David Einhorn

One local tour guide is now telling people that blacksmiths during the War Between the States (in the U.S.A) would regularly travel from farm to farm. The story goes that some of these blacksmiths would, as part of the underground railroad, tap out secret messages while working to let escaped slaves know where to go safely for assistance, in case any escaped slaves happened to be listening.

In my life I have never read about blacksmiths making rounds of farms. My understanding has been that blacksmith shops were plentiful and that people usually took their business to those shops.

Giving the tour guide the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she can not distinguish tinkers from smiths. Even then, the idea of a secret code that escaped slaves and smiths could have memorized in case an escaped slave comes across a roving smith who is one of those that knows the tap tap code sounds silly. Years ago I passed a Morse Code exam for a Technician Class FCC license, and I had to study hard for months for that. Personally I can not imagine memorizing something that difficult on the unlikely coincidence of coming across someone who also knows the code.

Has anyone come across documentation of smiths taking traveling forges from farm to farm, making regular rounds, during the Civil War? I am not asking for word of mouth references, but documents that have some authority to them.

It depends what you are trying to accomplish. Some smiths, when they want to forge hooks with lag bolts on the other end, purchase unplated lag bolts and re-forge the end that is not pointy into a hook. Hardware without plating/heavy metal can be acquired from fastener makers such as Fastenal.com.

A photograph or description of the finished product would make providing appropriate information much easier.

It looks great!

At the bottom of your spring you might want to put little bends in the two corners, towards the vise, so that there are little ears to help keep the bottom of the spring in place.

I agree with Neal. A good way to start is to join your local blacksmithing guild and take a weekend course or seminar if possible.

I would say that whether a hammer is sufficiently finished for use depends on the opinion of the smith. At one guild meeting about 10 years ago, a vendor selling Peddinghaus Swedish Pattern Hammers showed up on the same day as a knifemaker. After the demonstration lines formed. First smiths would buy a Peddinghous hammer, then they would go over to one of the knifemaker's sander/grinders and reshape the heads. Nol Putnam used to give demonstrations on reshaping the heads of hammers. He would take off the handle and reforge the hammer to be more domed at the ends, and would ease and round the edges of each end, thus giving them a few of the features now found in Hofi hammers.

Often a hammer, that is not a Hofi hammer, can benefit from at least having the edges and corners refinished so that the hammer is less likely to leave marks in the surface that is being forged. Corners should be removed, and the face of the hammer should transition into the sides without angles and flat surfaces.

Maybe it will come ready to use, but it doesn't look like it in the pictures: - ANGELE Schmiedetechnik - ANGELE-SHOP

The corners look awful sharp to me?

I suggest going to:
[ABANA] The Suppliers Search
Type the word Anvil in the search box and be prepared for a sizable list of anvil suppliers.

If you go to enough blacksmith guild meetings and yearly conferences, anvils tend to show up for sale at these events also.

Or find a relative that is into blacksmithing. I gave one of my nephews a beginners kit a few years ago that included, a 100lb anvil with a hardie, two pairs of tongs, the book "Edge of the Anvil", a sizable notebook full of information including how to build forges, and a one year membership in his local guild.

No, I will not adopt any of you guys.

One guild member made a long spoon. If I remember correctly it was for applying flux to forge welds.

It would be interesting to make: a back-scratcher, book-mark, ;-)

With minimal tools as your criteria,
--- your choices with full rectangular tang are to use nails or short pieces of soft iron, brass or copper to rivet them on, or to glue the two slab pieces on
--- you choices with hidden tapered tang is to friction fit and/or glue
--- your choices with full-length long thin tang is to thread and screw on an end nut, or to rivet on an end nut by hammering/fullering the end of the tang over the nut.

Full tang but it could be reduced if that is easier.

One method is a tapered tang driven into a hole drilled partway into the handle from one end. If necessary you can forge a drill bit type point on the end of a metal rod and use that to drill the hole in the handle.

I found some plans for a cider press at Mother Earth News web site by Googling on cider press: How to Build a Cider Press
Their plans call for a threaded rod at least 22" long.

All Thread Rod is available at least up to 2 inches diameter. Can that be used as a screw for a cider press? We have apple trees and a press would be very handy.

All Thread Rod | Portland Bolt

As a first hammer I recommend a cross-peen or "blacksmith" hammer from Sears. A decent American style hammer that is very functional and durable.

There is a compromise between the two. A couple of web sites sell complete burners that you can insert into a shell that you made. For example, if you can weld feet onto a piece of pipe, and weld short pieces of smaller pipe to the top for the burners to insert into, and line the inside with insulation (also sold on those sites) you could consider making the forge's shell and purchase the other stuff from sites that cater to people making their own gas forges.

So this is another option to consider.

coal and propane

I agree with Joseph about multiple fuels.

Propane in the shop and coal when demonstrating.

Here is an old "semi-portable" Buffalo forge with its original fire pot. I humbly feel that it is a good example of a basic forge. The forge surface is about 24" square allowing coal to be moved in from the sides as the coal cokes.

Note that both the firepot and the sides of the forge have indentations that allow iron to pass through the forge and over the firepot. The Civil War era Traveling Forge above also has that cutout in the side to poke iron into the hot spot while having sides that reduce how much coal falls on the ground. Coal has a tendency to fall out of these cut-outs.

Flat tables are great, I have seen a couple of very nice ones at museums. However, they had surfaces large enough to enable the coal to stay on the forge.

Still with this forge as with other forges with firepots, the hot area is in practicality limited to the length of the firepot. If you want long heated areas, then you will likely need multiple air sources such as a pipe along the bottom with multiple openings.

The sides of the forge are there to simply reduce how much coal falls onto the floor.

I hope that answers your question.

I'd like to see some pics of your Forge as this is a concern of mine as well. Many Forges often seem to have deep sides as well making it virtually impossible to heat up anything but the end of a bar!?

That is interesting. The "Mythbusters" did an episode on television where they looked at the layers of Aluminum paint and the layers of Iron based paint that was applied to the Hindenburg to see if together they could have formed into Thermite and been part of the cause of the Hindenburg burning so quickly. If I remember correctly, the answer was... possibly.

I wonder how aluminum paint would interact with rust-dust in a shop environment.

Hopefully better minds than mine could enlighten me.

From: Alum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a Flame Retardant
"Solutions containing Alum may be used to treat cloth, wood and paper materials to increase their resistance to fire.
Alum is also a component of foamite, used in fire extinguishers to smother chemical and oil fires"

Not sure how effective it is to more modern treatments? AND now thinking about it I don't know where to buy it locally either Have to do a bit more Googling

I would greatly appreciate finding out what "Alum" is. Also, if anyone else has information on fire-retardants for canvas, that information would also be greatly appreciated.

Good idea, we call them dust sheets over here and you can get nice thick cotton ones at a good price. Treating it with Alum would be a good idea as well to make it a little fire resistant.

Crunch, please pay close attention to Frosty's comment about used-spring-steel failure.

Because of the nature of a spring moving back and forth, they can develop stress lines and fractures. A number of smiths have said that they would make tools for themselves from used springs, but not make tools for other people because of the potential liability problems if a tools was to break during use. Please be careful.

Dodge, is that photo showing a "Tire Hammer" or did you use different plans?

Good job, congratulations.

Just keep in mind that the heavy metals in galvanization are extremely poisonous especially when heated.

Congratulations on the weld and the buy on coal.

One key element of forge welding with coal is perfecting controlling the coal fire. Coke the coal as it moves in from the sides. Don't dump green coal on top of the fire. Use water to control the coking of the coal as it moves from the sides of the forge inwards towards the center.

Places like Centaur Forge used to sell replacement parts, you might try there.

I use different hammers for different things. Hofi hammers for most forge work, Swedish for some forge work such as getting into corners, ball peen hammers for banging on stuff that might damage the face of a good hammer, etc.