brianbrazealblacksmith Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 I took some pics of how I temper a hammer with a drift. I think you can make out the colors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 It's a kind of hard to see the temper colors in the pics. Did you temper the faces to straw? That hammer is so pretty I'd be tempted to frame it. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 i agree- what a beautiful looking hammer - a work of art before its even started work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Thanks, Frosty and Beth. I should have turned the first picture. You can see that the drift is hot and the faces are silver colored in the first pic. The second picture shows a little blue in my touch mark. The third picture shows more blue and straw migrating beyond the cheeks, and the hammer has been put on a second hot drift from the other side of the hole. The fourth pic shows straw at the faces and an even blue in the cheeks. The fifth pic is the finished hammer and is blacker because I had to arrest the temper by dipping it in oil so the temper stopped at straw. I could have just used 1 drift to do a hammer of that size, and let the temper run out slower and not have to arrest it. Also I could have ground and polished the whole hammer so you could see the colors better, but I leave the hammer work showing and only grind the faces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Here is a pic of a hammer I did with Billy Vanhouten in Wilcox, Arizona at a WCB event. I did scoth brite this one so it does show the temper colors pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBBrauer Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 The colors look awesome, if not .. well kinda pretty. (A photographer fella at work loaned me his color calibrator for computers monitors so I get really true colors.) Being really new to all this, and looking at these pictures, I think I am still tempering a bit hot. My bands of the same color are less than an inch wide on much thinner stock than this. note to self: be patient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBrann Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Well done, takes patience though. Do you use the same drift to form the eye or are they seperate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Yes I do, but on larger hammers I will have to use more than 1 drift to get enough heat to draw the temper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisG Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Brian, it looks as if you polish the faces of the hammer prior to tempering. Is this the way you usually do it (so you can see the color come to the face) or was it just so that we can see how it draws out to the face. BTW, what color was the drift prior to inserting in the eye? Very "cool" pics also. DennisG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Thanks Brian. I was able to see the colors at the cheeks and where it necked down to the face but I couldn't make it out after that. The shined up hammer shows how abrupt the transition is from the necks to the face as the thickening steel slows conduction. I don't mind a slow temper using multiple drifts. When I did mine the center of the face wasn't drawing quite as fast as the edges. I attributed it to the cheeks picking up heat faster from the wide face of the drift than the center of the eye was from the narrower edge of the drift. The edges of the faces were bordering on purple while the centers were just passing from pale straw to straw. My next one I'll stop the temper at pale straw as this hammer is a bit softer than I like. Frosty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianbrazealblacksmith Posted September 1, 2009 Author Share Posted September 1, 2009 Brian, it looks as if you polish the faces of the hammer prior to tempering. Is this the way you usually do it (so you can see the color come to the face) or was it just so that we can see how it draws out to the face. BTW, what color was the drift prior to inserting in the eye? Very "cool" pics also. DennisG DennisG, I grind the hammer before I harden it, then after it cools, I regrind to remove the scale then finish polish it, then temper it. I heat the drift up to orange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Actually Frosty, that is a perfect temper (IMNSHO). It's the edges that can chip, nice to have a harder center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaylan veater Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Brain, Thanks for showing us this information and the pictures are super!! I have not seen it done that way before. Makes sense and looks really nice. GREAT JOB and THANKS Gaylan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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