brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Here is a handy tool that George Dunajski told me about a year ago that I just got around making. I wish I would have had this years ago! It is just a plate that pivots on a bolt that goes in the pritchel hole with different size holes that are centered over the hardy hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 That is great! I was considering designing something like that for slitting and drifting... Now all I have to do is copy yours! By the way, How thick is the plate? I was going to use 1/2" Thanks Brian! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick L. Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Another great idea shared among smiths ! I will make one of these for sure. Being a bigger table then the anvil face it will also provide more support. Thanks for sharing ! Dick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 That is great! I was considering designing something like that for slitting and drifting... Now all I have to do is copy yours! By the way, How thick is the plate? I was going to use 1/2" Thanks Brian! This one is made from 1/2" X 6" plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweany Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 very artistic tool! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unkle spike Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Now that is Slick, thanks for sharing that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John NC Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Man, that's a real forehead slapper! I now have something to make on Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryce Masuk Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 Nice setup, Are all your hammers handmade? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 Yes, they are. They are made like Alfred Habermann taught us by hand with a striker. I have come up with a few innovations on my own in order to adapt the methods to our anvils here with smaller hardy holes, but the approach is basically the same. I'll be doing a class at Yesteryear School of Blacksmithing in Virginia in November on making hammers and the tools to make hammers. Once you get familiar with these techniques, top tools and hammers are a simple matter and can be forged in less than one hour. I wish I would have been exposed to this infomation when I got started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 the courses you have over there are so much more frequent and varied than what we can get in uk..! sounds fascinating. Hate to sound stupid but i dont actually know what that great looking tool is used for - was hoping someone would explain in their post but im just going to have to ask! someone please put me out of my misery...:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 19, 2009 Author Share Posted July 19, 2009 the courses you have over there are so much more frequent and varied than what we can get in uk..! sounds fascinating. Hate to sound stupid but i dont actually know what that great looking tool is used for - was hoping someone would explain in their post but im just going to have to ask! someone please put me out of my misery... The different sized holes are mainly used for supporting your material better from underneath when you are drifting or punching holes. It can also be used as a heading tool for making nails, rivets, or bolts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryce Masuk Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 Yes, they are. They are made like Alfred Habermann taught us by hand with a striker. I have come up with a few innovations on my own in order to adapt the methods to our anvils here with smaller hardy holes, but the approach is basically the same. I'll be doing a class at Yesteryear School of Blacksmithing in Virginia in November on making hammers and the tools to make hammers. Once you get familiar with these techniques, top tools and hammers are a simple matter and can be forged in less than one hour. I wish I would have been exposed to this infomation when I got started. haha I knew it do you use a powerhammer? Someone who makes a cart with mortise and tennon and his anvil hold down the same way is definately someone I more than respect because I know I would just weld it, Haberman is someone I respect alot as well often I find myself drawing abstract with a similar idealism as his own however, I wouldnt ever compare myself to someone as great as him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 Bryce, I do not have a power hammer, but I wish I did. Hand work and power hammer work is really not that much different. You just put the material under the dies and it does what you do. How you hold it, how hard you hit it, and whatever surfaces you are hitting it with at the appropriate temperature all matter, and you can set up any situation of your choosing to make whatever you want to happen. It doesn't matter whether you're forging with just your hand hammer, with a striker, with a treadle hammer, with a power hammer, or with anything else. Forging is forging. I have been in other shops and had the opportunity to work with alot of different power hammers. There were times when I was alone at Tom Clark's school where I could use 5 different die set ups in 5 different power hammers. That was nice! P.S. I really learned alot from Alfred Habermann and consider myself very fortunate to have spent over a year working with him almost every day, except Sundays. He was always the same, always in a good mood, and always working. He was a pleasure to work with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryce Masuk Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 When did you work with Alfred habermann? forging is forging but doing everything by hand limits you in someways for producing many pickets and such unless you had a good team of strikers which would eventually cost more than the hammer in a couple months I would think, but the reality is it probley forces you to work on smaller things in finer ways such as some of your animal heads or use designs that lend themselves to allowing you to produce things without needing to move huge quanitys of metal resulting in the desired effect, You do some great work you remind me of style and idea's of mark asprey in someways, It shows your knowledge in the forming of the metal, you can tell you knew far before the metal was touched exactly what was going to happen. I am constantly trying to improve my tools it takes a number of years in order to know exactly what you need and exactly how to strike it, I am not there yet All of it stems from the fundamentals the basic idea's of how to punch properly how to split, slit and drift how to properly draw out metal square octagon and round, I know all too often I lose focus and forget these fundamental rules these idea's that form the base of the craft. Eventally I wont need to think about them I know that they will become automatic if i continue on the path of constant improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Browne Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Another tool to make! Sometimes I think I spend too much time making tools and not getting any work done. OTOH its all forging and fun. I'll just have to copy this design :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 When did you work with Alfred habermann? forging is forging but doing everything by hand limits you in someways for producing many pickets and such unless you had a good team of strikers which would eventually cost more than the hammer in a couple months I would think, but the reality is it probley forces you to work on smaller things in finer ways such as some of your animal heads or use designs that lend themselves to allowing you to produce things without needing to move huge quanitys of metal resulting in the desired effect, You do some great work you remind me of style and idea's of mark asprey in someways, It shows your knowledge in the forming of the metal, you can tell you knew far before the metal was touched exactly what was going to happen. I am constantly trying to improve my tools it takes a number of years in order to know exactly what you need and exactly how to strike it, I am not there yet All of it stems from the fundamentals the basic idea's of how to punch properly how to split, slit and drift how to properly draw out metal square octagon and round, I know all too often I lose focus and forget these fundamental rules these idea's that form the base of the craft. Eventally I wont need to think about them I know that they will become automatic if i continue on the path of constant improvement. Man, that's alot to respond to. I wish I knew how to work this computer better. I worked with Alfred from Aug. 2004- Jan. 2007. 6 months the first visit, 11 months the next, then 1 month. Most of that time was with Alfred. Forging is forging. It's just a matter of proportion. Proportionally, I move just as large amounts of material with my hand hammer in the same manner that I can with a striker or power hammer. Everything is basics. The metal can only do what you do to it. Taking the time to observe what is really happening compared to what we intend to make happen can help out more than anything. I've banged away at hot iron more than most for years and years, but I didn't really start learning as much until someone asked me how I did something and I had to explain it. That taught me so much more than just making things automatically. It is the thinking about what is really happening that this is all about and thinking about how to work with this material to allow it to yield itself to you. When the metal is hot and you touch it with whatever, it does only what you do, no more, no less. It does take practice to take a hand hammer and hit a determined spot, but if you understand from the start that a falling hammer [no matter which kind of hammer, that is your choice] hitting a piece of hot steel that is being backed by a surface of an anvil[your choice again] will only do what it will do, you'll go farther faster. Choose your dies. The hammer and the anvil are the top and bottom dies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 thankyou brian - thats very straightforward now ive been told! very nice tool:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 I was just informed there is also a blueprint on a tool like this in the Blueprints BP0149 Spinning Bolster Plate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcraigl Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I love mine. Use it all the time. Make a block with a hole that fits your pin and you can use it in your leg vise too. Just make the block at least as thick as the largest hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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