December 13, 20232 yr Just a quick run of hooks to give to my team as end of year holiday gifts. Simple and effective. Forged from 4" of 1/2" square stock (because that was what I had). Tried to keep it down to (4) heats, but at times had to add an extra one to true things up and set the divot for the drilled hanging hole.
December 14, 20232 yr Author Two by hand and two using my little Anyang 33. Could have done it all by hand, of course, but why not use the tool if you have it. Someone better with a power hammer (or maybe a bigger hammer) could probably get it down to two heats, but I'm hardly an expert.
December 14, 20232 yr Nice hooks, clean simple and functional and you included a little decorative incising. What else would a smith buy a power hammer for? What dies do you have? Frosty The Lucky.
December 15, 20232 yr Author Thanks Frosty. I got the hammer used with (3) dies (flat, combination, and "ball shaped"). I found the hammer too small to effectively use the combination dies on any reasonable size stock. The flat dies were better, and if I make more tooling I might try using those again, but the distance between dies on this little hammer is kind of short and the hammer hits with pretty quick, light, blows - so not ideal for using tooling. The "ball" shaped ones are supposedly omni-directional or some such thing. I suspect would work pretty well for sheet metal work, but I don't really know how to do that (yet). I've thought of repurposing them into a kind of Japanese knifemakers set, but haven't gotten around to it. The dies I've made the most use of are a set of their drawing dies that I bought direct from Anyang. These work a treat on stock up to around 1.5" diameter. After that it is a little slow going.
December 17, 20232 yr Light fast hammers have their uses and if it'll draw 1.5 rnd. it's plenty skookum for decent sized work, it should work 1 1/8" well enough. Do you have a ring die for use under the ball top dies? That combo makes for nice hollow forms, bowls, etc. It's just a matter of getting a handle on what it'll do and practice, you'll be loving it in short order. Frosty The Lucky.
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