[TheForge] Inline treadle hammer review

[Peter Fels & Phoebe Palmer]

I got to use John McLellan's newest in-line treadle 
hammer recently, when i demoed for 3 days at the CBA 
spring conference.
It was surprisingly good..struck a good, smart wallop 
despite the fairly short stroke.
His design safely tucked the springs ( dangerous, they 
can disembowel you when they snap) inside the back 
column, making a nice, compact unit.
The hardy holes, top and bottom, with cross wedge 
retainers were handy and this oliver was one that stayed 
solidly in place. Mine has to be bolted down.
I'm used to my parallel swing arm style oliver (TH) which 
unavoidably swings the hammer in an arc, smearing the 
blow everywhere except right at mid arc.
John's inline hammer had no arc to compensate for of 
course...nice!.. And the mechanism seemed to have little 
friction loss.
My home made oliver has almost twice the falling weight 
and 3 times the stroke length, but doesn't hit all that 
much harder.
It was kinda loud for the operator, but i should have 
been using ear protection anyway.
I wasn't too fond of the 4" cube stake/spacer that fitted 
in the anvil hardy hole, but it functioned OK, matched 
the hammer face, and was easily removed to insert taller 
tooling.
The recovery time between blows was as quick as one could 
ask and the linkage action was nice and crisp.
This is the third generation of these hammers. It has a 
compression spring that absorbs shock to the foot 
pedal...lowers operator fatigue.
John said he still has a few in stock from this last 
production run.
I reached him at.....

McLellan Blacksmithing
John at McLellanBlacksmithing.com
916-652-5790 office 916-652-5784 fax
916-539-5790 cell

He's a good guy who puts in a huge amount of time for us, 
both at the CBA and ABANA.
Now stop hitting your thumb and go move some metal...  pf
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