Karl, The one thing I always try to consider is the intensity of heat for a particular procedure. I believe that is why you are getting good movement. If you are at a yellow heat, it will move better and your stop blocks are keeping you safe from crushing too far.

Matthew, that's some project. I appreciate you taking photos.

that one was a year or two ago, custom order for a wedding. I do a surprising number of swords for weddings.

I had a bit extra on the length (better to much than to little.) and forged this guy out of part of the remainder of the patterned bar, its a good example of how the pattern changes with forging. Sometimes it can be nice to see how the hammer moves the steel, that is a the beauty of a really good random pattern to my mind.

MP

Consider this - I try to NOT press the dies in at a high heat. I find the layers don't react so much to each other.

If you were to PUSH your fist down into a bucket of real soft - (hot) - clay, only where you were pushing your fist would move down.

But if you had stiffer - (cooler) - clay, the surrounding clay would 'pull' down around your fist creating more distortion.

So I try to not press my dies in at a high heat.

I don't ladder at yellow at all but rather a normal forging temp.

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Karl, The one thing I always try to consider is the intensity of heat for a particular procedure. I believe that is why you are getting good movement. If you are at a yellow heat, it will move better and your stop blocks are keeping you safe from crushing too far.

Matthew, that's some project. I appreciate you taking photos.

I can appreciate your reasoning Karl but I respectfully disagree. Your results are certainly good but I believe your success could be attributed to other factors. I maintain that severe offsets should be done at a high heat.

From the same billet, and with all things equal, I'll try one at a higher temp than the other and see what's what.

It will be a good experiment.

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I can appreciate your reasoning Karl but I respectfully disagree. Your results are certainly good but I believe your success could be attributed to other factors. I maintain that severe offsets should be done at a high heat.