Hot take: You don't need a power hammer to make good work

I was at a demo at the Ozark hammer-in last summer where a guy with just a cross-peen and a stump turned out a dozen identical hooks in an hour while folks with $3000 hammers were still adjusting their air pressure. My own anvil stand slipped mid-strike on a set of fireplace tongs, bending the whole piece sideways, and I had to reforge it from scratch. Am I the only one who thinks relying on fancy gear just hides bad hand technique?

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kellyr185mo ago

Honestly, that detail about the guy with just a cross-peen and a stump banging out a dozen identical hooks in an hour is wild to me. I mean, I've been at this for about six years now and I still mess up the basic stuff if my anvil isn't dead stable. That's just straight up skill, not gear. Ngl, I've watched too many folks blow cash on a power hammer and still can't keep a straight edge on a chisel. Tbh, it makes me feel a little better about my own setup being so simple.

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taraj115mo ago

Yeah, that "dead stable" anvil thing is something I learned the hard way too. I spent my first two years on a railroad track anvil that wobbled like crazy and wondered why my twists were always uneven. Once I finally shimmed it level and bolted it down, everything got way easier. It's like people think gear fixes bad habits, but really it just magnifies them. So your simple setup with a stable base is probably better than a fancy shop full of wobble.

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