GNJC

Well, I've just had a look at my copy of Joseph Moxon's 'Mechanick Exercises' (relevant volume 1677), this has a section on smithing in which he illustrates and explains the tools used. The diagram shows no hardy or pritchel hole in the anvil and he makes no mention of holes in the text describing the anvil. He was a careful observer and a is precise in his descriptive language; I doubt that there is any oversight in this instance so, most probably, a hardy hole was not something he was familiar with - or maybe even knew of. Either would indicate that such things were not in use on anvils from either Yorkshire, where he was brought up, or London where he was a reside as Hydrographer to the King. He traveled in Northern Europe, and would most probably have noted something so 'revolutionary' as a hardy. In passing, I think his illustrations show a very modern-looking leg-vice and, of course, almost any tool that could be used in a hardy hole could be held in a vice. Later in the text he mentions a bolster for use during punching...

Good question, I've been interested in finding the answer for well over a decade and haven't come across anything more than theories so far. Hardy, Hardye, Hardie, Hardi, Hardee are just some of the spellings I've come across and none have helped, and the etymology doesn't indicate a Scandinavian or Celtic origin. Please keep us posted if you make any discoveries.

Frosty, I haven't used them for about twenty-five years, I seem to remember spacing using off-cuts from a small piece of sheet I had lying around, maybe 19 or 20 guage (UK), and then just tack-welding, and then welding a lot. I was not and am not a very good or elegant welder, but if the welds are strong and not for show, who cares? The ends were polished to mirror-finish, because I was working with silver; it's a pain to get them to that standard, but pretty easy to maintain once reached. JHCC, '...without too much trouble.' is an entirely relative concept... But yes, a treadle would be my choice now. Fly presses are good, but would maybe need different tooling, whereas the same could be used by hand or treadle. But I haven't a fly press and have only used them off and on over the years, so I am open to correction on that.

A long time ago I did something like that with allen keys, although I was working with silver. I scrounged and found quite a number of old sets and experimented with various sizes, numbers and patterns. I found that 5mm and 6mm sizes allowed for the best combination of effect and effectiveness. Unfortunately my preferred set-up of seven together (one central and the others surrounding it) wasn't a goer, since that pattern required a xxxx of a hit to make an impression and, because I was striking by hand, it was hard to achieve even impressions. My most successful set-up was with three together in a triangular pattern; I found this allowed for even impressions of sufficient depth. It also allowed me to more easily overlap subsequent hits. I tried with slightly larger allen keys too but, again, they didn't penetrate sufficiently; and smaller sizes didn't give the right look - I was trying to imitate the natural appearance of honeycomb as accurately as I could. I haven't tried to do it on other metals, but reading your post has made me think about having a go with steel. I think that having a treadle hammer will make a better job; I can't remember the distance I settled on between the keys, to allow for the cell walls; but I guess it was about 1mm. I won't waste time with any pattern other than the triangular one, since it allows for the most efficient pattern repetition. Sorry for the metric figures, but I only think in imperial down to units of 1/8", but the principles are the important things. Good luck.

Well... about a dozen years ago I designed and had a swage block cast, by a professional foundry. I went through thoughts and ideas of smaller blocks, hardy tools etc. etc. and after an awful lot of consideration I found that I had to agree with history and the received wisdom that a full sized block is the best tool for the job. As for using cast iron, if you can get the design of the pattern and its making right, and then the mix, the melt and the pouring right, cast iron is probably far stronger than you may realise. Sure ductile iron is good, but I have given a miscast block a hell of a pounding with a sledge and without any problems. But, I did design mine carefully to reduce potential weak spots. Look at as many pic's as you can in a google search for images of some blocks, you'll notice that the broken ones all failed at the narrowest / thinnest point. Whatever you decide to do, spend a lot of time thinking, I took several months to finalise my design, and even then I included something I would later think better of. Good luck and keep us posted.

Just seen your reply, I'll post something now.

Hello, I have come back to farming - but am a in Carms so not much use to you, a pity because I have all the kit and could do with the cash. I suggest that if you want to get space in someone's outbuildings you have two routes that may offer more success than others. First, try posting what you want on thefarmingforum.co.uk, do it in the agricultural matters thread, because everybody reads that. If you want, I could post on your behalf - I'm known on there so it may get a better response, if you want this PM me your contact details and I'll 'phone you. Secondly, find out where your nearest agricultural merchants / suppliers are e.g. Wynnstay and put up at least an A4 size add' on their notice boards. Make it stand out! Just turning up at the gate isn't going to please most farmers, this is (a) because we are always very busy and, (b) we have so much stuff that can 'go missing' we are always suspicious of people - no insult intended to you, but there a lot of dodgy types around. Good luck.

Just been given the following link, it may be of interest to some since the subject comes up for discussion now and then... http://www.greatbusiness.gov.uk/taking-on-an-apprentice/ Although the opening page of this would seem to infer, photographically, that to apply one needs to be a prat, an unconvincing drag-queen or a seventies time-traveller, a quick scan of the text will reveal that this is not necessarily the case. Apologies if it is already known, I've not been following IFI as often as I once used to.

Just seen this thread - moved and only got the net this week thanks to 'high speed' BT! Pretty much all I do is make iron cooking gear in an 18th Century style and being a lawyer I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing when I started to sell to others. The above is all right, but... although the duty of care lies with the manufacturer / supplier of any piece of work, the courts do follow the old maxims of the common law in addition to extra-national rules (usually giving priority to common law). I can only write in respect of England and Wales, but here any court will take it for granted that if an item was sold for culinary use any buyer will know that it must be kept clean and not allowed to rust. Consumer protection is all well and good, but the steps toward North American levels of 'Safety Warnings', risk averseness and over-litigation that came at the start of the century were seen by the legal establishment, well the Judiciary anyway, as leading to a slippery slope. Ditto that for the EU nanny-state proliferation of 'rules'. Currently there is a low-level conflict between the health and safety brigade (FSA included) and the more pragmatic members of the bench; the Law Commission is trying to consolidate and codify all of our law and will have a fine time trying to reconcile these two viewpoints. Final advice = just hand out a flyer stating the bleeding obvious and mentioning that until pretty recently we had used iron, steel and brass for thousands of years without trouble.

I'm an amateur with about six years practice under my belt, and I guess I could make something that looks like a katana... but that's just the point, it would look like a katana - more or less - but it wouldn't be anything near one in any other way.

Peter Parkinson's 'The Artist Blacksmith'; not very arty, but very practical and will take you from nothing to competence if you let it.

You're welcome. I don't know if you trawled through all of the thread, the 'cast iron' issue was raised early on; I used a poorly cast block as a test piece and gave it a lot of whacking. There is a youtube video of it (search GNJC block), it is not the best quality footage but is shows the block surviving a fair bit of abuse. As with Dave's, my block only has a few dents here and there from stray hammer blows, it is otherwise fine. I should have mentioned what I use most on the block, for general smithing the large 'swoosh' is very useful; the 'step' at one corner is good for all sorts of raising; the largest ladle depressions for sinking. All the other parts are used just as planned. The larger spoon recesses are pretty good for small spoons too. Thanks for the good feedback Dave; if you come up with a good, original idea to replace the veining please let me know.

Hello, as you may have gathered if you read this thread, I'm not a full time smith, just an amateur with a (just about) paying hobby. A block did go to a silversmith, but not the one who originally enquired. I've lost contact with that one too, but I believe it was her intention to get a mirror polish - I guess she would have to. Of the other blocks cast I have not had anyone come back to me with a complaint. My own block is in use and has not shown any sign of suffering. As for the foundry... still a love-hate relationship; very good work and at a good price but simply never reliable as to when. All that written, the real world has intruded on my smithing - another baby and the necessity of doing more work has meant less time at the anvil. But, with luck that will change soon and both the swage block and some other items will be back in production. It has just occurred to me that I should mention what I would do differently on the block; there is only one thing I would change, I would leave out the leaf-vein pattern and either put another recessed pattern of some sort in the space left or leave it flat for use as a local 'anvil' when using the block. On future castings this veining will be absent, I shall fill in the veins on the pattern. The veining didn't work because to allow it to be cast it needs to be of a minimum size, that size is too big for the desired purpose. Other than that I am very pleased with the design.

He certainly was good, any appy's of his out there?

Yves, you know me well enough by now to call me Giles! The mention by Seymour Lindsay of a rail is, I think, the answer to the reason for so few 'racks' - in the proper sense of the word - to be found here. There were often wooden rails along the front of dressers, shelves and the like. Of course these, being 'attachments' so to speak, would be the most vulnerable things to knock and general wear and tear and so don't often survive. Rob' Deeley spent a lifetime collecting domestic equipment and then recreating and reproducing the appropriate setting for it in a barn on his property. I think he did a fairish job, but there are a number of things that I think inaccurate at best. Note my use of italics and bear in mind my former profession... It is a statement of fact that some of Deeley's collection came from Europe, but I can't say whether these items included the racks shown in his book. The salamanders illustrated in S L's book could have been supported by jamb hooks or something of the sort, or just leant against the nearest wall - I have an illustration of such a thing somewhere but, typically, can't locate it now... There was no absolute need to hang implements up anyway, but don't dismiss wood! A hole set back in a shelf with a small access channel could easily accept the narrow stem of such tools but prevent the ball-end from passing. Right, off to bed before the baby realises...