#RAILROAD SPIKE MAUL HAMMER FULL#
#RAILROAD SPIKE MAUL HAMMER PLUS#

I have been blacksmithing 30years and still enjoy every opportunity to learn I get, or try to -) We will see if Nathan wants us to use a full swing?

#RAILROAD SPIKE MAUL HAMMER PLUS#

I have made hammers before, but am curious enough and humble enough to wonder what I don't know that someone who does it all the time can teach me, plus it sounds like fun. The class will have us striking for one another to make a hand hammer, and a 6# striking hammer. I am taking Nathan Robertson's hammer making class here June 3rd&4th right before I do the opening night demo at the IBA conference in Tipton, IN. But I haven't been that lucky most of the time, generally you only get one of the two important qualifications: willing or able. If you have a willing an able striker, it can be a true joy to forge as a team like that. It takes time and attention to train a striker, and the striker has to be willing to learn. I suspect I could only put up about an 80%-90% accuracy with a full swing starting cold with an 8# or larger sledge, but I am picky -) I often do what Francis showed in the pic above, I have the helper hold the steel while I swing the sledge. Plus most of us aren't forging things where you really need a full swing, its flashy and, it is kinda fun, until someone has a big misstrike that garfs the piece up bad. ) But like HWooldridge's grandpaw for most blacksmith applications I would be happier with strikers using a hand up strike with A LOT more control. So I continue to forge to shape and flat grind most things. With sledges I have gang sledged at demos and conferences before, and I did good enough, no glaring errors, except one hammer clash where I was rushing the strike. Part of why I don't do hollow grinds on knives is that I haven't been willing to have a high failure rate. To get good you need to get the bad ones out first, and I don't have the time. Experience comes from learning from the consequences of poor execution, and poor judgment. Skill and good judgment comes from experience. It's awkward at 1st, but after a bit it's all 2nd nature. Holding steel concrete pins for someone driving them with a sledge, I learned to always hold pins with your thumb down vs thumb up the way everyone wants to grab them If the sledge misses and hits your arm, your hand automatically opens and releases the pin as opposed to the other way around where the hand is forced into the pin and you can break your wrist or thumb. The funny thing is that my grown sons also trust me not to strike them when holding something driven into the ground - but I use tongs when holding for them. I never thought much about it then but makes sense as I remember working with him. He always said the full circle overhead swing was better suited to work down low, like driving stakes, because you had more time to make adjustments as the hammer came through the top of the swing - but he preferred the short stroke style when working at the anvil. sledge and held the rock drill in his hand but I managed to never hit him. I was petrified the first time he gave me an 8 lb. When I was a teenager, my grandfather would occasionally want to hand drill limestone blocks for repair on old German houses in this area (at the time, he was a carpenter by trade who also did some masonry work - and he had also worked as a blacksmith in the mid-1920's).

Railroad spike maul hammer