Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 While I've been forging hammers for a while, these are my first go at the off-center style favored by bladesmiths. The one with the handle, as you can see, is forged with an angled eye. The one beside has a straight eye. The tools are those which were used: Slot punch, hammer eye drift and the taper hammer eye drift. Next try will be the tapered doghead style. Maybe tomorrow if time permits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
781 Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Very nice hammers One can never have enough tools now if I could just find all the ones I have hidden under the piles of stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Salvati Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Looks good Gerald! How did you do the angled eye? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Secret stuff :-) All will be reveled in detail in book three of Mark Aspery. In the meantime, I just slot punched from both sides with the slots offset by a 1/4 inch. Gives me a common hole on the overlapping end of each slot. The drift will follow the slots and end up going in at an angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Buchanan Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 gotta love secrets!!!!! sam have you seen any of mark's 1st two books ??? i would guess after looking at the tooling in those, that its all about the backing,soooooo possibly a angled back plate....cant wait for book 3....nice looking hammer's gb.....you still working for steven stokes ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 One could use a backing plate, but with these I didn't. The hardy hole was enough. I did leave out of the photo one of the drifts. I'll get a photo of it and post later today. I've been on my own since 2004. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Useful looking hammers; very "industrial"; but could you say "favored by *some* bladesmiths" I know more professional bladesmiths who don't use that type than who do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 No, I can't say that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 I learned smithing basics before I ever made a blade, and with few exceptions i forge with a farrier style rouinding hammer. I flip it from flat face to the rounding face a lot as i move steel. I know wot to expect from each face and wot part of the anvil to support that move. Those hammers make sense to me but I might feel real uncomfotable lusing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 but I might feel real uncomfotable lusing them. Me too, but they were fun to forge and as I'm starting to have a go at blade forging, I wanted to give them a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 Did this one today. Tried the weight forward style and decided to put a little less eye angle on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel.85 Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Very nice, what size and type of steel are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerald Boggs Posted June 29, 2012 Author Share Posted June 29, 2012 As these are practice/prototypes, I'm using mild steel and the size is one inch square. When I go to production, I'll be using 4140 round and will start with whatever diameter gives me the weight I'm looking for. E.g., 1 3/8 will give me a bit over 2 lbs if I start with five inches and 1 1/2 will give me 2 1/2 minus any loss during forging :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Francis Trez Cole Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 very nice hammer. Like the Japanese style or dog face hammer it puts the face of the hammer at the same angle as the blade so you are not changing your swing you still swing straight. the hammer gives you an advantage over position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOblacksmith0530 Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Nice looking hammers, I have forged a few blades in my day and use a standard forging hammer with a prett decent radius on the face just walk down the edge using the radius of the hammer to give me a bevel. I would be quite interested in your results and how you think they work after you have tried them out. Please post some info after you run them around the block. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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