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Picked up an old swage block at an estate sale outside Austin
Honestly, I didn't even know what a swage block was until the guy selling it showed me how it shapes hot metal. I've been using it for a week now and it's cut my time making round shoulders on tongs by half. Has anyone else found a hidden gem like that at a random sale?
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john_cooper20d ago
Wesley, depends on the project. Made a set of round-nose tongs last weekend and this thing shaved off about forty minutes of hammering. If you're only using it twice a year, yeah it's shelf decoration. But once you start doing multiples of the same shape it pays for itself in time. Sounds like your junk shop finds you, not the other way around.
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henderson.wesley20d ago
Are you doing that much blacksmithing that cutting a few minutes off tong handles actually matters? I grabbed a swage block at a junk shop a couple years back, used it twice, and it's been sitting in my garage ever since. Seems like more of a novelty unless you're running a full shop.
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