David Einhorn

The square holes in the base were used to hold and manipulate the anvil during the forging process to make it.

I have never used anything other than 20 Mule Team Borax. However, pure Boric Acid can be acquired from pharmacies that sell the Boric Acid powder for women to put into capsules that they then use to treat vaginal infections. These pharmacies tend to cater to people, and not be part of discount pharmacy chains. Mixing in some Boric Acid seems like something worth trying, but be careful and use lots of ventilation, after all, they use it to kill cockroaches.

Yes, most likely they are wrought iron.

Definitely galvanized.

I confess to having and using a hand-cranked blower, but I really enjoy using a bellows when it is available. I am working on having a bellows driven setup as shown in my Avatar. You might want to give a bellows a try.

Mid-1800s clothing shown in this photograph shows the central smith wearing a Mississippi Work Shirt, and the other smiths wearing French Cut shirts, leather aprons, brogans or boots, and period button front pants. The forge is a government issue traveling forge wagon with a sheet-iron fireplace, cast iron fireback and a leather covered bellows. These clothes are readily available from suppliers of clothing to Civil War reenactors and people doing living history, and can be found though lots of web sites selling to reenactors. This photograph lives on the Library of Congress web site: One smith uses his version of a wagon type forge. The wooden wheel shown is period correct for your purposes, the iron spoked wheels are not period correct for your proposed time period. The forge shown is probably late 1800s and not mid-1800s: Cobblestone Forge Hoffman uses a traveling forge that would be fine for either the 1600s, 1700s or the 1800s, and would be especially nice for use at your local museum and/or craftshow: Hoffmans Forge - SERVICES The main technological change, which few if anyone would notice, is that by the 1850s wheels tended to have banded/tired wheels instead of the older straked wheels. But the least expensive option for a period correct blacksmith's forge would be the wooden forge with bellows shown on this web site: Blacksmiths During the Civil War However, I have personal doubts if wooden forges were common, and I really doubt that they would have been commonly moved from site to site, as a portable forge. For a catalog of stuff, I recommend "Early American Wrought Iron" by Albert H. Sonn: # Hardcover: 750 pages, Publisher: Blue Moon (2007), ISBN-10: 0970766467. I hope this information is helpful. Dave

Ohio also has a great yearly blacksmithing event. I expect that you would find a selection there.

Try this. Take a sheet of posterboard and roll it into a cone at one corner. Adjust the tightness of the cone until it matches what you want, cut off the excess paper, unroll and use the posterboard that you formed as your template.

I highly recommend taking a weekend course at: Blacksmith Guild of Central Maryland

This is the government drawing of a backplate for a side-blast forge (shown as my Avatar on the top left). It is bare iron with no clay or lining. As you can see from the drawing, about 3" sounds about right. The bottom of the 10.5 by 9 inch rectangle is the opening for the cast iron fireback to sit in. This drawing shows the airpipe actually about six inches above the bottom of the forge (a bit of the side-view drawing is sort of visible at the far right of the drawing). The size of the fire is controlled by use of a sprinkler can of water, not by the size of the forge, so one bucket of coal each day should plenty of coal. The coal-box only holds 250 lbs of coal. The drawing is part of U.S. Government specifications drawn by Capt. A. Mordecai circa 1850s.

A number of years ago the smiths at Williamsburg made a clockwork mechanism for turning a spit in a fireplace. Of course they made it the period authentic way.... by using files. Yes I believe a smith could make the splines, with a lot of patience, elbow grease, lots of test fitting, graphite pencils, and files. Wherever the graphic rubs off, you gently file and test fit again. ;)

I guess it depends where you will be doing demonstrations. Around here most of the demonstration opportunities seem to be at history oriented events where they prefer both the equipment and clothing to have a historical flavor to them.

A few years ago a cat that we had dragged home an iron spring trap on her leg. We own most of the woods behind us but poachers put traps out there anyway. The cat died from the trap. My wife loved that cat.

Nice toy. Do you think that they have an extra one that they want to give away?

Yes, I have a tendency to combine wood and metal. The enclosed photograph shows how I am currently working on a horizontal borer device to work on a project that combines wood and iron. Can you guess what the wood and iron object will be?

Very nice. I like them so much that I ordered the book.

I would suggest taking a piece of modeling clay and a crosspeen hammer so that you can illustrate how iron moves depending on how forge is applied to it. Examples your thumb pressing in the center of a clay/iron bar, and how the clay moves when a straight edge is pressed into the clay (or clay-like nature of hot iron).

What pictures? Note: pictures don't post successfully if they file size exceeds the maximum allowed by IForgeIron forum software.

No photograph is shown. I had this happen each time I tried posting a photograph that was larger then the web site allowed to be posted.

I prefer cast iron firepots. Centaur and other web sites that service smiths sell a variety of good cast-iron firepots. A good firepot, a good/great hammer, good safety equipment and a decent anvil, you can skimp on everything else.

I use white marine grade lithium grease in my Champion blowers on the main gear and in the grease cups. That way they don't leak oil all over the place. .... But I also don't use them very often. I would not suggest running these blowers without lubrication.

I have heard of people using a Civil War Traveling Forge to cook meals in places that don't allow pit-fires. Just clean out the forge, add a grill and charcoal. If it works as a forge, and a grill fits over the fire, then it can be used to cook food. I plan on making a grill and utensils for the Traveling Forge.

Form follows function. It depends on what you are heating. If you are heating rivets, horseshoes, small knives, then an enclosed mini blast furnace may work for you. At the other extreme, if you are heating large objects such as iron wagon tires, then any obstruction in front of the chimney prevents heating the large iron project. The local historic shop at the local museum has the firepot within the brick chimney structure. This prevents heating projects much larger than a horseshoe, and drives me nuts.

As you can see from the replies to your question, price varies. It depends on where you purchase it, flea market, auction, guild/club meeting, and how quickly you want one. If you want one immediately then you will have to pay premium prices. If you are willing to scrounge around for a couple of years, you might come upon a very good bargain. The more people get into blacksmithing, the more demand, the higher the prices will go for a limited supply of antique blowers.

Your efforts are wonderful and should be commended. I have yet to hear of a blacksmith shop that is open on any side. Sounds like a problem with both accuracy and functionality. Depends on the type of work he did. General smithing including fixing wagon wheels would require a side draft forge where you can lean large tires against the chimney and rotate them. Function determines form. Determine the smith's use of the forge and the available materials in your location at that time and that will determine its design. Were bricks available? Was field stone available? What were houses during that time period made from? Once you have determined whether brick or stone is appropriate (dry stone only, not stone from streams or riverbeds) then everything else follows. The basic masonry forge is an arch with a flat top and flat sides. The arch allows access to the firepot and removal of burned fuel. At the back of this masonry table is the chimney. A general purpose blacksmith chimney that allows repair of wheels is a side draft chimney that draws from the side, and does not have an overhead smoke hood because a smoke hood would prevent leaning iron tires against the chimney as they are heated and rotated in the fire. The flue pipe would be 10 or preferably 12 inches in diameter in order to have enough draw to pull smoke in from the side. The firepot would be located close to, but *not* inside the chimney opening... so that the smoke is drawn into the chimney and the firepot is not obstructed by the chimney. That sometimes happens. To encourage active participation, your best bet is to: 1) Contact a local blacksmith guild/club. 2) Join the club yourself and go to meetings. 3) Take at least a beginners course. 4) Get a local guild involved in the design of the smithy from the ground up. As a woodworker you would probably not find it rewarding to work in and otherwise be involved in a historic woodworking shop designed by someone who has never worked with woodworking tools, especially a shop and tools without protection from the weather, theft and vandalism. Blacksmiths are attracted to volunteer and help with historic shops that have four walls, lighting, a good forge setup with enough tools that they don't have to unload a truckload of equipment each time they visit, and enough space to be able to work without tripping over tools and historic displays. My shop is designed based on a wheelwright's shop. Smithy at one end. The other end is woodworking equipment with two wood lofts. Local guild in NC mentioned on the ABANA web page is the NORTH CAROLINA CHAPTER at ncabana.org Contact information is: Pres:Jimmy Alexander 922 Lakeside Dr. Durham, NC 27712 (919) 477-8701 [email protected] * Ed: Marty Lyon 220 Fearrington Post Pittsboro, NC 27312 (919) 642-0098 [email protected]