windancer Posted August 6, 2013 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 The old world anvil site came right up on google. Git- thanks! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lupiphile Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 This is turning into a right interesting discussion. In addition to all the excellent points made by everyone older and wiser than myself, I'd like to emphasize making sure your forging hard enough. I have a 175# phoenix hammer with guides that don't stand a fighting chance. It took me about 2 years of forging several hours 4-5 days a week, before I keep everything square, MOST of the time. If you have big flat dies and your trying to make graceful tapers, you just have your work cut out for you. Things got better for me when I bought a smaller hammer, and I got frustrated with how little the metal moved. I then became much more confident about laying on the treadle to much closer to finished size. Then I noticed when I would go back to the bigger hammer everything would start working itself out. It's all about that confidence. Like when your holding a punch or a hot cut and swinging at it with a hand hammer, If you think about where your going to hit, or how your going to swing, you'll just end up hitting your hand, or breaking your hammer handle, or worst of all, not getting any work done. Just make the investment in scrap. Metal is cheap, your time is not. Also for the whole square, octagon, round thing under the hammer, I've found that the hit turn works just fine for square, but when I go to octagon (talking about under 3/4" or so, bigger stuff I stick with the hit, turn) things work better if you flatten one whole corner, down the entire length, turn 90, flatten the next whole corner, make sure the faces are even, then flatten the in between corners ( 8, 16, 32) That seems to take any twist out (or maybe it just doesn't put one in) turning constantly to get a smooth round has always ended up a mess for me. I hope I've provided something despite this inchoate, run on delivery. So to synopsize ( Give me inventive conjugation, or give me death! ) What everyone else said, plus hit it harder, is my take on things, Take care, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fe-Wood Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 This thread has been VERY relevant and helpful for me. I just picked up an Anyang 33. I was having a terrible time keeping my tapers square. 3 points from this thread that have really worked for me are: Rotate the work round and round not back and forth. Something about the differential heat causing work to go out of square. If you do go out of square, correct it immediately! Hit the work hard enough to cause the round bulge on the sides so it is correctable. With the speed of this little hammer, hit turn doesn't work... My hands don't move that fast.... When I forge to octagon, I start with light hits to properly establish the flats then I go back and work it to finish, continuing to work round and round... What I mean by working round and round; Work one surface then rotate 180 deg. and work that surface. Then rotate 90 deg. to work the adjacent face, then rotate 180 deg. and so on... As with most aspects of smithing it is a constant series of corrections and adjustments so proceed as necessary! Thanks to the OP and all who have contributed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knots Posted August 6, 2013 Share Posted August 6, 2013 I have been folowing this thread with interest. A lot of experience is concentrated here.One other thing that might be worth checking out is the alinement of the hammer dies. Even if the hammer runs true in its guides, if the dies are not meeting accurately surface to surface/face to face then things can get out of square. If your dies are manufactured or machined this is unlikely to be a problem. However if your dies are fabricated seemingly minor discrepencies can cause problems. I make up most of my hammer dies and always make sure that they aline accurately and that they are always installed in the hammer in the same orientation. My dies are marked top front and bottom front, and l always installed in the same position. For instance if one die is installed 180 degrees out of registration a slight error can double and possibly cause a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewOC Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 Do these help? ;) The guy who owns them might sell for a couple of grand ;) ;) A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forgemaster Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 Heh heh heh was wondering when these photos would surface. Price is $2000 each per set unpainted, painted yellow $3000.00, any other colour price on application! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windancer Posted August 29, 2013 Author Share Posted August 29, 2013 Thanks for posting the pics, Andrew! Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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