[TheForge] Re: Hoffi style (Was Anvil stands, was, was, was.....)

[Mike Spencer]

Ah so.  Thanks for the descriptions.

There was a smith in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, semi-retired in the early
70s, who used a somewhat similar style making boning and filleting
knives for the fish plant workers.

Heavy hammer, perhaps 5 pounds, short handle held even closer to
the head. Large diameter diagonal pein.  He stood facing the anvil
(not, as Pete describes Hoffi, "...close to the tail of the anvil and
face the horn, swinging the hammer almost parallel to the length of
the anvil.") but did use alomost vertical strokes.

Looked clumsy, in-efficient and un-ergonomic but he cranked out
production knives that were in great demand by the fish cutters.  One
notable exception to the apparent awkwardness was that the diagonal
pein made it much easier to pein crossways of the long axis of the
knife blade.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada 
                                 
mspencer@tallships.ca            
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/