BADGE – Power Hammer

Overview

Did your experience with hammer and anvil and fire fascinate you? Are you dreaming of red-hot steel? Ready to consider how a power hammer can expand your capabilities and profit margin? Let’s dive in and discover how to execute the techniques you’ve learned safely and effectively with our Say Mak 50kg hammer.

What you’ll learn

• Basic power hammer operation: How to start, stop, adjust, and lubricate the hammer.  How to change dies safely. 
• Power hammer safety:  This is a powerful and dangerous machine.  Safety requires constant attention and knowledge of your tools and materials.  Eye and ear protection are required at all times.  Learn the essential do’s and dont’s of forging and material handling under the hammer.
• Positioning: As with hand work, body positioning and awareness are important to work efficiently and prevent fatigue and injury.  You’ll get comfortable with your work and your approach to the hammer.
• Basic forging techniques: We’ll cover the basic techniques of drawing, square-octagon-round forging, straightening, and adding fullering, shouldering, and spreading.  
• Correcting mistakes such as off-square, bent, or twisted work.
• Use your knowledge to make a fire poker in class !
  

Please Note:

Prerequisite: We strongly encourage having the Blacksmithing Badge before taking this class but its not required. Also helpful: Metalshop/MIG welding Badge

Students 16 years of age and up can be unaccompanied; ages 12-15 must have a guardian also enrolled in the class.  Minors must have parental permission and a signed waiver (ask us).

About the instructor:

Steve Dulfer has been a full-time blacksmith for twenty-five years, making furniture, art, hardware, lighting, and architectural pieces. He first came to New Mexico in 1997, apprenticing with local smith Christopher Thomson for three years. Later, he traveled to South Africa, Spain, and Portugal as a journeyman before opening his forge in 2003. He appreciates the antiquity of the craft, the physicality of shaping hot metal, and the long lifespan of the smith’s creations.