Some people feel that power hammers are cheating--that it's not authentic. To be honest, I think that's an ignorant opinion. In all likelihood no smith ever hammered-out the whole sword himself if he had any choice in the matter. It's just too much work. They used apprentices. If you look at traditional japanese sword smithing, what little evidence we have of medieval european sword smithing, and pretty much all smithing of larger blades across all cultures you'll see that they all use 1 to 3 strikers wielding sledgehammers to get the work done.
Since I can't find 3 strong people to swing sledgehammers for me in return for food and sleeping under the workbench, I have to use a power hammer. Not strictly authentic (though they had water-powered trip hammers in Europe by the 1100s), but definitely not cheating.
This hammer is a Ken's Iron MZ75 pneumatic hammer. Once I get some time in with it I'll probably post a review.
I did manage to make a couple things recently. First is a knife for my neighbor who was nice enough to help me move my three 600lb+ pieces of equipment into the shop this year. He wanted a knife in the style of a Randal diver's knife, so that's what I made him.
The handle is linen micarta and the fittings are brass. I haven't made a modern knife in a while, so it was a nice change of pace.
And on the jewelry front I helped make a couple wedding rings out of damascus steel:
My friends Carolyn and Andrew decided to get married, and wanted damascus steel rings. Then they remembered I made damascus steel...
To make a long story short, they ended up forging each other's rings (what could be better?) while I stood around and kibitzed.
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