piglet_74

I stopped by a friend's shop the other day who is a timber framer. I showed him the trammel hook I made. He thought it was pretty neat as he had never seen one before. Later that day he was going to go back and work on an old log toll house that he is cataloging and disassembling. He then moves the structures and rebuilds them on the new owners property. They went to work removing the cinder blocks that had been blocking off the original fire place (first picture at the left along with cabinets they found behind some walls). When they got it all opened up, they found a fireplace crane, a pot, and two trammel hooks. One was very similar to the one I had shown him. This blew him away because up until that day he had never seen one in his life. He grab some pictures to show me as he figured I would be interested in seeing the differences between the two. The saw tooth one was pretty cool. So then on the way back to his house yesterday, I stopped at a flea market and found a cant hook for $5 with a bunch of holes punched in it making it look adjustable. He said he had never seen one that was adjustable. Has anyone here? I'm trying to figure out how that would work. I think the shaft would interfere with the end of it if you used the other holes. Anyway, just thought folks might get a kick out of the pics. Rob.

In the picture of the planter you can see how long the tapers became. I just made the two of them match since I couldn't get them the way I wanted. The pass through I used a small slit chisel and a bent end on a piece of 3/8". I would drive the end back at me and use the bent rod to drive the loop down into the hardie hole. Then I used a 3/8 drift to size it and make adjustments. It's seemed to work OK some I'm guessing that's the way to do that. I did rip one I think because I didn't drive it beck enough.

So I had to google Leaverite to see if maybe there was any in my area and what it looks like. With the exception of delta slate and green granite, there's nothing but leaverite around here! Rob.

I went to these folks and bought a small box of black brandon flakes for a few bucks. Neolithics.com Flakes Rob

Continued...

A friend is a civil war re-enactor. He asked if I could make him a Camp tripod, trammel, and 20 tent stakes. I figured I could practice square corners and forging on the diamond for the point. I just think the twist is required when given square stock The trammel was good practice punching and sizing holes and forging down 1 1/4" x 3/16" into a about 3/8 square for the top hook. With the planter I was trying to do a pass through with the 3/8 rod and the 1" flat. That's where I was trying to do the spade points also. The striker was practicing leaves. It was a gift for a friends son. Unfortunately, I knew he (the dad) was all thumbs. He dropped it on cement and it snapped in half. More practice this weekend. The planter got wire welded because it needs to be done. Other wise I would have tried riveting.

Thanks for the replies. Everything you're pointing out accurately describes the problems I had. Brian, I'm looking forward to trying the techniques you described this weekend when I get a chance. I've been trying some leaves from Mark Aspery's book "Skills of a Blacksmith". In it he uses a Rounding hammer and the horn for the point of the leaf. Sounds a lot like what you described Brian. I did recently get a smithin magician but I wanted to try some of the shoulders by hand first. I've been using little projects to practice certain techniques lately. I'll post some pics tonight. Thanks again, Rob.

The other day I was putting an end on a piece of 1" by 1/8" flat stock similar to a strap hinge. I started by forging a point which I had a hard time keeping short. My blows would drive the piece back at me. I probably should have been holding it against myself to sure it up I guess. So I ended up making the point longer than I wanted. the other issue was trying to create a shoulder behind it to taper the bar behind the spade. I really wasn't sure what I should be doing. I have a square faced hammer so I tried to keep the right side edge of the hammer in line with the far edge of the anvil so the handle would also be parallel to the far edge. When I brought the hammer down I tried to bring it down with the hammer face on an angle also. This was hard to do. I missed a lot. Pretty well trashed the end of the piece. So in short I was wondering if the idea was right but the execution was poor. I'll post a pic of the planter it became part of tonight maybe. Thanks in advance. Rob.

First, Welcome Rusty. If those are Pony bottles then what did I buy :-) But, hey Glenn, you grabbed my attention! Can you describe the "trick". Thanks Rob.

Had a chance to use it today. Works great! Your right about the sound. Edges seem to be good too. I did a number of half face blows for making hook tabs and the edge worked well.

While trolling Craigslist, I found a post for a SHER something anvil 1838 105# for $150 dollars. I called and the guy said the edges were in good shape. So I said I'll take it. Got it home and hit it with the knotted wire wheel to get the loose paint off and here she is. I looked it up in the R. Postman book and couldn't find a reference to the S on the foot. I'm going to read the whole section closely. Anyone have any ideas. Some of the adverts in the book showed other letters. Thanks, Rob. BTW only one bad spot on the edge closest and the date was 1935. I think the edges are almost too sharp.