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habu68

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    Free Blacksmithing books on the web

    in Book Reviews

    Posted

    How come I can't see most of the book? For example on
    the following that habu68 mentions in the very first post, I have no download option, and no clickable content.

    Hand-forging and Wrought-iron Ornamental Work - Google Book Search

    The page I see (Firefox) when I just click on the link is totally different from the screen snapshot that Mark (chanterman) shows us...
    The page I see corresponds to "no preview available", refering to Google help (Google Book Search)

    Ludo

    Kogatana,

    I too, use firefox, and the links work for me directly from the message. Can you use the google book search and the title of the book to reach the link? I wonder if your location in Taiwan may limit your access to the service? This may be due to international copyright law.

    Habu

    Free Blacksmithing books on the web

    in Book Reviews

    Posted

    from Project Gutenburg

    THE FORGING OF THE ANCHOR

    Come, see the Dolphin's anchor forged! 'tis at a white heat now -
    The bellows ceased, the flames decreased; though, on the forge's brow,
    The little flames still fitfully play through the sable mound,
    And fitfully you still may see the grim smiths ranking round;
    All clad in leathern panoply, their broad hands only bare,
    Some rest upon their sledges here, some work the windlass there.

    The windlass strains the tackle-chains - the black mold heaves below;
    And red and deep, a hundred veins burst out at every throe.
    It rises, roars, rends all outright - O Vulcan, what a glow!
    'Tis blinding white, 'tis blasting bright - the high sun shines not so!
    The high sun sees not, on the earth, such fiery fearful show!
    The roof-ribs swarth, the candent hearth, the ruddy lurid row

    Of smiths that stand, an ardent band, like men before the foe!
    As, quivering through his fleece of flame, the sailing monster slow
    Sinks on the anvil - all about, the faces fiery grow:
    "Hurrah!" they shout, "leap out, leap out!" bang, bang! the sledges go;
    Hurrah! the jetted lightnings are hissing high and low;
    A hailing fount of fire is struck at every squashing blow;
    The leathern mail rebounds the hail; the rattling cinders strow
    The ground around; at every bound the sweltering fountains flow;
    And, thick and loud, the swinking crowd at every stroke pant "ho!"

    Leap out, leap out, my masters! leap out, and lay on load!
    Let's forge a goodly anchor - a bower thick and broad;
    For a heart of oak is hanging on every blow, I bode;
    And I see the good ship riding, all in a perilous road, -
    The low reef roaring on her lee; the roll of ocean poured
    From stem to stern, sea after sea; the mainmast by the board;
    The bulwarks down; the rudder gone; the boats stove at the chains;
    But courage still, brave mariners - the bower yet remains!
    And not an inch to flinch he deigns - save when ye pitch sky high;
    Then moves his head, as though he said, "Fear nothing - here am I!"

    Swing in your strokes in order; let foot and hand keep time;
    Your blows make music sweeter far than any steeple's chime.
    But while ye swing your sledges, sing, and let the burthen be -
    The anchor is the anvil king, and royal craftsmen we!
    Strike in, strike in! - the sparks begin to dull their rustling red;
    Our hammers ring with sharper din - our work will soon be sped;
    Our anchor soon must change his bed of fiery rich array
    For a hammock at the roaring bows, or an oozy couch of clay;
    Our anchor soon must change the lay of merry craftsmen here
    For the yeo-heave-o, and the heave-away, and the sighing seamen's cheer -
    When, weighing slow, at eve they go, far, far from love and home;
    And sobbing sweethearts, in a row, wail o'er the ocean- foam.

    In livid and obdurate gloom, he darkens down at last;
    A shapely one he is, and strong, as e'er from cat was cast.
    O trusted and trustworthy guard! if thou hadst life like me,
    What pleasure would thy toils reward beneath the deep-green sea!
    O deep sea-diver, who might then behold such sights as thou? -
    The hoary monster's palaces! - Methinks what joy 'twere now
    To go plumb-plunging down, amid the assembly of the whales,
    And feel the churned sea round me boil beneath their scourging tails!
    Then deep in tangle-woods to fight the fierce sea-unicorn,
    And send him foiled and bellowing back, for all his ivory horn;
    To leave the subtle sworder-fish of bony blade forlorn;
    And for the ghastly-grinning shark, to laugh his jaws to scorn:
    To leap down on the kraken's back, where 'mid Norwegian isles
    He lies, a lubber anchorage for sudden shallowed miles -
    Till, snorting like an under-sea volcano, off he rolls;
    Meanwhile to swing, a-buffeting the far astonished shoals
    Of his back-browsing ocean-calves; or, haply, in a cove
    Shell-strown, and consecrate of old to some Undine's love,
    To find the long-haired mermaidens; or, hard by icy lands,
    To wrestle with the sea-serpent, upon cerulean sands.

    O broad-armed fisher of the deep! whose sports can equal thine?
    The Dolphin weighs a thousand tons, that tugs thy cable- line;
    And night by night 'tis thy delight, thy glory day by day,
    Through sable sea and breaker white the giant game to play.
    But, shamer of our little sports! forgive the name I gave:
    A fisher's joy is to destroy - thine office is to save.
    O lodger in the sea-kings' halls! couldst thou but understand
    Whose be the white bones by thy side - or who that dripping band,
    Slow swaying in the heaving wave, that round about thee bend,
    With sounds like breakers in a dream blessing their ancient friend -
    Oh, couldst thou know what heroes glide with larger steps round thee,
    Thine iron side would swell with pride - thou'dst leap within the sea!

    Give honor to their memories who left the pleasant strand
    To shed their blood so freely for the love of fatherland -
    Who left their chance of quiet age and grassy churchyard grave
    So freely, for a restless bed amid the tossing wave!
    Oh, though our anchor may not be all I have fondly sung,
    Honor him for their memory whose bones he goes among!

    Samuel Ferguson [1810-1886]

    Drilling a square hole

    in Blacksmithing, General Discussion

    Posted

    Broaching is surely one approach, although, the equipment is expensive and specialized, another way would be to hot punch, not easy on a large piece. Now days EDM (electro discharge machining) would be the preferred approach for a high tolerance hole. That is the way I made my bolster plate and a small swage block, since my brother is a tool and die maker and the EDM was not in use. ;) I just thought that the drilling a square hole was a great example of

    Free Blacksmithing books on the web

    in Book Reviews

    Posted

    Google has started a new service called Google book search. They have scanned whole books onto the web and you can search for any word in the book, as well as title, author, and copyright date. Many books can be down loaded in pdf format if they have been given permission or the copyright has expired. Let's start a list of what we find.

    Here is a start: Forge-practice (elementary) - Google Book Search

    #2
    Hand-forging and Wrought-iron Ornamental Work - Google Book Search

    #3
    Practical Blacksmithing ... - Google Book Search

    #4:
    Spanish Ironwork - Google Book Search

    #5:
    Forging of Iron and Steel: A Text Book for the... - Google Book Search

    #6
    Steel Working and Tool Dressing: A Manual of... - Google Book Search

    brine

    in Alchemy and Formulas

    Posted

    Adding salt to water, up to the saturation point, will not change its volume; only it's sp/gravity. It should not be nessary to reduce the volume of the water to get the salt to "fit". you can put almost a 1/4 cup of sugar in a full cup of water.

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