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I Forge Iron

Volodymyr

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    volodymyr.metlyakov

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  1. Hello, thank you for such an elaborate answer. This is all very helpful, appreciate it.
  2. Good point! My 10y.o. son is showing interest in blacksmithing, so it's a perfect timing for me to develop my skills and teach him how to do it right from the beginnig, especially if his interest is sustainable.
  3. Thanks, I will pay more attention to elbows movement. Didn't think about them before
  4. that's a great way to find out the height, thanks like suggested in another thread from the link above, I find it comfortable a bit higher, more like a wrist high. I will try a plywood method to find out if its true.
  5. Thanks for the reply. Does this mean I have to exclude my wrist from the end of the move? I tried so with some big sledge, but I feel like I am imitating a power hammer, and excluding the wrist, lose an impact and blow energy. With smaller hammer it was quite ineffective.
  6. Thanks everyone for help. I filmed the process and it looks like the hammer handle is not always fully parallel to the anvil surface during landing, tilted, even though the anvil is a bit higher than knuckles-height. I will try to set the anvil even a bit higher and see what it changes. I've already done a few dozen of hooks, s-hooks, fire pokers, and some other small beginners projects, and developed some sort of feeling of hot metal and hammering technique. But that's only the beginning and I want to have the technique right on early stages, so wrong moves are not learned and later difficult to change. Like you said, it's in many details that makes the final shape right or wrong. But sometimes frustrating when you don''t know what exactly is wrong, and therefore cannot fix it. that's exactly what I am going to do - make myself a present and buy Mark Asprey's books. the problem is not exactly with reducing square stock square - I didn't do that often - it's just an example. I noticed this when making shoulders (half-faced blows at the near edge of the anvil), and the reduced part was unevenly spread. Further analysing showed that the problem is more general and shows up in more situations, and I was just correcting it instead of making the move right from the beginning.
  7. thanks! looking at youtube videos, it creates a sense that it is possible to do right just by moving it right, rather then doing corrections. Having said that, I understand that those ppl have years of practice.
  8. The problem manifests itself more or less, but always in the same direction. I could not even deliberately make the parallelogram the other way, except when swinging the hammer with my left hand
  9. Hi everyone! another rookie question here, that has probably been asked, but I have found very little on 'parallelogram, rhombus' etc. keywords, and that haven't really solved my problem. Please read it to the end to see what I have already tried. I strongly believe that hammering technique is of utmost importance to learn early, and only a good practice makes it perfect, not just any practice. I am a 'youtube-learning' blacksmith (I don't think that nowadays anyone is really 'self-tought'), and have no one nearby to ask. My problem is with a cross section turning into a parallelogram, instead of rectangular, when flattening a square bar, when working in classic standard position - piece of work is closer to parallel to the body (90 degrees to the sight direction). At first I thought the problem is easy, and I have only to tilt the hammer, put the anvil higher, etc. But all that did not help. The parralelogramish shape is more or less there, no matter what I do. If I tilt the hammer so the heel is closer to the anvil when landing the hammer (or 'anvil higher' position), I get what is on pictures (it's a cold-splashed square bar but it is the same with hot). If I try to land it as much parallel on the surface as I can, it's just a parralelogram, and when the tip of the hammer face is closer to the anvil ('low anvil' position), the parallelogram is even worse. The piece is flat on the face of the anvil, so there is no angle that could cause the problem. I think there is an inevitable lateral move of the hammer towards myself, due to the arc nature of the swing. And this move causes top layer of metal to move, creating such a shape. I tried to compensate it by moving the hammer from myself in the end of the move, with little or no effect, not to mention it looks weird. And the question is - how do you prevent such a situation? What technique do you use to land the hammer ideal flat on the stock? Any compensattion moves? I know how to fix the parallelogram and that's what I am doing now, but I believe there must be a technique to prevent it in the first place. I get more or less even metal spread only in 2 cases: - when I put a piece 90 degrees to the body, i.e. alongside the sight direction, and hammer it so the hammer handle is parallel to the stock.This is quite awkward position; - when I land something ridiculously heavy on the stock, like 12-lb sledge, without swinging it i.e. there is no 'arc' part of move; this was just for experiment, of course. Any help or suggestion is highly appreciated, I am already desperate to find the answer myself. Thanks!
  10. it looks simple and effective, how do you find it after some years of use?
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