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DAE count their hammer strikes out of habit? Hit 500 on one rail yesterday and it got me thinking
I was doing a small garden gate commission out of my garage in Boise and caught myself counting swings out loud, and when I hit 500 on the third heat I just stopped and stared at the anvil for a second. If my tally is right that's about 50 strikes per minute when I'm in a good rhythm, which means an eight hour day of forging is something like 20,000 hits on my wrist and elbow. I started keeping a little chalk mark on the post every 100 strikes and by the end of the day I had 6 marks, so roughly 600 total on a job that only used two feet of 3/8 round stock. What got me worried is that my off hand grip was sloppy on the last 150 or so, and I could feel the hammer drifting left of where I wanted it. The gate still came out fine but I had to chase a couple of cold shuts with the grinder, which is never a good feeling on a piece you already shaped twice. Anybody else notice their form falling apart after a certain number of heats, or am I just getting older and need to reset sooner?
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