Bentiron1946

They were forging them down to what looked like 3/8" points and then smacking them with wood mauls and the ends were just curling up. At the end of the "nose"  project they were using them to flake or chip off small points of limestone to refine the profile of the nose. The ancient examples of the chisels look pretty much like contemporary stone working chisels but not so the one the New England sculptor was making. I have seen examples of early Bronze Age hammers from Europe and they are similar to socket axes except of course  blunt so I was having somewhat of a hard time with them having the Egyptians using only rocks as hammers for forging out the chisels. In the past I have observed knappers at work with copper implements and they are capable of some very fine exotics with their use of copper points rather than the traditional bone and antler but I just don't know how the ancients would have applied this type of flaking technology to something as large as the Great Sphinx of Giza. At this same time they were building the Great Pyramid also so they were already accomplished stone workers. I think that they had a trick or two that we in the modern world are missing in the use of Calcolithic copper tooling.

Top one looks like an eye drift for hammers and such, they all look pretty nice. Really nice looking little set hammer there on the bottom.

Last night on NOVA on PBS the had a program about the Great Sphinx of Giza and they had this sculptor in New England using copper tools to make a "new" nose for the sphinx. Well you know he had a nice little coal forge to heat the copper in to for it on a large rock anvil with a rock hammer stone. The problem I'm having is it looked like they were using pure extruded 3/4" copper rod, you know the kind you get from your local metal supply store. This stuff is about 99.9% pure and I was having a hard time watching them try and carve stone with pretty pure copper. From what I've read about the Copper Age(Calcolithic) the copper was pretty well not 99.9% pure but had lots of other stuff in it like arsenic, silver, gold, lead, you know whatever was in there with the ore. Sometimes in pretty go proportions too, so I'm thinking that perhaps they may have had anywhere from a near pure copper to a pretty good near bronze tool to work the stone with and that would sure beat the heck out the 99.9% stuff the New England sculptor was trying to use on the "new" nose for the sphinx. So do any you have an idea or suggestion about the "copper" tools used to carve the Great Sphinx of Giza?

Looks kinda like an antique hoe I saw in a shop for around $50 because it was old and hand made by a smith, something rare this day and age.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyJjZDLVeBA

I found some other inspiration for adze, axes and other wood shaver here,kind of interesting. I have no idea about attaching an axe head that way looks like it could fly off the handle without constant attention. Yeah, I keep waiting for him to chop a toe off but I guess it wouldn't matter much if you just had on a regular pair of leather shoes either.

Beautiful gate, however it wouldn't be allowed to be put up here in Phoenix since poses a chocking hazard, 4" ball rule you know and some of the tendril points seem a bit sharp too. Those danged code enforcer boys can steal the joy right out of Christmas. I sure like it though!

If you get a Fisher anvil there is no need to waste the caulk, it is a great cast iron anvil and naturally quiet. Still that is a lot better set up than the auto shop guys had. Very nice little anvil.

Thomas, Dose any coal used my smiths in NM come out of Madrid or is that all shut down now?

Bad time of the year to pass for the family but then I guess there never is a good time, still it's tougher around the holidays. Prayers for his kin.

Jerry

Yeah, dirt naps are for awhile and some of my friends are napping away, still above dirt!

Silicone bronze is what you want. There is a member here in Ireland that does a lot of silicone bronze forging, I sure hope he chimes in. When I was doing a lot of casting there was a wire that was available that was just one number off from the one I was using for casting so it feed out real nice in the MIG machine and we had some rod too for bigger holes in the casting. There are lots of different types for different atmospheres, marine, to urbane and all have there own problems when it comes to patina. I love bronze!!

They maybe inherited but I remember when the bellybutton tore loose, it didn't hurt all that much but I sure felt faint for an hour or so. I should not have lifted a fully loaded dresser up onto furniture mover in one go. I remember when the abdominal hernia started, another stupid lift, I just never knew it had grown so big over the years. GET HELP if it looks it could be a two man lift. With my back the way it is I don't think I'm lift much more than a gallon of milk for the foreseeable future.

I was going to put this in the prayer section but I'm mostly healed now so it's mostly just some healing left to do. Went into the doctor for some normal blood work and he did his usual stuff and said "You know you guts are hanging out your belly button?", I told him "Yeah", he said you need to get that fixed now. I asked "why now?", it has been that way most of my married life from moving furniture for my beloved. Any way next day a visit to a surgeon and she says "Do you know you have two hernias?", "No", "Your bellybutton is really bad but you have another that goes form there up to your sternum", well that was on a Thursday and on the following Tuesday I had them both fixed. You know it hurts like crazy to have your belly fixed from the middle to the top. OUCH!! They made these four little holes and did it all by laproscope, so no big wound on the outside just big bruises. I hurts to sneeze, cough, XXXX , and many other things but at least I can sit in a chair now for a while and walk around the house a bit. I'd hate to think what major surgery would be like. It took an hour to do and then home to bed, dang I'm a pansy, I wish I'd a got stay where there was some kind of help other than my 100# wife, I weigh 250#, kinda scary those first three days. Lots better now. Be careful what and how much you lift at one time and you won't have to go through this pain in the belly, If you think it will take two men and a small by get three men and forget the small boy, no use him getting hurt, but don't hurt yourself, pain lasts a lot longer than getting help and then you can sit comfortably down and share a brew.

The cross looks really nice, a fine job on that and on the two narrow pieces too, good looking all around on the quarter mokume gane. I think you got that one down pat.

Packard hubcaps, put up on eBay and I'm sure someone will buy them pronto. Aren't you glad the boss was wrong about the 11 cents a pound? Looks like everyone has done well setting out bait so stuff will follow them home. Blacksmiths keep the landfills safe from unnecessary deposition of scrap iron and tools.

I have a 300# Fisher and it is a very nice anvil to work on. You'll love yours if and when you get it.

Are you going to charge him the rate for five pages of advertisement or just delete it all?

 

 

Good idea. Thank you for suggesting it as this does violate the terms of service for IFI http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/160-read-this-before-posting-the-rules-for-tailgating/

Yup, that's an ugly duckling type of anvil alrighty. Sure has had some abuse but it sounds like it is in good hands now. Enjoy forging on it and perhaps spreading the joy of forgig to another generation.

That is some mighty fine forging you done made there, I like that a lot, you done good. Now make a hundred of them and you're in the flesh hook business.

Put a wire brush on a 4" hand held grinder and clean the surface off and you be able to see more of the original surface that may contain markings. DO NOT use an abrasive disk on any surface of the anvil, only a wire brush, you want to clean it not destroy it. Looks like a very fine anvil. Congratulations on acquiring this fine tool!

I liked the picture of all the different types as it reminded me a Japanese calender picture I saved from many, many years ago that showed some of the very fine arrow heads made for Samurai archers. If I disremember correctly it seems that all of them were tanged not socketed, really long tangs. I wonder why the difference in methods of attachment to the shaft?

"Are you saying you believe that sub-Sahara Africa,.................." From my studies, yes, however I suppose we are each entitled to our own interpretation of the available information.

Sorry the title of the work didn't seem to come through, Taking a Step Back pendant, 2007. 14k and 18k gold, Damascus steel, mokume gane (palladium and sterling silver), boulder opal, blue sapphire. 2 1/8 in. (54 mm) wide. Photo by Doug Yaple. Jewelry artisan Joan Tenenbaum

Gerald, I think if you read some of the more current literature on the subject that you will find that the iron age was an indigenous industry now that some of the "colonialist" mind set has been set aside in Sub-Sahara Africa. While it may it may still be found to have be influenced by outside forces after more detailed and new archeological investigations my research tilts me towards indigenous development just as the New World was on the cusp of the Bronze Age when it's development was arrested by the Spanish invasion.

http://cs.jewelrymak...dia/p/9842.aspx Here is a fine example of the two combined in a piece of jewelry. Anyway I like her work. Frosty may be more familiar with her than most of are as she lived and worked in Alaska for a good many years. There are other examples of her work on this web page.