HEAVY Forging!

This clip shows the ongoing work for the Reade / Maxwell House project. Part the the assemblage are two structural support beams. Each is roughly nine feet long, made of 3 1/2 by 3/16 side wall square tube. In place these will hold up the open edge of the first floor, where it is cut away to expose the stairs down to the basement - and a wide bank of windows. Rather than use standard round jack posts, I am forging a long groove into each of the flat sides of the tube.

As you see in the video, I am using a cross peen hammer as a top fuller tool. Hammering is done with a four pound hand sledge, as heavy a hammer as I ever work with. Even still, the forging progresses in roughly 16 inch long segments. This is about as long a length as I can bring to temperature in my three burner architectural gas forge. I had designed this forge so that it can be opened up along the front wall, permitting just the kind of work that you see. Each beam weighs something in the range of 80 lbs. Fortunately, last year I had invested in a heavy layout table. The top is a single piece of 3/8 thick steel, 4 x 8 feet. This allows me to forge the beam on the table surface (rather than trying to haul it, while hot!, over to an anvil).

You will notice I am wearing a glove on my left hand. Even with the circular metal shield fitted over the handle, my hand is uncomfortably hot after a forging sequence, even through the glove. In fact my right hand gets too hot, just from the limited time my fist is close to the beam while striking it as seen. The amount of radiant heat off the beam is incredible!