My Apprentice

[hheneg]

AKA grandson cutting sheet metal tophat for snow man.  Learning to cut curves with a chisel.  

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Great form and determination. I give him a thumbs up and applaud you for trusting him. Who knows he may become the next master blacksmith.

[Daswulf]

Great job getting the grandson going in the craft. 

Keep up the good work and stress safety so he can enjoy it for a Long time to come. 

You are creating cherished memories and possibly a life long passion.  

[Frosty]

Good job! Teaching people to make is kind of rare now days and the younger you start them the better. I love the set of his jaw. 

One word to you directly though. GRIND THE MUSHROOING OFF THAT CHISEL! You can see where chips have already been knocked off! Go through all your struck tools and dress them so your Grandson doesn't get hurt!

Remember his face is too close to the struck end of tools. The SNAP sound when a chip breaks off is the sound of it breaking the sound barrier. It won't go that fast for more than a couple few feet but the smith is within that distance and it's never fun being hit by a jagged bullet.

Sorry if that came across as a rant it's not intended as one, it's a strong word to the wise. I want to see pictures of his progress posted here for years to come. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Good eye and advice Frosty, I didn't catch the mushrooming on the chisel. I still have a fragment embedded deep in my R thigh that went through a pair of blue jeans when I was about 15 years old. Doctors said just leave it alone because trying to remove it would cause more damage than it would be worth.

[SLAG]

Mr. J. Frost, is correct,

(as per usual).

Permit me, the SLAG, to make a suggestion to make faster removal of the mushrooming. 

If the mushrooming is substantial, there is a way to cut down the time removing same.

Use a rotary tool, such as a Dremel tool, or Frodam or etc., attach a ceramic cutting wheel to cut the pieces off. Then grind the remaining rough tool edges with a grinding wheel.

I use the thinnest cutting wheel, to do the job.

The thicker ones take way too long to cut through the steel mushroom pieces.

Please use P.P.E. to protect your eyes and lungs.

Just my two cents.

Regards, to all.

SLAG.

 

[Glenn]

After you get the mushrooming under control, it is easy to touch any new growth on the grinder to bring it back into shape.  While you are at it, take a look at other struck tools like steel wedges, etc. and dress them up.

 

[anvil]

Lest we forget, you can also reforge the end in your forge and reharden and temper, or at least normalize the struck end to slow down its mushrooming.  

[Charles R. Stevens]

Rounding the end also reduces mushrooming and helps mitigate off center blows. One can also harden the struck end and use a soft hammer as stone carvers do but it’s all to easy to forget and soaked the end or damage a hammer. 

[anvil]

absolutely, I always dome the struck end. I dont use any special hammers for these tools. I would rather just normalize or pull a purple temper on the end. This slows mushrooming and is softer than my hammers. 

[hheneg]

Should have ground off the mushrooming.  Thanks for the critique.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

A few years ago I had a chip from the face of a hammer go into my arm an lodge between two arteries, it happened so fast I didn’t even know what happened till I saw the blood running down my arm,

I went to the doctor she was to afraid to cut it out herself because of how close it was to one of the arteries so she scheduled me to go to surgery and have them do it, two days later

it definitely wasn’t a comfortable or a fun ordeal, 

My wife’s grandpa had a chip come off a mushroomed splitting wedge go into his leg and same story he had to have it cut out, 

Im definitely gun shy of mushroomed tools and chipped up old hammers now!