Hammers In The Smithy

If you're building your homestead, you are going to want to make it unique and work for you. One way to do that is through the art of blacksmithing. Turning scrap metal into useful tools and items helps to make your homestead more self sufficient. Not only are you more self sufficient, but you are building skills for a trade to create extra income while making hardware and tools for use on your homestead. In today's economy there is very little in the way of American industry. Job opportunities are scarce and political policies are making things worse. If you are able to develop skills in a hobby like blacksmithing, you will have the fundamental skills to kick-start your own industry and turn around your own economic situation.
Since we've already talked about anvils, we'll pick up the discussion on other tools that you'll need to get started. A blacksmith heats his metal red hot to bring it to a plastic consistency, then hits it with a hammer to move and shape the metal. Hammers play an important role in a blacksmith's work. Most people have seen versions of the blacksmith's traditional hammer. Usually depicted as a cross peen style this type of hammer is very useful in forging metal. You'll notice that the peen or back side of the hammer tapers to a very dull edge and extends across the width of the hammer. This will put waves or dents into hot metal. After the metal is peened in this manner it is re-heated and the flat face of the hammer is used to stretch the metal by pounding the waves or dents flat. This gives the blacksmith a great many options in stretching, drawing out and shaping metal. Beside the cross peen hammer, the straight peen is also useful and depending on your project can be a bit more ergonomic.

The cross peen, between 3 and 5 pounds, should be your first aquisition for your blacksmith operation. Ball peens are usually seen in body shops, but there is a use for them in the smithy. A small ball peen is useful for dempling or starting an indentation in a section of metal. This section can then be opened further with a mushroom hardy. This technique is useful in creating bases for stands. Sledges are hammers with two faces and no peens. These are useful in the smithy too. They are generally used the same way you'd use a cross peen except you won't be putting waves into your metal. Sledges are good at flattening and thining metal and when used with a fuller will stretch and drawout metal as well.

Hammer technique and equipment is key to your blacksmith work. The equipment in this respect is very simple. It is the skill that the blacksmith applies with that equipment that determines the quality of work. Experience will gain skill and everyone begins somewhere. Will this be the year you begin? Keep checking back for more. We'll definitely be posting more on blacksmithing in the future and check out http://northwoodstraders.ecrater.com/ for some upcoming equipment and products.