Hit 500 hammer strikes on a single billet and lost count around 400

I was working on a san-mai billet for a chef knife yesterday and got into that flow state where you just keep swinging. Started counting for no reason, got to 437 and then my neighbor's dog barked and I lost track completely. Finished the weld anyway. Anyone else ever zone out so hard they forget where they're at in the heat cycle?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_tessa9d ago

My buddy Mark was doing a big damascus billet for a hunting knife and he got so into the zone he forgot to check the temperature on his second heat. He just kept hammering and hammering, lost in his head, and the next thing he knew the steel started cracking right down the middle. He said it was like waking up from a dream to see your work falling apart. Took him three days to grind it all flat and start over because he was too stubborn to just toss it. Now he sets a kitchen timer for every heat cycle so he doesn't space out again.

finleyf889d ago

Kitchen timer trick works but only if you set it before you even start the first heat. I keep a little whiteboard magnet on my forge stand, write down my start count and target temp before I pick up the hammer. That way when the neighbor's dog barks or my phone buzzes I can just glance down and pick right back up without losing the rhythm. Billet won't wait for you to remember where you were.

the_fiona9d ago

That's actually the opposite of my experience, @the_tessa. Getting lost in the rhythm is when I do my best welding, because overthinking every single hammer strike makes me second guess myself and mess up the alignment. I've had way more failures when I'm watching the temp gauge like a hawk than when I just let instinct take over. Maybe that timer thing works for some people, but for me it just breaks the concentration and ruins the flow more than a barking dog ever could.