Alan Evans

Best of luck with the op. OP.

When I was a lad I had a couple of hernia operations, one at 8 and one at 9. All the other kids in the ward were in for tonsillectomies and they were all being fed jelly and ice cream after their ops. I was the only one on boiled cabbage and swede...can you imagine the cruelty!

Alan

Sorry it was me that introduced the notion of tingle…bad choice of words…but I don't think white finger is an issue here. The OP only referred to soreness, and I think that is just from unaccustomed usage rather than anything more sinister. This was from a few minutes and sessions of work not extended bouts.

Alan

A matched pair is more straightforward in use 'tis true. The dynamic of the moving and fixed tools and the fact that you rest the workpiece on the bottom tool which chills the underside so it moves less than the top would be slightly exaggerated with the set up as it is... but by no means unusable.

As it is for bladesmithing rather than general purpose I can see the advantage of the shallower radius not being so aggressive. Certainly less liable to get a undersize bit from an extra blow.  Though I think what I said holds true…with a little bit of practice and you would be more efficient at drawing the blades out….there is not much point getting them out faster if you have to reject any for having a dimple.

I would still be inclined to spend the time getting the hammer set up and running first... do all your getting used to the machine with the existing tools…as you said, it was working fine when you bought it…then you are in a much better position to refine the tool profiles with the knowledge acquired first hand from your own hammer.

Well, you asked for opinions!

Alan

Given your answers I would say it is just your body getting used to a new action. It will quickly become accustomed to it and you won't notice the tingle after a while. The extra muscles in your fingers which are necessary for the process will quickly develop and strengthen.

Little and often rather, than an intense 8 hour shift will make it less problematic.

Enjoy the new sensations while they last!

Alan

How old are you? Nearest decade will do…and have you done much physical work before? My hand has gone in to a claw more often since passing 55...

What size of stock were you hitting each time?

How heavy was the hammer you used at the conference…8lbs sounds a bit light to me.

Alan

Why on earth are you altering the profile of your dies before you have even tried them as they are?

Why are they not to your liking?

Why do you consider the profile of the other dies you showed preferable? 

What are you going to be doing with your hammer that makes the distinction between these tool profiles?

The bolted shallow fullers are much less efficient and capable than the originals. The bolted system restricts your options for shouldered spreads from the end for a start. True they may help a beginner to achieve a smoother more regular surface, but a few days practise will enable you to achieve the same and a lot quicker with the smaller radius tools…

Those new tools are also too sharp on the edges for the spreading transition as shown.

If it helps to save you some unnecessary work…I worked for the best part of ten years as a full time professional with a pair of pallets the same profile as the top tool you have in the hammer. I used a drop on flat table which located on the bottom tool and gave me the opportunity to do offset forms…keeping the back flat and fullering in from one side. A very versatile combination of forms. Subsequent years I bought other larger hammers and started working with flat pallets which is quite another vocabulary, but for a direct forging hammer I found the tools were ideal.

If you find the tools as they are are not ideal for your particular work then that would be the time to alter them. I would certainly be looking to match the top tool rather than the bottom tool radius though. The combination of radii as you have them will tend to give you banana shapes. The top will move more than the bottom, but turning 180˚ on the next pass will equalise.

Alan

Very true…though some else said it is all bunk!

Being able to relate directly to people from a bygone time is very valuable I agree.

I have always loved studying dry stone field walls…They are like time recorders. Especially the ones that have been repaired with old bedsteads and bits of junk kicking around. You just know the guy had managed to get the animals back in through the breach and his kid was keeping them in the field while he rushed off to find something to fill the gap….fully intending to rebuild the wall one day!

I had a powerful experience of this not far from you Thomas (relatively). Lesley and I were travelling around after the Saint Louis Obispo ABANA conference and were on route to visit Tom Joyce in Sante Fe. We flew to Flagstaff and hired a car with the idea of seeing the Grand Canyon and then driving over to Tom's. When we picked up the car the new-fangled automatic seat belt system caught us out and knocked Lesley's glasses off! Bit of a disaster to have smashed glasses on the eve of a sightseeing trip….Next morning we found a friendly optical guy in yellow pages who said bring the broken bits over, leave them with me and come back midday! Brilliant service on a Saturday!

We went off to look at Walnut Canyon. We spent the morning clambering along the rock ledges of the Sinagua tribe dwellings. Which, as I am sure you know, were made by piling up river stones between the eroded layers of the canyon walls and filling in the gaps with mud. As I crawled into one of these out of the bright sunlight, I was feeling my way along the wall when my hand slid into the hand print left in the mud by the guy parging the wall a few hundred years before…talk about frisson of emotions and tingle of times past!

Alan

I went there on a school trip in the fifties. Especially memorable because despite all the warning signs, I stuck my head out the window of the train and got a lump of grit from the steam loco in my eye. Yes it was a Steam Loco in general service. Don't remember much about the buildings from that trip. White walls and blue slate roofs mainly....

The Petersen family did a stint of working the forge for some years.

I visited a couple of years ago and it has grown with many much younger buildings....there were even some from only a couple of hundred years ago.

Alan

The smith I trained with had a half barrel for a quench tub. I can still see in my minds eye the burnt notches in the oak around the rim.

I have used garlic oil perls successfully to keep midges away in this country. Twenty years ago, we were glad of the effect of RID (neat Deet!) when visiting Kakadu in the Northern Territory though. Different league of biting things there I think.

Eat garlic and get a wide circle of friends....as the saying goes...I eat a couple of slices of wholemeal bread version of bruschetta for lunch every day, plus the garlic in cooking...what midge (or friend) would dare come near!

Alan

Without embroidering the thread too much, I think that the visual puns and the humour are central to Andrews work.

The educational value is brilliant. A great dialogue. For anybody who mucks around with machinery they can find an "in" into art and sculpture by recognising the components. And for non practical / non mechanically minded people it gives an insight in to the beauties inherent in the built and manufactured environment…great precedents from Arcimboldo through Julio Gonzalez, Picasso and David Smith.

I find Andrew's mastery of the medium, and his ability to capture the spirit and character of the subject is a joy to behold.

Ha! I bet my pretentious waffle had you all in stitches!

Alan

Yes of course, don't you?….With 316 stainless especially if wanting to drill or machine afterward. Copper I also quench to maximise softness when annealing and then sometimes to get the colours for patination.

All metals I chuck in the tub when they get too hot to hold, usually I manage to hold on to the coldest end and cool my forearm as well. Sometimes I let go!

Alan

Do you have one for copper and stainless?

Alan

That is what I done did. 

Didn't bother to taper the eye though. Tapered the handle a bit and pushed it through with a bit poking out the other side. It was fixed with a saw cut and wedge.

Alan

Now, now. That is just flannel...

But I agree, seams a nice job.

Alan

I bought good "sets" of industrial standard HSS jobber drills from Dormer and Presto…which gave me one of everything in a handy metal container. Then I reckoned to just use 1/8" 3/16" 1/4" for general pilot hole drilling so I did not have to buy replacement boxes of ten of everything to start with. Just lack of finance dictating good house-keeping when starting out. The metal containers are still going strong after forty years.

http://www.presto-tools.co.uk/en/categories/twist-drills

Presto do a resonable selection including armour piercing...

My brother in law bought one of the imported multi drill bit cheap sets from a travelling tool dealer and complained that they would not cut very well. When I had a look I discovered that they had been sharpened by hand before the TiN coating and many of them had the cutting angle in reverse! A right hand twist bit with a left hand edge...I could not believe it! The cheap 50 piece set cost £10 which is less than one decent 1/2" Presto / Dormer bit though!

Alan

A mesh tray with a couple of uprights or a hoop over handle will lift any small things out that get dropped in...

Alan

Minutes. Reckit and Coleman made Zeebrite. Last lot I bought was a couple of years go and could have been old stock.

Alan

Before I mixed my own up (both the base Renaissance wax and the graphite mix) I would buy Zeebrite grate black and then thin it down with white spirit to a paint brushable consistency. Thinner the better. It takes for ever to apply to a rough surface otherwise.

Alan

Have you seen those wand style induction heaters for the motor trade? Specifically for heating up seized nuts. Take the heater to the job rather than the other way around.

Alan

Is that cuffed to bits, or chuffed round the ear?

Alan

I am facing much the same. I am reckoning on a phase converter for the smaller motors and a three phase generator for the big motors and the welders. The induction heater ( if I get a project that will pay for it) would be run off the generator as well.

Alan

I must admit I can be pretty bad at communication with my clients. I try and keep them posted as to progress, but on the smaller more personal projects, especially if I am struggling for inspiration, I put off letting them know the bad news of delays.

I have no problem letting them know if it is going well!

I thought in this particular instance though, the original delivery was reckoned six weeks after construction and delivery was expected end of October-ish so it has not slipped that far yet....I wish the project I am currently blocked on was only that late.

I also recognised the similarity between my approach and them wanting to wait for good conditions to produce a better quality job. I always stress when I am faced with a deadline/penalty clause in a contract, that it is far better for every one to have a piece that "sings" a few weeks late rather than a "so so" piece on time.

But then again,  I am trying to create an one off art work rather than one of a series from a production line.

The poor paint job on my Bobcat digger is a case in point though. That was a machine from a major manufacturer made in 1999 and when the paint layers came off you could see the superficial swirls of an abrasive pad just in the centre of the panel with no keying or cleaning up around the perimeter so the edges just lifted after a few years. If they had been as concerned about the quality and longevity of their finish as these hammer makers appear to be I would be a lot happier.

Alan

I guess you are both glass half empty guys...excuse after excuse?

I would  be thankful they realise the limitations of their spraying facilities in overcoming ambient atmospheric conditions. I wish whoever made my Bobcat 360 digger had done so before they bodged the paint job on that. It has peeled away in sheets....pathetic in this day and age.

Alan

Do you mean hard metals like steel and cast iron as opposed to soft metals like copper and aluminium?

In the UK Presto or Dormer make good quality high speed steel drills in sets which will cope with most mild and stainless steels and all of the soft non ferrous metals. Don't buy the cheap TiN coated sets, however many bits they contain.

Forty years ago I bought  a set of imperial and later a set of metric. Still going strong like Grandad's axe...five new handles and two new heads . ...... I then buy replacements in boxes of tens to restock the "working set".

If you are looking to drill harder materials I would buy as required for the specific material and project....a full set of cobalt or solid carbide would be fairly costly.

The most important thing to do though is learn how to sharpen them. Seconds to do...minutes to learn... and hours saved... using sharp drills. You can even modify the angles to suit the material.

Alan 

I have put my fans into plywood boxes to reduce the noise...a good option if you cannot or do not want to put it outside. I first saw the ones Peter Parkinson made to house the fans in the forge at Farnham Art School. They had eight or a dozen hearths going at a time and the row was awful until he boxed them.

The boxes I made were from 20mm (3/4") plywood. The fans are mounted on the bottom board and the box dropped over. The outlet pipe has a notional seal to the box, and the inlet is a slot in the bottom of one of the sides. The slot delivers into an internal flue which acts as a noise baffle. The slot and flue cross sections are around 1 1/2 to 2 times the area of the fan inlet.

i have a fractional horsepower single phase fan in one and a 1+hp three phase one in another.

Great improvement to the working environment. I thoroughly recommend them.

Alan