Hello all,

I've been trying to forge the right-angle bend on a pair of bench holdfasts. It's not that easy, especially since in pictures it looks like one side of the bend remains round while the rest towards the arm is rectangular. Does anyone have or know where I can get a clear set of directions, it's driving me insane

Thanks very much
Adriaan
www.adriaangerberknives.com

Anyone? How to forge a 90 degree bend? Any links to info?

Thanks
Adriaan

One possibility is to place the piece on the anvil with the shank end extending off the near side, then forge the arm portion down to maybe half-thickness on the anvil, leaving a crisp step where the sections join. Bend the section you've set down 90 degrees away from the step. You should end up with a round shank, a rectangular arm, and a nice sharp bend in between. Of course, without seeing the picture you're looking at, I can't tell if this might have been the technique used.

Edited August 8, 200817 yr by Mike BR

Heat to "bending" heat, not to "hammer" heat. Red to dull orange, and bend in a vise. I use my vice for bends that have to be tight at 90 degrees. Then I tweak them on the anvil. Just heating hot and hammering won't always work, there are many degrees of heat in metal, and the hottest isn't always the best to use.

If you want the bend to look really nice bump up the section where the bend will be so you have more metal to work with. then bend and shape it right and forge the rectangular section....

Upset right angle corners aren't too bad with square stock. Put a punch mark where you want the centerline of the bend to be. Heat that area and bend to not quite 90 degrees, more like 80 degrees. Heat to near welding and put one leg in the vise, use a small hammer with quick beats, and drive the corner towards the vise. Your punch mark will now be somewhere else than where you want it, but don't worry. Heat the bend again, and put the other leg in the vise, same moves until the punchmark is back in the middle of the bend. While your doing this, the centerline of the hammer is towards the outside edge, meaning you are almost doing a half faced blow on the material while it's in the vice. Repeat this several times, and you can see material grow into the corners, filling up that radius you described. When you think you have enough, heat it up and pound it flat on the anvil to remove the thickness that has gained in the other axis. If it has enough mass to give a square inside and outside corner, then take it from the original 80 degree bend to a square 90 degree corner. There's several ways to do this process, this is the one that Mark Aspery taught us in one of his classes. After you do three or four and throw them in the junk pile, it gets pretty easy, and you can still see the punch mark in the center when it's done.

Otto Schmirler's book "Werk und Werkzeug des Kuntschmiedes" has a picture of swages used for this purpose. If you are only doing one or two, bend hot as tight as possible and then upset each side in a half round swage. You have to work a bit from each side but you will eventually get the outside corner filled and sharp while leaving each leg round in section. One thing to watch is that you don't get an extremely sharp corner on the inside of the bend or it will break there when you drive the holdfast - about 1/8 radius or so is good.

Thanks a lot guys, I think I've got it.

Adriaan

If you want to see another blacksmith (George Dixon) make a square corner with round stock, you can order the RD3 video from UMBA. Total cost, including shipping would be $7.00. Got to their website (http://www.umbaonline.org/) and click on "Library" for information.

Edited August 9, 200817 yr by djhammerd

The guy who taught me to do this had me do it somewhat like Mike-HR described except it was all done on the anvil. Do the bend to 80 degrees. Push some metal outward at the corner. start pushing it back into the the corner over the far edge of the anvil. He mentioned that there is a book that describes how Francis Whitaker could do it in one heat and that the book gave a good description of the process. Anyone know about book Whitaker or any of his devotees may have written?

Here are the books
Beautiful Iron: the Pursuit of Excellence (Spiral-bound) - available at Amazon
by Francis Whitaker (Author)

Blacksmith Craft - available at Pieh Tool
The Legacy of Francis Whitaker, A - Vol. 1
$US52.00
Author: Dixon
8 X 10 Hard Cover
800 photos and drawings
157 Pages