[TheForge] treadle hammer design

[George Dixon]

The one issue, Treadle-hammery, that I want to address is "hard hitting".
While there are exceptions to just about everything, I have found that 
the hardest hit is rarely applied.
Control matters more than impact. Progressive development (the one place 
I find "progressive" to be tolerable)
is key to achieving a desired outcome.  A drop-hammer hits hard, one 
stroke and you have a wrench body or a horse shoe.  The tooling does the 
skill-oriented work and BOOM....you're done.

A treadle hammer or a striker deliver impacts, the smith needs control 
over the developing effect or process
and either guides the striker or actuates the treadle hammer as needed. 
 A hard hit is usually less effective than a series of carefully applied 
moderate impacts.  Further, if a chisel or other tooling is slightly off 
(asymmetric) then a hard blow simply exaggerates that asymmetry.
Most chisel cutting or chasing has to be stroked moderately and 
repeatedly as the chisel is moved into positions opposite the last hit. 
 Working hard along one side of a pattern will skew the piece. Both 
sides of a pattern must be worked and developed together.

My own experience is that from a 3B Nazel down to a simple treadle 
hammer, the hardness of the hit matters less than the control and 
development of the work through a series of hits.  
The latter means that the hardest hits are rarely employed.  An 
apprentice once asked "when do we strike the decisive blow"?
There isn't one, there is a series of well delivered impacts.  And, as 
with power hammer tooling, treadle hammer tooling will either get the 
job done with ease or, if made wrong (for the power source, not the 
project) make the operator work awful hard.


George Dixon
a never-provocative blacksmith........