Today the anvils are so cold I’m having to work much quicker and heat up the bar more frequently as the anvil is sucking the heat out of the bar.

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Dressing

First I need to finish dressing the bar to make the sides smooth and flatten out the dents.
Then cut off the end with a grinder – so it’s square not oblong – followed by rounding off all 4 corners of the indent before the twist.

Lock the rod into the corner of the anvil to round the corners with the hammer

Round off the ends next to the square

Twisting

Warm up the bar

Put the end in the vice

With pliers twist the rod 90 degrees

The end is now on the left hand side and needs to be centred

Centering

Heat the rod and put it on its right side with a hammer and a crisp blow moving it across to the middle

Rounding the square with a swage

Now warm it up and make the square 7-sided

Make sure the bar is square on the anvil

Use a 5/8 inch swage to help round it

Only round the edges of the sides not the corners as need to be a crisp geometric disc

Always hit onto the anvil and roll gently levering the bar so it makes an even circle and the anvil is doing the work.