making dies for owa fly presses

Tooling Dies

An example of the kind of tooling you can make with dies is an acorn.

First - Forge out an acorn shape. Then file and clean up until it is exactly the acorn you want to reproduce in your dies.

Second - Heat up your dies (top and bottom) to a bright yellow color.

Third - Place the dies under the ram, insert the forged and filed acorn in between the top and bottom dies.

Fourth - Using a flatter in the ram of the fly press, give the handle on the fly wheel a half revolution bump and you now you have a acorn die that you can use repeatedly.

Fifth - Relieve the edges of your dies, to prevent cold shuts. Just use a grinder or file to do this.

Sixth - Heat dies back up to an bright red (the hot steel should no longer attract a magnet) sprinkle Kasenite (case hardening) on the dies and quench in water or oil (the Kasentie Can has the full directions on the use of this inexpensive product).

You now have an acorn die that you can use repeatedly. You can do the same thing for leaves, grapes, pickets, spear points or anything else you want to make.

Any questions, please call or email and I'll be happy to go over any of this with you.