Gazz

My yardsale find. It's about 8" tall.

WiMetals, the stake in the lower left of your picture is a blowhorn stake - not sure about the others. Quite expensive if you are buying new; [external link removed] I think if you poke around the Roper Whitney site, you may be able to find the names of your other stakes.

The first thing that came to my mind was a tool used to adjust window shades for very large windows, or maybe a tool to open or close a transom window. I remember seeing long poles with a metal end for one of those purposes when I was a wee lad in elementary school. Then I bought one at a yard sale this past summer, just the metal end. When its light, I'll take a picture. In any case the curled looped end makes me think it was intended to somehow catch a cord or rope and the pointy end meant to manipulate something.

Jewelers rouge is made from iron oxide. The powder you have could be useful as polishing media.

I think the drop hammer would be classified as a strap hammer. The moving ram had a heavy strap attached to it that was connected to a crank up top. During operation, the crank would be held in place at the top of its rotation which raised the ram about 3'. Stepping on the treadle would release the crank and the ram would drop. The crank, being driven by a motor would continue its rotation and stop at the top of the rotation as long as your foot was off the treadle. Multiple hits could be achieved by keeping the treadle depressed. There are punch presses that utilize a similar mechanism. I do have a picture of the hammer but unfortunately none of the crank mechanism. I'll get it loaded here soon.

I used to have a heavy steel table with three castors on it to allow it to be moved easily. Two of the castors were mounted outboard at one end and did not touch the floor when the table was at rest or in position for use. The third castor was on the other end of the table and was mounted to a jack screw that was turned by a crank. To move the table, you would crank the third castor down until it raised the end of the table so that the two outboard castors were contacting the floor. The concept is similar to the one previously posted by Glenn but no pipes were required. This could be a good way to go provided you have a welder and a flat floor. Changing the type/sizes of the castors could make it usable on a rough surface as well.

The 500 pound drop hammer sold for $150! Granted, it will cost several thousand dollars to move it and a few more thousand to house it. Yes, both Nazels were sold prior to the auction and went to a shop in Kentucky. A large lot of round stock, some 2" od and larger sold for around $250 - a great deal if you could use it. Some interesting Paley designed fabricated bases made in house for some kind of architectural objects also sold for $250. If I had brought my truck I would have bid on them just to place in the yard.. My purchases were limited to what I mentioned in the "It followed me home" thread.

Nice assortment of tools! I have to comment on the anvil "stand" though. I realize you said you were looking for a hardwood round and I guess that it would be for the anvil but in the meantime, resist the temptation to forge anything while it is resting on those blocks! I also suggest that you keep the swage block - if It provides a solution to a problem once makes it worthwhile having.

Last week was the dispersal auction of noted metalsmith Albert Paley. His primary anvil, which I am guessing was about 450 pounds on a fabricated steel and wood base sold for $2200! Interesting auction and there were many good buys on stuff (much of it very large) if you needed it.

Last week I attended the dispersal auction of Albert Paleys shop. I bought a tray lot of small die grinders which was pretty much a crap shoot - I know one is seized and probably junk but the others spin freely and may be just fine. I hope to check them out today. I had gone with the hopes of buying a tire bender or hoop roller. There were three in the auction, a relic condition most likely blacksmith made one, one on a pedestal base looking more like a jewelers rolling mill and with very limited capacity and a larger older serious machine which is the one I had hoped to buy. The winning bids were $50, $1000 and $1600 respectively and I came home with the $50 one. It needs a fair amount of work but should be useful. It came on heavy duty 4 wheel cart which will be handy. Pictures coming.

What part do you need to make?

To clean your very nice Fairbain Sykes blade I would use nothing more than bronze wool and oil. Heavier rust spots can be scrapped with an older bronze penny (you can file a flat scrapping edge on it) and oil. Any copper color that gets transferred to the blade can be dissolved with dilute ammonia (some rifle bore cleaner have ammonia to dissolve bullet jacket fouling). NO abrasives! Nice knife with history and provenance!

Or it was a good place to dump the ash and clinker from the coal furnace in the house.

I use old garden rakes for the same thing, tool racks. Also, the individual tines make good chasing tools or decorative punches.

I have a steel barrel that is maybe 10 gallons just outside the door to the shop placed so that it catches rain water off the roof. To keep the mosquitoes out, I took an old bicycle wheel, removed the tire, stretched some window screen over the rim and put the tire back on to hold the screen in place. That is the cover and it will still collect the run off from the roof but no critters. Light and easy to move when needed. I'm not sure, but I think if your slack tub is inside and out of the sun the mosquitoes may not find it attractive as a potential nursery.

Laynne, rather than lowering your hood, add some sides, either hinged or hooked on so that they can be moved out of the way if necessary. You may need to heat a portion of an odd shaped assembly someday and the movable sides will allow you to get it in there.

It also looks like it may be wrought iron which needs to be worked hotter than steel. More care required not to burn it.

Serious thread drift here. As mentioned, most auto type junkyards will sell you parts either with a remove yourself option or from a stockroom where they have already done the work. The scrap metal dealers around here do not take old autos - I think its an issue for them to deal with oil, gas and rubber. I would look in your yellow pages - oops! I mean online to find buyers of scrap metal. Get yourself a truckload of old washing machines, sash weights or whatever scrap metal you don't want to use in your 'smithing endeavors and take it to them. Ask them if they sell any of the useful stuff you might find there. The local scrap yard here realizes that they make more money per pound selling it to guys like me rather than a boatload of it going offshore. One scrap yard here actually goes through the stuff and picks out anything that they might be able to sell and put a price based on its actual value. For instance, I found a large eye bolt there once that was about 6" diameter and about 1.5" cross section and they wanted $20 for it. A new one would probably be $75 or more of that size. The other scrap yard weighs it and charges you .20 cents a pound so you might get it for less than a dollar. Back to thread drift. A friend and I once drove a 1950 Chevy pickup from California to New York after I had owned it for two weeks in CA. The rear axle seals let go in Bakersfield so we spent a day there getting repairs done and the starter went in Texas so it did not get shut off for the rest of the trip. Also pulled a 57 Chevy station wagon along with us as a trailer. Sold that when I got to NY.

I have been running propane through an acetylene regulator to my rosebud torch for about 40 years now and it all still works properly. Not saying its the right or wrong thing to do, just sayin'.

Nice example of form follows function.

I had one of those sewing machine stands once. I thought I might make a treadle powered pencil sharpener out of it one day but never did.

I was once given a bunch of very large bandsaw blades with carbide teeth and found that the material used to carry the carbide teeth was 4140 - something a bit better tougher than mild steel but not really usable for knife making. I made some large saw frames out of rebar and cut and drilled the pieces of bandsaw blade to fit. I gave them to potters that I know as they made great soft firebrick saws. I should make one for myself someday as it would be useful for the gas forge maintenance. I would guess the large circular saw blades would also be some sort of medium carbon alloy so that they would maintain stiffness better.

Das, before you cut the bottle up, be sure that they will not fill it. The local gas supplier here will fill the smaller customer owned bottles without question, actually they just swap them out and they are not noted for doing anything that might benefit a customer. I have bought some of the smaller bottles at yard sales and had them filled without issue. Nice to have a backup on Saturday or Sunday and your large leased bottle runs empty. They are the kind of place that charges $58.00 for an 11 pound spool of MIG wire (online price $31 with free shipping or $34 at Tractor Supply) but are close enough that I use them for gases. If you were closer, I would give you a an old bottle to make a bell out of - I have several that I picked up off the roadside after I kept seeing them there for several years.

Good plan.

I did some raising in school and that is the process you will need to use to make a sauce pan form. This video shows the the basic start of what you want to do. To make the sidewalls straight or 90 degrees to the bottom you will get and have to deal with a sort of a wavy or crenulated edge but this will work out into added height with more work over he stake;