Trying it

[Dick L.]

Well I went out right after dinner and spent about an hour forging.Two attempts with the second being a little better. I learned a lot really from these steps. On the first the bill stayed at the bottom of the head but proportions were off really bad. Second one was proportioned better but I couldn't get the definition to work. I know now I should have kept the entire head on the face of the anvil when working the bill so it wouldn't move up. The transition from neck to body just didn't work like I expected. I went from the horn to the face, flipped it 180 and tried to get that tight radius step up to the body but no go. I think if I had smaller radius on my anvil edges it would work better. I will try again when time allows and continue until it looks right.When I saw Brian do one in Memphis it looked so easy :)

[Marksnagel]

I think they look great! Nice work. Practice makes perfect.

[Dick L.]

Thanks Mark, I agree that practice is the key to the hammer control and the knowledge of where to place the metal and the hammer.

Dick

[Adam2519]

I tip my hat to you sir!
They look good for first attempts.
My practice at these and other things I have seen lately will most likely happen at Moonys at the end of the month.

[brianbrazealblacksmith]

Not bad DickL. Better edges on an anvil will help alot. I use my hard edges to do the animal heads.
I made some hardy tools for a class at the Ag. museum in Jackson so the students could make the animal heads. I posted them in the Tools section under "New Edges". You'd be surprised what nice edges will do for you. Ask Lyle, LDW. He'll tell you.

Glad to see you trying these things out!

[781]

Good work on the first two attempts
Much better than mine.

The Hardy tools Brian built make soft or hard anvil edges easy to use.
He used 6 sided stock so you had a hard or soft edge away from you just by moving your hand slightly and the coresponding edge was directly across from the same style edge.
Side 5 and 6 are not used.
This makes 1/2 off the anvil blows easy to do in small stock where the anvil is too big or too badly damaged
Roger in Minnesota

[Dick L.]

Ok , I remembered today that I had a sawmaker Fisher anvil. Hard edges but nice and smooth ! Didn't get out until 7:45 and the rain blew in about 8:30 so I only had time for one Crane and a tryout for the wing. Here are the results . The Crane I feel came out much better. With a little time selecting hammers/ edges to work the tight spots I think I can really bring it to life. We will see.
The wing on the other hand started out ok But I started hurrying to beat the rain and my top line went over the edge , then the proportions went crazy. I used the rat tail end of a spud wrench to feather it because I don't have any fullers yet.
That actually worked well. I got carried away though and didn't pay attention to the length. Next one will be better. I'll try one in the daylight this weekend. I'm still forging outside but not for long.

Dick

[Mark Wargo New2bs]

That's looking great. After the 10th one, it will forge itself! Keep it up.

Mark

[tdaleh]

From the first to the third one you're learning curve went way up.Thanks for sharing you're efforts. Last one looked real nice.