Smither Striker

Today we did exercises in striking

which i am pretty experinced in thanks to my 

many months striking for richard. Not everyone

was quite on my level, a few people really struggled

with the commands and keeping a 

smooth rythem.

I wont lie some of the techinques

i saw richard would have thrown them out of the

forge for good.

Smither Striker is the process of

a Smither using a Striker to put texture, draw

down large stock even cut section off. A

Striker is an other blacksmith with a

sledgehammer of any size, ive used

right the way up to 20 pounds.

A system of non verbal and a few verbal

commands is used to show where you want

the striker to hit and how hard.

A few basic commands.

• Start - When you want a striker to start hitting either tap your hammer on the anvil and then strike the metal showing him to follow it up with a sledge blow.
• Stop - To stop lay your hammer on the anvil side ways shows him to stop
• Checking the metal - If you want a chance to check the metal strike away from the metal on the anvil, the striker will follow your hammer striking the anvil keeping rythem.

There are a few different techinques

but really thats which you prefer.

 

 

 

 

Just a few videos of a bit of striking with Joe,

he hasnt got much experince with keeping

a rythem but he can hit well enough.

Penny Nosed Scroll

This is the guide to a penny nosed scroll,

a really intresting little scroll

we were tasked to do this week.

1. Use any kind of flat stock, alot easier to the penny end pieces. Round off the end of the stock so there is no sharp corners on the end.
2. Leaving about a square over the edge set down a transition point using hammer half on half off techinque, set down till the metal is square at the transition.
3. Round up the square going into the penny, it will make the next stages alot nicer so just spend abit of time making it look nice.
4. Using two pairs of any tongs, twist the penny end up so its facing up whn the bar is laid on the anvil.
5. Now your gonna start shaping up the penny. First you will be working on the back corner, quench the top half so it doesnt lose its shape during hammering, put it over the edge of the anvil and use glancing blows to put a curve along that back edge.
6. Bring the penny up now with the hammer till it is pretty much vertical up, it will be looking more oval at this point than circle but we will sort that.
7. Cool the tip again making sure its black, this helps get a nice upset at the bottom part while rounding the top, keep bringing that arm you have the stock in up and down changing angles for that hammer to hit. Should start looking alot more round.
8. There may be flat spots along it, this is a good part to get a ball pein hammer and just draw the metal out in that point and curve it back round.

To finish scroll it up, use the bick 

to put a postive bend in it first rather 

than over the anvil, you risk putting a flat in it.

I will try and get a picture up soon of

some of mine.

For The Fans

Had alot of mail coming in recently
with some questions i will start answering them soon.
My faveriote question is from
an American blacksmith called Joe asking
to see a picture of the great Adrian.
Il ask him if i can show his
face.
 =D

Previous Work

This is a piece i did previous to the course,

it was a massive sculpture piece.

This is our drawn out design.

 The piece was a large tree like object that

was to hold up a big skull for my skull plant

ideas. Im hoping to put a few of those up here.

 We welded a few bars together so i could do a big

twist on it. Before the twist i forge welded the end

under the power hammer into square so i could twist it

better.

 This is the piece as it was finished, i forge

welded the four prongs on and bent them around it

using alot of cold forging.

 The final piece in the Exhibition space.

Tong Competition

Today we had a little tong competition.

Adrain said to us you have one day to make

a pair of tongs and we would compare the results.

This is my pair, not a great picture.

Its a pair of scrolling plyers, the end of the reins

is really bad because it was a spur of the moment thing.

 I won 6th place which wasn't bad for the 

quality of some of my forging, it is a little rough.

 These are Joe's tongs. Now Joe has

done little forging but these tongs were really good

Joe won 4th place.

 These are the captains pair of tongs,

a nice pair of rivet tongs. Really great forging 

but he only got 2nd place.

 These are the winners, James won with these.

Great forging, almost perfect sections with a

great nib. Tong King is James.

 These are will's pair, great forging even though

he really pissed around that day it

was quite good tongs just he didnt rivet them

to finish so he got quite low.

 These were the losing pair put in by Dan,

they were well forged reins abit thin but nice section

its just the nib is completly burned off one

which is more of an achivement leaving

it to melt off.

Reading Week

Ive been told i haven't posted here for a while

so i thought id catch you up gang. Just

back after reading week alot of little bits

around the forge that i would like to show here.

My faveriote bit of the week was

finally getting Andrews old engine working one

cold morning.

Took over an hour but god it was worth it to hear that sound.