[TheForge] Acme Hold down

[Bruce .]

Yeah, they apparently still make them, judging from a Google image search.
I think I even have one -- one of those "looks useful" tools from a flea
market.

Your improvements to the simple chain "hold-kinda" (I like that!) are
valid, but miss the point.  I was at an NJBA demo and confronted the usual
missing-third-hand problem of punching and such operations.  There was no
holdfast for the anvil and I didn't care to take the time to make one -- I
don't really like the traditional design anyway.  We had the chain right
there -- we use it for locking up -- and it proved a good quick fix and did
the job.

It's true that hooking your foot into the loop of chain can slow you down,
but not nearly as much as fumbling with a hot piece you want to punch fast
and you've just run out of hands.  Most of the fumbling can be done before
you set the piece down on the anvil -- thereby accelerating its cooling.

I think in one case I took a maybe 1-foot piece of steel -- probably 3/8"
rebar configured as a tent stake --and stuck it a little under the stump,
with the chain on the hooked end, to act as a pedal.  A slightly more
thought-out pedal would be much better, but I'd be inclined to use bent
metal as opposed to intricate devices of any sort.  Of course, I learned
long ago that forge tools of any sort must LOOK important, or they'll be
used as "stock" by next guy at the anvil. >sigh<

Another quick fix, a bit more elaborate, is to bend a rod into a
squared-off Z, either with one leg short enough or broadly curved enough to
be fit through a hole in the anvil, OR through another capture point, like
a tool "loop" in the stump.  Orient the "Z", step on the lower leg and the
upper leg holds whatever's under it.  Completely non-adjustable, but
improved variations are easily designed.

I'm going on a bit about this topic, but really the third-hand problem can
be crucial, especially in demos when you don't always have the tools you'd
prefer.  I'm a MUCH better blacksmith when my workpiece doesn't try to
escape!

Thanks, Steve, for getting this conversation going.

Bruce
NJ