The evolution of tool making!

[Tubalcain2]

lookin good.

[Mark Ling]

22 hours ago, Daswulf said:

Awe I was doing well with paying attention till I saw the old jeep. 

I did that on purpose! It's my dads project. Got it runnin about a month ago for the first time in about 20 years.

Thanks!

 Forged a bottom fuller and a cupping tool today out of 11/4" (I think) axle.

 

[Daswulf]

Nice Tools! Man, I'm a jeep nut. love it.

 

[JHCC]

What's the radius on that fuller?

[Mark Ling]

3 minutes ago, JHCC said:

What's the radius on that fuller?

I'd say it's about 1/2"

                                                                                                                   Littleblacksmith

[Mark Ling]

Actually just a hair larger,

[Mark Ling]

Hammer eye drift made from a sway bar. Pretty nice if you were to ask me! Next weekend I'll forge my first hammer! wahoo!

                                                                                                                     Littleblacksmith

 

 

 

 

 

[Tubalcain2]

sure is prettier looking than mine.

[Mark Ling]

All done with a hand hammer! well, I did use a set hammer for the transition of the drift to the striking end, but I used a hand hammer to strike that. All about getting a really nice clean taper before you flatten it out.

                                                                                                                       Littleblacksmith

[Daswulf]

Nice work! 

[Jimmyiorn]

Nice work LB, very clean and neat, I am also working on these tools and just happened to find a local supplier that has  drops of 1 1/2" 4140 close to 4' long for $25. Lots of work to be done just need to dig up some extra time.

[EJRailRoadTrack]

All looks great! 

I just finished my striking anvil today, so I'm going to start on the fullers, and cupping tool at my next blacksmith meeting! Maybe i'll start a thread like this once I get my projects going! 

I really need to slow down when i'm forging my tools, and get them cleaner. Always moving forward though ....Proabably

[Mark Ling]

Thanks ya'll!

EJ- You should man! I would love to see your progression through the course! yeah, taking your time is real important if you are wanting a nice end result. Like I was sayin with the drift, you got to make a nice clean even square taper, then a nice even octagon, and then a really, really clean round taper. And then of course when you flatten the taper, you want to do that evenly. I only did one blow on one side, then I flipped it over and did another blow on that side.

 

How to Forge a Rounding Hammer

-Find your center punch mark, and have your striker give a medium blow.

-Hit once, and rotate every blow, as your hole gets deeper, you may have your striker give harder blows.

-Once your are just about at the bottom, flip your billet over, and using a pair of calipers, you can find the center of your billet.

-Have your striker barely even touch the top of the tool (give a "pin prick"). adjust if necessary.

-after you are fairly certain that you are in the correct spot, right over the hole, you can have your striker give increasingly harder blows. keep your tool cool.

-When you begin to see air around the plug, you can have your striker give three blows ("one two three") and sheer the plug out.

-take another heat, and begin driving the drift from the small side of the hole.

-Then take your top fuller, and work from the middle of the cheeks, to the thicker part of the drift. The reason why you don't want to work on the side that is closer to the end of the drift is because it is not supported by the drift. So, if you were to work in that area, you would collapse the eye.

-Place the cupping tool in the hardy hole to begin upsetting it. This will loosen the drift, and so you may have to re-drive the drift part way through.

-the next heat, you are going to drive the drift in from the opposite side that you just were working on, and again, you are going to work on fullering out the cheeks. You should have 3 valleys, and 4 ridges. Then continue upsetting the billet.

-Using the little curls on the end of the jaw of the tongs, but them up against the bottom fuller and top fuller. Have your striker hit, and rotate 180 degrees, and hit again. Then, rotate 90 degrees, and fuller on the same side as the cheeks. Rotate 180 degrees, and again, fuller. The main thing to remember is, to get everything symmetrical, if you do something to one side, you Must do it to the other side!

-now rotate 90 degrees every blow, and start deepening the fuller lines. Now, fuller the diagonals that you just created. Hit lighter on them, because there is less surface area contact, and it is very easy to go too far to fast.

-Flip it around, and do the same thing that you just did on the other side.

-Next heat you will have to use hump tools now that you have started to put in the fuller lines to support it while you drive in the drift from the small side of the drift. While you drift you will have to push down on the hump tools so that they don't slide around.

-Now that the drift is driven, using both the top and bottom fuller continue drawing out he cheeks, starting at the middle, and then going to the high side to the drift.

-Drive the drift from the small side of the eye. This time work more on the top part of the drift, because last heat you already worked down the middle. Do still work in the middle, just not as much as the high side of the drift.

-Come in from the opposite side of the drift, make sure the surface of the cheeks are clean (wire brush), and take of the high spots on the cheeks (mountains) only the one closets to the top of the drift (thicker part of the drift. when you get closer, take lighter hits to smooth out the deeper impressions, and not put more in.

-come in from the opposite side, insert the bottom fuller into the anvil, and take down the last mountain. Just like the last step

- at the end of the heat at a low temperature, clean up the troughs on either side of the cheeks.

-using your touch mark, mark the high side of the drift (will be helpful when you begin to put a handle on it)

- Take a low heat, wire brush it, and clean it up.

                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

 

 

[Mark Ling]

My first hammer! Made from a large pin of some sorts, about 1 5/8" in diameter. It weighs a little more than 1 1/4 lbs. I figured I would start small, and get the process down before I move up to making larger hammers. This one wont get a whole lot of use, as I don't use hammers this light very much, but I enjoyed making it. I was able to persuade my dad to strike for me, so that made it fun. I fullered it a little thinner than I would have liked, but I was trying to get one side even, and before I knew it I had forged it down a lot. So, I ended up having to do it to the other side of course, but I think it looks fine.

Also included some pictures of my "hump tools" used for supporting the hammer when you are driving the drift after you have begin spreading the cheeks.

After I made the hammer, I decided to make a wedge for the handle, and then I made another, and anther, and ended up making 6.

 

[SJS]

Good Job LB.  It is wonderful that you are taking the time to make lovely tools.  Self discipline, and patience are marvelous character traits, and will benefit you all your life.  Having nice tools to play with is pretty great too...  Don't dismiss the small hammers, they definitely have their place. Don't rush the big hammers, it is too easy to give yourself repetitive stress injuries. When I was young my favorite hammer was an 8# hand sledge, but now I'm not even 50 yet and my favorite hammers are 2-2.5#. Having an iron will ruling over mere flesh and bones, leads to injuries in my experience...  You are getting a good start, take care of yourself and use good judgement, so you can do this for a Long Long time...

[Tubalcain2]

nice job, bro.

[Frosty]

Your skills are improving almost too fast to follow. I strongly agree, do NOT use too heavy a hammer, you're too young to feel the damage but it catches up. You'll be selling tools before long.

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

Very nice hammer, LB!  You'll find you will use the hammer more than you realize.  Keep up the great work.

x2 on SJS's comments...young folks try to do too much too soon with heavy hammers.  Result, long term injuries....unless you like wrist, elbow and shoulder surgeries!!  My go-to hammers are 2#, 2.5# and 3#.

[Mark Ling]

Thank you all for ya'lls very kind words!

I think I should maybe say this, because when we hear "heavy hammer" we think of different weights. When making hammers, anything over 2.5lbs is heavy (in my opinion). Not so much heavy to swing, but heavy forging (again, in my opinion). I probably wont attempt anything over 3.5lbs for a while. I would like a 4.5lb hammer though, which I will make eventually.

I swing a 3.5lb rounding hammer almost exclusively. I do swing a 4lb when doing anything over 5/8", and I also use a 3lb cross pein, because that's my heaviest cross pein hammer.

What weight do you all consider a heavy hammer to swing?

                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

[Marc1]

10 minutes ago, littleblacksmith said:

What weight do you all consider a heavy hammer to swing?

     

Don't be a hero with hammer weights. I try to stay under 2 kilos (4.4lb) and my arms are the size of your legs ... (if that is you in the photo  )

Try to think in terms of ... what is the lightest hammer I can get away with, to do this job.  

[Mark Ling]

3 minutes ago, Marc1 said:

Don't be a hero with hammer weights. I try to stay under 2 kilos and my arms are the size of your legs ... (if that is you in the photo  )

Try to think in terms of ... what is the lightest hammer I can get away with to do this job.  

Yes that is me in the photo.

What if I can swing a heavier hammer and get the job done faster and easier? For me it is easier to swing a larger hammer than a smaller hammer. When I use a ball pein to add a "hammered texture" to a piece, I notice that at the end of the day, my wrist hurts a little. Also I find that I'm not as accurate with lighter hammers. My theory is that because I'm used to having to use more energy to lift the hammer up than with a lighter hammer. I do tend to use about a 2lb hammer when I am forge welding things other than large items like pattern welded steel, axe bits, ect. and so this may be my new forge welding hammer.

                                                                                                                      Littleblacksmith

 

[Marc1]

True. Heavier hammer moves more metal. But you risk injury, that is the problem, and it is not so much to do with muscles then it is with vibration coming through your hand, bones and impacting your joints, elbow and shoulder.  The shoulder joint in particular is ridiculously small, a manufacturing defect I may address eventually with the Proprietor when opportunity arises.

 

[Anachronist58]

First time I have had a look at your thread - you are quite the talent, and I salute you. I use everything from a four oz. ball pein, to a four pound cross pein, and everything in between.

I have not started into serious blacksmithing yet, but I do quite a bit of hammering, nonetheless. Whatever hammer I choose, it has to be loose in my hand, and do the specific task without me thinking about the blow, like pitching a baseball.

I pick up this method from 22 years of precision hand finishing, positioning my work in the natural path of muscle memory. This helps prevent repetitive shock injury, at least for me.

Keep up the good work!

Robert Taylor

[Daswulf]

That's a Very nice first hammer LBS.  Keep up the great work!

[SJS]

I have seen some very good blacksmiths demonstrate who seem to never pick up anything other than their favorite 2# hammer. With the right technique you can move a ton of metal. Part of the trick is to ALWAYS let the hammer do the work!  All of it!  No trying to help the hammer out by PUSHING it deeper into the metal. You get the hammer up, you put it on the fast track heading down, and then you're just there for guidance.   Energy is Mass x V2. Velocity tends to be more important, because you get more energy out of your blow if it is faster...  Mass gives you Inertia, which carries the hammer deeper into the steel when you are working.  So light hammers tend to upset the surface of thicker steels, without moving the core. Heavier hammers tend to be able to move the core of what you are working. One of the mistakes that a lot of people make when they use a small hammer is Driving it home, gripping too hard and trying to squeeze extra work out of the hammer. Lift it high, swing it fast, repeat as necessary... Generally a 2# hammer will get the same amount of work done as a 4#, you just hit it more often.  Fatigue messes with you as you are trying to swing a heavy hammer too fast, too long. You start to compensate, your form shifts, and your technique gets sloppy.  You could be doing everything right, you might be using your 3.5# hammer like a pro? I can't tell, but I know what I have done to myself, and can provide a cautionary tale.  Godly wisdom is doing things God's way. Worldly wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes without having to make them yourself...  Self evaluation, and good judgement are priceless (good judgement normally comes from actually learning from the consequences of poor judgement...)  Always keep an eye on your technique, your accuracy and your speed, when any one of them starts to falter switch to a lighter hammer or take a little rest, and refocus...  I have watched YouTube videos of guys striking, and to my eye it is painfully obvious that they are swinging the biggest hammer that they can "use", I put use in quotes because if they reduced the weight of the hammer by a bunch they could use it faster (with more energy!!!) and more accurately.  They would have gotten the work done faster with a lighter set of hammers.  But I understand being hyped up on testosterone, I have picked up 300# and 500# anvils, but I am old enough and wise enough to no longer recommend such things;-) But you better not bet me that "if you can pick that up you can have it..."

As you get stronger, and you build muscle memory, you can and should learn how to use a heavier hammer (4-8# hand hammer>)  Since you seem to be getting the tool making bug, you will need to be able to swing a bigger hammer to drive punches, upset faces, and fuller cheeks. I just want you to suceed, meaning be able to play with the nice toys you make for a long, long time. You have to take care of anything you would like to keep, eyes, ears, wrists, shoulders, elbows, tendons...