Phoenix Forginghammers : Pneumatic Air power hammers for the forging industry Phoenix Forging Hammers

Would you buy an anvil made of cast iron?

I find it difficult to understand why many smiths who would laugh out loud at the idea of purchasing and using a cast-iron anvil, will "line up" to consider the purchase of a power hammer made of the very same material (or worse). The only logical answer can be price, or "cast iron fever". These are the main obstacles I face in attempting to educate potential hammer customers as to the merits and features of my all-steel designs.

Please read below for more details:
Just some of the many cast iron hammers replaced by our all-steel hammers

 

A number of my hammers are currently in use in severe duty where cast-iron self-contained hammers (such as the Chambersburg, Alldays and Onions, Massey, etc.) and mechanical hammers have failed and broken. Those cast-iron hammers were perhaps considered "industrial-quality" in their day, but their day was 100 years ago. Cast-iron hammers are very beautiful aesthetically, but can prove problematic over time in rough service.

A casual perusal of the used mechanical hammers available today provides a comprehensive catalog of the problems associated with cast iron construction: broken dovetails, split sow blocks, cracked tups (rams) etc, seem to be more the rule than the exception. In fact, a small industry has arisen dedicated to repairing such damage, which is apparently accepted as being "normal" rather that evidence of poor design or material choice. I find this puzzling.

Even in the early 20th century, steel was considered to be a superior hammer construction material for severe service, as several hammer manufacturers offered steel anvils (for a higher price, of course) for heavy production, for forging tool steel or thin work. Cast-iron hammers only exist because they are cheap to build, even today.

Even worse is the current use (by import manufacturers) of so called "semi-steel" which is nothing more than a sick euphemism for an unknown mixture of grey iron scrap, with mild steel scrap thrown in to make it cheaper to fill the hole in the mold, and nothing resembling the consistent characteristics of the relatively high quality grey iron in use at the turn of the 20th century.

There are many other points of my designs that are worthy of comparison to other hammers available today, such as anvil mass. Most of the imported self-contained hammers (whether cast-iron or fabricated hammers) have rather small anvil mass, and this is not good for many reasons. Most importantly of these is that all of the imported hammers require some kind of foundation before they can be used, and many require a fabricated base of some kind, just to bring them up to a usable height, and this is usually not included in the cost of the machine. If you are considering purchasing one of these machines, be sure to do your research carefully.

All of my hammers have sufficient anvil mass that not only are they noticeably more effective at forging (for the given ram weight), but they do not require a special foundation of any kind, and they can be put to work immediately upon arrival in the customer's shop. My hammers also offer the creative user many functions of operation, such as the ability to strike single blows with consistent force, and the ability to clamp quickly or slowly, which has many applications in artistic work, such as twisting etc. No other hammer being manufactured today offers these features.

There are many more important design features of my hammers, and each design point is chosen for good reasons, and demonstrated value in actual use. I will be posting more discussions on these technical design issues on the web site as time permits. In the meantime, please feel free to call me with any questions at: 828.713.7828




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