HWooldridge

PJ, I think the trangle C is a Champion make. Have no idea how to date them - most did not have serial numbers and I'm not sure they'd even be traceable. A very good portable mount is to put a vise on a 55 gallon drum and then fill it with water. Cut the top out and you have a slack tub and hold down. Put a hinge on the lid so it won't fall in the water and you have a tool holder. Makes a good all around tool and is easily portable once the water is drained.

Use a leather dress belt (or two). I went to a thrift store and found a 1" wide natural leather belt that belonged to a very rotund individual - was probably a 50" belt. Cost me $2. Measure the distance around the pulleys and cut the belt that length, then cut a long bevel about an inch long on each end with a razor knife (like a scarf) and glue them together. Contact cement works well. Make sure it's around the pulley axles so you don't have to curse later when you are forced to recut the belt to thread it into the right place (don't ask me how I know this). The belt will be about an inch shorter than the first measurement, which is about tight enough to drive the fan. If it gets too loose with use, just cut and reglue. Here is one I restored for a local historic site. It has a crank instead of a lever but the principle is the same. The imbedded text is there for the public. Things to watch on these forges - Make sure the fan blades are not rotten. They often deteriorated because hot coke fell down into the tuyere and burned up the blade tips or simply from age and abuse. The blades won't build any pressure if they don't fit the air way. New ones can be made of very light gauge metal. Also make sure the clinker breaker hole is not too rotten. It helps to add a piece of screen at the front of the air pipe to keep the cinders out. If the fan blades fit the housing and the fan spins easily and the forge doesn't have many holes, they will make a nice fire which is plenty big enough for horseshoes and related size stuff. Edit: photo resized

Good idea on the locations - the track plate is for upsetting long bars. (You messed up when you told me how to post pics - I'll load the bandwidth now...heh, heh.)

Here is a small forging hammer I use daily: I made this some time ago from an old 2 lb farrier's turning hammer that I reworked. The convex side was forged on the power hammer so it flattened slightly into the cross peen and the normally flat side was forged on all sides, which made the face bulge just slightly. A sledge can be used for the forging - I used the PH because it's there and handy. I did very little grinding or clean-up and basically just rehardened then installed a new handle. The handle was a "drilling hammer" replacement from Home Depot and I sanded it into an octagonal section before finishing with Birchwood Casey's Tru-Oil. The nice thing about this design is it will draw very quickly by tilting the head to use an edge. The light head makes it fly and I use it exclusively for anything under 1/2". I still use a 3 lb hammer for big stuff but this little hammer doesn't tire me out and works well on all day sessions. I know obtaining tools is always an issue and wanted to submit this so beginners could see that a good working hand hammer can be made with little effort. I also might add that Tru-Oil is a very good finish for hammer handles. It dries quickly and does not react with sweaty hands so the surface is a constant against your palm.

Ed, You beat me to it. I have several at different heights. The first is mounted at anvil height. It is a full length vise, mounted to a post that was buried in the ground with two bags of concrete. Allows a full swing with the hammer. The next is mounted right on the forge and is at elbow height. I use this one for most work but long items sometimes interfere with the hood. The other leg vise is mounted on a table at chest height. It is typically the one I use when long pieces have to be held or if I am filing. The Wilton is a little lower and a later addition (got it a year ago). It's mounted with two big C-clamps until I decide I want to take the time to drill thru the 2 inch plate that is the table top.

Ed, I think this little form has a lot of potential - with either method - but I agree with you that it looks better with some welding - mine looks like I don't know how to forge weld or that it split. I also think square bent on the diamond for the branches before forging the acorn would look pretty cool.

First try...my wife has been in Alabama for four days and got back tonight - I jest cain't think strait when she's gone...da dum, da dee... Double back the material until it is completely closed. This was a piece of 3/8 round that I forged square before proceeding. Take a fuller and pull the nose out first (the middle one). Take a ball peen or a bob punch and pull out each side. Heat the whole thing and then cool only the form so you can pull the legs to each side. I needed a smaller ball to pull the sides because they wound up bigger than the nose and I want the proportions the same. Y'all take a turn and play with this form - I think it can be added to lots of different things for a colonial look.

Ed, Thanks for experimenting. What you described is what I think I tried - but I only got a shapeless blob when I flattened it. Maybe I didn't fuller in far enough.

Let's try this: Not a good pic but my scanner in on the fritz... Note the two double "C"s and the acorn/club. Definitely one piece and appears in the book photo to be made from square stock. As I study it, I think a fuller was used to pull the sides out and then the tip (middle) was flattened after the piece was folded.

Thomas, That is one of the best list of rules I have ever seen - it should be preserved for posterity in a blueprint or something similar. I would also add "TRADE" because you can often score something really fine for something you didn't need. I once traded a plain .22 S&W pistol for a 250# Fisher and a 180# Mousehole in great shape - we were both happy. I'll also tell about one that got away. I went to a junkyard one day and found the largest Edwards shear I have ever seen - probably would have sheared 1x8 flat and had a 1" punch setup. The ONLY problem was a set of broken blades. Instead of going to the front desk and putting my name on it, I went home and thought about where to put it, how to haul it, etc. This was Saturday morning so I figured Monday was safe but the yard already had it on a truck to the local mini-mill so it was really gone - melted down!

Yah, Ed - that's real close but it's done in a bend so the middle lobe is part of the parent stock and the other two are each on a branch. How did you attach a pic to the text - is it a link to the Iforge Gallery or something else? Let me know and I'll scan in the pic from CWI.

Ed, Plummer's book has a pic if you have it - I'll see if I can figure out some way to post something. Three nice round petals that make a three leafed clover is about the best way I can describe it. Basically, it's a piece of stock bent tight and flattened after some sort of creative fullering to get the lobes pulled out. The final form is a tri-lobe that looks something like a "club" from a card deck.

I'm green with "acorn envy"...bet it weighs close to 1000 lbs. Good find!

Thanks, Strine. I did find a picture of what I am looking for in Don Plummer's book, Colonial Wrought Iron, on page 90, item 2-16. The upside double "C" has this detail - but it now that I look at it, seems more like a club than a clover. In studying this, I may be using the wrong stock. Please look at the photo if anyone has access to the book and let me know what you think.

I am working on a new design for a stand (fireplace tools, candles, etc.) and I am trying to develop a three leaf clover to put at the end of two branching bars. I have seen these in Yellin's work and they are fairly common in quartrefoils but I am having trouble with getting the forging correct. I started with 1/4x1/2 flat and welded a short section, then fullered in two spots to get the material blocked out but it just smashes out and loses the detail when I flatten it. I have been successful making the cutest little figure "8"'s you ever saw and believe I have to get three spheres formed before I can flatten into the clover shape but how to do that is beyond me right now as I type this. Any guidance is appreciated - thanks, Hollis

I'll share something that I discovered accidentally about fluxing. I make items in production so will usually do stages for different parts before the final step. One item I make gets a piece of 3/8 square forge welded to a piece of 3/4 square. I swage the 3/4 down to about 5/8, scarf and put aside. I then upset the 3/8 and scarf. At this point, I take all the pieces and use the MIG to tack them together in the proper orientation so I don't have to chase the pieces around. This is not a seam but just a button on the side to hold the parts - the lips are left open to close during the forge weld. I usually have the gas forge running but do my forge welding with coal. One day, it was getting late and I did not feel like doing the welding so I heated a dozen of these "assemblies" in the gas forge and applied flux, then set them aside. I always use EZ Weld or Sure Weld. Something distracted me the next day and the next also, so it was at least a week before I got back to that job. I didn't know if the flux was any good but it appeared the same as always, sort of a black glass, so I built a fire and went to welding. My coal is dirty so I consistently get about 7-8 forge welds before having to clean clinker but this time, I was able to push it to 10 before I missed a weld. I think this was due to no time spent fluxing (yes, I know some time was spent in the gas forge so not much was really saved). The interesting thing to me is that the flux coating worked just fine a week after application and didn't take on moisture or flake off. Don't know if this helps anyone with their daily life but thought I'd share the observation.

A lot of violent sparking and/or bubbling is too hot - whether on high carbon or mild steel. Sounds like the first one burnt up to some degree but the other was right on the money. I don't weld much high carbon but do a lot of forge welding on mild steel and like to get where the fire is just barely throwing small sparks from the steel. A cascade of fireworks means I burned it.

As a general rule on welding, cold shuts usually won't work themselves out later. Therefore, if you only got one end of it welded properly on the first heat, it may never close on subsequent tries. This can be due to burning, excess slag, etc. I watched a guy welding cable damascus at a demo and he got a spot on one end that would not weld for love nor money. He wound up welding behind the trouble area and then cutting it off on the hardy. The knife finished up just fine but he commented that he'd seen the problem before and removing the bad material was the only way he knew to fix it.

Here's my funny story about stereotypes. I was demoing during a folk festival and forging some 1/4 square about 12" long with the heat only at the tip. A father came up with his son and silently watched as I made a long J-hook. Bear in mind that I had switched to tongs to hold the piece after the first heat but the dad whispered to his son that 'his hands must have very thick skin to withstand the heat'. I said nothing and the son walked away while the dad continued to observe for a while. After a bit, he piped up and remarked again that my hands must be immune to the heat - like a chef's fingers. I replied that my hands are actually quite sensitive to temperature and my wife could tolerate hotter temps (like dish water) much better than I could - but he was not convinced... My hands wear well and don't blister plus I can ignore quite a bit of impact but cannot tolerate hot or cold extremes. We make sausage every year and my wife has to mix the meat because the cold just kills my hands. Hurts so bad it almost brings tears to my eyes. :cry:

An older firepot is usually corroded to the point the ash dump leaks enough that the gases can get out or at least minimize the bang plus an electric blower also seems to overcome this tendency. One other thing is that some types of coal are worse than others. I had some Alabama coal that was really great stuff but had a lot of volatiles - it was good for at least one blast per week. I have not seen it but been told that a bellows can take in enough to actually blow it completely apart.

It is a wettable powder so you can apply it with a pump-up hand sprayer. There are four dissolvable packets in a single foil wrapper and they recommend 1-2 packets per gallon of water with coverage of 1-5 gallons over 800-1600 square feet. I use 1 packet in 1 gallon - that does the whole outside of my house and the immediate area. You may want to treat the infestation and then spray a 5-10 foot barrier around it. Use a coarse spray and keep the tank somewhat agitated or the stuff settles out after an hour or two. I sprayed the first time and some of our local gecko lizards ran through it with no ill consequences but the wasp nests were dead within 15 minutes. They think it's rain and don't attack or leave the nest. I had a big kill on pill bugs immediately but saw no dead scorpions so I thought the stuff had failed, but dead scorpions started showing up a couple days later - it took longer and they were just as dead. Unfortunately, it does not discriminate and kills the harmless/helpful bugs also. I apply every 60 days in the hot season but lay off in winter.

IMHO, the BEST stuff on the market is called Demon WP (wettable powder). I have an applicator's license and can get really potent stuff but I always use Demon around the house and anyone can buy it. It is natural and can be used in the house and around pet areas, but it zaps all bugs for about 2 months before needing reapplication. We had the world's worst scorpion infestation three years ago and this stuff was the only thing that worked - and it also kills fleas...

Don't be ashamed of a good find! I got a 5" for $15 at a swap meet. The guy didn't want to load it back in his truck and came down off the asking price of $25. It was complete so I mounted it.

Looks like a stone cutting hammer. The flutes may be to lighten it while retaining the length.

Motor brush or sand blast the pitting and you may be able to read it.