andys MQ Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hi all I feel like a bit of a learner here but just wondering are hardies ment to be tapered or straight? Or does it depend on what anvil you have? Mine is straight but it looks like some on hear are tapered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan P. Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 I find it a bit easier to make a tapered hardy shank. Also, some anvils have tapered hardy holes. Other than that, the advantage of a tapered shank is that the hardy tool meets the anvil at the shoulder, and is unlikely to get jammed. However straight shanks are fine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip in china Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 I have a number of hardies as you would expect. I have only one with a tapered shank. I don't think it matters. If you have a tapered shank make sure you have a good collar on it. Otherwise as you are using it you are driving a wedge into your anvil. At best that is likely to get jammed in fairly tight. At worst you would be risking breaking the heel off your anvil. Probably my favourite hardie is one that fits my baby rhino anvil. That is a piece of railway line with the actual line cut off and the web forged to a rounded edge- like an axe. That one has a parallel shank arc welded underneath. Of course the base of the line provides a very large base. The anvil is small so the risk of a broken heel is greater than on one of my larger anvils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 I have forged some straight shanks, because I saw that the manufactured ones were made that way. However, it is time consuming, especially on the older, forged anvils where the hardy hole is usually out of square and was punched during manufacture. Sometimes you can feel the punch/bulge surrounding the hole, below. So, in forging the straight shank, there is the problem of putting it in the hardy hole facing the same direction for each heat, as well as getting the corners right. It helps to chamfer the corners a bit. The finished tool may possibly fit only one way on the old anvils. For instance, if your tool fits and then you give it a quarter turn, it might not fit. Having had these experiences, I'm with Stuart on this. A slight taper is helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andys MQ Posted January 26, 2013 Author Share Posted January 26, 2013 Yer cool I was thinking about the same. The hardie hole in mine is quite square though so that is a good thing it looks to be cast steel ( I may be completely wrong) rather than punched Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WayneCoeArtistBlacksmith Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I forge the tang to fit my anvil. As Frank was saying it only fits one orentation. My tang has a grove forged in the side toward the horn. Because it fits so closely there is little wobble and the tool is more efficient, becoming part of the anvil. Some of my tools I weld a long "U" so that I can drive in a wedge to really make it part of the anvil. Brian makes his with a taper so that one hardy tool will fit almost any anvil. Both good reasons for different opinions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andys MQ Posted January 27, 2013 Author Share Posted January 27, 2013 Oh yer that is probably what I'm getting confused with Brian's hotcuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wroughton Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 I struck and assisted Tom Clark in forging hardie hot cuts and bending forks at a NRBA conference in western MT. His answer for "unique" hardies was like WayneCoe's, with a groove or chisel cut that always faces the horn for best fit. It obviously is anvil specific and not as portable as Brian's hot cut but works well in the anvil it was intended for. On that note, I've always put a rounded edge on my hot cuts. I think the impetus for that was to get some of the cutting edge away from my hammer that I always seemed to crush when the cutting edge was perfectly flat. Not much of a problem any more but I still use a hot cut with a rounded edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewOC Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 Q: hardie (shank); tapered or straight? A: whatever (closely) matches your anvil hole. ;) A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andys MQ Posted January 31, 2013 Author Share Posted January 31, 2013 Q: hardie (shank); tapered or straight? A: whatever (closely) matches your anvil hole. ;) A. Good answer :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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