bruce wilcock

make a wood box to cover it ,lift it of and use it to lay your tools on when you work ,we did this at quarry where we sharpend there picks and dressed the hammers

Andrew, i have sent you a note ,iron is more like timber ,each piece has its own charecter, two years back i got the entire chain and anchors salvaged off a Swedish sailing bark, the iron is the nicest i have worked for a long time , the genuine butter patting iron, i havnt started on the anchors yet over a ton each, they will be worth getting rolled down to flats

I have several tons of wrought iron chain and anchors ,that we work up as we need ,if you only want a small amount ,posting might be the cheapest way ,you are wellcome to a few links of some of the smaller chain , the big links are big ,if you cover the post, if you look on youtube under bruce wilcock there is a clip working some of the smaller links up into mooring rings ,to give you a idea as to the size of the links

we usually set biggish jobs in the hearth to soak around midday then whilst we ate our lunch someone was sent out to turn it over two if it was heavy ,after lunch we started to bring it to heat ,as we cleared the decks ,then set about the job ,no standing time .

dissolve bees wax in pure turpintine into thin a paste wipe on then buff .

Thomas have you ever used a tire shrinker ,i have seen plenty usualy in museums ,there was one at a forge i did some work for ,and when they packed up i got chance to clear the shop infront of the scrapmen ,at scrap price all the tackle was ether massive or worked to the end,by then tire work was finished and my dad thought we should be scrapping not getting more junk,to fall over ,so the lot drop hammers anvils vices swages by the ton was scrapped, and i never got to use a tire shrinker , they used it for loco tire work ,so it wasnt a toy.

welding cart tires make a simple short scarph ,lay the scarphs so the lip on the inside of the tire faces away from you ,so the thin end of the scarph chilling on the anvil faces you just remember to get the job the right way round ,we then used a piece of fencing wire and used it draw the ends together across the hoop twisted up with a tong rein ,then on small tires we punched a horse nail hole through a big carthorse nail was then sett in from the outside and clinked up in the inside ,big tires we used say a 3/8 round rod perhaps two if it was a wide hoop, the wire was then taken of and a heat taken with the hoop held by a chain from the rafters for big tires ,we took the first heat to get the bottom lip welded pulling the hoop towards you on big hoops a sett hammer and get it struck, rock the job back as you work inside towards the uppermost weld away from you ,then get it back in the fire whilst there is still a near welding heat in the job and get it back in the fire sharp, no messing thats where you can lose the job ,keep it hot, get to heat and finish of ,dont batter it to death ,just weld it the thickness should be left in ,then get your mesure wheel run it round the inside and check your size ,then if needed draw the weld to get it to size ,the weld is easy even on big hoops ,keeping to size is not so easy ,so allways leave some to thickness to work with ,jumping hoops up without tackle is no joke ,easier to split and re shut.

make a center punch, drawn down from a heavier section taper sq with the corners knocked off spend some time getting it to a set size ,not what it lands up at ,as a early lesson you will learn a lot from it, and that tool will be with you for life ,learn to walk first,we all had to ,some times we break into a run only to fall, jobs done at a early stage if rushed dont look too good the following day.

when forging shafted top tools ,we always got the fuller in first , to set the job out then the eye ,the fullering let us get a good hold both end on as the tongs were fitted to regester into the fullering and to handle the job upright under the hammer with round section pickup tongs whilst forging top swages ,all shafted tools that will have to go in the fire to be dressed should have a good fuller for tong handling stonemasons hammers shipyard drifts and setts, can be the devil to hold without when they have got worn well down,and you cant get eye tongs on .

the main bellow makers in the uk alldays used elm for the boards and beech for the valve flaps

when we re faced stonemasons hammers the peice of steel was nearly cut through to the size of the face then the hammer and steel were brought to heat the hammer to a full heat, a long drift was then knocked into the eye ,to keep the eye open and to handle the hammer ,the hammer was then stood on its end on the swage block with the hammer in a hole with the drift accross the hole ,the steel was then dabbed on and welded and the bar twisted of , ,usualy two heats were needed the job never went on the anvil, untill it was welded then just to square it up.

i must have been typing my when you posted yours,just a thought perhaps a SG cast iron would ring , or it fell off a pallet on the way to the fettling and heat treat shop ,into a passing shopping bag.

Brooks anvils are cast in the uk and heat treated in the uk , .Though i cant see Brooks selling a unfinished anvil with there name plastred down the side for you to dump in a fire and perhaps end up with edges like flint , i would make a phone call to Brooks to sort it out

when hot pressing the mark the job should be clear of scale ,and not be at a heat that will form a layer of scale ,and not taken back to a scaleing heat after marked. Take a good look at hot impressed marks on cutlery surgical tools fine woodworking tools and so on,the stamp you have there is huge compared with some of them ,i think with use you will get to be able to bring the best out of your stamp ,and you start to apreceate the work that went into cutting your mark .

tear some canvas or sack into strips ,mix some cement powder with water into a slurry soak the sack cloth in it and wrap it around the joint and smmoth it over, when its dry give it a coat of paint .

tinners clamps -tongs

i have owned pilkinton hammers the ones i had the valve was like a pepper pot on the top ,and controled through bevel gears not the alldays type they also had open crank cases the anvil block was the same and the key could be knocked out and the block lifterd out and i had a bolt header die that fitted in , the name Backsy fire grate foundry rings a bell ,perhaps they were casting parts for pilkingtons .

i have heavy anvils ,when you have got your bush made make a thick copper washer to go under to take the bounce out of it

if you have a cheap hammer and want to ease the edges ,find a big flat sandstone ,take a can of water wet the stone and rub the face on the stone working on the edge until you have a face like a flat watch face 10 minuts work ,then spend the rest of your life learning how to use it .

if you only have one hammer to harden and temper , fill a bucket with water ,stand it under a tap or hose pipe get your tool to hardning temp hold it by the eye with streght tongs ,set the tap running dump one face in the water with the water running over the other face continue untill the face stays wet and steams dry .rub the faces with a sand stone and there will be plenty of heat left in the eye section to draw the temper in the faces then cool out ,thats the way we did masons hammers after dressing the faces .

i bought a 2 1/2 cwt anvil from brooks direct from the works in 1964-5 the price was 28 pounds sterling ,around 3 weeks wage ,my dad went nuts ,for spending all that money ,when we had a shop full of anvils i wanted a smaller anvil to go out shoing ,all the anvils at home were in the 5-6 cwt range, it was a fine anvil ,the only drawback for a shoing anvil is the heel is thick and not good to pull shoe heels out on, i gave it to a young lad wanting to start up a year or so back ,and it had held up well .

use a mill cut file ,and then a stone ,a sandstone to finish .

when you look the job over remember the bottom hinge is in compression and the top hinge will be in tension this might affect the placement of your pins if in masonry, and if you are hanging the door wedge it up, and remembr to take up slack on the pins towards the door on the top pin and towards the jam on the bottom hinge ,with heavy doors this point must taken into account .Speak to a joiner and they will put you on the track.

two photos working on a anchor

there were several anchors forged one each year and one of the dvds was sent to Glenn to copy and sell to raise funds for the site , se if Glenn still has one ,or can copy one for you ,i think there was one forging a hammer as well.Bruce