Per request - here is a video showing how to forge a nail header with a pritchel hole "shank". Check out my recommended tools/gear: www.amazon.com... If you like my videos you can support me at: / torbjornahman
I work in a blacksmith shop in a living history museum, Barkerville BC. I always tell people interested in smithing to check out This channel. One of the best on you tube!
+patman0250 I probably could make one for you, but I would encourage you to make your own. A simple header is just a piece of plate with a drilled hole! Improve with drifted square hole, handle and domed surface.
Oh, you hot punched your drilled circle into a square. I wish I would've thought of that before an hour of hand filing. Great video as always, always showing me how much more I need to learn
Once again the fastest hammer in the West! Simple = elegance. Your approach and style are a delight and show mastery of the fundamentals! Thanks for sharing with the mortals.
Your videos and work is so well thought out and easy to follow. I really like the no nonsense straight to the point approach. Thank you for taking the time to share your talent.
Awesome video again Torbjörn! Lovely tool you have there, i find my anvil likes to walk around when i bring out the heavy hammers over the heel too. Yours looks ok when your forging normally though. Keep up the good work!!
Wow! I just found your channel. Great blacksmithing and filming! I'm a novice at blacksmithing, but working on getting better. I will be watching and learning something's from you going forward. Thanks for sharing!
Guy spends an entire video making this awesome tool, and then here I am most impressed at the very end, when he makes a perfectly round handle end in two heats. To quote my blacksmithing teacher: "It's simple. It's just not easy."
adam anthoni You're welcome! However the wrapping is just a simple single turn one. On heavier tools you usually wrap 2 turns around the tool and come back with two pieces of stock for a handle.
It's the second or third time that I have comment on a video of you, and again very nice work my respect to you I like to see your hands work. I wish I could make something with you and learn a bit of your skills. Thank you. Greetings from Belgium 🤘🏼🤘🏼⚔️⚔️
@@torbjornahman I am what you probably call a poor blacksmith. I work with materials who already had a life. now I make knives from the leafsprings of an old Willy jeep of 1944. but my gas oven I made myself, and set almost set my gate on fire. because I don't have a lot of space so I'm have a blacksmithersblock 🤣and next week I'm going to have for the thirt time a back operation so if that go's well I'm going to be a happy man. Just wanne have in my life no more pain..... And I wanne make in my life a Damascus knife but I don't have a power hamer, and I try it a lot but never succeed.+-15 times and hopefully next year I will make one (4 years I say that)😏🤔....... At least I can see you at work and that gives me hope......it's a seax in Damascussteel I wanna make. Sometimes I think I am a loser, but I never give up. Now Thursday that comes is my operation and hope that everything's is going well........... Greeting from a fan of you ⚔️⚔️🤘🏼🤘🏼
Hi, I've tried to make two from EN9, the first one was too painful to hold, and cracked. The second, which I tried to follow your method on was nothing but a mess!! I shall try again with mild steel and case-harden it. I am determined to make some nails!! :-)
Perhaps a dumb question, but what are you doing at 4:16 onwards? The bit with the ruler? Didn't you already mark the hole for drilling? Or are you checking if it's level?
Dave Pelfrey Thanks! First of all it depends on the properties needed for the tool. Should it hold an edge, sustain hard beating or just tough... For blacksmithing tools in general a medium carbon steel like 4140/4340/1045 would work fine. Edge tools like knives or wood working tools would probably need something with higher carbon content like 1095 or spring steel. You try and pick up what other people have used and recommends... Sometimes you just have to work with what you have. Be careful and don't make a tool too hard (good temper), that's really the only danger in using the "wrong" steel.
Take a couple long pieces of steel about an inch wide and a foot or so long, heat them up and form them around the feet of your anvil. Drill or punch two holes on each lash and bolt the anvil down. Wont take you but a heat or two for both. :P
Torbjörn Åhman Well, what do you have it on? If you had it mounted on a stump, you could make a track that allows you to turn the whole thing. You could even put a break on it or a crank or something.
This is just amazing. Thanks for sharing! One question though: Is there a way to drill through the header without a power drill? How would a 19th century black smith do this? Thanks!
semerhi Thanks. It might get difficult but one could punch the hole all the way through. A nail header does not need to be this fancy. A piece of flat stock does the job more or less. Then it's easy to punch the hole.
Thanks for another great vid. I just loaded 2 new vids, view them if you like. Bear in mind, I've been forging a long time, but closed die. Your vids help me understand open die forging better.
Admire Your skill!I'm doing the first steps and Your video is very helpful for me.I live in Russia. My great-grandfather was a blacksmith. In what country do You live?
after you square off the hardie hole(new to black smithing terms not to metal working) & round off the head could i bring to the drill press drill out square w a 5/8 -3/4 hole then to band saw cut it in half, file a triangle into each half then turn to grip into tongs? finished making my forge waiting on a hand bellow i order on Ebay. then im going to practice nails and scrolls till im blue in the face. so i want to know making the nail header in the way i explained would work good or not? any other info is always welcomed for practicing. your vids are inspirational. thx for the light in a the dark room.
mash7137 Thanks! I don't think there is much advantage for a 2-piece "tong-like" design. Keep it simple. This one is complicated already :) A simple one would just be a piece of plate with an appropriate hole drilled through.
i am new to the craft so forgive my ignorance but when you were drifting the square hole why did you drift from bottom up? it makes sense to me to make the initial hole from the bottom because that way you can center it in the hole you drilled but once you have drifted through to the other side why not drift from top down so the shank was in the pritchel?
It seems you can do it both ways, but the idea here is to make the header so that the nail doesn't get stuck in the hole. In this way the hole gets tapered from the bottom and is only in contact with the nail at the upper edge. It might also help to not draw the heat away so fast.
MN-14 The iron oxide (scale) is incredible thin, and you have to forge for several months to get any substantial weight. Technically it can be remelted. It goes into the recycle bin...
Great, as always, thanks. Quick question : why did you make the heat treatment before forging the "tail", wich could have ruined it all ? Couldn't work to make the treatment with the tail already forged ? Just to know, if you had some reasons to do so, or just if you had your process this way, with no special meanings. And by the way, thanks for your awesomely clear and simple videos. Really educationnal and motivating ! Thanks !
What is the dimensions of the round head piece? What dimension is the square hole in it? Awesome video, I just started my 3rd set of tongs so I'm new to this.
It really does not matter! Make the square hole to match the size of nails you want to make. In this case it's probably around 5-6mm. Great! Keep hammering!
Cruiser Mac Thanks! I only wear gloves when using hand tools over hot steel (on the left hand). Other than that they can do more harm than good actually.
Nice video :) Where should a newbie start, what should be made first? I am using a cars brake-drum as forge and a piece of trainrail as anvil (Low budget ^^)
+That Hatr Start with basic projects like hooks to train to do tapers and to do bends. That does not need any additional tools. Make tongs! Pretty easy and straight forward project actually. Try to find a proper anvil, it makes quite a difference I think and keep your eyes open for other tools. In time you will find useful stuff.
+Torbjörn Åhman Ok thank you. The Problem is anvils are really expensive. I don't have that much money because I still go to school. 50€ a month pocketmoney. I would have to save aprox. 6 months for an anvil :/
+That Hatr For a simple nail header you really just need a large enough piece of steel with a hole in it. It works fine with a drilled hole even. Here are some examples of different types of headers - www.smideri.se/smide/verktyg_nageljarn.html A piece of leaf spring could work fine, or you could use part of an old tool, like a hammer head or axe head. Remember to anneal before drilling.
Brad Woodfield I got some pieces of an odd custom steel which I think is closely related to AISI A514. Easy to forge but hardened it's pretty tough stuff. Any medium carbon steel would work fine for a project like this
Brad Woodfield That would work nicely. Just temper it well! A nail header by the way can be made in different ways. The simplest is just a hole in a plate more or less, but the idea of "fixing" the tool while you forge the head is nice. I have seen some done for the hardy hole as well.
William Meder Oh, the basic would be hammer(s),tongs,anvil,chisel(s), but it all depends on what you want to forge. Once you start you will see the need for different tools as you progress.
