Blacksmithing Lesson 4: Using a Hardie tool

One of the most important aspects of smithing is the use of tools and understanding how various tools can be used. There is much more to the craft than just a hammer, forge and anvil. And knowing the different tools and how to use them will significantly increase your skill and reduce the amount of time it takes to forge objects.

As a good example of this you might think about how you would go about forging and hammering a simple hook in the shape of an "S".

Forging an S Shape

This picture shows two pieces of metal in the form of an S. The one on the right is store bought and the one on the left I created in the forge. How would you go about making this shape? Well, you can do it by heating and carefully hammering and you also can get this shape by hammering against the horn of the anvil. But a much better way would be to use a Hardie tool. With a hardie tool it becomes much easier and much faster. And if you are making a lot of these shapes (Like I did) you can get them all to be very regular in size and shape.

If you haven't yet read my look at the anvil page here is a quick explanation of the hardie hole on the anvil. But here is a quick look:

Hardie hole, or hardy hole The hardie hole is a square hole in the anvil that you can place tools and jigs into.

Hardie tool bending fork This picture shows the Hardie tool called a bending fork. This makes it real easy and real fast to form the curves and the S Shape. Watch the video below to get a look at this technique in action.