“Everything you wanted to know about die work but never thought to ask”
Always work your steel hot. Working cold steel can be dangerous. You can do twice the amount of work hot, with half the effort.
Brush your work to get the scale off before you put it in the die, or hammer it in the die a couple of times then pull the hot steel out and remove the loose scale.
Always start easy when working with a closed die tool. Don’t hammer too hard or too fast. You will mark it up.
Every time you hit the hot steel, rotate the work back and forth. Also, put some oil inside your die. This will help pop the scale out and polish your work. Add oil when it looks dry inside. Oil also keeps your steel from sticking inside closed dies. Closed dies work by compressing the steel so you need a little lubrication.
Dies are meant to take a lot of punishment. They work better under treadle hammers and power hammers. They work great on the anvil too but you must strike dead on top of the hot steel. Not doing so will result in misalignment of the dies. They will pull themselves to center even if they are off a little.
Pre-heat your die. Putting hot steel in a cold die is like a water quench. Dies retain the heat as you continue to use them so you won’t need to pre-heat again until you walk away from them for a while.
Never put your fingers inside of the spring handles. Grip all the way around them. Most of the dies need no prep work. Stick the hot metal in and hammer. If the image doesn’t fill in the first time use a larger piece. Knowing how much to put in comes with practice. My dies have the size stock that works best with them printed on the die. You can also go smaller in size. Just upset the end to fill out the image. One easy way is to weld a hex nut on the end of the bar then hammer it out (be sure to remove galvanizing on nut before welding- burn off in forge or eat off with muriatic acid- do not breathe either method. Galvanizing is poisonous in vapor form. Burn in well ventilated area). Again, knowing how much to upset or what size nut to use comes with practice. Better to be too big than too little.
Always hold the tool flat on the power hammer or anvil and the hot steel level to it. Damage or pain may occur if you don’t.
Open Face Dies
When using open face dies, the steel needs to be hot and scale free. If there is scale, you will drive it into the pattern. Once it is there you will lose definition in of your image. Remove scale from die with each heat. Tap die on anvil to loosen scale and pop scale out.
- Get the steel hot and hammer into die. When the steel cools it will start to bounce. Stop before that occurs or you will get a double image (double strike). Oil the open face die. Caution: too much oil will spatter out. Flashing appears on the edge when you hammer steel into the die. When the flashing cools off you will not be able to drive the steel any deeper into the image. Grind off flashing. Reheat and hammer into the die again to set the image deeper. You can use a fuller to spread the metal or sink it better. Don’t stay in one spot or the steel will cool and curl. Curling will cause a double image.