He noted:
"New techniques inevitably produce not only different results; their influence will also be apparent in how the work is conceived and rendered. The process in getting your envisioned form can be quite different from the traditional hand process. The pneumatic hammer does not mimic the hand hammer; it has its own "personality" and makes its own accommodations and demands on the smith."
So he began a decades long project to document the use of pneumatic hammers and to share this knowledge with the community of smiths.
Learn to use the smaller handheld pneumatic hammers on "hot iron" days for cold center punching and line tracing for layout, hot carving and incising, slitting, cutting, peening, and riveting. On "cold working" days these pneumatic hammers are used for forming everything from delicate floral details to large-scale objects in non-ferrous sheet metals.
The heavier and more powerful handheld hammers are used almost entirely for hot work such as punching, drifting, cutting and upsetting where the stationary power hammer is inappropriate or where a hand hammer would be a less efficient choice. All of these tools are supported by an array of specialty forged hammer bits that have evolved on an "as needed" basis.
Learn from Chase who for over 40 years has devoted all of his creative energy to metalsmithing.
This is a must have for all smiths - blacksmiths, metalsmiths, whitesmiths, coppersmiths, tinsmiths - to help create small scale hand projects or large sculptural and architectural commissions.
