bruce wilcock

in the smithy we spoke of fullering irons ,a fuller is the impression in the bar ,side sets were only used on steel, never on iron, left and right hand ,a fuller was often made to position a side set , all our side sets had a round bottom edge, and we were not allowed to cut cold steel under the hammers ,there must had been a accident at some time . Side sets can be pigs to drive in if there isnt a good start for them ,they want to tip over.

sun burn ,a local young lad making a sledge burnt himself so bad he was hopitalised and carries scars on his hands and face .

full face masks in the smithy dark for cutting and clear wirebrush and grinding , we like most had to find out the practical way , still i find the real lurkers are fine brass turnings the pigs.

try wire brushing then wash it in the sleck tub give it a good rub over with your hands ,then back over the fire and get it to just a black heat,and brush again with a smoother brush ,when i used to compete at shoing competitions thats the way i got a deep wire brush finnish more like a blueing , you have got to put some real effort into the brush and polish the job ,then let it cool ,

providing the sand melts at a lower temp than the steel ,sand is the stone its made from ,so soap stone sand wont work , as to welding without flux in the uk i dont use flux at all and i do a good bit of welding ,i think the coal and coke we use has a lot to do with the welding fire ,if the coal has a clay mesure along with it the clinkers will have a glassy look and the clinker is a flux ,constant fire cleaning is not a help towards welding with this type of coal providing the air can get through ,the chain makers worked all morning and the fires were cleared at midday ,if using sand crush some scale up in your hand then take some sand along with it and throw it on the fire as you come towards a heat ,for the next weld push the job into the clinker and it will coat it with melted sand and of again,thats the way the chain makers worked

wrought iron was made later in the uk Thomas Walmsley caried on untill 1975 at the Atlas forge Bolton, i served my time not far away in Burnley ,and we went to colect iron as we needed it ,the last 6 months or so they stopped puddeling and were rolling out iron waggon axels from the railway coal waggons , the following year i left yorkshire and moved to the shetland isles ,i was so interested in the iron process i spent some time trying to find a way get hold of some of the plant to continue iron working ,but at that time iron was finished and no one was interested most went to scrap ,but later salvaged and taken to Ironbridge to form the center of the iron working museum ,where they use the rolls to demonstrate ,they made a puddeling furnace that wasnt a sucsess the arch looked too flat to me to drive the heat down ,so they never managed to make a great sucsess of puddeling ,a pitty .

i use quite a lot of wrought iron re worked chain and anchors , if its a small section say 1+1/2 ins nick it deep on both sides with a chisel then smack it over the edge of your anvil or prop it against the anvil foot and hit it with a hammer and if wrought iron it will break clean with a large grainy laired break , when we made horse shoes out of wrought iton all the iron was nicked with a cold sett and then broken over the anvil,the ease that wrought iron snaps when the grain has been broken even big sections is one of the most dificult to avoid and has no comparison to working steel , to work iron used for replacing, load bearing ,or stressed moving parts ,needs a direrent skill than steel

i would think its a knife polisher they were used for keeping steel table cutlery polished before stainless steel

to work smartly around the anvil for jobbing and shoe making the tong hand is nearer the pike-horn

Last year 4 of us got togeather and forged a 160 lb anvil ,if several of like minded smiths got use of a bigish hammer you could make a anvil each ,we made it in pices the ,block with dog holes welded the feet on ,and then made the top section out of 5 in billet and welded at the waist ,the job needed little grinding .

for a bullet mould , two cuttle fish bones rub togeather make mating surfaces,hollow out to near bullet size then place a bullet in the hollow press them togeather to make the mould prick two locating holes through remove the bullet ,cut out a pourer and riser, fasten the bones togeather pin the locating holes ,.,and run in your silver.

no dont be to hard on it ,set it in the floor and use it for a upsetting block , or put it on the shop insurance as a A1 p wright forged anvil , then leave as near the door as you can get it put it up of the ground a little so its easy to lift, and wait and pray,some good samaritan might help you ,towards a great anvil

well this side the pond stoker coal is just that ,the stokers pinched it and sold it ,you could tell it easy becouse it was a uniform size to go through the feed hoppers and it was better coal than you could usualy get ,it belonged to the navy.

to get a uniform coat i think a blast ,sand or cabrundum, will be needed ,i have had a try but big areas i have had a galvanizing firm do the job for me and they sand blasted first they used muric acid ,it looks great if its done well,

for spinning steel dishes my father ran the lathe away from him holding the tool under the bar,dont know why ,too late to ask now.

no i think you should ship it over to me,,, to look after it , you will have a job on keeping it safe now they have all seen it , i will send you a shipping address, it will have to come over express no time to be lost fast as possible. of course i will give you a recipt im not a crook.

a brand new steel anchor pinched of the sea bed will get you on the wanted list ,give it a try ,i will bake you a cake with a file in it ,just tell me address of the jail i have to send it to .

sounds like fun ,you must be joking it sounds like bleeding hard work ,to get a bit of wrought iron ,take a diver to the nearest habour throw him in with a rope and a float and tell him to tye it to any old anchor he finds just lying on the bottom without a chain going up to the top, go to the pub ,when he staggers ashore coverd in mud ,give him a pint remembr you might need him again, then go with a boat with a lifting gear and you have 1/2 a ton of iron, a good tip is to do all this an the dark ,so not to upset the guy that his granddad lost the anchor, and you might need to go back for another some time

wrought iron hammers stand up to forge work ,working wrought iron very well , its only when you start to work mild steel that they mark, to work wrought you have to work at near welding snowball heat and once it loses its heat to a full red the slag layers forming the grain will crumble and the iron will delaminate, Becouse mild steel can be worked at a lower temp men work mild to black heat ,and wrought hammers suffer . wrought iron hammers were used a lot in the chain and anchor trades and stood up to the work for years welding .

try google uk .stovesonline ,or spark arresters and they have a arrester that goes on a house chimny pot for thached roof houses, they are in Devon uk ,for goodness dont buy one ,thats letting the blacksmithing side down, have a good look at there picture and go for it.and olso cut the blast down.

Alcosa forge co used to make a patent grit arresster hood and they were very eficiant for use around straw stacks and timber yards untill recantly i had one , the idea was simple the flue was sq with a inverted V that divided it into two sq tubes one down each side of the hood and fitted with a slide out door at the bottom to clear the grit ,and there was some, above the ve baffle the flue opend out to about twice its size for about 1 ft and had another downwards facing baffle that brought the flue back to the original size the idea of the bulge in the flue was to let the gases expand and lose speed letting the grit fall back , it was far more simple than it sounds . As to the blast you have on it could be a bit stiff ,but some of the forges we ran on big jobs the coke was boiling and the grit up the flues had fire in them ,the arresters did a good job . This is landing up a essay, the men that ran Cupolas had big troubles and they had to sort it out with baffles and reverse flues ,i have a forge we used for anchor forging and i have made a baffle hood for it ,stand outside your smithy with the hearth at full blast on a dark night and you will know if you need a baffle box .

turn up a simple greek urns shape out of soft wood you will find it needs to tall and thinnish till you get the hang of the shape ,paint it with a clay wash when dry wrap with your rod i used the gascutter to warm the rod i fix a spiggot on the bottom to hold it in the vice ,when its all coverd ,burn out the wood .

i dont know the type you have ,but we use flake graphite the stuff for yale locks

the flue does not have to be round, sq is easier

what sort of symbol are you thinking of i have boxes of punches and one might alter to get you started,