instructional video: forging a hammer-eye-punch

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

Hey Guys,

just me showing one possibility to make a hammer eye punch. I used C60 tool steel in 20mm round stock:

Here are the different steps:

1. forge the round bar to an octagonal shape

2. create a teardrop shape about 1 inch below the top

3. create a light taper that starts of at the end of the teardrop and gets thicker for about 2 - 3 inches

4. then cut off additional 4 inches and create a light taper that gets thinner to the tip

5. taper about 1 - 2 inches at the tip thinner than the rest

6. planish and make everything nice and straight

7. dress the striking face

8. dress the surface of the rest of the tool and remove remaining sharp corners (optional)

9. heat up the whole tool above the transition point and let cool down slow (eg. in sand or on coals) to anneal it

10. grind the tip

11. heat up about 1 inch of the tip to cherry red colour and quench it in water or in oil to harden it (optional) ATTENTION: NEVER harden the striking face!!!

12. temper the hardened portion and a bit above to sky blue colour

13. clean it and touch up the edge

14. look out for cracks, test whether it is shatter proof

15. have fun with it :).


Here is the one I made in the video:




Well I hope this was helpfull.



Yours
- Daniel

[Francis Trez Cole]

nice job I would make one comment if you use the rounding face of the hammer and edge of the hammer face over the horn you would move a lot more metal faster.

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

nice job I would make one comment if you use the rounding face of the hammer and edge of the hammer face over the horn you would move a lot more metal faster.

I used the rounding face on the horn, but it was so effective, that I had to be carefull not to move too much. I then just planished on the face. Thanks for your comment!

[Guest Johnnie]

Good job buddy, keep up the good work!

[Anvilfolk]

A quick question - have you thought about nailing down your anvil a bit harder? That made my anvil lose its ring almost entirely. It now does a relatively dull thud.

The piece is, of course, marvellous :) Amazingly clean finish, I can't spot a single hammer mark. Top notch!

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

A quick question - have you thought about nailing down your anvil a bit harder? That made my anvil lose its ring almost entirely. It now does a relatively dull thud.

The piece is, of course, marvellous :) Amazingly clean finish, I can't spot a single hammer mark. Top notch!

I also saw that it is too loose. I will put wedges under the feet so it stand stable. With a wooden block you have to deal with the wood working with the temperature and moisture change.

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

I see you're posting from Germany, so I'm assuming you're German. Y'all is only used in the south, the rest of the USA thinks of it as Redneck Speak. :-)

Oh I thought this would be a common colloquialism. What I best write under a post when I don´t want to sound too formal?

[dimenickel]

hello
video is very nice and punch came out awesome

to quiet anvil, put silicone window caulking under the anvil.... it will deaden the sound and make anvil more enjoyable to work on .... aswell use metal straps or mechanical means of holding anvil feet to the stump ( to physically hold it in place )

take care
Greg

[David Gaddis]

Your punch is a beautiful piece of work. How about consider some differing tactics here. Now I am telling this only because I have been in the presence of some of good strikers and hammers makers as you posted being with Alec Steele the othe day. The primary penetrating device into a blank for a hammer is short, stumpy, fat, strong, and it still has the shape on the end that you have provided.
After a sizable amount of penetration...but still less than half way....remember you go in from both ends...you go to a slimmer, longer, penetrating device. Why? you ask....because as you penetrate deeper you are gathering up more heat and resistance. A simple change to the more streamline punch allows the process to proceed. Remember that you are not removing material but replacing it. You replace the existing material with the punch, and then the drift. Go back to your original pics and compare with some of those from Brian Brazeal and Lyle Wynn. I too have made the mistake of attempting to penetrate material way too thick with even a good shaped punch. When retreating to the streamlined penetrator the job was completed more easily. There was little side friction so the penetration went as if onto very thin material.
I am not the best at some of these things but I have been in the presence of some very good persons teaching the same principals. You have brought forth a good learning process that should receive more comments.
Perhaps Brian or Lyle will expand upon this to an exacting lesson. They are grealy qualified.

Carry on

[Pault17]

Gerald, did you emigrate from the "north"? Virginia was considered the South. As for all them non southerners, suchs to be them :)
99ppo, what part of Germany are you in. I lived down in Augsburg for several years back in the early 80's. Great work on the punch.

[Pug}{maN]

I like it I need to try to make me 1!

[Charles McDonald]

Great looking punch, and a wonderful photo as well! Thanks for sharing :-)

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

Gerald, did you emigrate from the "north"? Virginia was considered the South. As for all them non southerners, suchs to be them :)
99ppo, what part of Germany are you in. I lived down in Augsburg for several years back in the early 80's. Great work on the punch.

I am living in the sourounding of Frankfurt am Main, in the federal state of Hessen in the middle of Germany. Former West-Germany. That is about 220 miles north west of Augsburg.

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

Your punch is a beautiful piece of work. How about consider some differing tactics here. Now I am telling this only because I have been in the presence of some of good strikers and hammers makers as you posted being with Alec Steele the othe day. The primary penetrating device into a blank for a hammer is short, stumpy, fat, strong, and it still has the shape on the end that you have provided.
After a sizable amount of penetration...but still less than half way....remember you go in from both ends...you go to a slimmer, longer, penetrating device. Why? you ask....because as you penetrate deeper you are gathering up more heat and resistance. A simple change to the more streamline punch allows the process to proceed. Remember that you are not removing material but replacing it. You replace the existing material with the punch, and then the drift. Go back to your original pics and compare with some of those from Brian Brazeal and Lyle Wynn. I too have made the mistake of attempting to penetrate material way too thick with even a good shaped punch. When retreating to the streamlined penetrator the job was completed more easily. There was little side friction so the penetration went as if onto very thin material.
I am not the best at some of these things but I have been in the presence of some very good persons teaching the same principals. You have brought forth a good learning process that should receive more comments.
Perhaps Brian or Lyle will expand upon this to an exacting lesson. They are grealy qualified.

Carry on

As I wrote this is ONE possibility to make´em. There may be better, there may be worth. This one works for me. At Julien´s I also worked with some Brazeal punches, some facts I liked, some I disliked about them. I have to say that my version has a thinner more stream line type than the punches Julien made with Brian. The different bevels in my punch allow the force to be transfered to the tip very good without having a cloggy and heavy tool. The shape and the hight quality steel allow the tool to be light and ergonomical without the danger of bending or crumbling.

[John B]

As you have it, you would be punching with the bar perpendicular. It works best to punch parallel.

Explain please?

Would also like to see a guard on the angle grinder.

[Daniel Lea (AKA 99pppo)]

You're German, you're suppose to be formal. :-)

Daniel, you might think about changing the orientation of the indexing. As you have it, you would be punching with the bar perpendicular. It works best to punch parallel. Mark Aspery shows it the first way in his book, but has since changed it to the second. Other then that, looks great!

Hahaha jawohl! Only professional and formal^^ I can punch both perpendicular and paralell with this type of punch.

[K. Bryan Morgan]

Great work Daniel. I really like your punch and I think you are doing very good work. Don't worry about your english. You are writing very understandably. Having lived all of my life in the deep south except for the last 4 years. Ya'll is just as acceptible in Alaska as it is in Florida. Don't sweat it. Besides, rednecks are coal miners. Thats where the term originates.

[Francis Trez Cole]

Ya in Florida we have "Crackers".

[John B]

I might have that wording backwards. Anyway, the advantage (and as I understand, the purpose) to the indexing, is you always know the orientation of the tool. As the Daniel's tool is forged, when you hold it by the index, the tool's working end is long side toward you. If used that way, you would need to forge the hammer eye with the bar long side to you. That would make keeping the hole centered and aligned more difficult. If the index is changed to the other side, then the bar would run parallel and centering and alignment become easy.

Thanks Gerald, Clarified now.

[Farmall]

Y'all is not redneck speak...it is good ol' boy speak. BIG difference 'tween a redneck and a good ol' boy. Folks high and low in social status use it, as Gerald put it, primarily in the South. Plural is "all y'all". As my ancestors came from Germany in the early 1700's, I don't mind his use of it all, y'all. :D

[K. Bryan Morgan]

Good ol boys are rednecks... thats never changed. A good southern redneck is a good ol boy by deffinition where I come from. And Ya'll is just southern. Not good ol boy or redneck.. just southern.

[Peter Munz]

Grüss Gott Daniel,

Ich muss sagen:"Deine Arbeiten gefallen mir!"

Grüße aus dem Schwabenland

Peter

 

and for our no-german friends:

Howdy Daniel,

I must say:" I like your works! " - thumbs up!!

Greetings from the Swabian Jura (wiki :D )

Peter

(a little more in the south than Frankfurt)

[jgirard13]

Y'all goes all the way to Arizona and in these parts redneck is something to be proud of. We just dont say it with an accent like the south easterners do :)