Mark Aspery

I try and take at least one course a year, and by doing so I have made significant gains in my understanding and abilities as far as blacksmithing goes. I do spend a little time researching a potential instructor.. their teaching style vs my learning needs. I have taken a number of farrier courses - shoe building. If you want to understand working at the bick or horn or working top tools, look at an accomplished farrier. I had an instructor who camped on me to move my hammer back 1/4 inch towards the bick. This went totally against what I thought I should be doing. I am so grateful that he stuck to his guns... it made the world of difference. Green you grow; ripe you rot!

Sorry no photographs... Take a 24inch length of 1 inch by 3/8 thick bar and draw one one down (not correcting for growth in width until it is about 2 inches wide by whatever thick at the end. Extend this taper back about 6 inches. Place the stock on edge and knock the spread material off to one side of the bar. That is one side will be straight and one side will flare for the last 6 inches or so. If you are right handed, you will probably want to work off the right hand side of the jig. That being the case, place the flared side to your LEFT as you scroll the bar over the rounded edge of the anvil to start. Proceed as per making a scroll, checking your jig against your chalk drawing on a bit of rusty tin plate (or paper drawing soaking wet on a metal top) Once you have the first few inches scroll, stop and clean up the outer surface. By that I mean get rid of the lipping and cupping as it will effect all your other scrolls. Scroll some more and do a little more clean up. Take your time - this is the mother of all scrolls - it had better be right. Weld a short section of angle iron across the bottom when you have finished and it will hold in the vice. You can use thinner stock, but it will kink a lot easier as you scroll causing sharp intakes of breath and much gnashing of the teeth.

Very compact. It gives you a lot of re-bound. I don't like a wide face - my preference is for somewhere around 4 inches wide. I like the shape of the bick. I would prefer if it sloped upwards a little like the Swedish patterns but oh well. What I don't like is the placement of the table. Rather than the step being from the face to the table, it goes from the table down to the bick. I use the step a lot for cupping and forming scarfs. I have to use a hardie tool when I use the Brooks - a small price to pay. I must confess that mine is only used when I am away from the forge. I have a Sodafurs as a shop anvil. If the price is reasonable then I would get it. Know that you will have to but Vaughns hardy tools or make your own. (or sleeve the hardy)

30mm or 1 1/4 inch hardy on quite a few models. I have 140lb Brooks anvil (pre Vaughns I think)

I take Sam's position - the gap is common place - and for good reason. When you weld a collar onto a bar (which in essence is what you are doing) there has to be a gap between the ends in order for the collar to close on the material and weld. No gap, no weld!!!!

I drill/chisel/file a square hole in a thick bit of plate. Back that plate up with some heavy bar and weld the lot inside a bit of 4 inch square tubing. I have it set up that this ensemble sits in the middle of the anvil face where there is a lot more support for the sledge work. You could, in theory, do this same thing in your hardy hole, but I feel that it is above and beyond the scope of the heel of the anvil - duty wise and prefer a safer method.

I make a bolster plate the same size as my hardy hole and after tapering the end of a bit of square bar, upset it into the bolster plate, dressing the sides as I go. This will leave you with a blank bottom swage. I make my bottom fullers the same way, but from rectangular stock.

I agree, I find monkeying the shoulders to be a bit of a bug bear. My work around is to drill the size hole that I require into the end of a square bar, close to one edge. I then cut the top off the bar at the angle I need the tenon set at. I then make another cut behind the first by about 1/2 inch leaving me with a 1/2 inch thick square washer with and angled hole in it. A bolster plate I weld a square bar onto the larger flat surface so that the plate can be locked securely in a vice - off to one side. The tenon can now be placed into the hole and the bar behind the tenon can be struck, driving the shoulder onto the bolster plate. I use the same sort of thing for my angled pass throughs as it sets the drift to the correct angle. Another way is to use the angle iron vice jaws that are popular with 'animal head' smith and clamp the tenoned bar against it and drive on a monkey tool. The monkey tool has to be of the correct size or it will contact the angle iron before the shoulder is dressed.

A lot of the nautical stuff is related to astronomy. The 'Dog' days of summer referred to a particular star that could be seen at that time of year.

I have a couple of ways of dealing with this problem. 1.) cut the end of the bar to the desired angle, drill and insert a piece of round bar. Either thread the hole and round bar or plug weld. 2.) If you are looking for a more 'traditional' approach I have two methods -Form your normal tenon on the end of the bar, but with shoulders on three sides of the tenon only. One side of the tenon is level with one side of the bar. Take another bar with a hole the same size as the tenon and hold it so that the bar is on the same side as the longest shoulder. Hit the bar while lowering you hand. This will cause the bar to upset on the long shoulder side and drag the tenon along with it. - When cutting for the tenon, place the cuts in the position that you want the eventual shoulder of the tenon to be. Draw down the tenon holding it flat for the sides and at an angle for the top and bottom. I find it useful to place the bottom cut edge on the side of the anvil, hold the bar at an angle and drive in the top corner. This sets the mass in the angled direction. I'm sorry, but I don't have any photos of this. It may take me a few days to come up with some.

A monkey tool gets its name from a Frenchman called Monsieur Key. It was originally called Monsieur Key's tenon shouldering tool. Later it became Monsieur Key's tool. Then Mon. Key's tool (Mon. is the abbreviation for Monsieur) And then Monkey tool.... And now how about land in Florida??

Here are some examples of a couple of tenons and some shots of a monkey tool. You will note that one of the tenons has an offset shoulder to it. That shoulder will rest (usually) below the tenon to offer support to the bar by trying to stop it from sagging.

I think the term 'traditional joinery' really should be termed 'period joinery' - but that's semantics. There are a number of ways that a blacksmith can join multiple pieces together. Rivets, welding, tenons and mechanical to name a few. Of those, some joinery is purely for the connection, others are for the connection and to counter the forces of tension and compression (Sag in a gate for example) The shoulder of a tenon should fit flush against the piece that it is inserted into. To get that clean shoulder, a monkey tool (a bar with an appropriately sized hole in it) is driven over the tenon and onto the tenon's shoulder - thus dressing the shoulder for a good fit. 'Traditional' joinery can be anything from crude tapers driven into a hole in another bar and headed over to much more complex arrangements. I think it can be viewed as a skill, a science and an art form - verging on to a quest like status for some. Buckle up, it can be a bumpy road... but one worth going down. Here's my .02 - I'm sure there will be a lot more from some of the other smiths. 1.) Never fuller to the full depth that you require when you butcher to isolate the mass to draw out for a tenon. You can draw the cut down a little into the tenon in the drawing out. This will cause the tenon to fail later 2.) Always create a slight shoulder to a tenon rather than a 90 degree transition. Cracks appear from 90 degree transitions - usually after riveting the tenon in place! 3.) Chamfer the edges of the hole in your monkey tool (see above) 4.) chamfer the edges of the hole that your tenon will fit into 5.) The edges of your butcher should be round not sharp - see point 2

If you are going to use a socket set or other manufactured tool to act as a monkey tool, please make sure they are devoid of any chrome plating. The chrome comes off quite easily and is very sharp. If it comes off while hammering, it has a lot of energy and can travel some distance. Non chromed impact wrenches can be use for square tenon shoulders. I think it is better to make monkey tools yourself yourself -- as a blacksmith! So how did the monkey tool get its name?

Your local coal merchant should be able to supply you with blacksmith coke. It's generally the size of the top portion of your thumb. Somewhat flame proof to start, but it will last longer than charcoal - attracting less attention from your neighbours. Take a look at the British Artist Blacksmith Association (BABA) web site. There are quite a few educational opportunities for you in the S/W UK. Where abouts are you located?

I use either a farriers rounding hammer or a cheese fuller and drive the stock, just behind the upset, onto the face of the anvil. This creates the offset and allows me to get in and do a little clean-up at the transition point. Just as a side note, step 2 is not the full upset - I need to do a little more work before going to step 3.

A very good .02 worth Mike.

I used to -as that was the way I was shown. These days I stop and make a monkey tool - even for large tenons such as the heel tenon. If everything has gone wrong, and I have a stepped shoulder across a large tenon (heel tenon) then I will use a side set to help even them up. I make square monkey tools from round stock with a hole drilled in it. There is a fashion at the moment to use sockets for a monkey tool for square tenons. I'm fine with that if it is an impact socket and NOT chromed, but the chrome can come off the usual socket set quite fast and it is very sharp (read dangerous).

Generally when I have this happening to me, it is because I have made a mistake when I was butchering the material - isolating the mass for the tenon. As I travel a lot to smith, I take a butcher edged hand chisel for my tenons. If I could have my preference, I would take a butcher edged hardy cut-off tool. I know that the closest that I can work to the end of the stock is half its thickness from the end. If I work any closer than that I will peel off the end rather than butcher the material. I forge out the tenon using a guillotine tool made from 1 1/4 inch square tubing with some 1 inch bar inside. This can be two bits of the tubing welded to a piece of angle iron that will fit into your hardy hole. The shoulder (only) is finished with a monkey tool.

There are many formulae. All about as good as each other. I'll throw in my $0.02 and it is as good as the rest. There is no silver bullet for anvil height. As soon as you reach for a top tool or use a hand tool, your anvil is not at the correct height anymore. For me, I take my normal hand hammer - the hammer that is in my hand for most of the day and place that on top of my average stock forged on the face -as if I were forging it. For me that equates to about 1/2 inch bar. I want to look at my hammer arm. Is it hyper-extended or is it too bent. I want a slight bend or break to my hammer arm at the moment of impact and set the anvil height accordingly. I also hold a lot of stock between my legs when I am working with a top or hand tool. This means that the anvil height cannot be higher than my inseam with boots on -or I run the risk of.... well hurting my 'other' hand let's say!

Upsetting - stabilizing the bar end. The end of a bar can be stabilized somewhat, prior to upsetting, by drawing a two sided taper to its end. This will increase the dimension in the other plane (usually the thickness). I have shown this twice below, once with a short upset and again with a longer upset for a heel tenon. The taper allows the bar to upset without having to correct far a growth in width during upsetting as well as helping the bar resist the urge to bend and warp during the upset. The first progression shows the finished upset where no blows on the side were needed save for a little chamfering. This can be quite useful to a smith as it can prevent the local upset of the sides (causing the lipping and cupping) that can be associated with corrections at the end of a heat on a large bar.

How about you turn your rivet around and pass it through the blower lever first. Then slide your wooden handle on -then add a small washer and then cold pien the rivet head over. It does not have to be the perfect rivet, just enough to stop the washer from coming off.

I like what your instructor has told you. There is a formula that I was taught to help 'stabalize' the material during an upset. "Only heat 1 1/2 times the thickness of the stock" So for 1/2 inch square heat 3/4 inch long section. For flat stock heat 1 1/2 times the smallest dimension. For 1 inch by 1/2 inch flat bar - heat 3/4 inch long section. In a gas forge this means judicious use of a quenching medium to isolate the heat. You can further stabilize a bar when upsetting the bar end by drawing a slight taper to the end (On the face of the anvil). This will thicken the bar and negate having to correct for any growth in one dimension for a couple of heats. I'm not a big fan of the upsetting 'tool' per se as I find it can leave sharp transition points. You could try forge welding a collar on for your rose hip.

Patrick, If a person didn't have the sophisticated equipment to do this slow of an anneal, could they sister a large piece of steel with the H13 in an annealing bucket to achieve the same result? What size should that extra piece of steel be (in a just and fair world with a large annealing bucket and no air movement etc)?

I was happier when I thought that the Pearlite phase change to Austenite acted as a kind of catalyst to the remaining free ferrite in hypo-eutectoid steel. I was told that that was not correct - but I cannot find anything that tells me what is happening. Ignorance was bliss!!