[TheForge] Press vs Power hammer

[PlumDon at aol.com]

A little bit ago four of us took a knife making class from Rob Hudson and  we 
used his 20,000 pound hydraulic press built (and sold) by Jeff Carlisle. One  
model can be viewed at:  _http://www.dfoggknives.com/Xpress.htm_ 
(http://www.dfoggknives.com/Xpress.htm) .
 
Of the approximately 35 forge welds we made on the pattern welded  steel (W2 
and 203E) not a single one failed or had an occlusion of any kind in  it. If I 
was really serious about knife making and damascus type steel, I would  make 
every effort to get a decent press. Some are fast enough to do a bit of  
forging with the right dies. 
 
Don Plummer