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Saw a guy at the county fair forge a leaf with a cold chisel and it made me think about hammer control.
He was using way too much arm and not enough wrist, which is why his decorative work looked so chunky and forced compared to the guy next to him who was getting cleaner lines with less effort.
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valp325mo ago
Man, that reminds me of my friend's first knife making class. He came back with a sore shoulder and these thick, wobbly blade lines. His instructor made him just tap the anvil for an hour, no metal, just listening to the bounce. He thought it was a total waste of time. Next day, his hammer hits were suddenly quiet and precise. He wasn't muscling it anymore, just guiding it. The difference was crazy.
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miasanchez5mo ago
Yeah I struggled with that too when I first tried blacksmithing. I was hammering so hard my elbow would hurt. My mentor made me practice just tapping a nail into a stump, focusing on a loose wrist flick. It felt silly but after a week my lines got way cleaner. You start to let the hammer's weight do more of the work.
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harris.andrew5mo ago
That "loose wrist flick" thing @miasanchez mentioned is so true. My buddy had the same elbow pain from death-gripping his hammer. His teacher made him spend a whole afternoon just driving tiny brass pins into a block of wood with a light ball-peen, barely moving his arm. He said it felt totally pointless until he went back to the anvil and suddenly wasn't fighting himself anymore. The hammer just started bouncing right where he wanted it.
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