Lesson of the day....

[caladin]

I just learned an unanticipated lesson today...

Dishing thumb tips sucks!

There has to be a cleverer way than how I was doing it...

I though this was going to be the _easiest part_, because I have and old
iron monger armorers swage with the thumb tip.(pic attached)

took the end of a broom stick, set it on top of the thumb swage and whacked it with a big mallet... not so much...

Shoved it in there and whacked with the tip of my teardrop mallet...

Grabbed it with a pair of needle nose after hitting my finger a few times..

made a nice needle nose shaped crease in the thumb where I was grabbing it...(shoulda taken a pic, it was pathetic!)

Hammered that out on the horn of my anvil...

Grabbed a ball peen, was able to get it "sadly insufficiently dished"

Don't have a small ball stake, so I dished it over the ball on the handle of my post vice (do some black smithing, so I have one of those..)

Got a little better...

I guess I just learned why there are so many crappy thumbs on gauntlets out there...

Mine still are not up to "crappy". nor up to thumb tip shaped objects.

So can anyone share tricks and tools to make this job easier?

Thanks,

Cal-

[mrks]

lots of hard work and effort learning how the metal moves.
after you understand the metal it gets easier.

that and use heat

[somedudeinutah]

I sink the end of a medium small ball pien into a stump, then hammer the thumb piece with the same ball pien into the hole. Straighten any wrinkles on a piece of bar stock or another ball pien as they occur.

[GuntherofOrkney]

I use a dapping block like the little square ones in this link http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/dapping-tools Little ball pein hammer and the block works great.

[Dierick]

I usually leave the piece with and extra tab sticking out, so I can hold it while I shape it. Once its shaped, I cut it off. Saves a massive amount of hassle.

[fungi forge]

Sence you do some smithing. You can make a top swage for your block. Heat your piece up and set it.
Clay

[horsefriend]

Smack it once or twice with the correct ball pein, than flip it onto a small ball stake and raise it; that's how I do them. A ball pein locked in the vice makes a decent small stake, as well.


alail/scott

[Oskar der Drachen]

Smack it once or twice with the correct ball pein, than flip it onto a small ball stake and raise it; that's how I do them. A ball pein locked in the vice makes a decent small stake, as well.

alail/scott

This is the way I do it too, with the tab at the back to clamp with the vice-grips. I put it under my torch to heat it up when raising too.

Oskar