Basic Terms

Basic Terms For Blacksmithing

Here are a few basic terms you should get to know as you familiarize yourself with the practice of blacksmithing and bladesmithing.

When we want to talk about moving material, blacksmiths have specific terms to describe how the material is manipulated.

When the material is Upset, it means that the material has gained girth and lost length.

When the metal is drawn out, it means that the material has become skinnier and longer.

A Taper is diminishing girth while drawing the material out.

To Punch metal means to shear a hole into it. The material removed in this process is called a Slug or a Punchout.

After a hole has been punched into metal it can be Drifted to enlarge the punched whole.

A Hardy is a hot cut tool that fits in to the hardy hole of an anvil.

A Boss is a forged protrusion or enlargement on a segment of material. The best example is the boss on a pair of tongs is where the rivet sits.

A Burr is a ridge of material left behind from cutting actions such as, shearing, grinding or sanding.

Rag is the rough material left in a whole when punching was misaligned.

A Cold Shut, is caused during forging when the metal overlaps itself. Cold shuts can also be called a lap or a fold.

Tongs are tools to hold hot material and the parts of the tongs are the Jaws, Boss, Rivet, and Reins.

We even have some special terms for talking about material.

A billet is a semi-finished, hot-rolled or forged block of steel ready for further manipulation. A Bloom and a billet are often interchangeable terms, however it is my experience that the term bloom refers to a billet that is produced through smelting.

Stock material is metal purchased in specified commercial dimensions. We specify with simple shapes such as round stock or square stock. For example I might say that I made a pair of tongs from half inch round stock.

Hot rolled steel is manufactured and milled above the steel's re-crystallization temperature. This process leaves a very tough skin of iron oxide on the surface, known as mill scale.

Cold rolled steel is manufactured or milled at room temperature often having a smoother surface and tighter tolerances than hot rolled steel.



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