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The discovery was made by anthropologist Peter Schmidt and metallurgy professor Donald Avery, both of Brown University. Very few of the Haya remember how to make steel but the two scholars were able to locate one man who made a traditional ten-foot-high cone shaped furnace from slag and mud. It was built over a pit with partially burned wood that supplied the carbon which was mixed with molten iron to produce steel. Goat skin bellows attached to eight ceramic tubs that entered the base of the charcoal-fueled furnace pumped in enough oxygen to achieve temperatures high enough to make carbon steel (3275 degrees F). [ibid] While doing excavations on the western shore of Lake Victoria Avery found 13 furnace nearly identical to the one described above. Using radio carbon dating he was astonished to find that the charcoal in the furnaces was between 1,550 and 2,000 years old. [ibid] This discovery was made in the 1970's. Although not definitive as yet it must be given serious thought as more research is done. Enough said.

bhardy, I think it will work out just fine if you get it plumbed up to air properly. Seems like folks didn't see you've got a hole on the back side for stock to pass thru if need be. :)

Yes it is if you choose to think that way. Although its not a rewriting of history as it is a true picture. The premise that native Africans didn't have the ability to discover their iron age on their own is the result colonialist propaganda used to help subjugate the native populous. The wide range of styles and sizes of African smelting furnaces and the lack of few if any looking anything like early European or Eastern styles tends to lead one to believe in African authorship. Why should it be any harder to think that Africans could develop a smelting process alone anymore than to think it was possible to do so in the middle east or Asia?

Dave, Make male dove tails to fit your hammer, weld these dove tails to plates with drilled and tapped holes to accept your tooling (dies). Then install the plates with dovetails in your hammer so from then on all your tooling can be bolted on.

I tend to go along with the leather working thing, but one other guess is it could be a bench for sharpening scythes.

Nice shaper!!! It must be geared since it has the integral motor. What's the stroke? Don't worry about not having a vice many if not all operations on the shaper can be done with assortments of hold downs. Good score!

I'm not sure what make of anvil you have from the pic alone , but I can tell you that half the hardened steel face is missing.

You didn't give your location in NJ. But if you would go to the New Jersey blacksmith association web site I'm sure you'll find some help there and probably someone not to far from you who is also smithing.

556mp Sorry to say but" there is nothing new under the sun" your's is the same method used by Hudson's Bay Company to forge their axes.But your creative approach problem solving ,proves that your blacksmithing skills are certainly growing in the right direction.

Well worth the price. If you need it !

Say Tim, Simms (sp?) out in Lindhurst I think, can't really remember had one similar to that they used to use to cut drum heads for making tanks. If you haven't been there you should check them out. He has a lot of machinery that he has built/re purposed for fabricating large pipe etc:.

John, Not trying to be controversial but if you weld with say 7018 or the other rods you mention. How will they be hard enough to be equal to the hardness of the rest of the anvil face? Good point about the chemical cleaning of the weld surface. After looking at his pic of the anvil I wondered how it would be possible to get a decent weld.

I think Tim is correct in his observation. The short box and it's details like early english vises yet with such heavy later style jaws along with the pivot point details all seem to point to French vise construction.

I might give a guess that your water came from condensation as the hammer sat stored in an unheated building for storage.

Here is a natural draft furnace of an African style I helped Jake Kean build along with Lee Sauder, Michael McCarthy ,Jesus Hernandze and others a few years ago.

The alleged PW isn't taht bigg look at the womens foot next to it in the last pic!

Try "The Practical Machinist " web site look under there forums at antique machinery .

Stewart, That's not a Hossfeld bender it's a Diacro

Don't put your angle iron frame so close to the edge that it inhibits your ability to clamp things down.

It would work to some extent but with low walls you'll still have a problem with wind blowing the smoke away from your flue pipe. I'd suggest you also put up a tarp above your short wall to minimize the effects of the wind. Also go with at least 10" (250 mm) pipe above your barrel. Eight inches is not large enough for the volume of smoke the forge will produce.

Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton N J. Check it out at their website at www.petersvalley.org

What difference does it make it will only improve the quality of your bearing and will hurt nothing. From the looks of it it's original anyway.

Bryce If you look at the eccentric on the drive wheel you'll see that someone has added a plate and bolted it in a fixed position.It's not anything that can't be fixed but thought I'd point it out. Also looks as if the set screws that hold the sleeve bearings from rotating have been removed,you might want to check that also.

Years ago we used to "solder/braze" our blades this way, The only problem seemed to be that the heat took the temper out of the teeth and caused them to dull almost immediately.Thus causing all the rest of the teeth to wear and chip sooner than if welded in the modern convectional way.

Very nice work Woody.