Old timer at the Cloverdale meet showed me a trick with a ball peen hammer

I was at the Cloverdale blacksmith meet last spring. This guy, must have been 70, walked over while I was struggling with a upset on a 1/2 inch bar. He didn't say much. Just took my hammer, flipped it around, and tapped the bar at a weird angle with the ball side. Cleaned it right up. I'd been using a cross peen for years. Anyone else pick up a random move from an old smith that changed how you work?

3 comments

3 Comments

daniel47027d ago

Buddy of mine watched an old Norwegian smith do the same thing at a demo in Wisconsin. He swears by that ball peen trick now, says it saves him ten minutes per upset.

hayden_nelson8514d ago

Ten minutes saved sounds nice until you factor in how often that ball peen trick messes up the grain structure on the upset. My buddy tried it on a few projects and ended up with cracks he had to grind out, which cost way more than ten minutes. That “old smith” might have been doing it for years but that doesn’t make it a shortcut that works for everyone.

reese_nelson27d ago

Told my friend about that "ball peen trick" and he tried it the next day.