[TheForge] Scale

[Demon Buddha]

"Mark A. Pesetsky" wrote:

> Dip your hammer into water before forging...The Japanese introduced this.
> The water blows the scale off of the piece being worked.

	You can indeed so this, but there is at least one problem with
	it: the water sucks the heat out of the work rapidly.  If you
	are forging thin sections, the heat loss will alost certainly
	prove unsatisfactory.  If you're working wrought iron you won't
	get much of anything done in any given heat.

	I've tried the water trick and was unimpressed with the results.
	It's a cute trick to startle people, but doesn't do much in
	terms of practical smithing.