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saying hi! again

FrankV - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - 1:13pm
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hello all,
I have not been on in a while so just wnated to say hi again. I am hoping to get active on the site more, since I have a few projects pending. I have been spending the past few months collecting tools and reading up on metal working, specifically raising, and doing some homework on making up patterns. I have been looking for a good raising hammer but have yet to find one for sale that I really like. A friend has a nice one that is about 16 oz and has one vertical and one horizontal face. I have not been able to track one down though. I usually go to blacksmithsdepot.com for my hammers, anyone know another good source? thanks!

Frank
hobbyist


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Rich Waugh's picture

Frank, Welcome back. I'm

Rich Waugh - Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 3:10pm

Frank,

Welcome back. I'm unsure why you would want a raising hammer with a vertical face, though. I've done more thanjust a modicum of raising, and I do almost all of it with an old Dixon silversmith's raising hammer that has two horizontal faces with different sizes/section radii. I just can't imagine using a hammer with the face oriented the other way.

You might have to have that hammer custom made. Nathan Robertson makes really nice hammers, if you can be patient. His backlog is a year or more right now, I think. There are others who make hammers, perhaps even someone here. Good luck.


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FrankV's picture

Hi Rich, I friend of mine

FrankV - Friday, December 7, 2007 - 11:04am

Hi Rich,
I friend of mine has a raising hammer at his shop with a vertical face, it might be a custom. I found it pretty useful when working a piece over a blowhorn stake to stretch sheet metal. I was standing so I am swinging the hammer perpendicular to the stake and going in courses from right to left. I am probably going to be doing some work over the weekend, I will try to get a picture. Maybe you could recommmend a better technique.

thanks for the reply,
Frank


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Gene Olson's picture

I'm with you Frank, i

Gene Olson - Friday, December 7, 2007 - 12:51pm

I'm with you Frank, i request or make my hammers with alternating ends.

They are like dental picks, left hand on one face, right hand on the other.

A straight and cross peen combo and a left and right diagonal combo.

When you are stretching stuff out and you see it is getting to long and needs to be wider you don't lose a heat looking for a different hammer or repositioning the work;
because as your hand goes up, you can spin the handle in your hand and come down with the other hammerface without missing a beat.

Nathan makes both of those styles.

Gene Olson
Sculptor
Elk River, MN


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FrankV's picture

thanks for the reply Gene. I

FrankV - Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 9:33am

thanks for the reply Gene. I have seen diagonal peen hammers but was unsure of their applications. How can I contact Nathan to inquire about a hammer with alternate ends?
I just picked up a regular raising hammer from blacksmith's depot but have not had much time this week to try it out. I have also been trying to find out a good stake to use for raising. A lot of the tutorial videos I have seen online do not give you a good shot of the stake, they concentrate on the hammer technique. I have a cheap Harbor Freight anvil that I took the point off of the horn and was attempting to use that.


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