Delivering the Perfect Strike
by
Jere Kirkpatrick
Note: This article was originally printed in the September-October 1995 issue of Fabricator
In the early 70's, I was at a friend's shop
preparing for another craft
fair which happened to be in his hometown. When we went to his house that night I was looking through his library of blacksmithing books when I picked up one by Otto Schmirlers and noticed a tool he had referred to as an Oliver (better known as treadle hammer). As soon as I returned home from the weekend I called book dealer Norm Larson to order the volume.
After looking at the Oliver shown in the book, I thought that there was an excessive amount of engineering going on to do a simple job. I didn't think much more about it for quite a while.
In 1985, I returned to Willits, Calif., after spending a year designing and building six special purpose machines for a company in Los Angeles. I opened a blacksmith shop with the thought of building product for the wholesale and retail market. After getting a few products into retail stores, I could see that I was going to have to do something to increase my production efficiency. I remembered the treadle hammer that I had seen in the book years ago. I purchased a set of plans and looked them over for a while before starting to build the machine.
I wound up completely redesigning the tool to my own satisfaction. The first thing I did was determine the best position's for all the pivot points and resulting arcs to make sure everything moved well in relation to each other. I put the return springs behind the rod that connects the treadle to the top link, which freed up the "throat" area for work and tools. When everything was arranged to my satisfaction, I had to decide what material to use to keep all of these pivot points from moving while smacking a piece of red-hot material as hard as I could. I built what I thought would be my prototype and worked with it until I eliminated all the bugs. I'm still using that hammer today.
A short time after building my first treadle hammer I found that I was starting to incorporate more split and drift elements into my product line. I was grooving more pieces before twisting and putting more detailed leafs on my roses. Thanks to the new hammer, products that were once deemed unprofitable because of long production times are now back in my product line.
The tool in Figure 1 made it possible to quickly set stops for punching end points for grooving or marking the length of a split and drift. After marking the material to be split, I changed to a chisel and groove from one dot to the next. Every groove is the same length and lined up front to back. With the groove being made while the piece is cold, I save a lot of time and fuel by having a place for the slitting chisel to register in when the piece is hot. Hot collars are done while the material is hot by sliding the piece to be grooved along the adjustable fence.
In 1990 I got a commission to do some very high end fire place implements, so I decided to build a set of dies to form the shovels on my treadle hammer (Figure 2). That year I took 50 of the shovels to the California Blacksmith Association Spring Conference to see if anyone would want to buy them for their own fireplace sets. I hardly got them off the truck before they were all gone. The blacksmiths couldn't believe the low price I was asking for them nor could they believe that I was making them in only one heat and one hit. Needless to say that without the treadle hammer my product line would be much different today.
Two of the most asked questions I get are "How hard does it hit? and "Should I get a treadle hammer instead of a trip hammer? How hard it hits is entirely up to you. The faster you can get the 60 lb. head moving the harder it is going to impact, although hitting as hard as you can is not always what you will want to do. It is also ideal for doing fine chisel work. As for taking the place of a trip hammer, the answer is "no." The treadle hammer is a tool of its own, just as the anvil and the trip hammer have certain work that they do best.
A treadle hammer is ideal for a one-man shop or a larger operation where there are only one or two blacksmiths who support a larger fabrication shop. It allows the smith to have both hands free for more accurate placement of tools before striking. It also allows the smith total control over the amount of hit imparted on the work piece. One of the major benefits of using a treadle hammer over hiring a striker is that it will never come to work with a hangover and after six months it won't think it knows more than you and go out to start its own business.
Tooling is a very individual thing. Tools should be made as universal as possible. In other words, when you design tools or tooling for the treadle hammer try to make it so they can be used for several different operations. Figure 3 is an example of such a tool. This spacer shown in this photo allows all my hardy tools to be positioned at the correct height, which greatly simplifies setup. Some of the tools I have made for other blacksmiths have more or less defined what direction they have taken in the trade, such as knife making, medieval armor, door and drawer hardware and light switch plates to name a few.
Read "Delivering the Perfect Strike--Revisited"
fair which happened to be in his hometown. When we went to his house that night I was looking through his library of blacksmithing books when I picked up one by Otto Schmirlers and noticed a tool he had referred to as an Oliver (better known as treadle hammer). As soon as I returned home from the weekend I called book dealer Norm Larson to order the volume.
After looking at the Oliver shown in the book, I thought that there was an excessive amount of engineering going on to do a simple job. I didn't think much more about it for quite a while.
In 1985, I returned to Willits, Calif., after spending a year designing and building six special purpose machines for a company in Los Angeles. I opened a blacksmith shop with the thought of building product for the wholesale and retail market. After getting a few products into retail stores, I could see that I was going to have to do something to increase my production efficiency. I remembered the treadle hammer that I had seen in the book years ago. I purchased a set of plans and looked them over for a while before starting to build the machine.
I wound up completely redesigning the tool to my own satisfaction. The first thing I did was determine the best position's for all the pivot points and resulting arcs to make sure everything moved well in relation to each other. I put the return springs behind the rod that connects the treadle to the top link, which freed up the "throat" area for work and tools. When everything was arranged to my satisfaction, I had to decide what material to use to keep all of these pivot points from moving while smacking a piece of red-hot material as hard as I could. I built what I thought would be my prototype and worked with it until I eliminated all the bugs. I'm still using that hammer today.
A short time after building my first treadle hammer I found that I was starting to incorporate more split and drift elements into my product line. I was grooving more pieces before twisting and putting more detailed leafs on my roses. Thanks to the new hammer, products that were once deemed unprofitable because of long production times are now back in my product line.
The tool in Figure 1 made it possible to quickly set stops for punching end points for grooving or marking the length of a split and drift. After marking the material to be split, I changed to a chisel and groove from one dot to the next. Every groove is the same length and lined up front to back. With the groove being made while the piece is cold, I save a lot of time and fuel by having a place for the slitting chisel to register in when the piece is hot. Hot collars are done while the material is hot by sliding the piece to be grooved along the adjustable fence.
In 1990 I got a commission to do some very high end fire place implements, so I decided to build a set of dies to form the shovels on my treadle hammer (Figure 2). That year I took 50 of the shovels to the California Blacksmith Association Spring Conference to see if anyone would want to buy them for their own fireplace sets. I hardly got them off the truck before they were all gone. The blacksmiths couldn't believe the low price I was asking for them nor could they believe that I was making them in only one heat and one hit. Needless to say that without the treadle hammer my product line would be much different today.
Two of the most asked questions I get are "How hard does it hit? and "Should I get a treadle hammer instead of a trip hammer? How hard it hits is entirely up to you. The faster you can get the 60 lb. head moving the harder it is going to impact, although hitting as hard as you can is not always what you will want to do. It is also ideal for doing fine chisel work. As for taking the place of a trip hammer, the answer is "no." The treadle hammer is a tool of its own, just as the anvil and the trip hammer have certain work that they do best.
A treadle hammer is ideal for a one-man shop or a larger operation where there are only one or two blacksmiths who support a larger fabrication shop. It allows the smith to have both hands free for more accurate placement of tools before striking. It also allows the smith total control over the amount of hit imparted on the work piece. One of the major benefits of using a treadle hammer over hiring a striker is that it will never come to work with a hangover and after six months it won't think it knows more than you and go out to start its own business.
Tooling is a very individual thing. Tools should be made as universal as possible. In other words, when you design tools or tooling for the treadle hammer try to make it so they can be used for several different operations. Figure 3 is an example of such a tool. This spacer shown in this photo allows all my hardy tools to be positioned at the correct height, which greatly simplifies setup. Some of the tools I have made for other blacksmiths have more or less defined what direction they have taken in the trade, such as knife making, medieval armor, door and drawer hardware and light switch plates to name a few.
Read "Delivering the Perfect Strike--Revisited"
PHOTOS
Treadle Hammer
Figure 1: When it comes to making tooling and jigs for the treadle hammer, your imagination is the limit. This rather complex piece is a spring loaded punch and chisel holder made to accept Dodge valve stems. The fence piece moves forward and backward to accept material up to l inch, and the end stop is adjustable to any length. The tool is ideal for grooving hot collars and marking material for slitting.
Figure 2: This clever die set is for making fireplace shovels. The die is spaced just right so that it is hit when the two arms holding the hammer head are horizontal. This arrangement provides a balanced impact.
Figure 3: Are you spoiled by the convenience of your anvil's hardy hole? This simple spacer accepts all of the tools that fit in a standard anvil slot.
Figure 3: As an important safety precaution, all tooling should have handles. Otherwise you rishk getting your hands injured.
The two tools shown here were all that was needed for doing the veins and seeds on the sunflowers. By putting serval tools on one handle there is no heat lost when changing tools. This is the blacksmith's version of an auto-index.