Blacksmiths helper

[Scobb]

Hello, so I built a smithing magician the other day. Seen, one and decided to make my own. I'm going to be attempting some door pulls and I'm going to use it to help make the tenon. I still have to make the dies. I was wondering if I could just use regular mild steel for this. Or if it has to be something else. I'd expect to have to rebuild them occasionally but have a ton of 1/2" plate laying around.  Everything is cut by hand so excuse the squiggles haha. 

-Sam 

[ThomasPowers]

Many people use leaf spring, find one the correct thickness and slice it and you have a lot of tough die stock. (You of course didn't build it until you knew what size die stock you would be using, right?)

Yes you can use mild; but the dies will need to be dressed a lot more often, especially if you try to use them on more recalcitrant alloys.

[Scobb]

5 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

Many people use leaf spring, find one the correct thickness and slice it and you have a lot of tough die stock. (You of course didn't build it until you knew what size die stock you would be using, right?)

Yes you can use mild; but the dies will need to be dressed a lot more often, especially if you try to use them on more recalcitrant alloys.

I plan on using 1/2" dies. I'll mostly if not always be using it on cold rolled? I think? Mild steel. I guess what I was wanting to know is if I made dies out of 1/2" plate would they fail immediately. Sounds like I might get to play a bit before I have to re-dress them. I'm trying to wait till my good buddy (plant manager at a machine shop) hooks me up with something more suitable to make dies from in exchange for some cold brews. 

[SLAG]

A good source for checking out "smithing magician" die ideas can be seen online.

SLAG.

[Scobb]

2 hours ago, SLAG said:

A good source for checking out "smithing magician" die ideas can be seen online.

SLAG.

Holy cow, glad I had the stuff to build my own.  I'm to cheap for theirs lol. I'm gonna start off with a set of butcher dies. 

This is probably a terrible idea, but I'm going to ask any way. Has anyone ever set up a die to do punching or slitting? I have a hard time holding stock, setting the punch, and swinging a hammer all at the same time....and being accurate. I don't know if it's even possible, but I might have To try it anyway haha. 

Thanks,

sam 

[Glenn]

Build your dies to fit your project.

Again, the holder is just that, a holder. Depending on the tightness of your system, you can do many close and repeatable things. A loose system may be able to be shimmed.

One holder may not fit all projects. You may need to build a specific holder to fit a specific project. Or build a bottom holder for the stock so you can use both hands when grasping punches, slitters, etc and hand hammers.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Scobb, 

.        I have designed and built a lot of dies for the Smithing Magician . When I first started cost was a factor so I would just weld the forming end using 4140 to the 1/2 in cold rolled than heat treat.. Lots of possibilities . Rounds , flats . Tendons , cut offs.  The list goes on and on. Great tool just use your imagination . I designed one for Jerry Hoffman ( the Blacksmith Journal) it was called the sizing die . A lower die with side limit pins to limit the distance between the upper and lower dies. Great for tenons and only one was necessary for many sizes . Have fun

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim