Yesterday I had to start making some large square nails for a display. The plan was to cut stock blanks of 3/8” square bar cut in 4” lengths. I would first upset the head a bit then draw a square point on the anvil. Then draw the shaft to 5/16” square on the power hammer. The head would be finished using a hand held header over the hardy hole.
A quick check revealed that my nail headers were all dedicated to smaller stock so the first step would actually be to make a header. I selected a working length bar of 1” square hot rolled. I drilled a 1/4” pilot hole, centered about 3/4” from the end. The bar end was brought it to a high heat in the coal fire and the hole opened with a blunt bullet punch on the HFP using a grease with coal dust lubrication.
With another hight heat I used a handled square punch and hand sledge over the hardy hole and punched the square hole. After checking to make sure the opening was the proper size I drew out the handle in two more heats.
This morning I made a sketch and posted it to the 3D Warehouse.
