WE got a few pics of the latest project (Fire poker). We thought this pics was kinda cool. I now am the proud owner of an invisible hammer. Or see through might be better. Translucent? I prefer invisible.

Also some other in progress pics plus finiished. I found makeing 8 sides from 4 to be a challenge. IT went slow. Curious if others have done 8 sided and what sequence or technigue worked best. The 8 side taper was even more challengeing. BUt I think I figured that out. Taper square. Then taper square again just on the other four sides. That's also how I kinda did the general whole length but it can get outa whack on you easy if you get in a hurry.

Seemed like a LOT of planishing and tweaking the sides was needed. But I am slow. Good hammer control practice.

Looks great! I really like the shape you used for the business end.

Great work! Octagonal is not a hard form to make just takes a little practice. Basic rule of thumb is just forge everything normal down to square and then take the corners off. You have to visualize a little or you'll end up taking too much off the corners, but that is attained by just a little practice. It does take a lot of planishing but that is what MAKES the finished product.

One of my favorite eliments is to make a twist that progresses from square to octagonal to round without stopping or breaking the twist. It gives the piece the appearence of having been twisted into round. I like to forge the ends of my firepokers down to round and use this eliment to go into the end.

Good job!

Sometimes the octagonal section gets a little twisted while forging, usually from not giving a full 90º turn back and forth. The flatter is a good help in correcting this.

The lack of 90º turning can also result in a parallelogram cross section, when you were really shooting for a square.

Realize too, that the 'rockered' face of the hammer face will give more sideways spread than the anvil will.