Flatter and Forming Stake: Smoothing and Doming Tools for the Smith

The flatter is a top tool with a broad, flat face: set on the work and struck by the striker, it takes out lumps and hammer marks and leaves a finished surface (Practical Blacksmithing, 1889); a round-edged one leaves round corners unmarked. The forming stake is a domed iron head on a shank set in a stump, for hammering sheet into curved shapes. Forge both. The picture: our diagram, a flatter with its handle and a domed stake in a stump.