Great thread. I have an axle at home I'm trying to work up the courage to make a small hamer or top tool with right now. Maybe this is the inspiration I needed.

Nice work Tubbe!
I just saw the punches above, good job!
You asked about tapering the short ends of the punches. We are usually doing them with a striker, so after we forge the striking end square with a set hammer, we forge the punche end round with a set hammer. Then we draw a rough square taper then to rough octagon using the 3 inch top and bottom fullers. Then use a flatter to clean up the octagon taper, 16 sides to round, then to oval.
On the power hammer, free handed, I'd use flat dies and feed the baby at the start either square or hex, then blend the base of the taper to the end with runs, go to round then oval with the power hammer flatter.

If you use a tool "as forged" it is actually normalized.  If you harden it and then temper it is tougher than a normalized tool.  If you get the tool hot while cutting or punching you may draw more temper but you should never leave the tool in contact with hot metal long enough to let it get to critical temperature.  Even if heated above the tempering temperature it is tougher than that tool as normalized.  Even if you have gotten it so hot that it then normalized when you hardened then tempered it you had refined the grain structure and thereby made a better tool.  This information came to me from Robb Gunter.  When I talked to him about making knives from half a horseshoe and hardening it in Super Quench Robb told me to temper to 450 degrees to refine the grain structure and make a better knife that would hold the edge longer.  My wife carries a Case pocket knife, My carry knife is made from half a horseshoe with a horse head carved for the handle (A-36).  I have to sharpen my wife's Case more often than I sharpen my horseshoe knife.

Anyone using a drift the way we do will soon discover that they sometimes become severely stuck in the hole as the metal is cooling at a rapid rate. All sors of techniques are used to disgorge the drift only o discover that the tool is "red hot". Call it what you like about normalized or stress relieved etc, but the immediate need is to quickly cool the tool so that it can be used again ....yes quickly. Most are aware that the tool should air cool until black prior to dunking into fluid, yet may still quench immediately!

 

Most drifts do not have very much sideways energy placed upon them as their main direction is vertical into or out from a hole. Drifs can wear out from repeaed heats causing scaling, or from heating and then flattened with the flatter or set hammer. Scaling means metal being lost.

Thanks for starting this thread, and im inspired to try my hand at theses. I just ordered from various thickness of 4140 round bars coming in the mail to make a few tools. I do have a question: whats the dimensions of the eyes you drifted for the handled punches? Im assuming you used a 1" bar to make the long handled drift so a guess would around 1.125 long x 7/8 wide? Id love to know common eye drift sizes to get an idea. But looking forward to seeing the other tools you make tubbe, keep em coming!

Thanks Forborg. Actually I don't think size matters that much :) On the handled punches the eye is ~ 16x25mm. The larger eye drift I made is tapered from 7x14mm to 21x30mm over a distance of 260mm. Total length, including handle, is  500mm.

 

I forged a hammer using these tools. It's in a separate thread since it's not really related to Brians work. >Take a look here

Welcome aboard Forborg, glad to have you. Please put your general location in the header, you might be surprised at how many of the Iforge gang live within visiting distance.

 

The size and shape you punch and drift top tools or hammers depends almost entirely on what YOU like. Hammer handles need to be more robust of course, I buy a piece of cabinet grade straight grain hickory 1"x 4" or 6" board and make slab handles for my hammers. I make them taper wider from the head to the end with a small circular nob on the very end.

 

I prefer slab handled hammers for a couple reasons. First, I can buy a 6' 1"x6" hickory board for about as much as two factory hammer handles. Secondly I always know exactly what the orientation of the hammer face or pein is as the flat slab sides index in my hand. Thirdly, the long taper makes hammers very easy to hold, there is zero chance of it slipping at all without your hand reflexively gripping tighter, the little knob is just insurance. The first time I saw Uri Hofi's hammer handle I fell for it and improved it a bit for my use. <wink>

 

Top tool handles are I feel better being thinner for a couple reasons: And longer but not outrageously longer, this gets your hand away from the heat, improves your view and is just easier to hold. Then and perhaps more importantly, a little spring in the handle keeps your hand from taking as much shock from a missed blow or some kinds of work in general.

 

If you pattern your tools after Brian's you can't go wrong, his are golden.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty,

 

  Is your 1" board actually 3/4. Do you get them at big box stores like Home Depot or do you have a local lumber store that carries it? I have seen Hickory board in HD and wondered if the heater dried boards would work well. I would assume so but thought I would ask for your opinion. Thanks

 

 

Brian

It's an honest 1", I get it from a hardwood store, all he carries are cabinet grade woods. Big box stores don't carry anything useable for handles but . . . handles.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty,

 

  Thanks for the reply on that.

 

Brian Pierson

I've read up that Jim Hrisoulas has recommended soaking hammer handles for a least 2-3 weeks in oil, and according to him, they last a long time before he's ever had to replace one.Helps to prevent splinters from arising and breakage. Apologies if I'm hijacking your thread Tubbe, curious about the tool making process.

Hi,

 

Forged a cupping tool! Some day I will try and make a rounding hammer and this tool is one step closer to that goal.

It's 8cm across (~6,5cm actual dish), 9mm deep and has a 4x4cm shank. Mild steel.

I didn't have any useful rounded fullers to forge the "dish" so I actually started by forging/grinding/making a "ball fuller". Made from 56mm round 4140.

Hi Tubbe, 

 

Congrats on the thread, I've just read it from the beginning. Very nice tools you have made. These last two have quite artistic look on them. Beautiful.

 

How did you achieve that V-shaped cutting edge on the eye punch?

 

Greetings

 

Gergely

Thanks Gergely.

 

The V-shaped cutting edge... Plain old filing, free hand. Nothing fancy. :)

The cupping tool is nice, but I LOVE your ball fuller!!!  I could use one of those here!

Very nice ball fuller. Gonna make one like this.

Tubbe, you never cease to amaze me with the quality of your work.  While that ball fuller will certainly get the job done, it's as much a piece of art as it is a tool.  Excellent stuff.

Thank you very much!

Once I have a v block/ strinking anvil this will be project 1

Impressive work as usual Tubbe. 

Tubbe I am loving this thread.
As others have said your tooling is superb!
Its proved an interesting read and its pushed me (and hopefully others) into forging their own BIGGER tools.
A big thank you to you Tubbe, Brian and everyone else who have posted their knowledge on here.
John.

Tubbe, The ball fuller is great. What size round stock was used for the handle? 1/4"?  And how long is the handle?

I am still trying to get my tongs to work right :(.  But, the more I read here, I know I just need to stick to it and keep hammering away until I get it right.

Hi, Norcal! The handle is made from 8mm (~5/16") round and is about 13-14" long. Yep, keep on hammering... some planing ahead also helps getting the result you want.

Tubbe,

Thanks for the handle info!

I am hoping to hammer more this weekend.

Small update.

 

Finished a "Brian Brazeal" style hot cut hardy a couple of days ago. This one is made to fit my big anvil with a 40mm hardy hole, thus the slightly odd proportions.

Forged from 50mm round O1 steel. Probably not ideal steel... It air hardens quite a bit during a "regular" normalizing, and I'm unsure of how brittle it may have become. It's a good edge though!

Lets see how it performs.