February 23, 201610 yr So me and a buddy of mine had a mini forge in last week. We wanted to have a crack at some tooling and I had some steel ideal for the job. We decided to do it out in the garden so the little 100 lb Fisher really earned its keep. The poor girl took a real hammering and at some point a miss strike took a small chunk out of the edge. A bit annoying but it's not worth crying over spilt milk. My ghetto forge was doing a grand job heating up the EN19 (4140 equivalent I believe) We were too busy having fun to take many pictures but we made the following: From left to right - a drift made from old pry bar, two Brent Bailey style slitting punches which worked very well on the 30mm round EN19 to the far right. We switched over to my large anvil to hammer the drift through. We were both very happy with how the slit punches worked. They went through without any issues what so ever. And the drift did an admirable job of creating an eye. The entire session was a learning experience for both of use as we haven't made tooling like this before. It was clearly much easier with one of us being a striker but I think we will both be having another go alone in the future. We slit and drifted a hole in each end of the bar I had before cutting it in half to make a tool for each of us. I had a 45 degree chisel I want to use for making lines in bars and my mate made a slot punch. Thanks for looking All the best Andy
February 23, 201610 yr Sounds like a fine day Andy. Nice tools and fun making them, what could be better? Frosty The Lucky.
February 24, 201610 yr Nice! Once I find myself a striker and a good deal on H13, I hope to do the same.
February 24, 201610 yr Looks like you guys were havin some fun, super grattifing making your own tools now to use them to make even more!
February 24, 201610 yr Author We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves Nick, that's for sure. And yes it was very gratifying to make our own tooling. Like I say neither of us had made top tools before so it was a bit of fun for sure. Ok they might not be the prettiest things in the world but they certainly worked, and we will most definitely be making more in the future. The slitting punches we made were perhaps a bit thin, next time I'd make them with a steeper profile. We started off a hammer on 2" bar and it was a real mission. They went through in the end but would heat up quite quickly and were bending after a while which was frustrating. No such issues on the smaller eyes though. I've got some H13 that I might try and forge into a slitter but it's at least 1 1/4" diameter so I'm not looking forward to it at all. All the best Andy
February 25, 201610 yr looks very productive. also, im sure everyone knows this, but forging h13 is a nightmare!
February 26, 201610 yr Yes h13 is like hitting cold steel lol. You have to rely on your heat to do the work and a power hammer really helps.
February 26, 201610 yr Very nice tooling.Looks like fun,its hard to find a sucker...ahem i mean striker where i am located.
February 27, 201610 yr Author 4 hours ago, odblacksmith said: Very nice tooling.Looks like fun,its hard to find a sucker...ahem i mean striker where i am located. I normally struggle as well. My buddy lives a 5hr drive from me but happened to be coming up my way for something else so decided to pop by and stay the night. We took it in turns to strike with a fairly short handled 7lb sledge. It wasn't too taxing on day one but on day two we were both knackered. Punching through the 2" bar was ab absolute chore. All the best Andy
February 27, 201610 yr 8 hours ago, Everything Mac said: Punching through the 2" bar was ab absolute chore. All the best Andy Now try to do it by yourself and that won't have seemed so bad.
February 27, 201610 yr Author 6 hours ago, NickOHH said: Now try to do it by yourself and that won't have seemed so bad. Lol. We need power hammers eh! All the best Andy
March 4, 201610 yr I love striking, but never have the time because of my job. I'm self employed and my boss is a jerk;-) he works me to death...
March 4, 201610 yr 32 minutes ago, SJS said: I love striking, but never have the time because of my job. I'm self employed and my boss is a jerk;-) he works me to death... I'm in the same boat. My boss likes to work me 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week. "Gotta pay the bills" is what he tells me....what a stickler.
March 4, 201610 yr Those are nice tools. I am envious of your free time. I have Three bosses. One understands the meaning of contract time. The other two can be real butt busters. I've been trying to get fired for years but when you sleep with one, and the couch sucks you do what you must. The third boss is me and well I can't seem to get fired there either. Darn my parents for instilling a strong work ethic.
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