bruce wilcock

a wrought iron shank with a pice of steel shut on the underside at the tip etches up well ,and makes a nice tool ,when we made sets of wood chisels i made a birds mouth weld with the steel in the middle and forged out thick, then ground back to the steel on one side and the bevel on the other ,it was a quick way to make a tool.

carron oil ,is a mix of linseed oil and lime water ,it was used at the Carron iron works in Scotland ,for burns ,i think thats all they had plenty of at the foundry lime and linseed oil , we used it .

wrap your apron around your neck, and poke the gas cutter in from the bottom side till you prick it through then square it up from the top side ,then drive a taper drift in with a 56 lb sledge whilst there is a bit of heat in it ,no one can se the hole when the tools are in it , you can borrow our heavy sledge .

disolve beeswax in turpintine untill it turns into a whitish paste then rub it on with a rag or brush.

we made a die holder using a tube ,to cut the threads after we bent them with anvil horns and a bending bar.

i think Glenn ,has got it all ,perhaps glasses and a apron.

dad told me ,during the slump ,blacksmiths found plenty work ,but not a lot of money.

cast gun metal or bronze ,easier then brass till you get the hang of it.

learn to use a gas cutter well ,and offer to put a hour or so in ,on the wire rope pile ,no one likes cutting wire they will soon pull you 20 ton out of the pile so you dont set the whole lot afire ,and leave you to it ,then you wil be able to miss your break and rummage the yard,wearing the correct gear.

decoy anvil,i like it

i have over the years given several anvil away free to help young folk on there way towards getting set up with a workshop, they have all worked on a hearth in my smithy ether doing there own thing and i have lent them a hearth or they have helped me with jobs ,all are still doing some smithy work ,and one is full time ,i have enjoyed helping ,perhaps if you show some aptitude and work along with a smith and earn your anvil ,and for the meantime a block of steel or even a sledge hammer head ,will get you started.

M55 the old class EN9 is all you need to make hammers the Sheffield tool smiths used tons ,there are lots of men that will supply you ,en8 will do if your hammers arnt over 1-1/2 lb if you are stuck i will give you some for the post cost

a good use for a wood fire outside is to burst heavy rust of scrap steel and iron ,and fit tyres on wheels ,for expanding tyres a wood fire has no equal.

in the uk Itinerant trademen went from place to place ,and there was a living of a sorts going from quarry to quarry sharpening tools and shoing farm horses ,there were some well known blacksmiths ,pincer joe ,was at the top of the pile , a blacksmith that could do the job well got work ,most had rounds and reguarly visited so the work was gathered up ready for when they arrived ,these men needed little in the way for tools they were blacksmiths and knew there job they usualy went around blacksmith and striker ,before i married i gave it a try ,and provided you set up a round and turned up at the apointed hour and didnt just wander around the country side hoping work would find you, a living could be made this was in the mid 60s ,tipped tools and diggers and the work men arnt working on there own acount using there own tools on peice work ,i think has seen the job of apart from horseshoing ,then most dont make shoes just put them on .

in the sixties i fixed one onto a motorbike sidecar with a anvil and went round farms shoing horses and tool dressing at quarries ,i repaced the tueiron with stainless steel and fitted a hand leaver to work the bellows ,the foot leaver was dificult to use ,i wedged a block of wood under the wheel to steady the rig when working on the anvil. it was used for 4 or so years untill i finished my aprenticeship and set my own shop up. Now theres a good idea ,my bike was a old x army sidecar bren gun carrier, go for it with a brand new harly davidson and go wild with the paint job

a stand for barrels is a stillage if you look up ,barrel stillage i am shure you will come up with some ideas.

its a muck drag for puling farmyard manure out of the back of a cart the manure is pulled out in small heaps as the horse walks on ,then the heaps are spread out with a muckfork.

in the uk realy big vices and heavy anvils ,are usualy completley wrecked ,or as new ,its not often you find them lightly used, is it the same at your side of the pond.

the oldest anvil in the shop is double piked one is flat and undercut good to forge shoulders they were usual in shipyards and some of the old men called them engineers anvils.Dad thought it the best anvil we had and used it a lot,the ones i have seen have all been a good age , the portsmouth anvil is usualy a cast steel anvil and a more modern shape without steps down to the pikes ,were double piked anvils made in the USA.

yes i have to admit the chuff ,chuff ,slam of a hammer working is very hard to walk past

one of the shop anvils weighes 7 cwt and is on a cast stand filled with concrete ,the stand isnt very high! , all the strikers that have worked on it ,say the hammer just falls through the iron ,the down side i find is that big anvils can be hard work and slow you down shoemaking ,you need skates on to get from the pike to the pritchill hole and if the work needs to work around the anvil ,its a long way ,olso you can catch your knuckles when chopping down over the far edge on a anvil thats 7 or 8 ins wide , we used them for heavy work ,for a good jobbing anvil i think 5 cwt is a good size about 5 1/2 to 6 ins wide and about a yard long ,the heavy anvil is 8 ins wide and 42 in long and thats too long for the sort of work i finished up doing.

a easy way to fuller is to hold a round steel rod in one hand and drive it in with a heavy hand hammer.

now i am retired the apron lays on the anvil where i last took it of the anvil underneth is the only suirface in the smithy that hasnt a layer of rust on it ,i have some ironwork to make for my sons boat ,so i am awating motivation ,to put the apron on again ,i always wore a hide split leg apron 3ft long,and i as someone said a fringe is usefull i always felt undresed without a apron esecialy when shoing.

i have made a pistol barrel for a flinter ,first i layed wrought iron with nickle steel forged it into a square then i twisted it up tight ,then coiled it up like a coil spring and then welded it solid forged it 8 sided ,then i put it into the lathe and poked a long drill down it ,it was 10 ins long ,i know its cheating but it made a sound job with a heavy wall.

the hearths are made on the floor or around 18 -24 ins high depending on the job we use both coal and coke ,coke is less bother for welding, the hearths dont need to be fancy just a rammed foundry sand bottom fire bricks to hold the fire togeather, and a stainless pipe a yard long to make a tweer, and a big fan ,you need some handy lads that are used to the work ,and one has to be forgemaster ,its not easy if they all want to do there own way ,there has to be control ,to get the best out of the labour ,or some will want to do it all and get nothing done , and other good men will back out and leave them to it, big jobs throw out a lot of heat and hold it for a long time and men soon tire , so you can easily get a good heat and a weld started and the men out worn out if you dont handle them well .it can get into long days ,and the same the day after,