Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works

[...hold the] cold end until the heated end is beaten or up-set original: "up-set"; a technique of thickening or shortening a piece of metal by striking it on the end into the body of your work. But if it is a long piece of work, and you fear its length may damage the middle, you must hold it in your left hand and lay it flat on the anvil. However, place it so that the heated end intended to be up-set lies a little over the further side of the anvil, and then with your hand hammer in your right hand, strike the heated end of your work. Be careful that with every stroke you take, you hold your work stiffly against the face of the hammer. Afterward, smooth it again with a blood-red heat.

If you are to forge a shoulder original: "sholder"; a square ledge or offset in the metal on one or both sides of your work, lay the shank of your iron at the place where your shoulder must be on the edge of your anvil (choosing the edge that is most convenient for your hand). If more shoulders are to be made, turn them all successively and hammer your iron so that the shank of the iron lying on the flat of the anvil feels the weight of your blows as much as the shoulder at the edge of the anvil. For if you were to direct your blows only at the edge of the anvil, it would cut your work through instead of flattening the shank to make the shoulder.

Your work will sometimes require holes to be punched in it at the forge. You must then make a steel punch to the size and shape of the hole you are to strike. Harden the point of it without tempering tempering is a process of reheating hardened steel to make it less brittle; here, Moxon suggests the heat of the workpiece will do this naturally, because the heat of the iron will soften it quickly enough—and sometimes too quickly, in which case you must re-harden it. Then, taking a blood-heat a moderate red glow of your iron, or if it is very large, almost a flame heat, lay it upon your anvil. With your left hand, place the point of the punch where the hole must be, and with the hand-hammer in your right hand, punch the hole. Or, if your work is heavy, you may hold the iron in your left hand and use a punch fixed at the end of a hoop-stick a flexible piece of wood, like a willow branch, wrapped around the tool to act as a handle or some similar wood. Hold the stick in your right hand and place the point of your punch on the work where the hole must be, and let another man strike until your punch [comes through].