bruce wilcock

we still make a coulking hammer to a simular pattern, for coulking lead into cast iron pipes

for restoration work i use lead and work a sq hole opened out at the bottom the lead will go black i use a mallet and take a set of stone dressing tools if there is some letting in to do ,on most listed buildings in the uk lead will be used and wrought iron, to remove old broken stubs use a core drill , we have worked on a job last year that used over 1000 kg of lead all run in hot ,and the iron work was all wrought iron we set a forge up on site and did the forge welds on site the job was cramps to hold masonry on a historic dock so some of the work depended on the tide ,i still have some work to finish of ,i havnt been well , its been a big job to be all wrought iron ,if you are working on stone that has a lot of work put into it , look after it , every mark will stand out ,warm a pice if iron up and dry out your holes before you run your lead

hi i have not been well for the last month or so ,and i have decided to retire from the horseshoing 40 plus years of clogging nags, has worn the back out ,i have more than i can manage tool smithing and running the hammers to keep me out of trouble for the next year or so thanks for your concern, Bruce.

as youngsters we used to crush up mothballs and put them in the pockets of lads going out on a date .

massey hammers have marks showing lowest working position and marks showing the position the hammer should not be used ,set out like a inverted piramid

whilst you are thinking the foundation out ,make a set of motor mounting brackets to mount the motor on the hammer ,use the pump cyl head bolts to hold them in place to mount the motor at the back of the hammer, and use some crank case cover bolts to hold the lower end of the brackets, we have put the motor direct on to all the small hammers we have had it saves a lot of room and the the hammer is easier to install also it is easier to work around it and dosnt gather clutter

to re forge a anvil to take sway out and to get the edges back into shape ,isnt as big a job as you might think, most of the time is spent sitting around telling stories ,and as you need 3-4 handy lads with the hammers the stories bigger and less belivable as the job soaks ,make a big deep fire in the yard on the floor ,we called them floor fires, get it near to welding heat ,hook the hardy hole and drag it out of the fire and set about it with men and if you have your wits about you get the flatter and let the others use the hammers, then use a 2 ins water pump , years back old anvils were at scrap price ,so we had nothing to lose if we hashed it up ,though we allways got away with it ,and if you think the small anvil is cast iron you will soon find out i nearly forgot when you get it back onto the fire to take the quenching heat throw all the old casenit casehardening powder you have into the fire ,we used a lot for the brick yards so there was always plenty of bashed up tins around,

Ralph will be missed this side of the pond,my thoughts are with a friend i never met

each year 5-6 blacksmiths gather at the smithy ,and we forge a anchor ,all forge welded we use fires in the yard to make the crown weld .This year for a change we forged a anvil ,i made two floor fires to weld the parts at the waist .The job was thought out and the only lift was to place the top section on the spigot in the dog hole ,the bottom part we just flipped it over and dragged it out of the floor fire with the dog tongs ,no lifting and we used heavy hammers we then got the job back in the fire and welded bars in to tydy it up with it in the fire the anvil weghed 160 lbs .we have olso made a new pike for a small anvil 95 lb without pike and forge welded it on we made the pike with a blunt end and jump welded it on without taking the anvil out of the fire we pulled it to the side of the fire and throwed a steel plate over the fire to cover it up to let us work and then finished the point of with another heat all on the floor. If a few of you get together and one is forgemaster ,and you make fires to suit the job and get some coal on , you will bumble albout for a start but it will come togeather ,big jobs hold a lot of heat and men tire out so you need a change of men so split your gang up

just stick your name over the door ,--- blacksmith ,and be done with it then get on with your work,

IForgeIron Blueprints Copyright 2002 - 2007 IFORGEIRON, All rights reserved. BP0230 How to make a hammer By Bruce Wilcock This is the size of fire you will need to work with, plenty of char to feed in and soft blast. I keep the blast the same all the time. If you look the soaked billet can hardly be seen it has taken on the heat of the fire. The two pair of tongs on the fire are the only pair I use, apart from a pair of pickup tongs for drifts. The billet is round corner, mill billet 3 inches across the corners about 2 -1/4 on the flats. I get that size to make all sizes, of hammers, forge down, or upset. The last lot, I got 2 ton, so all tools are the same cast number. It makes heat treating consistent. Punch in half thickness from each side then turn over and knock the slug out from the side you started. For this pattern, I leave one end a little longer. The punches I make in a taper swage. It makes it easier to sharpen. I just put them back in the swage when they thicken up. The working end is 1/2 ins round end with a small flat on the tip. Set the job out using a small half round fuller. Leave it at that for heat one. Get it back to the fire with still a good heat in it. Heat two, fuller using simple spring fullers and round up the ends to start the faces. Same to other end. If one end is to be heavier, work on that first. Flatten down the bulge. Do not be rough with it. You can easily lose the shape of the emerging eye. If you lose it at this point it can be the devil to get back, and use up a lot of time. That is what to aim for. Still keeping the eye small so the job can be fullered to even up without losing shape. Heat three, place on a bolster and drive in a small drift. Draw out the cheeks. Drift in from the other side and finish the cheeks. Stand on end and give it a square knock (blow) on the faces to straighten up and free the drift Take a light heat and place on your mark. Support the eye with a small drift. Use a saddle and drift the eye to size from each side This is the way this pattern was made in the Sheffield tool trade in the days of hand forging, and we have continued to make them. For a peined hammer just make one end shorter and flatten into a pein cross or straight as you wish. The first 1000 or so will get you into the swing, and after that start to cut out heats, and really smarten up. I was told my granddad could weave them and keep up to two lads for a short time, but that's history and it will never come back. Still we can do our bit and keep it alive. Good look. Use a 55 or 60 carbon, plenty for a smiths hammer. In a Yorkshire smithy, to weave is to make repetitive without a fault and without slowing. Like a cloth weaver, endlessly. I make in batches and use a oven, but for small numbers, and one offs, I flame harden and draw the temper in a heavy walled pipe, at black hot. View full article

i must be getting soft in my old age ,i will twist some up and round it of for you and i have some small 1x1/4 4-5 ins long that you can get knives out of i will not use it we made it by the yard lenght and cropped it to make spokeshaves ..send me a post address .

years back we made sets of socketed wood working tools the damasc was carbon and nickel i made the layers up as stock and have still some bars left 1 1/2 ins by 5/8 random lenghths to 24 ins long they are more suited to making edged tools ,knives ,swords ,axes ,chisles, but provided you dont cool to fast it woul do ,if you forged it to a small sq and twisted it up tight then rounded it up the edge grain will show up, you can have some ,for the price of the post ,from the UK ,

i weghed the anvil today i had it in the van shoing and there were a set of scales new didgital at the yard i was shoing so i put it on 164 lbs .if i get time next week i will put the angle grinder on it .

toe bars and heels ,just get a good welding heat and splash them downno flux or scarph , when i started all the heavy work horses had bars and heels.

last week two blacksmiths David Goldthope and ,Ian Baxter, came up to Shetland and along with Michel gjerde and myself forged a 1 1/2 cwt anvil for the boss and feet i used pure iron a sort of low grade mild steel ,as it is easy to weld in the fire ,the only size i could get was 3 ins billet so i cut of 19 ins and jumped it up into a block and got the dog holes in , the feet we forged a triangular section and welded on tutning the ends in and welding them up to form the feet, for the top i used en9 at 60 carbon a 5ins billet 14 ins long ,first we drew out the tail and punched the hardy hole and prichill hole then whilst the other end to make the pike was soaking we made a pair of tongs to hold the tail with a sq to go in the hardy hole and clips to hold the side, we then forged the pike and put a dog hole in the bottom to line up with the hole in the boss and with a pin in the holes got the top and bottom red and stood th boss under the hammer and jumped the top on we then held it down under the hammer and Ian Baxter from Yorkshire welded the waist with the welder we had forged a deep v in the boss we welded the other side in the fire welding bars in the jop took two days finnishing at dinner so only one and a half days .I never have been able to get photos on this site but i did get some on Forgemajic ,,there was only a few photos taken as the man that was going to film it never showed up ,he went of to film a rare bird ,so now we know our scale of importance in the real world

unless you have set your heart on using rail steel, a pice of heavy steel from say the oil industry scrap will win hands down,i have made shoes and shod horses using a big shackel it dsnt have to look like a anvil,it becombes a anvil when you use it as one

if you feel you need a flux silica sand ,is proberly as simple to use just throw a light dusting on the fire as your job comes towards a full heat,a bottle broken up into dust is cleaner but you will have to place it over the job to make shure it melts,and is the one we use on big jobs if the steel in one fire comes to a heat before the other piece in another fire is ready, somthing we try to avoid, this is the only time i might use a flux, i work wrought iron up from old chain and it all has to be welded up under the hammers without flux i have put a small piece of wrought iron between steel if its a bit of carbon in it and its welded up well

Bruce Wilcox web page

that is rely somthing i can read it no problem .Brenda my wife has just had a go and sed not a chance i carnt get past the first word, and the worrying bit is she can spell ,

ww2 bayonets were little more than case hardend ms well the one i have is

to be able to speak as it were with the auther of standard works ,is not to be missed,

rust never sleeps :cry:

working wrought iron is the only time you will be forging at a true snowball white heat ,intentionaly.