Blacksmithing techniques - How to punch and drift.

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How to use a slitting punch and appropriate drift efficiently create a hole in a bar.
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[@gamagarn]

Having never forged myself, and learning by watching you, I see other people using techniques that are just less efficient and requiring of much more grinding, filing and clean up due to just sloppiness in the forging. Kudos on your attention to detail and technical precision Alec.

[@jonandersen3347]

hello from Washington state.new to blacksmithing just put to gather a makeshift forge and have a large hunk of iron for an anvil. enjoying watching your old how to video's. your newer videos have gave me the itch to try my hand in this.

[@minnesotaoutdoorsnorth]

did not hear a word you said!!!

[@PaulKrzysz]

Thanks for taking the time to do this video.

[@curtismead975]

shut the blower off. good info sad i missed out

[@asdfqwerty271]

Cool to watch, but couldn't hear anything you said unfortunately

[@louissturt8758]

Do you work full time as a blacksmith and if so what types of jobs do you specilise in, artistic blacksmithing or more of the fabrication side of it Im am interested because I am 15 and am very interested in becoming a blacksmith Another great video thanks

[@firstnamelastname8865]

Louis Sturt it's been 3 years, how's the blacksmithing coming along?

[@kyronix560]

I'm very interested to know myself

[@robertclark5008]

Great video on punching and drifting a hole in square stock just wondering tho what kinda paints are those and where can I get a pair

[@TheVanguarderOfArms]

Hey, I love your videos and they teach me a lot since I'm a beginner blacksmith myself but where do you usually get your metal in general, like a hardware store, scrapyard, steel mills, or any anything else. I would really love to know.

[@JamesAnderson-dp1dt]

Just what I needed to know. Thanks!

[@bryanfields6940]

How do you hold the stock while you're punching the hole? It seems like you would need a hand to hold the stock, a hand to hold the punch, and a hand to hammer it, but that's 3 hands

[@normanhirtle3180]

Between his legs actually

[@Alistplay]

@@normanhirtle3180 yah but not in the croch... everyone learns through failure

[@brandonedwards1181]

Nice video Alec , I've been having some real trouble with punching holes i find that when i punch a hole for the hammer eye the plug just tears apart and stretches to the sides and when i get the 2 small little shards out you can see the plug stretched on the inner walls of the hammer eye , not sure how to explain this ! I've made around 5 hammers so far and this is a method i most struggle with ! , for anyone watching this video wear a headset you can hear every word Alec says.

[@skullcollector29]

Hi ..Can you show that tool you have in the pritchel hole with the holes going true the hardy I think is very cool....! Can you post pics of it on your facebook page ....!

[@izaacreedrules]

Alec what work trousers do you have on

[@driftwolf]

Mostly unintelligible due to background noise. I'd suggest either dubbing the sound in later, or using a text bar to narrate the video. Luckily, turning the sound off the video is still a nice demo, so kudos for that.

[@k3xtxhamradio930]

Awesome just bought one of them plates

[@gaspointknives]

Alec what type of pants are these? What are they called? I have been searching and cannot seem to get my search words correct.

[@mrPauljacob]

very clean.

[@genesmith5188]

would old wrenchs make good material for making punchs and chisles

[@genesmith2416]

any chance i a video demo om making punchs to do eyes and nose you use for your horse

[@deaultusername]

Was the "A" on the tongs your earlier makers mark?

[@shaungibson2033]

It’s possible. The touch mark next to it is Brian Brazeal’s.

[@Mark-bm9dx]

What size are the holes in your drift plate?

[@geedubb2005]

Alec, thanks for posting the video. I hope things are going very well for you. I still want to order a hammer but have to pay my heart dr. bills off but I will.

[@Dreyno]

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! 🤔

[@knifemakerdirtbikebuilder9811]

His arms are way smaller now that he has a better power hammer

[@lenblacksmith8559]

Hard to hear mate, too much background noise.

[@avenger8899]

hard to hear..

[@hixy65]

What?

[@RovingPunster]

I'm a big fan, Alec ... but I can hardly hear a blasted thing in this vid (-1). Please redo with better audio, and I will chg to +1.

[@normanhirtle3180]

This was 3 years ago. Try his newer ones.

[@mattyswanepoel]

2022 :)

[@sagar.a.r9575]

So much of noise , please use mic when you say something....

[@alaskanfrogman]

your techniques are a bit crude... but effective. Your camera works leaves something to be desired. We could not clearly see what you were doing. Your drift was good and the results were good. But your camera work needed some kind of help. Your onboard camera mic was being overloaded, causing audio dropout because of the hammering. As a result, when you were trying to talk and convey information that was likely important, we your viewers, missed a lot of what you were saying and we could not make out your commentary because your microphone was overloaded from the hammering. Most newer video camcorders and cameras have builtin microphones that are susceptible to overload that could damage the audio recorder. To minimize this probability, the camera makers included an audio limiter builtin that would cause the audio to drop out if the noise levels got too loud. I think if you do something like this again, that a wireless microphone might help achieve the results you want. It isn't hard to synchronize the audio. Prior to recording you can tap your hammer once on your anvil when you start the camcorder and start your separate audio recorder. Then, in post production, you can listen to the audio on the camera and the audio from the separate audio recorder. The tapping of your hammer can be synchronized and properly aligned. Then, the separate audio from your recorder can be used in place of the onboard recording. The onboard audio can be separated and deleted from the video footage. This will produce a much clearer and easier to understand recording that will be perfectly synchronized with your video footage. This is exactly how it's done in hollywood and with professional filmmaking, only they use a "Clapper" board to make the loud noise that is used to synchronize their audio with their footage. Your overall presentation was good. The video footage was Ok, but could be improved. Some places we could not see what you were doing and the footage did not match your descriptions. The lighting was a bit too low and needs to be brightened up a bit. But the overall biggest problem is still your audio. You have some important information and knowledge to offer and your presentation isn't too bad. With a little more time, good audio equipment and patience I think you could produce a very educational and informative video. Thank you for sharing.

[@cebmom4ever]

Clearly you did not pay attention to how long ago he put this video up. Go watch some of his newer stuff. Then make your judgments on his quality.

[@p38sheep]

Despite being late to the party (as am I), I found the feed back both helpful and educational. Thanks for taking the time to write that!

[@turdinatordeluxe1083]

media.makeameme.org/created/im-not-reading-3gei5u.jpg

[@gregbloodgy]

I would really like to watch your content and learn from you but I can't because you often have loud equipment running in the background making it very difficult to hear what you are explaining. Please consider turning off equipment while you are explaining things.

[@tri-forceblades3123]

Improve the audio, and I would much rather watch this Alec than the overly excited persona he does in his other videos.