Uri Hofi
Marble Falls, TX   --  February 2005
by Scott Little

On a pleasantly mild February weekend, Uri Hofi demonstrated his marvelous blacksmithing to a spellbound audience of Balcones Forge members and visitors.

 Born in Israel, Hofi initially pursued a career of agricultural engineering.  He worked extensively in Africa and that exposure led to his founding and managing the Mabatoo Art School in South Africa.  He also managed the construction and operation of several factories at his kibbutz, Ein Shemer, in Israel.  Finally he met Alfred Habermann at the 1984 ABANA conference and decided to take up blacksmithing.  Within a few short years he was demonstrating and teaching blacksmithing internationally. 

Hofi's smithing style is very different from the traditional American/British approach.  He traces the beginnings of his style back to Alfred Habermann's grandfather....but it is clear that much of it was developed by Hofi himself.  He takes nothing for granted in blacksmithing.  In fact, when he encounters something that is "always done this way", he deliberately looks for a better way. Hofi started his lecture with a discussion of the smith's primary tool: the hammer.   In this photo you see him writing out the expression for the kinetic energy of a moving object.  He was pointing out that a mass m moving at velocity v has twice the energy of a larger mass twice as heavy but moving at half the velocity.

Here he is demonstrating the whip-like motion that results from using all 4 joints in the hammer-arm system:  shoulder, elbow, wrist, and the pivot created by his relatively loose grip on the hammer. In the Hofi system, the hammer is not held tightly with the fingers wrapped around it.  Instead, the hand is rotated so that it is largely on top of the handle and the handle is gripped lightly between thumb and fingers. Using the Hofi method, a relatively heavy hammer (1300 - 1500 grams = 2.9 - 3.3 lbs), can be swung at the same speed as a lighter hammer gripped rigidly in the "conventional" manner.  The result is a significantly greater kinetic energy which translates directly into forging ability.

The first thing Hofi did was demonstrate his unique method of forging a taper.  He starts at the base of the taper, not the tip.  Furthermore, he lets the hot material which will eventually form the taper hang off the edge of the anvil while he forges the base.   As the taper takes shape the unforged material on the end of the bar forms a hot blob.  He strikes the work twice on one face and then rotates the work 90° towards him and slides the blob up onto the anvil a little.  Two more hits forge a little of the blob into the taper and then he repeats the rotation and sliding.  In this manner, the blob is gradually consumed and the taper grows like magic on the end of the bar.  The blob remains red hot throughout the process due to (1) the work he's doing on it and (2) the fact that it is not lying against the anvil surface.

He made this double-ended bottle opener out of 3/8" diameter rod.   He tied the knot in one heat with astonishing skill and speed.  With a second very high heat he tightened the knot by clamping one end of the bar in the vise and hammering on a sharp bend he'd made in the other end just for that purpose.   The corkscrew started out as a long skinny taper forged eccentric to the main bar.  He then coiled it up tight like a spring and, using a chisel, pried it open to the uniform screw shape you see above.  The other end opens beer bottles.  We tested it at the dinner Saturday night and it worked perfectly!

Hofi talked at length about spirals, their mathematical basis, and their ubiquity in nature.  He clearly enjoys and benefits from exploring the theoretical and philosophical aspects of his work.

Here is a close-up of part of his next piece, a large compass.

The completed compass, about 24" tall, is a work of art.   This beautiful piece sold in the auction Saturday night to Harvey Wise for $700.....!    Harvey, you and Helen are surely the top supporters of Balcones Forge.

As you can see from this shot taken during a break, we had quite a good crowd. 

Frequently during his demonstration, Hofi called for William to strike for him.  Hofi described the "language of the anvil" used by master and striker but, of course, William already spoke the language.  The result was beautiful "music". Click here to download a 7 Mbyte mpeg video of this synchronized hammering.  (NOTE: this relatively poor-quality video seems to play more smoothly with Windows Media Player than with Real Player.)  If Real Player has taken over your computer (like it has mine) you can get around it by right clicking on the link above and choosing Save Target As, then specifying a location for the file.  Then, you can play the file with any program you like.

At the end of the day, Saturday, even the tireless Hofi needed to relax a bit.  He made this pose deliberately and predicted that everybody would use this picture in their publications....(hmmmm).

The dinner Saturday night was pretty good.  Even the club's vegetarians were satisfied with the catering.

The auction was something else entirely!   I've already mentioned Harvey's compass.  The tools that Hofi brought with him and donated to the auction brought in over $600.  For example, his tongs were going for up to $200 a pair....!   All in all, we brought in $5335...a club record, I believe.

Sunday, Hofi started off with his famous one-heat leaf.  He has perfected an elegant method of forging out the sides of the leaf on the horn that "automatically" creates a line representing a central vein on both sides of the leaf!   It is something to see....especially for those of us who take 6-8 heats for a leaf.

	Then he showed us a few decorative nail heads.
As his final hand-hammering project, he made a set of wolf jaw tongs using a clever technique with 3/8 x 3/4 flat stock.  After fullering in to isolate the pivot boss, he folded the jaw parts over 90 degrees and forged the twisted area smooth again.  In this manner he achieved the necessary offset with relatively little forging effort.  He used the power hammer to draw out the reins and then punched the pivot holes.   He formed the gripping surfaces in the jaws by forging them onto a piece of 3/8" round stock.  Very nice....very fast.
Finally he presented some powerhammer techniques.  Here he is discussing the optimum shape for drawing dies.

He made several elements with the powerhammer alone but this one was perhaps the most dramatic.  This started out as a 3/4" diameter bar. He forged down both ends of the bar and left an unforged area in the middle about 1.5" long.  Then, in one heat, he used the drawing dies to spread that into the disc shape you see in the photo.

After the demonstration, folks gathered around him for numerous questions and comments.   Hofi was very gracious and took the time to talk to every person that came up to him.   After it was all over he remarked to me that our group really "felt right" to him. 

Thanks, Uri....we loved it!

This is the Hofi hammer.  It is available for purchase here in the US from Big Blu.

A video (DVD) entitled, "The Hofi Hammer and the Hofi Ergonomic Technique for Moving Metal" is available for purchase here.
 (we also have a copy of this DVD in the Balcones Forge library).