dancho Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Bogdan Popov’s hammer is a result of many years experiments with free hand forging tools. It combines the most appropriate, from the author’s point of view, features of the ancient hammers. The main idea, embodied in the hammer, is a tool, which creates maximum opportunities specifically for free hand forging, that is directly shaping the metal without any additional in between tools. The ends of the hammer have distinctive pitch downwards, which was inherent to many ancient striking tools( hammers and axes) beginning from Stone Age. This feature improves the efficiency due to bringing the strike point nearer to the centre of gravity of the hammer, which is located a little bit lower that metal head taking into account the weight of the handle as well. A little bit elongated ends, compared to regular hammers, help to efficiently control the stroke angle, as well as providing more access to less open parts of the workpiece. Meanwhile the surface area of the ends is left comparatively large due to the presence of necks – a narrowing between the eye and the ends. The flat end, in contrast to mainstream hammers, doesn’t have cants on sides and consequently the corners are left intact, which can be used in various techniques. Along with that, one of the flat end edges is canted, which used efficiently for drawing or forming steps. The peen end, compared to regular hammers, is significantly blunted (has bigger radius). Apart from that the peen end has some radius (similar to the radius of flat end) in the other plane (perpendicular to the handle), which makes moving the metal in needed direction maximally fast and precise. The ends of the hammer are zone hardened and tempered to the depth approximately 1 cm, which almost eliminates the crack possibilities in the eye or neck zone. The eye has side projections up and down, which gives more contact area with the handle and consequently firmer fixation. The handle is fixed in the head in a self-wedge way, that is bottom part is passed through the upper part of the eye and then handle is self wedged firmly due to enlargement of its upper end. However the handle can be pulled back from the handle very quickly which is very handy when carrying the hammers somewhere as well as replacing the broken handle. This way of handle fixation is still standard for striking tools in the Carpathian Mountains and it practically eliminates the chances of the head flying off the handle (which is possible with regular fixation of the handle with steel wedge). In heavier versions of the hammer (2.5- 3 kg) a changeable long handle can be used, which transforms the hammer into a little sledge hammer. The hammer handle has in cross section a shape of a circle trimmed from the sides. This configuration was typical for ancient preindustrial hammers and it is still preserved in Asian forging hammers (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan). The hammer is completely hand forged without use of power hammer. The ends are slightly ground to get the final shape. The material for the hammer head is carbon steel (about 0.6 percent of carbon). There is also a version where ends made of carbon steel and forge welded to the main body made of soft iron. The weight of the head can vary from 300 g to 2.5 kg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 ok im really interested in anything that looks very differently shaped from the normal, and what the benefits are - esspecially when these designs are taken from ancient tools that had to Do It All, with no help from anything powered. i imagine these had to be very efficient and manage alot of tasks. i wish i could ask you some intelligent questions about the hammers, but i cant really i dont know enough about the finer details of the way a hammer works, i want to know how it feels to use, and why You like to use and make this hammer, and what kind of work you are doing with them and why :) i like the thought of a hammer that you have a very close relationship with and can do many subtle things with ! can you tell us what the physical experience of using a hammer this this is like for you, compared to the type of things you would normally expect to see a smith using and more precisely why you like using it. i see that there is all the physics stuff which youve explained in detail, and i will reread that when i have not got a thousand people around me, and try to understand that. to me it looks like an axe.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Dancho in use of the hammer you should probably have you anvil height much higher than you second picture if that is the stance and impact placement of you hammer you are extending your arms far to far past the 50-70% range of your swing. blacksmith of old worked sitting down low to the ground and the swing in that position is at the 50% range which is good ergonomics. I would be concerned with the long term effects on your elbow. Great looking hammer and shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 Yes, Francis Trez Cole, you are right . Thank you. The anvil on that picture was a bit low. It was temporar arrangement when we experimented with set up but I liked the picture. Usually my anvil is 7 cm or so higher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 i like the anvil very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 to me it looks like an axe.. It was actually born as a hammer to forge axes. During last 10 years I was involved closely with reconstructing ancient russian axe of 10 century AD which once sroke me with its beauty in our historical museum in Kiev. I felt that in order to get these shapes I need a different hammer. So I started to look at the old pictures of blacksmithing process and found that many of them were long and and tilted downwards. I made my self a sort of one from ordinary hammer (just drawn it a bit and bent). It was very uncomfortable at first. But the next week I got used and found I got more posibilities. Then real evolution started. I observed what happened and made changes. And finally it just came out naturally. It wasn't really a brain work. Something like taking the sand off from what actually already exists. I even probably cannot claim these hammers are mine honestly. Of course I use it not only for the axes. It is good for everything what I make. Knives, hammers. candle holders, -- anything which inolves big degree of controlled deformation. Being a researcher I honestly tried to return to srort straight hammer to check what is going on. No, I cannot work any more with it. Either these long ones realy create more oppportunities or it just human body which is getting used to anything. But as these hammers were once a standard I might suspect the first. I highly distrust industrial times in terms of improving quality of forging. Quantity -- yes but not quality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 your last statement has to be true, and thats a good a reason as any to investigate ancient forging methods... i would be really interested to see some of the work that your making with your curved anvil and this style of hammer - your personal evolution with your hammer discovery sounds very interesting and satisfying! so how would you describe your wishes for the work? is there an aesthetic that results, however subtle from these tools, that is peculier to them and their integrity in the whole process, their close suitability to what your making, as well as philosophical reasons. ? you speak very clearly about your interest so its interesting to hear more! thankyou in advance.. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron woodrow Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 both the anvil and hammer look like medieval documentation, and im sure they are both great to use Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 the telling is in the feeling! i need to try! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iron woodrow Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 the telling is in the feeling! i need to try! well said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 i keep thinking about that curved anvil..... you can imagine cant you?? better direct contact?..... i like these concepts very much :) keeps a smile on my face oddly enough.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOblacksmith0530 Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 We must keep in mind that mankind (womankind included) strive to improve in many ways. Sometimes that imiprovement is in one way and sometimes in another. Ancient and modern forging techniques and equipment have changed to reflect improvement afforded at the time of change for a specific benefit. If that benefit were not achieved that method would disappear. I think that Bogdon's method and tools are what he needs for the type of forging he is doing. Some would not be comfortable as their style and type of forging would differ. I think it is important that we try to save/relearn all the encient techniques and tools to keep all of the craft alive. :END PONTIFICATION>>>> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 B.P. i would really like to know what kind of work your doing, what it looks like..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 B.P. i would really like to know what kind of work your doing, what it looks like..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 But mostly I make blacksmiths. :) Some of them turn out to be quite good. Maybe better that me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Since I have been somewhat debilitated with my back injury and now do a bit more work with nonferrous metals and use my hammers differently I pay more attention to my hammer strokes. One of the things that I have noticed is the way the hammer face strikes the metal. With my favorite forging hammer the one edge hits first, this is because the head is at ninety degrees to the handle but when I use the same weight of silversmithing hammer it leave a solid round his since the head of the hammer is not ninety degrees to the handle but curved so that it follows the arc of your swing. During my depression right after I was injured I sold a whole bunch of my oldest metal working hammers to another collector, many of them from the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries were curved to match the arc of the hammer swing. I think that as hammer were starting to me manufactured by drop forging things started to change for the convenience of mass production than what was convenient for the end user. I have a few old hammer heads that are somewhat soft and the one edge of head that hits the surface first is crushed while the top of the head is almost pristine as it never made contact with the surface being struck. If it had been curved down as Bogdan's heads are it would have made full contact. A large portion of silversmithing and jewelers hammers a thus made but not contemporary blacksmithing hammers. I think Bogdan's retro hammers are a great idea, the smiths of old knew what they were doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 B.P the photos look intriguing and indeed look very hand forged, which i like. im being honest when i say i dont really know what the first pictures are! tools i guess - but from a sculptural point of view fabulous shapes and textures, and like i said - a bit intriguing :) and i did not realise you did lessons and all that - looks like you have a captive audience!! how fantastic :) minds to MOULD! i always think though, a teaching situation is the best learning curve ever to find yourself in! sure the learning is two way :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bentiron1946' Thank you very much! You put in words many thoughts I had but couldn't formulate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bogdan, You're welcome! It sometimes seems that when the Industrial Revolution came along we threw out all the ancient skills and techniques that smiths of all types, iron, copper, silver, armour, had learned over the centuries and passed on to their apprentices so that machines could take over. A whole new skill set was developed to meet the needs of the tool being produce by machines for men to work on machines and it has continues right on to this age we are now in. I was looking at an 200 year old wood mallet a friend of mine has, it faces are cut in such a manner that the face of the mallet will hit the surface of the wood beam being struck flat so as to minimize marring when driving home treenails. New mallets are made the same way but not so with new forging hammers, if you want one to reflect the ancient style you will need to make it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregDP Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 Very cool, thanks for sharing. I want to make my first hammer soon. I'm not sure my technique is good enough to switch styles but it I like trying new things! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chichi Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Dancho, Beautiful forged items. The hammer seems to be the opposite of the hammer made by the Israeli smith who is somewhat famous (cant think of his name). His hammers have mass close to the handle. I tried a similar hammer and liked it. From your description,this hammer design makes a lot of sense too even though it is so different. The American History Museum in New York had a display of the tools a smith used while travelling the Steppes of russia(found at an archaeological site in Russia). I dont recall the hammer shape but all he had was goat skin bellows, a small piece of iron for an anvil a hammer and a few other hand tools. That was sufficient to make the items and repairs needed by the people living in small rural villages that he visited. Very impressive! What is the purpose of the shape of the bottom edge of the axe blade? Did it have a purpose or was it just the result of the forging process? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 thanks for the wonderful pictures! i particularly love the first one and that beautiful curved anvil :) i could get quite taken with the anvil as an image, quite apart from even using it.... lovely to think of the earth as the main anvil, and the metal one the tool you access it by.. interesting image the last one, i like it very much, the woman has brought beautiful food for the man at work, this is a fabulous image of creativity by both parties, the woman sustaining the mans efforts with her imaginative a tasty cooking, the man inspiring her (perhaps providing for them) with his metal work. now in answer to the other thread also, the next day, the woman can take up the hammer, and the man can create at the stove. That way, two characters, that of the individuals, and both the sexes, get within the metal, and two in the food, everyone's a winner :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancho Posted May 9, 2012 Author Share Posted May 9, 2012 What is the purpose of the shape of the bottom edge of the axe blade? Did it have a purpose or was it just the result of the forging process?. I think it was made for beauty. It is the result of natural metal flow when blade drawn down. It can be erased ed by several blows but they instead choosed to highlight this. For me the ancient russian ax of 10AD is the best proof of how intelegent was the understanding of shape and blacksmith teachniques at that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Beth, you did notice that the first picture had a woman tending the forge! Wide range of times in those pictures too. I was wondering about the music in the forge as I would think the percussion would drown out the string section... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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