Question for you smiths.

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
I've been wondering about this for along time and figured if I ever got into forging I'd give it a try.
It's too simple for someone not to have tried it so I thought I'd ask and see what you guys had to say.
I was thinking you could turn a chunk of steel on a lathe into a hammer head that would fit into a pneumatic chisel.
You can adjust the speed of repetitions and how hard it hits so it looks like one of those would be good for forging.
Looks like you could get a lot more steel moved per heat up than just by swingin a hammer.
I know it's not inline with the normal mystique of blacksmithing and all but I'm talking about production type stuff.
Any ways, has anyone ever tried this idea and if so, how'd it work out?
If no one has, I was thinking about making the head and bringing it and my chisel and compressor to Trackrock so folks could try it out and see how it works.
Might be a good step for folks before they can afford a press or power hammer.
Take care!!
Michael
 
Oh, Oh, please do bring that to trackrock I for one would love to see it and try it out. I'm always looking for a easier way to pound steel. :D

HillbillyChuck aka Chuck Fogarty
 
Michael, this is indeed intriguing! Please do bring it to Track-Rock! I'm going to make it there for at least a day, if not the entire weekend, and really look forward to checking this out! :)

-Darren
 
This could be interesting. The real truth about moving steel with a hand held hammer comes down to tools like fullers and precise hammer control. If you know where and when to hit steel with a hand hammer you can move it quite easily. Now if your looking to make damascus, its the size of the steel billets that makes movement so hard. The long thinning and lengthening of a 3"-4" thick billet can be quite a time consuming event, but I don't think that a hand held air hammer would be the answer. I'm afraid the hammer weight won't be sufficent to move steel and in order to get a heavier hammer head, I believe the shock of a rapid hitting hammer like that would soon wreck up the arm. But then again you might be on to something. The deal with moving steel with hammer and anvil is the rebound collected by both. A good anvil will make a hammer move mostly by itself, with in reason, and the smith will focus more on control then swinging.
There is a gentleman here in missouri that makes air power hammers and they claim they can really move a lot of steel quickly between heats because they hit so quickly, so you might have a good idea. I don't know what size hammers they have or the amount of air pressure needed, but Fitzo does I believe and hopefully he'll come in here and post some about those air hammers, it might give you a few ideas of what you might need to do on this smaller version.I would like to hear how it comes out.

Good Luck and good hammering

Bill
 
B . Buxton said:
There is a gentleman here in missouri that makes air power hammers and they claim they can really move a lot of steel quickly between heats because they hit so quickly, so you might have a good idea. I don't know what size hammers they have or the amount of air pressure needed, but Fitzo does I believe and hopefully he'll come in here and post some about those air hammers, it might give you a few ideas of what you might need to do on this smaller version.I would like to hear how it comes out.
Bill
Click to expand...
Power Hammers are much faster than handheld hammers or even presses.
 
I think it would be a waste of your time.

How are you thinking of setting it up?

You would not be able to holt a hot billet in one hand and a pneumatic hammer in the other. And if you made some sort of mount for the little hammer, I just don't think there's enough mass to do you any good.

With mechanical hammers and air hammers there's a lot to be said for the weight of the head. The smallest hammer I've seen had a 15 lb. head...and at that was quite a big machine.

Like Bill said, if you hit a hot bar with a good hand hammer on a good anvil in the right sequences...it's not very hard to move the steel. I had a real wimp of a guy here in the shop the other day and with me pointing where/how to hit it he forged out a blade with ease.

You get a guy like Mark Aspery hitting hot steel with a hand hammer and you'll think you're watching them hammer on wax.

Nick
 
Muhahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!
Just the reaction I was hopin for, yes, no, maybe so!!!!
Nothin like a good controversial subject to get the brain tickin. :)
 
Unless you have something to brace the body of the hammer against you will just have a powertool and hot metal bouncing around you shop. Might be kind of fun to watch tho. Maybe use a jackhammer instead and put your work on a steel plate on the floor. Or use it horizontaly against the wall like the riviters on the skyscrapers from the 30's.

Famous last words of a Redneck: Hey Billy, watch this.....!


Either way moving metal is all about mass, gravity and inertia, with a bit of heat to spice up the mix. With the right heat, and body mechanics, moving metal by hand is not that hard to do.
 
The only reason you'd need anything else other than a normal hammer was if you wanted to forge out large bars of damascus.
 
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