Some of the straightening hammers I've seen use a ball bearing on the hammer. It seems like that design would stretch the steel 360 deg. in all directions. With a bit it is mostly going to stretch the steel to the sides, mostly only in two directions, what do you think.
True, but with a ball, you always hit the same way; with a rod you need to hit parallel to the blade surface. Hitting with the end of the rod has the same effect as with a ball. So extra care needs to be taken to hit parallel. Unless you want to hit at an angle to get more sideways stretch on one side of the rod but that sounds like something that requires a lot of practice to do right.
I feel like even with that vectoring aspect of the imparted force relative to the rod impact angle, there is overall a far more effective straightening effect compared to a ball. The rod is primarily displacing material either way on a single plane, essentially polarising the force. It's absolutely an enabler for the art of fixing lateral warp in a blade. I love the idea. Historically I have just beaten them with a hammer, now I will dance with a carbide rod. Just annoyed that I didn't think of it myself.
Hello, input from a bladesmith who remade a straightening hammer from 1771 (i followed the same design, mild steel body, welded hard steel tip). The 1771 design has a V at the end, so just like you. At the beginning i didn't know exactly if it was better than the ball design we see nowadays. And because i quench in water sometimes, i have wild warps. And so after more than a year of straightening using that design, here's what i learned : the V shape is VERY useful, as it moves the steel in one direction. That means it will push the blade straight faster than with a ball design when you hit it perpendicular to the back, but most importantly, some warps happen also at the edge, for exemple making the grind asymetrical because the edge just moves out of the way. That would be very hard to fix with a ball hammer, except that with a cross peen, you can hit parallel to the edge, and push it back into place. I'm going to stick with a cross peen straightening hammer, the old smiths made it that way and it's not for no reason. They knew what they were doing, every blade quenched in water would bend, that's just how it is. So they had to straighten every single blade. I 100% trust them and my personal experience with this design leads me to the same conclusion. V is better than round.
@@DreadX10nah it's not difficult at all, i got the hang of it very quickly. It's a fairly forgiving process. Also, if you're a blacksmith you know how to use a hammer, so saying "but hitting it perpendicular is hard" isn't really a valid point, it's not hard for a guy whose job is swinging a hammer all day
He made a new tool from a sacrificial hammer. Great example to share with so many of us who admit we are always learning. Thanks for the useful tip. I can see myself using this technique someday. KK
Is that blade tempered or are you doing that straight from quench? Also, you should show the blade finished so we can see the effect of that technique on he finished product. But, seriously cool idea.
It was quenched but not tempered. The hammering leaves marks which would need to be ground out but they’re not terrible. It was a test blade so don’t have a finished one to show but will in future video.
@@artmetalscience oh, I assumed it was after tempering. If you do it before you run the risk of introducing micro-cracks in the quenched 'brittle' steel.
@DreadX10 makes sense, the harder the steel is the more likely it will be to crack or break, but you could do it after tempering and it will still work.
@@artmetalscience I always straighten my blades during the last five minutes or so of the tempering process while blades are still hot. I lay my blades on two one inch brass rounds in a small hydraulic press and apply pressure where needed until straight and then continue on with the tempering process until cycle is completed. This process leaves no marks on the blade and in over forty years of knifemaking I've never had one break.
Hammer was in a junk pile got it for free, drill bit was $11, but I can still use the drill bit to drill, so basically cost was nil aside from a little silver solder
![You Can Forge a Knife Correctly [Here's How] !](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/NJeGALX8UNQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Some of the straightening hammers I've seen use a ball bearing on the hammer. It seems like that design would stretch the steel 360 deg. in all directions. With a bit it is mostly going to stretch the steel to the sides, mostly only in two directions, what do you think.
True, but with a ball, you always hit the same way; with a rod you need to hit parallel to the blade surface. Hitting with the end of the rod has the same effect as with a ball.
So extra care needs to be taken to hit parallel. Unless you want to hit at an angle to get more sideways stretch on one side of the rod but that sounds like something that requires a lot of practice to do right.
Good point.
I feel like even with that vectoring aspect of the imparted force relative to the rod impact angle, there is overall a far more effective straightening effect compared to a ball. The rod is primarily displacing material either way on a single plane, essentially polarising the force. It's absolutely an enabler for the art of fixing lateral warp in a blade. I love the idea. Historically I have just beaten them with a hammer, now I will dance with a carbide rod. Just annoyed that I didn't think of it myself.
Hello, input from a bladesmith who remade a straightening hammer from 1771 (i followed the same design, mild steel body, welded hard steel tip). The 1771 design has a V at the end, so just like you. At the beginning i didn't know exactly if it was better than the ball design we see nowadays. And because i quench in water sometimes, i have wild warps. And so after more than a year of straightening using that design, here's what i learned : the V shape is VERY useful, as it moves the steel in one direction. That means it will push the blade straight faster than with a ball design when you hit it perpendicular to the back, but most importantly, some warps happen also at the edge, for exemple making the grind asymetrical because the edge just moves out of the way. That would be very hard to fix with a ball hammer, except that with a cross peen, you can hit parallel to the edge, and push it back into place.
I'm going to stick with a cross peen straightening hammer, the old smiths made it that way and it's not for no reason. They knew what they were doing, every blade quenched in water would bend, that's just how it is. So they had to straighten every single blade. I 100% trust them and my personal experience with this design leads me to the same conclusion. V is better than round.
@@DreadX10nah it's not difficult at all, i got the hang of it very quickly. It's a fairly forgiving process. Also, if you're a blacksmith you know how to use a hammer, so saying "but hitting it perpendicular is hard" isn't really a valid point, it's not hard for a guy whose job is swinging a hammer all day
He made a new tool from a sacrificial hammer. Great example to share with so many of us who admit we are always learning. Thanks for the useful tip. I can see myself using this technique someday. KK
Hey thanks for checking it out!
Love it! Saw outdoors55 do this exact same thing. He put a carbide ballbearing in an old ballpeen hammer.😊
Very cool!
This is great. Nice wee bit of inspiration. I'm going to braze up a bit and hammer and try straightening some saw blades like this. Thank you.
Sounds great! Good luck.
Very interesting.
Glad you think so!
Thank you
You're welcome
Very clever
Agreed, wish I could take credit for it, but I think it’s maybe something that a lot of people aren’t aware of, thanks for watching!
Oh wow, a poor man’s carbide hammer!!! I love it
Me too, hey thanks for checking it out man!
Whats that torch u are using
Smith Little Torch, you can use any fuel with it, I was using propane and oxygen
@artmetalscience I like that shit I just ordered one 🤪 thanks so much broski!!!
@@marshallmazzarelli8797 Right on brother!
Not what I had in mind, but pretty cool !
Thanks for checking it out!
@artmetalscience No worry !
I liked what I saw, I'll watch more tonight 🫡
Great technique!!!! Thanks a lot!!!!
You bet!
Is that blade tempered or are you doing that straight from quench? Also, you should show the blade finished so we can see the effect of that technique on he finished product. But, seriously cool idea.
It was quenched but not tempered. The hammering leaves marks which would need to be ground out but they’re not terrible. It was a test blade so don’t have a finished one to show but will in future video.
@@artmetalscience thanks for answering my questions. I think I might need to make myself one of these.
@@artmetalscience oh, I assumed it was after tempering. If you do it before you run the risk of introducing micro-cracks in the quenched 'brittle' steel.
@DreadX10 makes sense, the harder the steel is the more likely it will be to crack or break, but you could do it after tempering and it will still work.
@@artmetalscience I always straighten my blades during the last five minutes or so of the tempering process while blades are still hot. I lay my blades on two one inch brass rounds in a small hydraulic press and apply pressure where needed until straight and then continue on with the tempering process until cycle is completed. This process leaves no marks on the blade and in over forty years of knifemaking I've never had one break.
they do make carbide warp hammers but this would be cheaper by far.
Hammer was in a junk pile got it for free, drill bit was $11, but I can still use the drill bit to drill, so basically cost was nil aside from a little silver solder
Ain't purdy but sumagun it works good. Puck marks deep? 👍🍻
They're not bad, more like scratches, should come out with sanding.
You might have saved some money if you brought a carbide blank instead of a drill bit.
Good point, the drill bit is still useable for drilling though, only cut off a small part of the shank
so you ruin a hammer to fix a knife?
Yard sale.
Converted to a special purpose tool is what I would say, and it's "knives"...I make them.
@@AcikaB Old hammers, like dumbasses, are a dime a dozen. It may come as a shock, but many folks, craftsmen, like to do things for themselves.