Loading…
0
That old timer at Quad-State changed my mind on power hammers
I used to think you had to have a power hammer to do good work, but last September at Quad-State in Ohio I watched this old guy named Bill forge a 1 inch round into a leaf spring hook using nothing but hand tools and a slack tub. He said, 'the hammer is just the tool, your arms and eyes do the real work,' and it stuck with me. I mean, he had this beat up 75 pound anvil and produced cleaner scrolls than I get with my press. Has anyone else gone back to basics after watching someone work with less equipment?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
samshah3d ago
That line about arms and eyes doing the real work is what gets me. Bill probably spent years learning heat control and hammer angles before he ever touched a power hammer, and that base skill is what made his scrolls so clean. What did his hammer technique look like when he was drawing out that 1 inch round, was he using a heavier cross peen or just a regular rounding hammer? I keep hearing guys say the anvil matters less than people think, but 75 pounds is on the light side for moving that much steel by hand.
-1