Shane Stegmeier

Steam has more bang, because it is HOT and expands into the space inside the cyclinder a bit more vigorously. Everything else being equal. The limiting factors for any type of air or steam hammer are how much free air/steam you can pump through the system to the hammer. (To be honest my little 75# air hammer could use a small 75-100 CFM rotory screw compress to good advantage, if I had my Johnson trough forge hooked up... ;-) A freind of mine has a 650# hammer set up to run on a 350-375CFM compressor (It looke like a 1.5 ton utility body on running gear, I think it could also throw his 1500# hammer...) A hammer designed to run on a 3" steam line, is going to require a HUGE amount of compressed air... To set one of these thing up to run on air, you need a big rotory screw compressor, a big air reciever with a pressure relief valve, big pipe running to the hammer, and then a big filter/regulator/oiler and then ideally a big muffler vented to the outside of the building...

Colleen do clients come in to your house? I almost always regret cutting corners on the stuff I do for around the farm, and if you do have clients who INSIST on meeting you at the house and seeing your shop, it is very nice to have work that you a really proud of just sitting around under a pile of dirty cloths and your kid's toys... ;-) My ultimate goal is to have my house and my shop speak so eloquently about the quality of my work that I don't need to sell my self at all. (I like talking passionately about blacksmithing, but I find selfpromotion and "marketing" to be less appealing...) But that really is my goal, to have my shop full of beatiful tools most of which I made myself, and show off my attention to detail, and my forging skill it would be great if it was clean and well organized to... ;-) I tend to think how you get there is almost as important as what it looks like when you are done, (probably a part of why blacksmithing isn't as profitable as it could be for me;-) ADHD with a little OCD just to make things interesting;-) It's funny how cliche' proverbs like: Always do your best, Honesty is the best policy, and Confession is good for the soul;-) are actually good start on doing business well. As usual I take a detour down a philosophical rabbit hole;-) sorry...

Was the first door latch forged out of a rasp? I couldn't tell from the pic, but it looked kinda like there was some texture on the handle. I use my old shoeing rasps to make door handles and all kinds of things. Its nice when you can have your own work in and around the farm (unless I have a pair of hinges made that will work, my wife doesn't want to wait for me to make a pair for what we are doing...;-)

I would suggest an air needle descaler, and a honking big welder, with some honking big rods...

Judging from the pics all the peices are cut from one rasp, and then formed and fabricated, clean and quick... It also looks like the rowels are not sandwhiched on the shanks, but riveted on one side... ?

If you are charging enough for them, this "downsizing" just might be a gift from God to do something you really enjoy, and make a living from it. Every cloud has a silver lining, sometimes it is hard to see while you are all wet, but keep looking for opportunities to turn your trials into blessings. Nice clean work by the way;-)

In many industrial applications they use multiple types of refactory. Hard refactory for durability, (and sometimes as a heat sink to help smooth out forge temps when loaded with cold steel, the hard refactory will keep the forge hot enough to be efficient in combustion.) Softer reflective refactory to prevent heat transfer. Making sure the BTU's go into the forge chamber, and not bleed into the forge and the whole surrounding area just makes sense. Dragon's breath is one thing but having the whole forge radiating heat that you don't want to get close to is another. The ramable materials is good stuff, I redid the bottom of my Mankel blown horseshoers forge with it and it does hold up exceptionally well. Frosty sounds like he has an excellent design too.

If given a choice between drawing by hand and on an air hammer, I will generally choose the air hammer;-) I do draw material by hand at demos and when my hammer is down, but I don't enjoy working that hard, unless I am "in the flow." Better technic might make that "effortless" feeling a little more common...

Subjectively I do know that using more agressive technics is more efficient, and I try to use them when I need to (ie I don't have a power hammer handy;-) I use them regularly for forging figure heads and finials, but I hate drawing... I will also admit that aestheticly I don't like the very agressive techinics, so I understand others having issues with them. It' not pretty and it does take practice to get to the point where you don't end up with annoying thin spots. Alwin if you are doing mostly traditional type work and don't have a power hammer in the shop I certainly understand wanting to use the most efficient methods. Most people would want to use what is most effective, in this way and a few others I am hampered by my sense of aesthetics (completely irrational I know...) BUt since my power hammer is down, I may be forced to experiment with using the edge of the hammer, or get better at using the edge of the anvil. (and yes I have seen some of the really extraordinary smiths that use these technics so effectively, but I have not had the patience to see the efficiency over the ragged appearance of the steel in process...)

Small hammers are safer to learn with, most people should use a 2# or less to start with. I like ball peins, and rounding hammers, and use them regularly, but my main forging hammer is a 2# square faced Tom Clark hammer. A square faced hammer gives you more options, and it is easier to forge an even shoulder, and use the edges of the hammer to fuller. If you get to see Brian Brazeal forge a 3D horse head in 2" square stock, you will understand the benifits of being able to use the edge of the hammer. Use what you can find until you can make, reforge, or buy better. You will find what works for you. Once you get some experience, and interact with other well trained experienced smiths, you will get a better idea of what you want out of your hammers. As far as tongs, there are a lot of projects you don't need tongs for. For beginners it is often easier to hold on to a longer piece of steel that you can hold with your hand, rather than use a shorter peice of steel that you need to hold with tongs. Tongs are realitively easy to forge, and it is nice to use tools that you made yourself. Once you get good at it, you will likely not want to use other peoples tongs (I know I don't ;-) It is nice to make tools you can be proud of. Learn good technique and form when you are starting out, and it will pay dividends in longevity, and skill.

Another diversion from the main line of thought... John just how much money would have to fall into my lap to be able to afford a brand new Massey??? Just in case;-)

Vanadium gives resistance to twists and shearing... "torsion" they should be good for turning forks, scrolling wrenches, and lots of other tooling type uses. If I remember correctly (always a dubious option;-) one of the guy's who is artist in residence; it was either David at Pennland, or Peter at??? Anyway he was selling nascar torsion bars because they are great steel and they use them once or twice and ditch them for safety reasons. He even had spec sheets on them, with working and heat treat info on them. He was making al kinds of tooling out of them, hot cuts, drifts, what ever... Just so you know S7 doesn't make a very good turning fork;-) I would try the torsion bars, because of the vanadium in the alloy

Thanks Jr.:-) I was over at my inlaws with the digital camcorder and used the sub-megapix still camera built in to the camcorder(quick and dirty the files are small enough you can post them directly to the web;-). Great optics on it, but if you aren't in SUNLIGHT, or have good bounce lighting you can't take a decent picture. And since I was baby wrestling while I was using the broadband connection, I didn't bother to try and photoshop the pics at all... I was lucky to get the descriptions right;-)

I have been trying to forge a decent horse head, and came up with these two different styles, based on Hugh MacDonald's flat horse head, and part of an article from Anvil Magazine, on Brian Brazeal's horse heads. Brian does an awesome horse head, 2"square stock, an 8# hammer and 20 minutes, he squirts the material fast enough it is really hard to follow just what he did ;-) I have seen the demo probably 3 or 4 times, and still don't know how he does it exactly. But I hear that he is selling a DVD of the process... Brian is an awesome smith. Here are what I have been experimenting with;-) the wider ones are 3/16 x 1 1/2, and the thicker one that looks like the Bronco's logo is 1/2 x3/4

Here are some flat dog hooks that I forged, I also forge them out of square but didn't bring any with me to shoot pics of. It is fun to see how things look in different sized stock, the thicker stock is a bit more work but give you a very neat look. The painted ones are 3/16" x 1", and the thicker wire brushed ones are 1/2" x 3/4". I need to make some golden retriever headed hooks as a thankyou gift for a dog breeder.

This is a blade that I did as a test piece before doing a two handed sword for a freind of mine's son's wedding. (I don't normally do swords, but he is a good freind;-) The spine wiggles back and forth a bit, and the grind is far from perfect, and the fit and finish leave a lot to be desired, but it was a test peice. To work out the issues and see if I could do it. I did get the heat treat on it pretty good, I was whacking a 6" diameter axil forging with the blade, and it was leaving pleasantly deep nicks in the steel, and didn't crush or crack the edge. The blade is 35.5" long it does have a distal taper, but I was in a hurry when I hilted it for my father-in-law for Christmas... (He had asked what I was going to do with it cause it sat around in my shop for a few years, till he hinted it would make a nice Christmas present;-) So the balance is a bit blade heavy, and the grind is a bit rough, but it is FORGED to shape. I was testing some dies for forging a diamond cross section into a blade on the power hammer, (it is a hoot to chase the blade through them and try to keep it all going straight;-) To the knifemakers out there it is quite obvious I am a blacksmith, most of you would never show this to anyone, but would use a chop saw on it and weld it into a billet;-) Now a days I hate fit and finish, mainly because it takes me forever and I never have enough time, and it still doesn't come out as nice as I would like. BUT despite all that I do like this blade, and enjoyed forging it atleast... It was a nice blade to whack things with;-) "There's never enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them..."

LOL ;-) Atleast he spelled your name right, most of the time they end up misspelling my name, that is if I even get acknowledged in the photos. One article I was in I think they misspelled my name three different ways, and then they didn't even wait to get a picture of the spiffy thing I was making. I suppose carrying a stack of business cards might help with that... ;-)

Photojournalists seem to have a much easier time getting a interesting photo, than they do actually describing accurately what is going on in the picture... That was a great idea Hollis incorporating fireplace tools into that railing... ;-) You got to appreciate the exposure, but you got to hate the misrepresentation of the details about something you are so passionate about. But as they say, there is no such thing as "bad" publicity;-)

If you are making hardies on a good sized power hammer (one with some daylight between the dies), or even with a sledge, you can make a sleeve out of something fairly heavy like 1/2" stock, that is longer than the bit on the hardy. Then you can use the top sleeve to set the shoulder of the hardy with the power hammer against a bolster block, either resting on the anvil if you have enough daylight, or replacing the bottom die if you can't squeeze it in any other way. To make a bolster block requires a bit of tooling up but it can be sized to fit whatever hardy hole you need, but you can make as many hardies as you want easily that way. If you make them with a sledge you can set it in the hardy hole of the anvil. A lot of guys make hardies and don't set them down nice, or they leave the top unforged to set the shoulder down first then forge the bit out. If you have larger stock to start with and can butcher to isolate the stem from the bit leaving a boss in the middle to be the shoulder, you can use your material more efficiently and get more hardies out of the same amount of stock, and not have issues forging out the bit from a short fat amount of stock. Clifton Ralph, Kurt Farenbach, and Steve Parker demonstated flat die power hammer forging at the Indiana Blacksmiths Association Tipton Confrence in 07, Great demo. Clifton showed a sleave for setting down the shoulders on hardies.

For a short upset light fast blows will upset just the end so making a header with a hand held air hammer is ideal. You can do it on a press, or on the power hammer, just depends on how you want the end product to look, and how much time you can spend to get the results you want. I'm surprised that ptree didn't suggest the correct tool for this job a 3" Atlas upsetter... ;-) (inside industrial joke;-)

A flypress is good for a very precise application of great force with a nice "feel". They are used on hot or cold metal for bending, cutting, punching, and incising. They are quiet and you have the ability to gauge how the job is going by holding on to the handle when you give the work "the bump". The tooling is generally clamped in the ram, and on the work table, which allows for very precise alignment. With a large enough press and well designed, and well made tooling there are a lot of opperations that are normally done hot, which can be done cold with a flypress. A flypress focus's on a very small area generally, and moves that small amount of steel. To get much out of a flypress you need to make or buy tooling for every type of opperation that you want to do. So tooling up can take a little time, but once made the results are very repeatable. A power hammer is loud and can work all day long, and is generally really good at drawing material out, because of how fast it runs it moves alot of steel. Different dies can be made or bought that can forge specific profiles and shapes. With one or two dies on a power hammer you can do a great deal of work, but it takes a bit of skill and experience to repeat that over and over. To get the most use out of a power hammer you will need to make or buy tooling, but most hammers do not have the same level of control that a flypress has in this area. With good control and/or properly designed tooling you can do precise work with a power hammer, but some are illmannered beasts;-) Generally the learning curve with a power hammer is a bit steeper than with a flypress (IMHO;-) If you want to draw out damascus billets than you probably don't want a flypress. The fly press can do it, but it is not the most efficient or cost effective tool for that job, a nice fast running mechanical hammer probably is. If you want to do very precise bends, punch holes, incise lines, matte down areas, and some embossing then a flypress might fit the bill. If you mainly want to draw material out get a mechanical hammer. If you really need precision then you probably want a flypress. If you want the best of both you want an air hammer, either a self contained or a utility (kinyon style). Generally a power hammer is more versitle and a better investment, but a flypress is a great addition to most shops. And sadly I want several of each... ;-)

It sounds like you have it designed to manually switch the flow from down to up, and the same force that is driving the 13,000# head up is finishing opening the valve for the hammer driver. You need a control circuit that allows the actuator arm to control how open the valve is but is not physically linked to the valve. Beyond that i am not much help... Hope this gives you enough info to look for the right answer.

Wrought iron especially wrought of dubious quality should be worked at or near welding heat for many opperations. If it is heavily pitted you can have some problems with rust infiltrating the fibers of the wrought, and then the best thing to do is to reconsolidate the wrought (ie, forgeweld the material back into a big fat billet, working at a high welding heat and then draw the material back out to the size you need.) It can be a pain, but it is one of the limitations of the material and what would have been done in period. You see this kinda thing in wagon tires fairly often, which I have heard characterized as muckbar, or single refined wrought. I have found bubbles where I assume water has infiltrated the structure and frozen causeing the fibers to seperate. I saw a beautiful Armitage Mousehole anvil 277# that had a huge chip out of the face and the face around it was delaminated, I assume it had fallen over into the mud and frozen breaking the face. (of course it could have been some bubba with a 16# hammer and a wild swing, but that was really the only damage to the face other than some serious rust pitting...) I have also heard people tell me that wrought twists oddly at the best of circumstances, haven't any experience with that but I remember someone complaining about it. Try working at a welding heat, pull it out at a light sparking heat and by the time you get it clamped in the vice and ready to twist it will be a bright yellow, and should be fine (if it is going to be... ;-)

Small flat dies, sized for the hammer 2x4 for a 25# are large enough to be useful and small enough on the short side that you are not ALWAYS biting off more than you can chew with a little hammer. (I have 3x5s on a 75# utility still air hammer, and I need to make smaller flat dies for more aggressive drawing... Volume, Area, Resistance, and Power, if you learn the proper relationships between them it makes life much more fun... ;-) And of course the fixture to hold the spring fullers, swages, and taper blocks that really make flat dies rock. Bigger flat dies, that you can throw some furniture on to do some longer bends and shaping, you will still need to focus the energy of a small hammer to be effective, but having bigger dies gives you more options (operations like making the same bend in 20 pairs of bolt tongs...) Crown dies, because they are fun, and you can squirt the metal anywhich way you like. The flat center dies that ptree described, a little more aggressive draw then just flat dies, but still flat in the middle for straightening, not great for top tooling or using paddles... Combo dies can be useful in a limited sort of way, but on a small hammer you are better off with dedicated dies: flat dies with tooling, soft drawing, hard drawing, crown...

If you have the track bolts... Do you have another barrel with track pins around 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" diameter, and how old?? The ones from the mid 80s or later are supposed to be case hardened. Before that they are supposed to be 1045 steel, and are excellent for making hammer heads out of, because they are nice and tough and can be water quenched.