Stopping your work from looking "chewed"

[patrickrock]

Things are working good for me.

I have a forge, all the tools and have been merrily forging away at home. I'm enjoying a reasonable level of success in producing things that WORK they are supposed to work.

But.

Everything looks like its been chewed up and spit out. Dents, dings, rough, burnt looking, points split, thin edges split, etc...

I know some of this is technique, some of it is because of burning thin things up in the forge. But I am wondering if anyone can share some techniques in getting work with the smooth hammered facets generally associated with blacksmithing.

[Mills]

the finish hammering is done at a low red into black heat. You are only knocking down high spots. Do not over do this as you will split your stock and cause pieces to break off.

[patrickrock]

could you describe finish hammering?

[bruce wilcock]

Use a hammer with a face like a watch face, and see if you get on better.

[mike-hr]

Look at your hammer. Is the face flat, or does it have a slight rocker when you hold a straight edge to it? A flat face has only one plane you can hit on, that won't leave a mark on the edge. If the corner of the hammer digs in when you swing, you need to identify it's happening, then fix it.. maybe forge several tapers with your elbow raised or lowered a bit different each time, and see if there's a difference in the work.

[Thomas Dean]

I'll let Mills explain 'finish hammering'. 'Burnt looking' is usually just that, burnt . The thin stuff you really have to keep an eye on. 'Points split, thin edges split' comes from working too cold. Once the color has left the piece back to the fire. Tsur Sadan told the class I was in that we, as a rule, work our metal too cold. Most smiths out to of the U.S. will go back in the fire at the heat we are coming out of the fire. Hence, we work harder and have more problems with splits and such. (I include myself in this as I get impatient sometimes). I do know not everyone does this, work too cold, but as a rule we do. As for the dents, dings, and roughness I would think that will go away as you get better. The saying "Practice makes perfect" is not true. "PERFECT practice makes perfect." If you continuelly do something wrong you won't get any better. Know WHERE you are going to hit the piece, how HARD you want to hit it, and WHAT you want it to do BEFORE you hit it. Sorry for the length. Hope something here helps.

[patrickrock]

use a hammer with a face like a watch face, and se if you get on better.

I'm sorry. I'm not understanding your meaning.

Do you mean crowned and smoothed?

[irnsrgn]

Think of pounding a nail in, you hit it hard when its going in, but as it is nearly in you ease up a bit and don't hit it so hard so you don't leave donkey tracks (dents) in the wood. When you are almost to size ease up hitting so hard so that you can smooth out the surface an not leave donkey tracks (dings) in the finish.

Some people think that the more hammer marks and dings you leave makes it look handmade. A good smith leaves very few marks so it doesn't look like the import junk that's all dinged up with a Pakistani Patina.

[HWooldridge]

Bruce's description is very accurate and concise. Have you ever seen the back of an old pocket watch? It is relatively flat but the edges are quite smooth from handling and the whole thing has a planished look. Your hammer face should look the same and if you're lucky, the face of the anvil will also match. The other comments with regard to working at various heats are also valid.

[patrickrock]

Thanks all.

Went out tonight took out my belt sander flipped it upside down, chucked it into the vise (poor man's belt grinder dontchan know) and went to work on the hammer face.

Tried my best to get it to look "like the back of an old pocket watch."

After that I fired up the forge and went back to basics. Grabbed some 3/8" and forged a couple of quick hooks.

Square, taper, round, bend. Kept in mind your suggestions, watch the plane of the hammer strike, work at a dark red heat to remove marks, and then finally at the end I tried rubbing it all out with a brass brush (something I knew about but hadn't really done before).

I could really see an improvement in the look of the work. The hammer face still needs work, I only had 80 grit paper for the belt sander, but tomorrow night I'll work it up through the grits. And my anvil at the moment is the Harbor Freight 55lb cast iron one so the face of the anvil is quite marred. But even still at least a 50% improvement.

Thanks again to all for the advice encouragment.

[Alan DuBoff]

I know this may be a dumb question, but couldn't you just stop chewin' on your work?

Seriously, I see a lot of good response, nothing much I can add...but sometimes a flatter works wonders to get a smooth surface.

[Shane Stegmeier]

I'll chime in here too;-)

You might be using a hammer that is too heavy, not too heavy for you to swing, but too heavy for you to use properly. It sounds like you might be hitting too hard, or just a little wild;-) Let the hammer do the work and as you get close to your desired shape use lighter blows. Learn how hard you have to hit to do different things, your not trying to kill the steel you are trying to bend it to your will, use only the force you have to...

It does sound like you are working too long on a heat, (or just not paying close enough attention to your forging temps) which is where you are getting your cracked and split tips. Fire control is important, don't just jab your work down deep into the fire, if you are too close to the tueyer the fire will be hot, but it will also be oxidizing, which will tend to burn the steel faster. Work in the top third of the hot part of the fire, you might also have too shallow a fire, letting in too much air from the top... Scaling can give you pits too, a good stiff "Butcher block wire brush" will scrap that scale off and leave a smoother finish. The thinner you get the stock the faster it will get to forging temp, (as well as past it to burning,;-) and conversely the faster the anvil will suck the heat out of the stock getting into the low reds and brittle black heat ranges.

Learn you temps, and what they are good for:
a black heat, or even low or dull red, is for straightening, breaking corners on stock, and planishing... that it! No heavy forging, no reducing the thickness of the cross section by 1/2, you will ruin your steel.
For most steels bright red - yellow are your forging temps, some high alloy, and high carbon will be ruined if you get into a bright yellow, so read up on your steels.
Punching and drifting should be done at a bright yellow if the steel will handle temps like that.
Forgewelding should be done at a sweating heat, generally in the yellow range somewhere.
White sparking heat should be saved for working wrought iron, and mistakes. If you get a high carbon tool steel to a sparking heat you have burned the steel, and ruined it (or atleast burned all the carbon out of the outside layers)

You can learn a lot from books.
You can learn some from the internet..
You can learn a ton from having someone show you how to do...

Find a blacksmithing group and start attending meetings and going to confernences!!! And paying someone to teach you will jump you ahead much faster.

There are no shortcuts. It takes time and you need to learn to do it right. Make one of something, then make it again, and again, and again til you get it right. About the time you have made a hundred of one thing you should be pretty good at it, if you care and are trying to improve. Then find something else to make, and make those till you are happy with them, and you can do a really good job and make them match... By then you should have decent hammer control for those types of technic that you have developed. Focus on technic, and on constantly polishing you finished products, it takes time, and practice, a guide helps...

[frogvalley]

I'll chime in here too;-)

Scaling can give you pits too, a good stiff "Butcher block wire brush" will scrap that scale off and leave a smoother finish.

I cannot stress this enough. I would say this is the most important part of a smooth finish. Order of things- take piece from fire, wire brush, then lay on anvil and hit with hammer, return to fire. Otherwise every time you hit the piece you force the scale back into the stock causing both an uneven finish and making it harder to remove the scale later. Pitting from scale reworking can cause worse marks than anything other than a bad hammer. Wait till you get access to a power hammer and see what happens to pieces you havent' descaled properly.

P.S. Bad hammer means simply a hammer that has a factory flat finish with sharp edges. All hammers(not flatters) should be slightly rounded as already stated by others.