Dan P.

​Do you keep this rasp seperate?

Please say yes.

Wierd vice!

The "anvil" looks cast. Looks like one of those things you wrap the rope around at the quayside.

​I've heard stories about how things were with the Trade Unions in this country in the 70's. Yikes.

All I know about the case (possibly all that is known, I'm sure the author would have mentioned more if there had been more) is that she was a smith's widow, remarried to a member of the Skinner's guild, sueing for the rights to a stamp, her dead husband's, a double crescent, that was being used by one John Morth.

The Cutler's Guild petitioned the court on behalf of John Morth, but the suite was found in the woman's favour.  

I guess the suite was just about the use of the mark, who knows? I wonder what John Morth would think about the fact that people are still talking about him and that ******* mark!

​In the case of the woman sueing for the touchmark, she had remarried a man of a different profession, a tanner I think it was, and by my reading of the situation it was one of the journeymen or apprentices who she was sueing. If the woman was wealthy enough, I guess she could retain the business anyway.

I've got a reference to a widow (who remarried) who sued some other smith for the right to retain her late husband's makers mark, in London in 1452.

This doesn't necessarily mean she was in the work herself, just that she was the proprietress of a forge.

From "Knives and Scabbards", J. Cowgill et al, Museum of London Publications, 1987 (please excuse wobbly reference protocol!).

​Take into account that for the vast majority of blacksmithing history there was no such thing as scrap, only pieces of iron awaiting a purpose.

Having said that, my initial thought was that all the headers had been put there by some museum-y people.

You don't need to join BABA necessarily, just go to the website and use the directory; baba.org.uk

Peat is useless.

I've used Scottish coal, bought it from Bengry's (Herefordshire), I think I remember that they told me it was the only coal being mined in the UK (??). 

It was pretty horrible for forging, but maybe it was just too big. Coal seems to work a lot better when in beans (bingles?) size.

Bengry's coke is fine. Big horrible clinkers, but that's coke for you. I've yet to come across the mythological "unicorn coke" that doesn't have big clinkers.

For the hobbyist with a hand-cranked forge I would recommend small coal size mixed with charcoal. Lumpwood charcoal with just whatever house coal you get locally. You would go mad worrying about finding "the best" coal. 

Or use propane. 

I will take and post some photos soon.

Need to give the place a tidy up first!

​

I work in a vaguely similar shop, except it's 150-200 years older. Layout is a nightmare as there is not a single flat surface in the place.

It is atmospheric, though. You never feel alone, in a good way.

Concerning the pintles, I might consider mounting one of the journals in the floor to bear the weight, and I think Charles' suggestion of leaving the pintles long enough (or short enough) so you can take it out (and put it in) is a good one. 

I have never seen a kitchen crane that has been forged from one piece. It makes no sense to me to make it that way. The fire welds would take a fraction of the time of doing all that cutting (starting with an unusaually large piece of steel), and also I would not trust 99% of wrought iron not to tear at the junction of the branch.

+1 Thanks for sharing this!

I am sure that you are quite right and that my understanding of the situation is based on some notion I had years ago but have been to mentally sluggish to ever revise.

A bigger bore means you need a blower with more poke.

My life has been rich in under powered blowers, which is why I'm wary of a bigger bore. I do have one fire with an old cast tue with a big hole, hooked up to an old blower which is "proper psycho" and can blow a piece of coke through a 1" oak board from 20 feet away. Not really. But whatever the case, big or too big holes can be made smaller by plugging them with, literally, a mild steel plug with the bore of your choice. I used a tue with such a plug for many years, held fast with a few tack welds.

I'd go with the option of welding up a tue, as per yahoo2's suggestion.

I have a welded tue that has given me 5 or 6 years service, looks set to give 5 or 6 more (except that the back bosh is knackered and the one is welded to the other). About 100mm diameter, maybe 5mm thick wall?

Concerning the dry tue option, I tried exactly what you are proposing, except the stock was smaller, maybe 3 inches. It was burnt to buggery after the first proper forging session. 5" might do better. At £20 it might be worth a punt? I'll be interested to know how it goes, though mightn't 1" hole be a bit big?

The only person I know who uses a "proper" solid tue is Hector Cole. His is an almost hemispherical piece of cast iron maybe 8" across? He also uses coal/charcoal mix, which might be a bit more forgiving than coke. I think the hemispherical shape is probably important as it has no corners to overheat.

Jew's harps!

To counterpoint VaughnT's enthusiasm, I would not pay $1500 Australian dollars for that to use as an anvil. There must be much cheaper anvils to be found, or objects that can function very well as anvils. Unless you are buying it as an antique, or art, or your assets are feeling very fluid and you just really, really can't be without it.

And I also want to add for the record that those "church windows" are just an old European anvil making convention. They don't serve any particular intended purpose, and I believe that even the term "church windows" has its origin somewhere deep in the guts of the internet, probably anvilfire or somewhere. 

That's a nice lookiong anvil but the "church windows" don't anything to its value, in my opinion, apart from rarity.

I think it is best to master the straight line and the square corner first, then let art follow function, or you might say let art follow craft. 

Plenty of real rubbish "art" and "artistic ironwork" being made because people think their doodles should be preserved in steel, while they show no real love or interest in the material or process. 

There's also an example in Manfred Sachs' book

Hey! They had one of those at the Pitt-Rivers museum, but now it's gone! I asked after it last time I was there, but I might as well have been speaking classical Nahuatl for all the sense I could get out of what uniformed wanderers I was able to corner.

​Though I would be surprised if they would have need of such an anvil. Those two-hardy anvils seem always to be on the big side, and I think the gunsmiths of Soho were very likely exclusively fitters and machinists (the barrels being made in Birmingham, probably?).

​May relate or not, but Soho was home to a smal gunsmithing industry that was still just about on its last legs when I was small (1980's).