Ah ok. I gotcha now. I was trying to figure out where abd why you would use grease fittings on the peened metal. Makes sense now....
Seems like I've found myself in a bit of an argument on another forum. So, I thought I'd turn to the wise minds here to see if I'm actually wrong in my thinking. I can't remember the last time I was wrong! The subject is the construction of a home-made power hammer using leaf springs to connect the hammer head to the arm that makes it go up and down. In most of the newer designs, hammers cobbled together in a shop, you see folks using leaf springs from cars and trucks, or making their own out of three or four pieces of flat bar. The basic notion behind this seems to be that you want the spring to be springy so it whips the head down a little harder. The flaw in this thinking, when I apply some logic to it, is that the spring flexes in both directions - the up stroke and the down stroke. Any advantage gained on the down stroke seems to me would be lost on the up stroke. More importantly, you don't see really flexible springs on the older hammers that were made back in the late 1800's and early 1900's ---- a time when hammers were being made and used by serious professionals that relied on them for their bread and butter. Lets look at some examples: Cute as a button and portable, too! But notice how the spring is already flexing under the weight of the head and he's built a guard around the junction so the smith doesn't get hurt when there's a catastrophic materials failure? Or we could look at this fellow. Same basic design and, again, a very flimsy looking spring. Here's a close-up where we can see the guy used three bars of what looks like 1/4" stock to make his spring.... and it's flexing while simply standing there. Okay, so are we seeing something yet? Now let's take a look at a similar design from way back in the day when pro's were making the hammers: Lots and lots of leaves in that spring pack, and hard to imagine it would flex very much. Here's a nice shot that shows how thick the stack is, and how thin each individual leaf is. Again, how much whipping action would you expect in something like this? It's my assertion that the spring in the pack is just there to keep the impact shock from traveling back through the machine, damaging bearings and loosening bolts. The notion that a lot of flex is a good thing is a result of the modern age where folks are using found materials and aren't actually trained engineers that understand the science of what's going on. Combine this with a lack of familiarity with other hammer designs... and it's a recipe for misunderstanding. When someone says that the flex stores energy and makes the hammer more efficient, they never seem able to provide data from testing that shows this in any quantifiable way. When you see them talking about the springs breaking, it says to me that the springs weren't properly designed. After all, we don't see broken springs on cars all the time. The springs on a car go through far more use and abuse than most hammers will see today, but they're also designed with strong science - by professionals trained in the field just like the companies that used to make all these different hammers. Maybe I'm completely wrong. If that's the case, I'd like to know where exactly I'm wrong.... and why those folks building the hammers back in the day weren't smart enough to figure it out, either. Anyhow, enough thinking for the day. I'm heading out to the shop to pound some metal and make some neat things.
Finally! Mom made a batch of her world-famous chili so we could test out the ladle I made. It works. Mom's happy. I get a belly full of chili. Everything's good in my world!!!
One of today's tasks..... A dinner bell and a hanger to hold it. Took me forever to do what seems like a simple task, but that's how it generally goes when you have to figure out the design on the fly. I had an idea, and a hammer. The rest was some cussing, spitting, and general good time at the anvil. I actually try to NOT make my triangles all nice and uniform so they're not mistaken for mass-produced kit. After this last tangle, though, I put a few of them side by side like you'd expect if they were at a store, and wasn't pleased at all. Viewed individually, they're very nice. As a group, the lack of uniformity really stands out like a sore thumb.
Here's a knife I forged at the Trackrock "Hammer In" a couple of weekends ago out of a coil spring. Little 6 incher with a tapered tang. Will update once completed. Also, a picture of the Integral dagger Liam Hoffman, Luke Snyder and David Van Wyk made. Watching them work was pretty amazing. Will try and post the video of Liam taking on the first heat with a 15lb hammer.
Had a lady ask for a bottle opener for her son, so..... I get a kick out of threading the needle like this because it's not something you see being done on a lot of openers. And since I needed another scrolling fork and just happened to find a small leaf spring in the pile of bits and bobs, I thought I'd do a non-forging project. You can never have too many scrolling forks, I don't think, and this one is sized for doing small curves on small stock. The finished gap is just under 3/8" and I think I'll end up opening it to a solid 3/8" just so it's a bit more versatile. Aside from heating it in the forge to remove the heat treat and flatten the thing out, everything you see here was done cold with nothing more than an angle grinder and a couple files. The hole in the spring (that pesky hole that's always getting in the way) was opened and everything that didn't look like a scrolling wrench was cut away. I burned up two cutting disks in the process, but I think that's actually pretty good for how fast and easy the whole thing was. The working end cut and mostly shaped... and the rest drawn out in sharpie marker... Free at last, free at last. Thank god almighty, it's free at last! It's a nice comfortable length, especially for those small jobs. It won't need a lot of torque on the handle, so I'm not too worried about bending it. And if it does ever bend, I can always hammer it straight again! The real question is do I leave it as-is, or forge out the end to put a nice little hanging loop on it? I'm kinda wanting to forge the loop out, but then I'm also enjoying a "no forge" project.
It ain't cheating if it works! I was going to forge it all to shape, but the bolt hole in the spring was right in the middle of the length and I felt like it would work better to simply slice away what I didn't need. I still have plenty of spring left to make some knives, strikers and whatnot. I'm looking forward to making at least one striker just so I can compare the steel to that 1070 I've been using. Kovko, on youtube, does a lot of stuff with his angle grinder and really got me to thinking about using mine. It was fun.... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbsUP_oheVGrAV4nAjnlKcw
Welded up a new texturing jig and didn't much care for the texture it gave. So I banged the snot out of it with a chipping hammer. After a few runs through, the steel came out kind of nice. The more trips through the jig, the more the texture changes. And since I had a couple feet of nicely textured steel..... might as well make some more rune pendants! Oh, and I filled a really nice order for a lady in Colorado! Getting a good photo with the camera is a whole lot more difficult than the forging!
Hammock Hangers.... Something I'd never thought of, but I liked the idea. Had a fellow ask me if I could tweak my railroad spike hooks so they had a bit more curve because he wanted to hang his hammock from them and was worried that the ring might slip off the standard design. Always glad to help a fellow out! He wanted to lag bolt them to a post, so I drilled a couple 1/4" holes rather than punching a nice countersink divot. I prefer the latter, but it doesn't give much support to a bolt head.
VaughnT, are you sandwiching metal between two plates for the texture jig, or are you striking the texture jig with a hammer over the hot metal? Do you have more pics? Love the texture you got on those pendants.
The texturing jig is like a sandwich. There's a top and bottom, like two slices of bread, and the scorching hot metal goes in the middle. You can do a top-side-only texturer, but that requires you to flip the metal. Of course, I've been using the sandwich jig and flipping it anyway. Random is your friend. I'll shoot some more photos tomorrow when I head out to the shop.
Some good quality video education! I'm always happy to see how foreigners work iron, and this video was twenty minutes well spent. That eye-bending jig looks really simple to build.... so I just might! Overall, two thumbs up!
VaughnT I got this idea from you. Thanks for the inspiration. Pocket dump valet trays for Christmas presents.
