power-hammer dies?

[FabienC.]

Hello !
I have a question about power-hammer dies.
do you think dies with a top slow radius (like most of hammer), is better than a flat die with radius on each side(like Hofi's dies ?) for making damascus?
I have see Hofi's dvd, and I think combo dies could be good for damascus work.........:confused:

[imagedude]

Combo dies are my favorite, other people prefer flat. Both will do exactly what you want if your technique is correct.

[Shane Stegmeier]

I like flat dies with hand tooling presonally;-)
Combo dies if they are big enough will do most of what you want to do if all you want to do is make damascus.
If you weld by hand and only need to draw out your billets, then drawing dies or crown dies would be just fine.

Course with flat dies, and a saddle, and some spring fullers and swages, a couple of paddles, and a fixture or two you can really get busy;-)

[HWooldridge]

I prefer large flat dies with radiused edges but I have and use a lot of saddle tooling. My 100 lb mechanical PH has 4x7 dies with at least a .250 radius on all working edges.

Some years ago, I was fortunate to also own a 25lb LG. I put some aggressive drawing dies on it and used the big hammer for everything else. I eventually sold the LG and made a set of drawing dies for the other one - having two hammers was a convenient arrangement but I don't miss the little hammer.

[Hofi]

If You Aim Only For Damascus Combination Dies Or Flat Rounded Edge Dies Are Both Good With Very Little Difference.

Hofi

[mike-hr]

My hammer has flat dies which I'm very comfortable with. I occasionally wished it had drawing dies, so I could control direction of flow. I started using an incline die which sits on the bottom flat die, and a round hand held fuller, for fancy tapers and spreading. I like being able to use the flat dies as a base for other tooling, It would be difficult using clapper tools, etc on curved dies. I used these tools and a texture die to make the vines and leaves for this gate detail. (Please excuse the cast iron bauble at the top of the gate, it wasn't my idea)

[FabienC.]

thanks a lot for yours answers, there are all very interesting....
:)