Thanks Gary, great comments it is really fun to learn from such a great bunch of guy's

Gary, I usually start out with a three pound hammer, every now and then a four pound one, if I have to move a lot of steel. This would be for thick steel. I use the three pound for most general forging. For the fine tuning and straightening I will move to a lighter hammer. I have a 2 1/2 and a 1 pound hammer. I also go to a lower heat. I am not moving a lot of metal, just making corrections. A lot of it depends on using the hammer you are comfortable with and can swing accurately. I have seen Jim Crowell use a seven pound sledge for forging, but he can swing it accurately and has arms like tree trunks.

Brion

I have to agree that Dan is spot on. Forging well in shaping and forging very close to shape are not necessarily the same thing. I find that I forge some parts of the knife to a closer finish than others. The very tip ;for instance; I leave more meat on. It just seems that the tip is always pretty much on the top end of the temps throughout the whole process.

For me; leaving some on the tip before grinding allows me to have a tip that is not weakend by decarb; etc.

Plus; decarbed areas, damascus, and etchants don't play well together; sometimes.

Different forges heat in different ways so my way is only just that.

We all do what works best for us.

M

|quoted:

Gary, I usually start out with a three pound hammer, every now and then a four pound one, if I have to move a lot of steel. This would be for thick steel. I use the three pound for most general forging. For the fine tuning and straightening I will move to a lighter hammer. I have a 2 1/2 and a 1 pound hammer. I also go to a lower heat. I am not moving a lot of metal, just making corrections. A lot of it depends on using the hammer you are comfortable with and can swing accurately. I have seen Jim Crowell use a seven pound sledge for forging, but he can swing it accurately and has arms like tree trunks.

Brion

Brion, actually it is an eight pound hammer and I started using it to set the "pinch" to pull the blade material down from the bar I started with. I could not hit in the same place twice so I tried to give it a good whack and then work from that spot. I used to use the eight pound hammer on large knives to do the "heavy" work. Then I would use a 3 1/2 pound German pattern cross peen and a one pound ball peen. Since those days I have had the opportunity to work with Peter Ross retired Master Blacksmith at Colonial Williamsburg and Derick Glaser at the New England School of Metalwork. Both of these guys use about a 2 1/2 pound hammer and do beautiful work in a very timely fashion. I find myself using my 3 1/2 pound hammer almost exclusively these days and do not feel the need for the eight pound or the one pound ball peen. A buddy of mine is making me a 2 1/2 pound hammer and I am looking forward to seeing how that works for me.

I tend to forge quite closely to shape which reduces the grinding time, effort and expenditure on abrasives. The only "problem" with forging close to shape is that there is little "fudge" room. Same with grinding. I now grind very close to finished shape with a 36 or 40 grit belt. I struggled for years trying to find the best sequence of grits. I asked Daniel Johnson at Bader one time years ago what was best and he said to just grind to finished shape with a 36 grit and then take out the scratches. Gulp!!! It took some time and practice but I am now able to grind quite close to finished shape with a coarse belt and "take out the scratches". Another element of forging close to shape is ones ability to forge well. If there are a lot of hammer marks and the finished product is bowed and crooked the smith will need to leave it oversize to get out the lumps and bumps. (They have a way of appearing as soon as I start to grind.) The bottom line is that that there are multiple factors that effect how closely one forges to shape.

Jim Crowell