I have a 2.5 pound Japanese hammer made by GSTongs, and a 1.5x1.5" flatener that I got from.

Www.blacksmithsdepot.com

The both The father and son are great peeple. The Mom is very customer orientated.

Very ice family.

A lot of hammer dings are caused by poorly shaped and polished hammer faces.

The stanley hammer you are using probably has very sharp corners transitioning from the face to the angled bevels.

The face is probably dead flat.

Forging hammers should have a slight crown.

The stanley hammer probably has some kind of grind marks on it to which will transfer from the face to the blade.

The final step of taking out hammer dings is plannishing.

As your heat from your final heats begin to cool off your hammer blows get lighter and lighter.

Keep them overlapping.

Clean finishes also have to do with brushing your work regularly so that you don't hammer scale into the flats of your steel.

Any smithing hammer is fine for the work you are doing.

Dogs head or Japanese style hammers are very nice for beveling if the face is properly crowned and polished.

I suggest about a 2 pound hammer.

I do not like japanese hammers that have long heads, I find they torque on the blow.

There are several good makers of these style of hammers they tend to run about $100.

So to recap, proper crown of the face and good polish.

The hammer you have can be cleaned up nicely.

Kevin, There is no perfect hammer to get out hammer marks. The hammer marks are there because you need practice. Most any blacksmith style hammer is fine as long as you get used to it and get enough practice. Sort of like choosing a bowling ball. If it fits your hand, the rest is up to you. There is no substitute for time and effort at getting good with the tools you have.

I recently spent a week in another shop using tools other than my own. It took me a few blows to get the feel of the hammer I was using but I mostly relied on my eyes. I look where the blow goes and see the effect that blow has and adjust accordingly. This is something that is difficult to explain but will be proven out with enough time spent at the anvil.

I suggest you look on youtube at some videos on blacksmith techniques. Alec Steele or Brian Brazeal have some good ones.

Your probably already aware of this but I'll mention it just the same! Being mindful of the condition of your anvil face condition is always important too, this includes the edges as well. Any ding or dimples in the face of your anvil will show up on your blade and you will continually be chasing them down.

Kevin, you said you have been using the Stanley hammer and a few ball peen hammers. One thing to think about when choosing a hammer to do the task is what happens to the steel when I hit it with this hammer? Imagine for a moment that the hammer is as big as a bowling ball and the steel is a mud puddle. Drop the hammer into the mud puddle and visualize which way the mud goes.

The Stanley hammer has a square face and the mud will go in different directions depending on the angle of the strike. Unless you hit perfectly flat with the face of that hammer, it will always leave a vertical or horizontal hammer mark from that corner. Working with the ball end of the ball peen and you will always leave a dimple. Working with the flat face of the ball peen, you will always leave a crescent shaped hammer mark unless you hit perfectly flat with the face. This control is what Lin is talking about.

Every smith seems to like a specific style of hammer, one that suits his/her personal taste. Some smiths have a wide variety of hammers and use a different one for different functions. Some of us use one primary hammer and maybe a couple of additional ones for certain tasks. I have a 1500g Tom Clark cross peen that used to be my primary forging hammer. Then my wife discovered it and now it is her primary forging hammer.......

I have purchased a variety of hammers over the years and finally found one that fits me. I still use the Tom Clark (when I can put my hands on it) but my primary hammer is a very simple Peddinghaus Swedish Pattern cross peen. 1000g.

My advice would be to try a couple of different hammers in the 1000-1500 gram size (2.2-3.3 pounds)until you find one that you really like and spend a lot of time practicing at the anvil until you can get the motor skills to make the hammer do what you want it to do. There is no such thing as a perfect hammer or a bad hammer. There is the right hammer for the job, and the preferred hammer for the smith.

Great advice on hammers already in this thread. I have also tried a lot of different hammers and have settled on a diagonal peen hammer made by Ed Caffrey, It took me a while to get used to it but now I can't live without it. It is very well made as you would expect coming from Ed. The split hickory handle absorbs some of the impact very well and I feel much better using this hammer after a full day of forging.

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Kevin, you said you have been using the Stanley hammer and a few ball peen hammers. One thing to think about when choosing a hammer to do the task is what happens to the steel when I hit it with this hammer? Imagine for a moment that the hammer is as big as a bowling ball and the steel is a mud puddle. Drop the hammer into the mud puddle and visualize which way the mud goes.

The Stanley hammer has a square face and the mud will go in different directions depending on the angle of the strike. Unless you hit perfectly flat with the face of that hammer, it will always leave a vertical or horizontal hammer mark from that corner. Working with the ball end of the ball peen and you will always leave a dimple. Working with the flat face of the ball peen, you will always leave a crescent shaped hammer mark unless you hit perfectly flat with the face. This control is what Lin is talking about.

Every smith seems to like a specific style of hammer, one that suits his/her personal taste. Some smiths have a wide variety of hammers and use a different one for different functions. Some of us use one primary hammer and maybe a couple of additional ones for certain tasks. I have a 1500g Tom Clark cross peen that used to be my primary forging hammer. Then my wife discovered it and now it is her primary forging hammer.......

I have purchased a variety of hammers over the years and finally found one that fits me. I still use the Tom Clark (when I can put my hands on it) but my primary hammer is a very simple Peddinghaus Swedish Pattern cross peen. 1000g.

My advice would be to try a couple of different hammers in the 1000-1500 gram size (2.2-3.3 pounds)until you find one that you really like and spend a lot of time practicing at the anvil until you can get the motor skills to make the hammer do what you want it to do. There is no such thing as a perfect hammer or a bad hammer. There is the right hammer for the job, and the preferred hammer for the smith.

Dont know if you have kids but mothers day is coming up, perhaps you should get your wife a Tom Clark. thanks for the info =).

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Your probably already aware of this but I'll mention it just the same! Being mindful of the condition of your anvil face condition is always important too, this includes the edges as well. Any ding or dimples in the face of your anvil will show up on your blade and you will continually be chasing them down.

Hmm guess ill have to try to epoxy a new striking face on my dinky little vice with striking face. why im i using something like this, well im saving up for a proper anvil and stand along with a proper welder so i will have to settle for epoxy for now. Luckly i have a bench top anvil plate thinggy i can use. unfortunately i cant really forge till for a week as i damaged my Rotator cup at my day job on friday. saw doc yestorday and even with the strong non narcotic(why risk addiction if you do not have to) pain medication im both still hurting and the pained area has expanded. so im going back to the doc in 30 minutes. man i hope i did not tear it but if i did well im going to have to rig smething up cause bladsmithing before going out to face the world really keeps me calm as i am prone to panic attacks. i did dress my hammers a bit recently. however i just switched from a coal forge to a gas forge so i figure i just need to relearn my hammer control.

|quoted:

Hmm guess ill have to try to epoxy a new striking face on my dinky little vice with striking face. why im i using something like this, well im saving up for a proper anvil and stand along with a proper welder so i will have to settle for epoxy for now. Luckly i have a bench top anvil plate thinggy i can use. unfortunately i cant really forge till for a week as i damaged my Rotator cup at my day job on friday. saw doc yestorday and even with the strong non narcotic(why risk addiction if you do not have to) pain medication im both still hurting and the pained area has expanded. so im going back to the doc in 30 minutes. man i hope i did not tear it but if i did well im going to have to rig smething up cause bladsmithing before going out to face the world really keeps me calm as i am prone to panic attacks. i did dress my hammers a bit recently. however i just switched from a coal forge to a gas forge so i figure i just need to relearn my hammer control.

Look into stump anvils.

You don't need a lot of space to forge a knife on.

4X4" is enough and they are affordable.

Also they can be polished as well.

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Look into stump anvils.

You don't need a lot of space to forge a knife on.

4X4" is enough and they are affordable.

Also they can be polished as well.

Hmm i would say it depends on the knife. as i would like something with a horn to help with making a curved blade. im planing on getting a 70 pounder from http://usaknifemaker.com/ and a stand cause frankly i have no clue were to buy a stump in MN.

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Dont know if you have kids but mothers day is coming up, perhaps you should get your wife a Tom Clark. thanks for the info =).

Yeah I thought about that before Tom passed away, but you cannot get these anymore. (at least not without a second mortgage on the house) so I guess she gets to keep it for herself.

Stump anvils: http://oldworldanvils.com/anvils/

You do not necessarily need a horn to make a curved blade. Wait, change that. You do not need a horn to make a curved blade.

If you take a piece of rectangular bar stock and bevel one edge, the blade will naturally curve away from the bevel. Want it to curve the other way? OK, then start thinning the spine and drawing it out. The blade will straighten and if you keep elongating the spine, it will begin to curve away from the spine. Want an "S" curve? OK do the first two steps and start refining the bevels on the point end. That portion will start to curve away from the bevel again. Shaping the steel is all about where you hit it and what direction it moves.

On the subject of hammer marks in your work... there are basically two things that come into play.

1. Shape/Condition of the hammer face(s), and the anvil face. People often think I'm OCD when it comes to these factors, but I like to keep both hammer faces and anvil faces mirror polished. Hammer faces should also be convex. If you're trying to use a "Hardware store" hammer, it's very likely flat faced, and poorly finished. With these type hammer beginners generally have a lot of "crescent" shaped marks in their work. This is due to the outer edges of the hammer face being driving int o the work piece.

2. HAMMER TECHNIQUE, which is what I suspect in this case. With a convex faced hammer, and some time/practice, you can learn to create a very clean "forged finish". The thing to remember about forging anything is that it's NOT about brute force, but rather FINESSE.

im planing on getting a 70 pounder

Based on your comments, I assume you do not own an anvil at the present. I know a person has to do what they have to do, and any anvil is better then none at all, but my advice is to NOT buy a 70 pound anvil. It's way too light weight. Personally, I recommend no less then a 125 pound anvil. With a 70lb anvil you will work yourself to death, and never get much done. Those anvils you referenced are not very good anvils to begin with, and they are also designed/built for farrier (horse shoeing) work. I would recommend saving some more money, and go with another/larger anvil.

A good example of the minimal amount of anvil you need to make a blade and a curved blade at that.

Love these guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qol5Ey3sImQ

That was awesome JJ. I love how the sheath maker was holding the work piece with his feet. It reminded me of when I was in Maui and had a mask carved by a fellow who held the piece of wood with his feet while he carved it.

The "anvils" those guys are using look like the heads of sledge hammers stuck in the ground.