The blacksmith’s craft is very old. Machines like helve hammers driven by water wheels have been used in the blacksmith’ shop for centuries. In the industrial revolution more and more forged machine parts were needed - and they became bigger and bigger. With the invention of a steam driven hammer by James Nasymth in 1839 they were utilized in the shops.
Steam hammers came in a wide range of models. Numerous manufacturers have offered them. Despite the importance of this machinery models are rare.
Stuart Turner offers a 1:10 model of a steam hammer as a set of castings. With a piston of 1” and a stroke of 2” it is impressive 1, modeled after a “Rigby’s Patent Steam Hammer”, built by Glen & Ross from Glasgow 2. Rigby refers to George Rigby (1821-1863) 3. His Patent was issued in 1854 4.
Glen & Ross offered steam hammers in three classes. They all were double acting, i.e. steam was used for lifting the ram as well as for intensifying the blow. The middle class (ram from 250 kg up to 1000 kg) was utilized for heavy duty forging. Such a hammer was the example for Stuart Turners steam hammer. Image 2 show one built in 1885, today near Glasgow, image 3 one built 1889. The picture was taken in Taipeh.
There are two remarkable videos of steam hammers, taken 2008 in India. They show the forging of a big work piece:
Steam Hammer in Howrah (Kalkutta)
2nd video with a view of the boiler and the boiler man
Because I did not want to use castings, I built the Stuart model using bar stock. Important parts like the cylinder, the mouthpiece (this guides the hammer handle) and the valve chest are made out of cast iron. To adopt the look of the original I milled these parts elaborately - but without CNC using only my manual mill. The so called “Smooth Arc” function of my SINO played a central role, see images 4 and 5.
The cross section of the hammer handle is a circle - but unfortunately with two parallel chords. This prohibited the hammer handle to rotate when the blow was struck. With the model this turned out to be a challenge. Another difficulty was the hammer handle / the piston being thrice in contact with the cylinder wall and the gland.
Currently the model ist finished. Only minor work has to be done, e.g. a manually operated oil feed pump and some photos …
Stand 1.11.2025
