Here Brian demonstrates and explains the reasons why a rounding hammer is the most versatile hammer due to the amount of dies avilable.

alec

these videos pf brians are so cool alec - and he puts the hammer to Brilliant effect. hofi says the same kind of thing about his hammer, that there are many surfaces available in the one hammer. brian does a lot of things on his videos that ive never seen they are fascinating arent they? :)brian makes all this stuff look extremely easy and natural and requiring no effort!! he is a magician :)

It is the same because Brian and Uri learned this method from Habermann. it is a great video and Alec you have had one heck of a trip and opportunity.

yes i cant believe the experience you must have had alec!! very very fortunate it must have ben wonderful :)

Exceptional video. Thanks.

This is an amazing vid!

Great video, thanks for posting it ! Clearly shows how the rounding hammer Brian uses offers many different dies.

Thanks,
Dick

Using copper is a great method to show the effects of the various dies on the hammer face. It gets you to thinking about the faces of other hammers and their use by skilled smiths. Thanks for the
video, very educational.

Thanks, Alec. In farriery, we only think of "breaking the toe," and sometimes "concaving" the foot surface of the shoe with the ball face.

Oh man ..... I thought it was just because they are AWESOME hammers.....;-)

Well..... SOLD!

If anyone has any questions or queries please feel free to ask!

alec

• Wow, just got a chance to try some of these techniques. Fantastic (if somewhat ugly)results! Pointing the bar on the horn, worked great. Fullering the stem so it lays flat across the face of the anvil, brilliant! I couldn't quite get the heart shaped leaf I was going for. I ground and belt sanded a flat face on a too heavy (3.5 lb) boilermakers hammer, it'll have to do for now. Half inch stock has never worked so easy.
  

It is fantastic once you get the hang of it is it not!! :)

Yes its a great skill every one should master. There is an other option that is to make fullering hammers at different radius and just swing straight. That is kind the principal of the vertical anvil Brian created. or have dies that can go in your hardie hole also like the 2 tools he uses in hammer making . Its great.

The rounding hammer is definatelly great to have in your toolset! I made mine with Julien Puy a few weeks ago and I really enjoy using it. The round face allows one to make very clean and smooth products.


Here is my one:




It already serviced me very good making these new chissels for me:




If you get the chance to make such a hammer or get your hands on one you should definatelly go for it. Although I would not want this to be the only hammer I have. It is great but don´t want to miss a traditional crosspeen hammer on various projects.


- Daniel

It is the same because Brian and Uri learned this method from Habermann. it is a great video and Alec you have had one heck of a trip and opportunity.

Francis, I have shown this very same use of the rounding hammer long before I got around any other blacksmiths. The first blacksmithing conference that I attended and demonstrated at was in 1998 at Vista, California. I demonstrated the same type of leaf in steel. I never had heard of Hofi or Habermann until 2002 while I was with Tom Clark. I made my first rounding hammer for Alfred Habermann in 2006.

I'm still trying to get to grips with how I survive as a professional blacksmith without owning the last magic hammer that had people in a froth!

Should I get this "rounding hammer", or wait for the next one?

I'm worried that I might be missing out!

Please help!

Dan P, when you cut a piece of steel on a hot cut hardy, what do you use as a top die? When you do half hammer faced blows on the near or far edges of your anvil, what do you use as the top die?

What do you mean by "top die", Brian? 

What's a "half hammer faced blow"?

If you are talking about blacksmithing techniques, you can just use the regular terms. No need to take something plain and make it fancy on my account.

Fancy? I thought I was being plain.

Top die means your hammer surface, top tool, top die in a power hammer or other device.

Half hammer faced blow over thenear or far side of your anvil is where you strike with your hammer half on and half off the edge of the anvil with your material between.

You can see what I'm talking about in the video.

Well, be it fancy or plain, if you want to say hammer, say hammer. No need to say "die", that is something else.

So, to answer your questions; when I cut a piece of steel on a hot cut hardy I use a hammer

When I put a set in a piece of iron using the edge of the anvil I also use a hammer.

Why? What do you use? 

Let me guess!

A die?

Dan P, the reason I call it a die is because I am trying to communicate the best surface of the hammer to use. So would you please answer my question and tell us what surface of the hammer you would choose to cut a piece of steel on a hot cut hardy. What type of hammer and what surface of that hammer you would choose?

To answer your question again, Brian, I would use the weight and type of hammer appropriate to the job at hand. The surface I use is the obvious one, that being the face of the hammer. As it happens, I almost always use a hot set, rather than a hardy. The way I use the hammer remains the same.

Now, will you tell us why you are asking?

Dan P.  I don't understand your confusion in Brian's use of the word "die".  He has used these terms for years as other blacksmith also use them.  You may use the terms you want but I don't understand your insistence on Brian using your terms.  His use of other words like bottom die, top die, rounding die are well within the definition of the word "die".  "The die is a metal block that is used for forming materials".