Pritchel plate

[Philip Davies]

The function of a pritchel plate is to support red hot steel when punching through, usually for spreading a hole, to minimise distortion. Usually a hole is formed on the anvil face, going most of the way through, flipping over and punching out the slug.
This was made from two otherwise useless pieces of scrap, certainly salvaged. A vee was cut in the sharp end of the wedge prior to stick welding the handle, originally the prong of a stake. For practice, for fun and just for show, I forged an ergonomic handle before welding, refining it afterwards to ensure symmetry.
The holes in the plate were, of course, drilled beforehand, metric down one side, imperial down the other, enabling me to see whether any of the larger sizes needed a re grind.