BT

Dang Jr. that gave me a lump in the throat. Here's to the Vets.

At least they're not snorting coke :-)

Happy Birthday Jr. and Woody!

Look at Anvils in America by Postman, and Practical Blacksmithing by M T Richardson. Both books have reprints of old equipment ads, anvils, vises, drills, forges, etc.

Cooter I've made a couple hundred gigs over the last 30 years or so for the giggers around here. I forge most of mine from old pitchforks and then weld on a half inch round mild steel shaft and a handle socket made from 16 guage sheet. I have made some from car spring, slit the tines with a hot cut and then forged to shape, all one piece including the forged handle socket. Either way, I just let the gig normalize after forging and then heat treat only the points. I heat the points up to the barbs to critical and then quench in oil. I polish the points a bit to see the temper colors and then using a propane torch start heating the hardened tip back behind the barb and watch the colors run to the tip. I temper mine to a dark purple or so. I have had good luck with this process, but no matter how hard the tips they will still wear when gigging in gravel bottom streams. Also, if you leave them too hard they WILL break. I still have one of the first gigs I made and still use that I have rebarbed a couple times now as the points have worn down. I like to keep a very sharp point on the gigs that I use, which means I touch them up after every use. The points are too hard to file, so this means using an angle grinder or a sanding belt to sharpen them.

I like to use stranded copper wire for forge brazing. I have some # 9 stranded where the individual strands are about 22 or 24 guage (about the size of telephone conductor). You can easily break the strands down to just what you need to wrap your joint. Then heat, flux, and heat to the melting temp of the copper. To help clean up the joint, quickly dip the piece in the slack tub just for a second or two as soon as the copper solidifies. This will cause the flux residue to pop loose and then it can easily be removed with a wire brush.

Yeah, these turn up at farm auctions all the time around here and usually sell for very little ($15 - 30 range, occassionally one will go for $50).

The hand crank handle is missing obviously. Also, most of these type drills have a large cast flywheel. Hard to tell from your picture if yours had one originally. Would probably have been mounted on the side opposite the crank handle.

a couple more sources Dixie Gun Works muzzleloading, blackpowder and rare antique gun supplies. http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/productdetail.aspx?p=7626

(1 x 112) + (3 x 28) + 8 = 204 lbs. England stamp indicates after 1910.

Check out this site http://www.vintageprojects.com/

D.Bernard - yes that works on some blower housings, but I was using an old paddlewheel blower with a rounded cast housing. It had a shaft protruding on both sides with bearings on each side.

That is a quick and slick way to make one Ten. The one that I fabbed was similar to the ones in the link that I posted and a lot more work. I was using it on an old belt driven forge blower at the time. I don't use an airgate though anymore as I went to an old Buffalo electric blower about 20 years ago, controlled by a rheostat. I really like the control of the rheostat. I use an on/off switch wired in ahead of the rheostat so that I can just flip the blower off and on without changing speeds drastically as I go to the anvil and then back to the forge.

I think that actually the word "England" is what dates it after the mid teens of the last century.

I fabricated my own, but this place has some that are inexpensive. Dust Collection Blast Gates from Woodstock International Tools Actually there are several sites that carry this same airgate if you search.

Sounds like a tinsmith's seaming tool.

Bear There has been some discussion of this across the street over on Forgemagic. You might check over there for more info.

addendum to above post: Make sure your punch has a flat face. Should not be a sharp point.

Punch the hole over the solid part of the anvil. Hit the punch until you "feel" the anvil face with the punch. Dip the punch in water after every third hit and then in coal dust. The water will cool the punch and a bit of the coal dust will stick to the wet tip. The coal dust will gas off in the hot metal and provide a lubricant. Once you feel the anvil with the punch, flip the work over and put it over the pritchel hole. You will see a black circle where the punch has cooled the thin part remaining in the hole. Put the punch on this mark and drive out the thin slug through the pritchell hole of the anvil.

Not blacksmithing per se, but some good info here: NAVY-repairmans-manual-Contents.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter01.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter02.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter03.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter04.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter05.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter06.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter07.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter08.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter09.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter10.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter11.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter12.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter13.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter14.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Chapter15.pdf NAVY-repairmans-manual-Appendex.pdf

This is another virus email hoax that has been circulating for some time. Go to McAfee

Ah, nice to know for sure what it is. Thanks Jr.

Jr Was it my whatizit? http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/f8/another-whatizit-1397/

Check out this guys pics of some antique equipment. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29161753@N00/?saved=1 Apparently these are for sale http://hartford.craigslist.org/tls/246694860.html

Jim Northern tool carries Northman brandof soleniod valves. http://www.northerntool.com