May 14, 20197 yr I forged a couple of these out yesterday. They are made from hex 4140 stock, and not heat-treated. It's been a while since I've made any top tools, so I was a bit rusty on process. I used to make handled, hammer-eye-punches with some regularity when I was still punching my hammers by hand. I use the hydraulic press now for that, so I don't do much striker/director type punching. This type of punch is typically used for punching hammer eyes, tomahawks, axes, and top tools, but it can also be used for doing punch and drift work. (Similar to slit and drift.....just slightly different tooling.) Anyway, I decided to pop a few of these out, doing a little bit of striking directing work to make them. On these-type top tools, the eye is a single taper profile. (Larger on bottom, and smaller on top.) The handle is 100% friction fit, instead of using an hour-glass shaped eye and wedge fitting it. This prevents the shock from hitting the tool with a sledge, from transferring directly into the handle, and also helps prevent the handle from snapping due to missed or off-target striking.
May 14, 20197 yr Very nice. One of the prettiest hammer eye punches I've seen. Lovely work as usual Dave.
May 14, 20197 yr Verrrrry nice. I'm hoping, as my skills increase, to be able to make top tools some day. Other than knife making, that's my real interest in forging. I'd be tickled pink to be able to make an eye punch as nice as that one some day.
May 14, 20197 yr Beautiful work Dave as always. I don't see anything I'd like different, I like the decorative punch work around the struck end. I sure wish you'd post more often I miss you. How are things going for you and yours? Frosty The Lucky.
May 15, 20197 yr Author I browse occasionally but I've cut down a lot on posting on the web all across the board. Too busy working! haha Things are going fantastic! 'Been married for a year and three-quarter, the wife helps a ton with the business, and we've got a 9 month old son now too. Plugging away at building our house......we moved shops.....doubled the size of our original building......now we are thinking of adding on again. haha
May 19, 20197 yr Uh, business is booming, new wife and baby, building a house and expanding the shops. You should be able to keep us in the loop with all that free time. I mean REALLY what else do you have to do? It's really good to hear Dave, give the missus my best and maybe spoil the little one some for me. Frosty The Lucky.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.