Correct me if I'm wrong AGAIN Neil. I believe you're referring to a "Hack" basically a length of flat medium/high carbon steel with an edge ground or forged on one edge. You use it by holding it on edge on the stock and striking the unsharpened edge above with a hammer. 

I've built up enough stock of leaf spring I treat hacks almost as disposable top cuts. I grind whatever cutting edge I need for the job at hand, some edges are long and rather obtuse so I can chisel mark on long stock, sometimes the edge is acute so it distorts as little as possible cutting. One edge I'm really fond of is single edged, so it only deforms one side of the cut, leaving the pinch off on the other half, side, etc. 

Oh HECK, now I'm thinking of a single bevel cut off might be a "hack" DANG tree!

If my memory isn't wrong and both tools are called "Hack" then this is a perfect example of why we need a uniform jargon in this modern world wide community of blacksmiths.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

Today I straightened out a unused mower blade and also bolted my anvil to the stump to stop it moving. I am still experimenting with anvil hight. Currently at knuckle height but feel it needs to be a bit higher. I will put a strap over the front at some stage. I have put in a pic to show what state the face of the anvil is in. It's makes it challenging to make things flat but as it is off my family farm I will be keeping it and work with what I have. I will look for some railroad tracks in the mean time.

With the mower blade I will cut off some test pieces to see if it hardens in water or oil. I will be making a machete type thing to cut up a agapanthus bush which is very soft so even if it is mild steel it will get the job done. It will be good practice. If it hardens I plan to make some wood carving blades for my nephew out of the left overs.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 20251 yr by Mod30
correct the triple post per request

Good Morning,

The piece I use is about 12" long. I'm sure you could use an old Wood Chisel for the same effect. 'Old' means it won't be used on wood again, Heat Treatment will be affected. It could be anything that is strong and slim.

Neil

Good Morning Frosty,

I shove it in from the end and use the sharp end to pivot against the base of the cut. This opens it up enough to go onto the side edge/corner of the Anvil to open it up. Think simple!!

Neil

A couple thoughts for you Tap Tap. Mount your anvil higher than knuckle height, then make a platform to stand on when a lower face works for you. 

I don't straighten lengthways on the anvil face, I get it close across the face and fine tune it on a wood block with a mallet.

Got it Neil, makes sense. I use my band saw to cut crosses and open them up on my hot hardy and round the bottom of the cuts with a narrow bottom fuller. I made a quicky fuller for the bottom of the cuts by welding a piece of 1/4" rnd. to a piece of 1/4" flat. I find myself using both as easiest so far.

Frosty The Lucky.

Using the tool shown yesterday (-;

 

15 hours ago, Frosty said:

now I'm thinking of a single bevel cut off might be a "hack"

Wait, i thought a "cut off" with a single bevel was called a butcher? I agree we need some more uniformity in our lingo. 

12 hours ago, Tap Tap Bang said:

Currently at knuckle height but feel it needs to be a bit higher.

Lay a piece of wood on top of the anvil and smack it good with a hammer. If you use say a round face hammer and it leaves a crescent moon shape the anvil is wrong height. If the hammer face goes in deeper away from you the anvil is to low, deeper in towards you the anvil is to high. You want a spot that looks like a full moon nice and even. Keep in mind that stock size will effect the impact point of your hammer. A piece of 2" stock has a 1- 7/8" higher impact point than a piece of 1/8" stock for example. So i would use a piece of wood that reflects your most common stock size. 

Right you are, I was thinking of a butcher but couldn't recall the name. My darned memory isn't getting better as I age. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky. 

Good Morning,

The things that are being 'Forged' are continually different heights. The different heights of Material and Tooling causes your Hammer Blows to be at different heights to your body. All of these changes affect your Hammer Height/Anvil Height. The idea of 'Knuckle Height' is a guess!! Frosty is suggesting something that will allow you to work thinner material easier and a way to work thicker material/tooling easier. There is no such thing as a 'Perfect Anvil Height'.

The Best Height is what makes you comfortable. You can add or subtract blocks from under your Anvil or Anvil Stand. You can mount your Anvil in a bucket of sand with a piece of plywood on top the sand. This allows you to adjust the Anvil Height by adding or taking away some sand. The bonus of the sand, your Anvil won't ring!!

just my $0.02

Thanks, Neil

 

There might not be a perfect anvil height, but there are some that are absolutely wrong most of the time. 6'3" or say 4" for the working surface height for example would make most forging difficult (although a floor plate is great for upsetting long bars). I've found the knuckle height rule to be the most useful general guideline, but semper gumby.

Mower blades tend to make poor knife or tool blades most of the time, except for on mowers, because the alloys used are often picked for toughness and durability (perfer et obdura) rather than hardness - a hard blade on a mower tends to chip, shatter, and kick out shrapnel when it hits dirt or rocks. Lord knows, I think most modern amateur smiths have tried a few though. They tend to be great for a lot of other things, not the least of which is backing plates for hooks, or as hinges.

2 hours ago, BillyBones said:

Keep in mind that stock size will effect the impact point of your hammer. 

Maybe stand on wood the same thickness?

You'd have to keep a plane handy to adjust the wood, every time you strike the stock it gets thinner. No?

I found I can adjust for a couple inches either way reasonably easily and ache free but that came with experience. Setting up I aim for between wrist and knuckle height, wrist for fine or detailed work, knuckle for heavier blows.

Frosty The Lucky.

Made a jig for holding the table leg pieces in their proper alignment:

 Which, when the pieces are put in place and clamped:

Allow for easy welding:

After which, the excess length is cut off. 

Before:

And after:

Next step: making the mounting brackets. Might make some changes to the shape of the insides of the legs as well; still thinking about this. 

Also, some bowl finishing work. 

On a side note, I got a photo of the repaired bell clapper reinstalled and put back in use:

Pretty busy for a Sunday weren't you John? I look forward to seeing the legs on the table.

Frosty The Lucky.

Spent Sunday doing some house cleaning. Got all my benches cleared but one which has current project on, you can see the floor now, the shop cats have nice cozy places to hang out in, and a new slack tank after mine freezing and pushing the bottom out... again. Just an old compressor tank i cut the end off of and welded on legs. 

Found a couple projects i had started and set to the side. Think i may revisit one or 2 like this cooking chain, inspired by the Sutton Hoo find. 

Have you watched Rowan Taylor's video series on recreating the Sutton Hoo chain?

He lets it looks so easy.

He is one of the reasons I started with this craft to be honest.

Same he does not make more videos.

He makes good videos, well worth watching any of them.

Frosty The Lucky.

That's some nice work there Billy.  I'm not familiar with the Sutton Hoo Chain, I'll have to do some digging tomorrow at work.  Tonight I was trying to get a cutlery set done for the blacksmith challenge group.   Not sure I'll have the knife done in time but I did try my hand at a three tined fork for the first time.   It's a little oversized and I need to do a bit of finish work on everything.  The knife is 5160, a cutoff from my current Kriegsmesser build.   Not going to get it heat treated but hey, I only have so much time. 

1 hour ago, Chad J. said:

I'm not familiar with the Sutton Hoo Chain, I'll have to do some digging tomorrow at work

Here’s Rowan’s first video on the subject: 

 

Yes i have watched those, several times. That is where i got inspired and first hit me that a chain does not have to be round links but can be quite decorative. 

I used to make a lot of chain. For a few months when i would go out and get ready to work i would make a couple links to get everything warmed up and the blood moving. 

Tried making some forks since i was not happy with one i made a couple weeks ago.

Started from square 10x10 mm (bit bigger than 3/8 but not much). But i ended up with no forks (intention was mainly to make the pointy bits, with short handles, not the long one)

Coldshuts, drawing the tines out to thin, the flat fit between the tines and handle was to small, ...

I think i will need to go up a size. I struggle with forks.

Forks aren't easy to forge. Try starting with 20mm x 10mm. Swage a neck down for the transition from fork to handle. Forge the handle leaving the fork tines for last. The thinner the steel the faster it heats and more proportionally is lost to scale. Forge the tines close and finish with a file to sharpen.

I've only forged a few BBQ /carving forks, the first was one of the only things I've ever gotten to forge from wrought iron. I was visiting metal head friends in the lower 48 for a big week long metal head party. I'd gifted our host with one of my first successful T burners. How early model T burner? It was a 1" burner going into a home made, single burner "Diamond Back" type forge. I drilled a hole in the end of his forge for the burner and it brought all 400cu/in +/- to well over welding temps.

The down side being it lit his bench on fire under the sheet steel table top. It was a neat setup, the floor of the forge was level with the bench top for working long stock but it was a BIT too close for such an oversized burner.

Sorry, memories got the best of me. The only reason I was as successful with the WI fork as I was is because we had to turn the forge down to get sparking yellow heat on a 1" dia. bar. It didn't matter how many times I split, even frayed it it just welded back together on the next heat.

Ahhhh, good times. 

Frosty The Lucky.

I like making forks. When i make forks i use typically 3/4" x 1/8" (~19mm x ~3mm) flat bar. At first it is a little tricky to keep from cupping over but once you get the rhythm down it is not to hard. But for me it is easier to keep the 1/8" thickness and turn out a functional light fork. When i use thicker bar i tend get thin weak spots in it. 

Thanks frosty and billy.

I checked some youtube as well (thanks jen for disturbing my sleep ) amd almost all start with flat stock or bigger stock that they flatten the end.

More work for the handle (tapered from 6 or 7 square on the diamond to 10 or 11) but ok, better more forging in the "easy" part than in the tiny part.

Billy, seems like thin stock, even with 5mm i get cupping easy and/or it does not gets nice square, it has an ugly cross section looking like an I beam. Fatter on top and bottom and the sides smaller. It looks square but it isn't.

Frosty, i know. I made that mistake once and i burned my tines off in my gasforge. Was a fun evening that one. Learned a lot from it. Was 3 or 4 years ago.

Yesterday was just trying to get a nice looking fork with the beginning of what my handle will look like. 

Gewoon what I'll do is hit it twice driving it in n on itself then flip it and flatten it out.  Basically I'm treating it like a taper except hitting it harder on the sides and lighter on the face.   Also if you get it built up badly, don't be afraid to give it a little rasping to knock it down.