June 18, 20169 yr Many thanks to all the great members of this forum especially frosty who had a answer to all my noob questions. I haven't coated the inside with ict 100 yet but it got up to temp pretty quickly. My build was a oxy cylinder with two layers of 1" koawool sealed with satanite and a castes refactory floor. I'm going to finish it of with a ict 100 coating but I'm happy with it so far.
June 18, 20169 yr It looks good from here. How was it to use? you DID heat some steel and beat on it didn't you? Hmmmm? Frosty The Lucky.
June 18, 20169 yr Author Oh yeah I did. Now I need to find a nice black smithing hammer. My Home Depot sledge just didn't have the nostalgia. Its very nice to use. At 20 psi it didn't take long at all to get up to temp.
June 18, 20169 yr Excellent. so what do you consider a "nice blacksmithing" hammer? I'm happy with any smooth faced hammer around 32 oz. Ball pein hammers are excellent smithing hammers, very old school and you can modify them into most any hammer you need. One of my go to hammers is an old garage sale ball pein I turned into a straight pein, removed the handle and forged the ball into a straight pein. It was SUPPOSED to be an angle pein but it got confused and went the wrong way. (Old hammers get confused easily learning a new trick you know.) I heated and just twisted it but I stopped at straight instead of taking it the full 90, I didn't want to push my luck. I also love my drilling hammer, it's about 3lbs. with a short handle it has convincing authority and it's reasonably easy to control. I highly recommend a drill hammer for beginners they move metal well and are easier to control. Making the same mistakes over and over when you're learning only teaches you how to make those mistakes. There are the ever popular cross pein hammers of course ad if you grind the pein to a wider smoother radius they're a go to hammer. Just don't get yourself stuck on finding the perfect hammer, or tool for that matter, there are NO perfect tools. It's the skill of the smith that counts, not the tools so much. A good smith can do masterful work with rusty scrap, a couple rocks and a camp fire. That big grease lump behind your eyes is what REALLY does the work. Frosty The Lucky.
June 18, 20169 yr Tractor supply "work force" cross peins are good starter hammers, as they typicaly take less work to dress (the pein in flat insted of sharp). Almost all hammers have to be dressed as it limits the unsightly divits when you don't hit it flat.
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