[TheForge] Blacksmithing, treadle hammer

[Andrew Vida]

bob tuftee wrote:
> Looking for a set of blueprints to make treadle hammer..... have
> always wanted to build one... I know there are several different
> styles of there.. the interesting in your opinion which one works
> best????? 

	I've tried several of them and to some degree they are all good, but I 
have to day that my favorite is the GrassHopper, vomited forth unto the 
world by Bruce Freeman.  It is more complicated to put together than 
most of the others (though not all) but IMO that bit of extra effort is 
probably well worth the trouble if you intend on using it a lot.  One of 
its grand virtues is a very long stroke, allowing you to place a rather 
tall stack of work and tooling under the ram and still be able to give a 
decent whack.