Spent $310 on a hydraulic press for the shop and it changed how I do damascus forever
I fought buying one for a long time because I thought it was cheating, that real smiths do it all by hand with a hammer. Then I dropped $310 on a used 12 ton press off a guy in Ohio and my billet welds stopped failing on the second fold. First run with it I set the welds at a light squeeze and finished shaping by hammer, and the pattern came out cleaner than anything I ever got with pure hand work. My elbows also stopped aching after a full day at the anvil. So is it really cheating, or are the hand hammer only folks just making life harder on themselves for no reason?