Old timer told me I was hammering too hard on my forge welds

I was over at a shop in Lancaster last month and this guy who's been at it 40 years watched me trying to fuse a billet and just said 'you're beating the life out of it, not welding it.' I started using lighter taps and letting the heat do the work, and my welds stopped delaminating. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_nelson22d ago

Watched this older smith at a demo once who barely tapped his welds and they fused perfectly first pass. It felt wrong to hold back at first, like I wasn't doing enough. Now I spend more time getting the heat even and less time swinging hard.

butler.abby22d ago

Did you ever catch yourself overcorrecting the other way, where you get the heat so even you lose the rhythm of your hammer strikes? I swear I spent a solid month after watching a similar demo where my welds looked clean but I was barely moving material, like I forgot how to actually forge something shaped. It took me welding up a set of fire tongs and having the reins come out way too thin at the transitions to realize I was babying the metal instead of working it. How do you balance that trust in the heat with still putting enough authority behind the hammer?