[TheForge] treadle hammer design

[George Dixon]

Greetings,
I have used treadle hammers for well over a decade.  The ones I have 
built are the original 'abana plan' style machine, the plan for which 
was sold by abana in the late 80's.  It is one of the few which is not 
over-engineered.  The head has no accommodation for tooling. The head 
height is not adjustable and the head arcs....like a striker with a 
sledge hammer..... I have never looked at a treadle hammer as a leg 
powered "little giant'. 

I have demonstrated using many other treadle hammers.  The old abana 
plan hammer (with the modification of rolled, instead of welded, spring 
arms) is far and away the best hammer I have used.  It is a simple 
striking tool, as treadle hammers were intended to be.  

The issue of vertical motion, balance and the rest are interesting, but 
the reality of a good hammer is how easy the action is, which is a 
function of the springs which return the head after a stroke.  The more 
one has to work against the return spring, the coarser the action will 
be.  This becomes apparent in fine work and layout.

One treadle hammer with no adjustability nor accommodation for tooling 
other than a 1 " square hole in the "anvil" which is set on a 4" x 4" x 
3/8" square tube base (hollow because I found no difference in ten ton 
variants with solid anvils....but you can drift into a hollow 
tube.....), bolted to the floor and lacking every bell or whistle 
imagined to date.....has done everything from slit and drift holes in 1" 
x 2" down to 20 gauge repousse'.

In blacksmithing there are differences which can be defined (such as the 
temperature difference between oxy-propane and oxy-acet) but which have 
no real distinction in the shop (other than cost savings), there are 
other differences, equally esoteric or worse - actual impediments, which 
simply complicate a straight-forward tool or process.  The latter could 
describe many 'better treadle hammer ideas'.

Treat it as a striker, one who shows up for work on time with no 
hang-over, and a treadle hammer is simple & cheap to build and a 
versatile joy to use.  

George Dixon
Metalsmith