To shape angular extremities, it is often convenient to hammer the work while at yellow heat, or sometimes at welding heat, while the heated portion is in an angular gap. The angle of the gap-sides is that of the work required to be shaped. An angular shaper is shown by Fig. 208; and when the gap-sides subtend an angle of sixty degrees, the tool is sometimes used for shaping the outsides of six-sided nuts of several sizes.

The material used for making such blocks should be Bessemer steel, cast into sand moulds that were shaped by wood patterns whose shapes resemble the shapes of the required blocks.

When it may be necessary to forge such a block, instead of casting it, the square stem is first produced at one end of a bar, fullers being used to commence the drawing down, in the usual way; and when the stem is reduced to nearly its finished dimensions, it is placed in some convenient hole or slot, with the thick part of the work upwards; while thus fixed, chisels and wedges are driven in at the place of the intended gap, until its required dimensions are attained.