Forged Edge

[poundhound]

Hello again,

I am working trying to make a letter opener out of a railroad spike (only my second week of Forging steel). I have drawn out the blade to where I want it. however it is pretty square. I tried hitting it on the edge with the hammer at 45 degrees to start to create an edge (as you might imagine a letter opener would have) but have not had much luck (see pictures). is there a better technique to taper the edge on a thin blade?

any help appreciated.

PoundHound

[arftist]

Hold your work paralel with the edge of the anvil and right at the edge (the side you are trying to thin should be right at the edge). 45 degree blows will not work, plus 45 is too blunt anyway. try 75 or 80 degrees. If the metal is hot enough and you hit it hot enough, it will move.

[Don A]

If you are only in your second week of forging steel, I would recommend that you lay the spike aside for a bit and work on some basic drawing out exercises.

Take a piece of stock, square it if it's round, and draw it to a point. Draw a square point, draw a round point. Get familiar with the way the metal moves in relation to the angle of the hammer face AND the angle which you hold the stock to the anvil's face. Remember, for every blow of the hammer, the face of the anvil answers back, so you manipulate the angle you're forming by watching both the face and the hammer.

Get to the point you can control a taper and the whole beveling process will make a lot more sense to you.

[ThomasPowers]

When hitting it on the edge of the Anvil 1/2 of the hammer face will be off and below the edge---you are trying to pinch the blade edge between the hammer and the anvil face. So look at it with out the stock in place do you see how you have to hit with the hammer to get the pinching action?

NB if the stock goes past the edge of the anvil bad things happen as you are then using the edge to fuller or cut the stock.

NB make sure your hammer face is well dressed. with a slightly rounded face you can also pinch the blade edge just on the face of the anvil by hitting at the very blade edge or even slightly off. Much more control is needed for this technique and perhaps a hard anvil face and soft hammer face when learning it.

[poundhound]

thank you all for the input, I will try the techniques mentioned tonight

PoundHound

[viking-sword]

Something that may help in teaching yourself how the metal will move under your hammer is to aquire some modeling clay, shape it similar to your work piece and put your hammer to it(only lighter) and it will give you a great overview how your metal will move. You can practice different blows till get the response you want without screwing up your workpiece. Hammer control is one of the most important elements of this craft. Wes

[poundhound]

Something that may help in teaching yourself how the metal will move under your hammer is to aquire some modeling clay, shape it similar to your work piece and put your hammer to it(only lighter) and it will give you a great overview how your metal will move. You can practice different blows till get the response you want without screwing up your workpiece. Hammer control is one of the most important elements of this craft. Wes

that is a great idea, I have seen that suggested in a book I have on metal smithing. I will give it a try.

PoundHound

[pkrankow]

Refrigerate the clay (plasticine) if you are hammering on it. It can be quite soft if you don't.

Phil

[pkrankow]

Since Stuart mentioned the edge radius of the anvil:
http://anvilfire.com/21centbs/anvils/making/anvil_radius.php

This is merely a guide.

Phil

[poundhound]

Since Stuart mentioned the edge radius of the anvil:
http://anvilfire.com/21centbs/anvils/making/anvil_radius.php

This is merely a guide.

Phil

I read the page about rounding the edge, it makes sense but I am going to have to build up some courage to take a grinder to my anvil, I may try using the Fuller first.

PoundHound

[Old N Rusty]

I have never found a use for a sharp edge on any of my anvils. An excuse might be made that stock can be cut on it but a hardy is much better. Sharp edges are more likely to chip and will mark the work. I used a large side grinder, with a 60 grit flap wheel, to smooth the face,and radius the entire length of my haybud. both sides. My mousehole came to me with radiused edges even more rounded than I made on the haybud.The emmerson is factory new with sharp edges. I use it only to hold a hardy all the time. It has a needle sharp point and it must stay forge left with the horn pointing to my right, tucked in under the blower. Safer there, this anvil and a whisper daddy were abandoned in my shop by a student whose interests have moved on. If it were my anvil it would be so dressed also. and I would grind that point some.

[ThomasPowers]

It has always amazed me the number of new folk that post asking how to weld up their anvil to have sharp edges when the old smithing books (100+ years ago) tell folks that the first thing they do to a new anvil is to round the edges!

If you have a process that needs a sharp edge---or a very even radiused edge then it's rather trivial to make a hardy tool that has *4* edges you can engineer to suit your self.

[Unforgivun]

So glad I read this, the anvil we just made is a bottom die turned on end to make a small brazeal style anvil. The edges are exceptionally sharp and I was wondering if it would be a problem due to marring and such. It's only 2" wide so I won't be able to put much of a bevel on it, but I'll atleast be able to soften that edge a bit.

Pound, I haven't done any blades to this point but I've seen rail spikes drawn out to full 18" steak turners... Making one into a small letter opener might leave a lot of material unless you draw it alot.

[poundhound]

So glad I read this, the anvil we just made is a bottom die turned on end to make a small brazeal style anvil. The edges are exceptionally sharp and I was wondering if it would be a problem due to marring and such. It's only 2" wide so I won't be able to put much of a bevel on it, but I'll atleast be able to soften that edge a bit.

Pound, I haven't done any blades to this point but I've seen rail spikes drawn out to full 18" steak turners... Making one into a small letter opener might leave a lot of material unless you draw it alot.

the blade was kinda thick as you can see from the pictures in the first post. after drawing it out to about 11 inches it was bout 1 inch wide and 3/8 thick. the blade portion was about 1/2 the spike with the rest being the turned handle.

PoundHound