David Einhorn

I would suggest buying an anvil as your number one priority, as the biggest step in improving your equipment. Much better than make-shift in my humble opinion. :D

How about a hardy hole version of a small trip hammer;

Or for people doing Russian reenactments, here is an 1800s Russian army traveling forge: :)

There is a much easier way to lessen the ring of an anvil. Go to the farm store and purchase a "cow magnet". Now here is the hard part. Take the cow magnet and place it against the bottom of the heel of the anvil. The magnet absorbs much of the sound. :)

Here is a photo of the nail making station at Williamsburg. It includes a replaceable header, a little anvil block, a cut-off hardy, and a lever to flip the nail out of the header. Note the cut-off hardy is set so that the flat surfaces protect the face of your hammer and has a notch to make a measured cut, just enough to be able to break the nail off in the header. The notch is a wee bit lower than the two flat surfaces. You can sit at your forge, and make nails in one heat without moving from your seat. It is on my list of things to make someday. :D

I feel that you have a very good point. Well said.

You have a good question. General Sherman's army apparently felt that a wood box forge was the best combination of function and portability, however they used whatever wood box they found at each stop. I would not suggest a massive wood forge as used in Petersburg, but a small or moderate sized box forge made from a box under 2 foot square. Just a box, something to line the bottom and a bellows stuck into the side, supported by fence posts. Another option is to build a sheet-metal portable forge and increase the size the bellows and its nozzle. General Easton's letter describes a box forge, not a full sized wood forge. Series III Volume V Pages 392 through 394 of 1046 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports Numbers 90. HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Morehead City, N. C., March 16, 1865. Major General M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.: GENERAL: In obedience to instructions contained in your letter of the 26th of December, 1864, I have the honor to make the following report: From the 14th to the 25th of October last found me at Chattanooga, Tenn., hurrying and giving all the assistance in my power to the repair of the road from Chattanooga to Atlanta, which had been destroyed by General Hood's army. On the 26th I joined General Sherman at Gaylesville, a small town about thirty miles west of Rome, Ga., .................. The portable forge is almost entirely done away with in General Sherman's army. Nearly all the officers prefer carrying a small-sized bellows, using any ordinary box filled with dirt as a fine- box. The bellows is swing between two stakes, usually cut from the woods or taken from some fence, driven into the ground, with a piece nailed across the top to suspend the bellows handle. The box (usually a broad box) is placed at its proper height on four forks or stakes driven into the ground, with pieces laid from one to the other to set the box on. They transport simply the bellows, anvil, and tools, making use of any empty box or barrel for a fire-box. Nearly all the iron-work on the march from Atlanta to Savannah was done with forges of this description. Officers prefer this arrangement to the portable forge, because it does not get out of order and gives a better heat. Since writing this I have received a circular describing Captain John H. Cickerson's portable forge, which is, I presume, got up from this idea. In the absence of portable forges I would suggest the plan for a forge now used in General Sherman's army, which answer every purpose

Have you tried orange type hand cleaner?

I suggest checking out, the Official Records at Civilwar.com, L. C. EASTON, Brevet Brigadier-General, Chief Quartermaster in a letter to General Meigs felt that wood box forges worked much better than the Portable Artillery sheet-metal Forge. I question whether you would be happy with the sheet metal portable forge, as a friend has built one and the design seems flawed. I humbly suggest a wood-box forge. Official Records for Use of Officers....: Series III Volume V Pages 392 through 394 of 1046 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports Numbers 90. HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, Morehead City, N. C., March 16, 1865. Major General M. C. MEIGS, Quartermaster-General U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

Hot cuts left mounted are very dangerous, please reconsider.

Safety first. If I am sufficiently tired that what I am doing becomes unsafe, I definitely stop. Nothing is worth the risk of damaging yourself.

Oscar, I am concerned about the weight of the vines. I recommend making a trellis, as I expect a 20 foot plant may be too much weight for your hook.

I would say just about anything is repairable, but the anvil shown is likely not worth the investment. If you must repair it, then I suggest welding a steel plate to the top, then fill in the sides with weld material. Though I don't recommend fixing it. Cheaper just to purchase a better one. Karl Orndorf has several anvils for sale in his booths in the two Antique Malls in Hanover, PA. A wee drive for you. There are two anvils in his booth, last time I looked, in the Yesteryear Antique mall, and one in the Black Rose Antique mall. I purchased a 139 LB Mousehole Anvil from his Yesteryear booth last week; I could not resist it since it would be good for public historic presentations of blacksmithing. It was in pretty good condition, slight swayback and a few edge chips. :D

Goatman certainly explains it well. I add two thoughts: 1) If you want a traditional gimlet then make a round handle, drill a hole through the handle, push the tang through and peen the end onto the wood handle. A nice wooden handle makes it easier and more comfortable to use, you can buy dowels at the hardware store if woodworking is a challenge. 2) You might also try either fullering or grinding grooves along the sides that you are twisting prior to twisting.

I took a welding course at a community college and it was one of the best investments of time and money that I ever made. I am still an amateur welder, but I consider being able to weld a necessity, both in saving money by welding stuff, as well as greatly widening what I can make. I made a wheeled stand from angle iron for my gas forge and it has served well for over 16 years. Basically an angle iron box with two angle iron rails at the top to support the feet of the forge. With the openness of the structure there is nothing to warp and nothing to catch fire. I avoid using any wood near heat, fire or welding equipment. I also put all wiring in steel conduit and all metal junction boxes and outlet boxes. Cutting corners causes fires.

Thank you for your consideration. I appreciate being corrected.

I have posted a lengthy answer with pictures to Reb-Cav’s question at: http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f85/cavalry-pack-forge-12283/#post115553 I started a new thread because the statistics and updates for the old thread has not been showing up correctly. The statistics are still showing up under "solid fuel forges" only. and as the result no one can see that answers have been posted when looking at the discussion category of Blacksmithing, General Discussion.

Antique Ordnance Publishers took the original roll of blue-print type rolls or plans and photocopied them into separate books. The collection of Captain Mordecai's drawings for the sheet metal folding horse-pack forge is sold by them as: Title: The Civil War Mountain Artillery Portable Forge, Book Number 29 Author: Captain Albert Mordecai circa 1848 through 1850s Reprinted by Antique Ordnance Publishers The collection of Captain Mordecai's drawings for the Traveling Forge wagon is sold by them as: Title: The Field Artillery Traveling Forge book No. 61 Author: Captain Albert Mordecai circa 1848 through 1850s Reprinted by Antique Ordnance Publishers The collection of Captain Mordecai's drawings for the limber that is attached to a Traveling Forge, No. 1 canon carriage, battery wagon, or caisson is sold by them as: Title: Civil War Field Gun Limber, Book No. 21 Author: Captain Albert Mordecai circa 1848 through 1850s Reprinted by Antique Ordnance Publishers You may purchase plans from various vendors, either online or in Gettysburg, or you can contact Antique Ordnance Publishers. ANTIQUE ORDNANCE PUBLISHERS BOX 434, 3611 OLD FARM LANE FORT GRATIOT, MI 48059 Phone 1-810-987-7749 aop434@webtv.net Fax 1-810-982-1052 Their catalog may be viewed: Antique Ordnance Publishers - Catalog Sheet ------------------- The statistics for this thread has not been showing up correctly. Hopefully posting this reply will fix the statistics. If not, then hopefully one of the moderators will fix the lack of statistics under the general discussion category. -- It didn't work, the statistics are still showing up under "solid fuel forges" only!

Here are two online references containing information about equipment used during the American War Between the States circa 1860s. Free online searchable version of the Official Records a compilation of the official records of the union and confederate armies is available at: Civil War Ordnance Manual for the Use of Officers of the United States Army (1861) at: The Artillery Reserve My humble understanding is that unless a group was similar to Mosby's Raiders, their cavalry unit was likely attached to an Army on both sides of the conflict. While some wheeled Traveling Forges were attached to Batteries (sometimes referred to by modern folks as Battery Forges), other Traveling Forges were designated and outfitted/supplied for use by the rest of the Army, including the Calvary (and sometimes referred to by modern folks as Field Park Forges). The Official Records and the Ordnance Manuals all refer to the wheeled forges simply as Traveling Forges. The supplies for each Traveling Forge setup is documented in both the 1861 and 1863 versions of the Ordnance Manual. The numbers and use of forges are referred to in reports found in the Official Records, just go to the web site Civil War and search on the word "forge" in the Official Records. Two other types of forges were documented in the Ordnance manuals as accompanying both the Northern and Southern armies, the "Portable Forge" and the "box forge". The Portable Forge was a fold-up sheet-metal box arrangement designated for use in mountainous areas, designed to accompany and only be used with units using the mountain howitzer. Wood box forges were documented in the Official Records as being used by Sheman's army during his march to the sea. At least one wood forge was photographed at Petersburg in 1864 (see photo below). If you are looking for the most common forge servicing the cavalry on both sides I suggest a Traveling Forge. If you are looking for a sheet metal forge that was historically accurate for that time period I suggest the Portable Forge. Official 1850s-1860s government drawings and specifications for both the Traveling Forge and the Portable Forge are available both on the Infernalnet and various vendors providing supplies to Civil War buffs. I purchased many sets of these drawings from The Regimental Quartermaster in Gettsyburg, Pa, since they are a store near where I live. If you are looking for the least costly solution, I suggest a wooden box forge as described in a letter in the Official Records. All forges used by both armies during the Civil War used bellows. Hand-cranked blowers were after the American Civil War. To my knowledge there were no forges prior to WWI designed specifically for only cavalry. Sorry.

For the fireplace, I (gasp) skipped the bending and rivets, and arc-welded slightly heavier flat stock together. That way the fireplace was more durable, I also avoided a lot of cutting, bending and riveting. If you want it to look riveted, you could always weld some dots where each rivet would have been. Unless the viewer is *really* familiar with the Mordecai specifications they are very unlikely to notice the difference. The Air-back is definitely a challenge, mostly because the diagram is difficult to understand. I can provide photographs of an Air-back that was reportedly cast from an original, to make it understandable. I rated it as one of the more challenging projects. Hopefully a brave soul will volunteer to construct it. Tom A basically took a used discarded round disc used from farming, extended ears to the sides, a box to the back, and then a separate removable backplate for the air pipe to enter through. I made the bellows hook from three separate parts arc-welded together, and the welds ground smooth. A rectangular piece of flat stock, a triangular piece of flat stock, and the hook forged from a square bar. I would humbly suggest your first project making the saw horses or stand for supporting the carriage during construction, and then you next project to make the frame, bellows house, stock and axle box so that you can concentrate of the final fitting of iron pieces as they are contributed or made by yourself.

Frosty, you are a saint. I will PM you with the URL for Mordecai drawings that I posted on Photobucket. I hesitate to post the URLs to the whole world, and am not sure how to otherwise limit the URLs to the forum. If there are items that you also want photographs of, I can also either post them to Photobucket.com or send specific photographs to an email address as attachments, whichever works better for you. I made most of the parts by a combination of forging and (gasp) stick welding. According to the Ordnance Manual most of the parts, for example the bolts were drawn down from blocks the thickness of the bolt heads, which means the heads were according to government specifications *not* upset from stock the diameter of the threaded area of the bolt! So forging combined with arc-welding, and then hiding the welds, in my humble opinion is the way to go in making most of the "forged" parts. If you could keep me informed as you make items, then I can update the chart to keep interested people informed. As I have hopefully succeeded in showing on the chart (it took me almost 2 hours to try to make it readable) Donnie is planing on starting with the Lunette, and I plan on starting with the Coal Box hinges. Critical parts that I hope people will contribute include: 2 Under-straps (made from 0.5 inch by 2.5 inch bar stock) holds the axle box to the frame 1 Stock-stirrup, fastened to the front cross-bar (made from 0.5 inch by 2.5 inch bar stock, holds stock to front of frame). 1 Axle-strap, fastened to the middle rail (made from 0.5 inch by 2.5 inch bar stock, holds rear of stock to axle-box). I consider them critical because those 4 parts ("straps") hold the main parts of the traveling forge together. After the main parts of the carriage are constructed, those straps are needed before proceeding further with the construction process. Please note that both Jim B. and myself tried to forge these straps by hand, and found that the only way to get them to meet the specified measurements, was to arc-weld the pieces together and then round the "curves" with weld material. Neither of us could get the heavy bar stock to bend precisely enough to where they would fit properly to firmly hold the wood parts together. Primarily because the metal expanded unpredictably and significantly when heated. Jim was successful at making the straps, while I was still trying to figure it out. My gratitude to Jim. I also hope that some brave soul will contribute the Air-back: Air-Back (fabricated version): consists of 1 box and back plate, joined air-tight by 4 bolts. I can provide photographs of an Air-back reportedly cast from an original. Please check you private messages, in a couple of minutes as it will take me a few minuted to write the message. Many thanks,

I have organized a list of the key iron parts by level of challenge and have a column for showing the IForgeIron member who has so far volunteered to make the part for young Dave.

I feel that it is important to keep in mind Dave's goals and requirements. He described the need for equipment that he could set up without assistance and present a professional appearance. Towards that end he did a wonderful job carefully constructing a beautiful demonstration trailer which any smith would be proud to use and own. Having such a beautiful trailer also will attract commissions and establish him in the eyes of his potential customers as a serious professional. In contrast a wooden box forge, while historically accurate for units both North and South, does not sound like it would meet his stated requirements, nor is a box forge as likely to improve sales. Although purists may differ in opinion, I personally believe that his trailer is suitable for historic venues, especially if he takes the opportunity to educate the public about the evolution of equipment, perhaps even having a storyboard with pictures and drawings showing and contrasting the equipment of the mid-1800s with modern equipment. Dave is obviously a very talented fellow destined for greatness as a smith. The progress of his talents are exceptional for a smith of any age, especially one so young. I can only hope that he will take the opportunity to acquire a degree in design, and spend a couple of years as a Journeyman in Europe so that he can quickly maximize his skills as a world-class artist. I have been to a presentation by a young man who followed that path and everyone was impressed by the man's range of knowledge and ability. My recommendation to construct a reproduction Traveling Forge was considering a number of factors. Dave obviously has a lot of talent, patience and skill, and he wants to present a professional appearance at as wide a range of events as possible. He also wants to use equipment that rolls into place and sets up quickly without assistance. His demonstration trailer fits all his requirements but may prevent his participation at some events. It is also obvious that he has the skill to build anything that he wants to. I don't know who or why anyone would want to discourage him from building an historic forge, either like Jim Hoffman's colonial forge, a British traveling forge, or an American 1860's traveling forge; Dave obviously has the talent, and likely can scrounge all or many of the parts, and other smiths like myself would be more than happy to assist him and even donate parts to encourage his efforts. Personally, I feel that an historic wheeled forge is something that will maximize his sales and exposure and help maximize his learning experience in the life and skills of that time period. Such a forge would also serve him well for perhaps a lifetime, and provide him with enthusiastic invitations to many events and opportunities; I have given this years of thought. Towards this ends, I offer a challenge to the forum. There are many talented and skilled smiths on this forum. If even a small fraction of those smiths were willing to make even one forged hook, hasp, bracket, handle, etc., we could if Dave was interested, have this young man well on his way towards an historically correct 1860's wheeled Traveling Forge. We could start a separate thread to track who is volunteering to do what, and people could PM me for historical diagrams and specifications documented by Captain Albert Mordecai. The list of iron parts, for a Civil War era Traveling Forge, except for fasteners includes: 2 axle-bands, fastened on the ends of the axle-body (helps reinforce and support the axle withing the axle-box). 2 understraps, (made from 0.5 inch by 2.5 inch bar stock). (holds the axle box to the frame). 1 lunette, like that for the caisson, except the size of the rear hole, and 1 additional bolt-hole (this is a heavy ring with a curved forged strap on top, as well as a straight strap welded to the bottom, the straps taper from about

Making wooden wheels takes perhaps more precision and effort than many folks these days care to expend, in my humble opinion. Here is a picture of Dwight and myself, tiring a wheel at my shop on April 26, 2009. If anyone has wheelwright equipment rusting in their backyard, I would be happy to try to return it to usefulness. I especially could use a spoke copy lathe, a hub boring machine, and a hydraulic tire setter. ;)