

Hey all

I'm Iain aka Brasilikilt, 30 years old and living in Portland, Oregon.

First of all, I've had a love of history and old tools/weapons ever since I can remember.
As a result I have become a reenactor/craftsman who has settled on the 18th-mid 19th century time frame.

Right now I primarily make powder horns and do leather work such as shooting bags, sporrans, knife sheaths and Scottish targes.
I have also been known to refurbish old knives.

I am currently enrolled in a welding tech course because it's the closest decent paying vocation to blacksmithing.

I've only pounded iron (on a proper setup) a few times, but have done lots of tiny items such as forging powder horn staples, making nails etc with a propane torch and a RR track anvil.

I would like to step it up a few notches and eventually build a portable setup so that I may pound iron at rendezvous and other historical events.

It seems like everyone nowadays comes into this trade wanting to forge knives. I love knives and want to make them, but I would like to start by making more mundane utilitarian items such as nails, hinges, and hopefully forge my own framing hammer.

I know I can be rather long winded, but if you've made it this far thanks for reading and I hope to chat with you more.

Iain