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I Forge Iron

Is my hammer control ok?


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Heat it back up when it goes from low orange to high red. It only takes a small amount of time to recover the temperature lost at the anvil that way.

Otherwise you have to recover from dull red, or where ever you decide, to the low orange to high red level, and then on up to forging temp. 

Different metals and different alloys have a different temperature they like to work in.

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Looks to me like you could go down one hammer size to around 2# until you build up your wrist a little.  There is a little wobble in your delivery and return.

What I'd really be concerned about is your gas forge.  It appears to be in extreme reduction with soft flames licking up to the top of the forge.  I suspect the reason you are working the steel cold is because your forge doesn't get very hot.  You appear to have more flame outside the forge than inside, especially on the top near the burner.  Hopefully you don't have a rubber hose connecting to the burner, have good ventilation, and have a CO monitor in your forge.

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It wasn't the most ideal situation with the anvil stand, the ground underneath was pretty uneven, but I've since moved it to be more stable. 

proper fitting tongs would definitely help! Another future project.

The hammer is the 3 lbs crosspein from harbor freight, I will probably end up grinding a lot off it anyways from the surface mushrooming, but I will definitely look into a smaller hammer. I had a 2lbs crosspein at some point but I'm not sure where it went. I should be more organized. I had also turned down the forge while I was hammering, usually it does not have the soft flame thing. My forge is pretty weak in general though, I am in the process of building a coal forge that will be much more fuel efficient and will get hotter. 

Thanks for the advice! 

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