Steeled Wrought iron Dogs head hammer.

[jlpservicesinc]

started this hammer in 2018 at the Bolton Fair..   Since I use regular hammers for blade work it was not high on the priority.  

Well I got a request for a sword cane from a buddy of mine and now that I am old, blind and can't forge a good tight taper I decided it was time to finish the hammer.. 

Friday night i demonstrated at one of the oldest Fairs in the USA (Hardwick Fair) and I planned on prepping it for a face weld at home but one thing lead to the next and it all happened at the Hardwick Fair as the Demo.. 

Punched on the diagonal which is tough without a good swage.. 

the Wrought iron was upset out of some wrought iron from the Longfellow bridge in Boston, MA. 

I only had a piece of lawn mower blade in the trailer..   Not sure what these blades are made from but it's a tough steel..  

it's always neat seeing how the steel pulls on the wrought iron..  Clearly visible after the quench in the photos..  

2 3/4lbs..  

Has some really weird flecking in the wrought iron.. Its silver in color..  Have never seen this in wrought iron before.. 

[Latticino]

Real nice one Jennifer.  The on bias punch and drift is impressive, and the wrought iron is so knarly it looks like petrified wood.  Looking forward to seeing what you make with it.

[1forgeur]

That looks really nice! Would you happen to know what year the bridge was erected? Just curious.

[anvil]

Nice job, Jen

[ThomasPowers]

Could be a bit of odd alloy from busheled Wrought Iron. 

I had a weird one once making a plain WI gladius from an old wagon tyre.  Had a strange look to it during grinding so I etched it and it had a mix of tight grain and coarse grain in it like galaxies in a space picture.  Odd enough we took it down to the local University and hunted up the MatSci Prof to ask about it.  He asked us for our "guess" and mine was that it had been a heavy duty wagon running over the Ozark Mountain roads for a long long time and sections had extreme areas of dislocations from the rocks and other's less and when I had did the short amount of forging; the areas of massive dislocations had renucleated small grins and the areas of few dislocations had grain growth.  His comment was "WHY AREN'T YOU IN MY CLASSES?!!!"

[arkie]

Beautiful hammer, Jen.  The grain in the hammer is really striking (no pun, there...).  In you pictures with the hammer on the gravel background, was the hammer wetted with water to bring out the grain?

[jlpservicesinc]

12 hours ago, Latticino said:

Real nice one Jennifer.  The on bias punch and drift is impressive, and the wrought iron is so knarly it looks like petrified wood.  Looking forward to seeing what you make with it.

Thanks..  The upsetting really pushed it back on itself.. I loved it..  

9 hours ago, 1forgeur said:

That looks really nice! Would you happen to know what year the bridge was erected? Just curious.

Thanks  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longfellow_Bridge

8 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Could be a bit of odd alloy from busheled Wrought Iron. 

I had a weird one once making a plain WI gladius from an old wagon tyre.  Had a strange look to it during grinding so I etched it and it had a mix of tight grain and coarse grain in it like galaxies in a space picture.  Odd enough we took it down to the local University and hunted up the MatSci Prof to ask about it.  He asked us for our "guess" and mine was that it had been a heavy duty wagon running over the Ozark Mountain roads for a long long time and sections had extreme areas of dislocations from the rocks and other's less and when I had did the short amount of forging; the areas of massive dislocations had renucleated small grins and the areas of few dislocations had grain growth.  His comment was "WHY AREN'T YOU IN MY CLASSES?!!!"

Thomas, I believe you are right..  I had upsetted it from the 1.125" sq to get to nearly 2"..   

7 hours ago, arkie said:

Beautiful hammer, Jen.  The grain in the hammer is really striking (no pun, there...).  In you pictures with the hammer on the gravel background, was the hammer wetted with water to bring out the grain?

This was the test etch and sadly that day the acid was a little cooler and the hammer was newly polished..    I dropped it in the Ferric chloride for about 1 minute and then into coffee to see if I could pull out more of the face..  

After the hardening I did not polish the hammer back up to etch it again.. I just removed all the burnt oil (linseed oil) degreased it and put it in the acid again..  I then went for a quick walk..   

That day the acid was hot and when I put the hammer in it was also hot from the hardening and the clean up of the burnt oil..  

so it etched deeper and washed out glass looking surface..   I was very disappointed on the 2nd etch.. 

Today I made a handle but the wood was to rotted and it snapped at the head..  So instead took the time to polish it again and remove nearly all the old etched surface.. 

this next time I'll pay closer attention..  Sadly I like the glass look with the striations underneath.. But in use they get washed away by use.. the only way I know of keeping the wrought iron striations is to etch deep enough but don't like that look nearly as much.. 

When done now it will be close to 2.5lbs..  

I'm pretty lazy.. It doesn't take much to make another one. 

[jlpservicesinc]

and hammer is now complete. 

Can start on the sword project again. 

Black Locust handle..  Was very dry..  see how long it holds up.. 

[Hefty]

Stunning form in the hammer head and stunning figure in the wrought iron!! There's so much to love in that hammer. Beautiful work, Jennifer!

Cheers,

Jono.

[jlpservicesinc]

Thanks..  It works very well..  Was a true pleasure to use finishing the sword.