JHCC Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Ran across a couple of interesting German videos showing trip hammer work. The first is a silent film from 1963 showing a smith and his helper forging a grub hoe, mainly with water-powered trip hammers. There's some great camera work on this one. The second appears to be the replacement of the anvil block in a belt-driven trip hammer. I don't speak German, so I have no idea what the narrator is saying, but it's an interesting process. Interesting detail: the base of the log is set on what appears to be wooden cribbing stuffed with manure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 Here’s another from 1979 (apparently from the same series as the second video above) that includes some pretty impressive forge welding on a big air hammer. This appears to be the manufacture of some large industrial blades, and it’s interesting to see the use of steeling at such a recent date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Thank you for the links John. It lead to some interesting viewing on other subjects as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kozzy Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Question about the first video... And it's late so it might just be that my brain has shut off: At 11:15, the smith uses the flatter but has a small trickle of water on the part as he does so. Following that, he does similar with a hand hammer, dipping it in the slack bucket to slop a bit of water around but not for hammer cooling purposes. The only thing I can think of is that he is blowing scale off the part since it is close to being finished--that's the way it is done in the big steel mills but being an ignorant cuss, I've never seen it done that way in hand smithing. Or is it for other purposes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 At 10:55 he waters down the coal on the forge table to control the fire from spreading. At 11:27 AND 12:32 are the times you are referring to in the first video. This is sometimes done to control or blow off the slag on the metal. It may be used to cool the metal so it can be planished rather than moved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 You see this done a lot in videos of traditional Japanese bladesmiths, and Yes, it’s to blow off the scale. I like how the wide-faced triphammer has that water container with a little spigot rigged to deliver a thin stream of water. Cool little detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba682 Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 Great vids i think my big 33lb chinese power hammer would give theirs a run for the money lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted December 31, 2019 Author Share Posted December 31, 2019 I wonder what the striking force of one of those beasties is, since it’s powered by gravity alone, and the head travels a comparatively short distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 Not that t has to have much more striking force than a man with a sledge, water powers smithies eliminated the need for an parentage to pump the bellows or a striker (or two) not unlike a modern electric smithy with a small power hammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Water powered hammers often had quite large heavy heads and so while the cycle time was slow the extra weight did a lot per cycle. When I was in Germany in the '90's one summer I visited several water powered smithies including one where the water power ran air hammers, drop hammers, etc rather than the old "direct drive" hammers---though one still had the originals in their attic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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