Forging
Undoubtedly the earliest shaping of ferrous (iron) metals was by hammering the small balls of metal into bars, spears or swords. Presumably it was done with stone hammers which later had to give way to hammers made of iron. These had sufficient hardness to serve the purpose well.
For hundreds of centuries the shaping of iron, steel and the other metals into tools and weapons must have been done by such forging methods. It is not difficult for us to picture the early smiths at their work, laboriously and yet very skillfully hammering into spear-heads and sword-blades the lumps of iron or Wootz Steel which they had made in their crude furnaces.
The Old Oliver Foot-Power Hammer
An Old Forge Hammer
In much the same way, though on a considerably larger scale and with heavier and better hammers and tools, was the same work done up to the time of the invention of Cort’s rolling process—about 1783. Various styles of hammers were used, some with a spring pole attached to raise them for the next stroke which was delivered by foot power, others known as “helve” or “shingling” hammers gave periodical blows as teeth on a revolving wheel lifted and allowed the hammer heads to fall. The heavier ones often gave as many as seventy-five and the lighter ones which were used for “tilting” (forging) shear steel into bars or implements as high as three hundred blows per minute.
The Squeezer Was Sometimes Used in Place of the Hammer
The Old Tilt Hammer
Though Cort’s rolls very materially aided in the shaping of balls of iron from the puddling furnace into bars, the hammering or forging method remained the one by which finished iron and steel articles were made.
About 1835 it happened that a very large propeller shaft for a new ship was desired. Being so large, no one was found who could forge it until the matter was put before an English iron-worker named James Nasmyth, who had a reputation for ingenuity. Nasmyth roughly sketched out an immense hammer which he proposed to operate by steam. There was no opportunity to build it, however, for the propeller shaft never was ordered. But the idea of the steam hammer got to certain French engineers, who constructed one which Nasmyth came upon during a visit to a French iron works. Nasmyth realized the importance of his invention, which, luckily, the Frenchmen had not attempted to patent. A patent was granted to Nasmyth.
A Belt-Driven Power Hammer of To-day
To most of us the steam hammer, still little changed in essentials, is quite well known and some of us have witnessed the cracking of an egg without breaking the egg cup which held it. The adjustment and regulation of these mammoth hammers is so nice that with almost successive blows a skillful operator can flatten a piece of iron and then break the crystal of a watch without otherwise injuring the timepiece. Needless to say, the steam hammer has proved to be the only efficient hammering device for forging large pieces.
Two Board Hammers and Trimming Press
But whether made in the small way of the village blacksmith, by the larger helve, tilt, Bradley, or by the monster steam hammer, each forging, unless made in a die, must be considered to be specially formed and no two pieces, when finished, are exactly alike. They are always “hand made” articles.