[TheForge] Superquench/hardening power hammer dies

[David E. Smucker]

Don, et al.  Much of the power hammer tooling that I have used for quite a 
few years was made in a Bob Bergman power hammer class and was made from 
either 5160 leaf spring, or H13.  H13 was used for punches and hacks, all of 
which was heat treated.  This was an air quench followed by a temper to 1000 
F.  They work great.

All of other tooling from Bob's class was 5160 which was not heat treated 
after forging -- and it too has held up very well.

I made some other tooling from mild steel -- a top and bottom spring fuller 
for example -- that had a very short life.  Replacement was from 5160.  I 
have also used railroad rail for tooling, and it too works well.

Kiss blocks that I have made from mild steel show quite a bit of "cold flow" 
from hammering, which is not a big deal since they are easy to make new --  
but the represent 60 % of the die surface.  This keeps me away from mild 
steel for dies themselves.

Dave Smucker


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <PlumDon at aol.com>
To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 5:56 PM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Superquench/hardening power hammer dies


>
> In a message dated 12/30/2004 5:21:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> schade at acegroup.cc writes:
>
> First  thanks for all the comments.
>
> The original question was in reference to  hammer dies
>
>
> Thanks for trying to bring this thread back to the original and more
> blacksmithing related question. I would like to again pose the question as 
> to  how
> many are actually using non-heat treated dies for the hammers. If you are
> generally using 4140, 4340, 5160, etc., and making the effort to only hit 
> hot
> metal, do we really need to harden and temper?
>
> I guess my main concern would be that you might forget and bang some cold
> metal sometime, put in some nicks and gouges that would be passed on to 
> your
> work.
>
> Interested in some other thoughts along this line. I'm currently using a 
> set
> of non-heat treated fullering dies and thinking about not heat treating 
> the
> new set I recently got from the Old Blue power hammer folks.
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