GNJC

Thanks for that. Apart from commercial brands, here in the UK powdered brick dust was a common polishing medium used for domestic items such as pans. Cheap and plentiful, as were servants!

Thanks, I'll have a look through that for case-hardened cooking utensils. In my own library I have found a reference to the historical use of case-hardening for kitchen knives, this is in the book 'Irons in the fire' by Rachel Feild. However, she has an odd understanding about a lot of metalwork and metalworking processes; so I take her writing on things other than historical fact with a pinch of salt.

Yes, thanks a lot Dave - all interesting reading. Good effort. Burnishing is something I have used for years (decades... ahg!) for silver and gold work. I've neglected it and now realise it is something to have a good go at. I have some old rail track that I can polish up, not yet able to go bigger. (I have vision of an old anvil being hung up...) Frosty, the rotten-stone on question used to be a common stone for sharpening stones over here (UK)before the decent oil-stones - mainly from the US - arrived. Quite fine grained and used for a final sharpening. Decomposed granite is often, but not always, kaolin (kaolinite) a.k.a. china clay. I've just done a web search and see it mentioned as weathered limestone mixed with silica, hmm... Not entirely sure about that; my first degree was in geology and I recall it as being a metamorphosed calcareous sedimentary rock. Metamorphosis generally involves movement down to a higher pressure-temperature regime than nearer the surface. Later tectonics or erosion then expose the rock we see today. The change in the rock's structure and its minerals and chemistry made it more friable and easily weathered, I guess it is this that lead it to be named 'rotten' stone.

Thanks Frank, a good suggestion, I'll give that a try. Francis! Please come back with more in re' case hardening of kitchen tools. I have been looking and can find nothing.

Hmm... thanks for all this gent's. Moxon mentions Emerick (emory) and tripoli. Rotten stone I've heard of as a sharpening stone (The Village Carpenter) but not for polishing, but it makes sense. Thanks for book titles. Filing can give the desired result for some items but not for others. Burnishing was certainly used as an everyday method to obtain a shine, sand seems to have been more of a monthly thing ot 'whenever it was really needed'. I have never come across a mention of case hardening with reference to cooking utensils. Please let me know where this comes from. For the most part, old kitchen kit was made from wrought iron; only the well-to-do merchant / large-scale farmer / squirearchy class and upwards could have afforded steel. The quality of finish, as well as of metal, clearly increased with cost too. There are some superb pieces in the British Museum (as one would expect) but smaller collections interest me more and usually show what someone of the yeoman level would have had - well made stuff, a bit of steel here and there, but mainly wrought iron. The very poor (a large majority) had little access to metal until the early 19th Century, their utensils for the most part being made or wood, bone and horn - very little of which has survived; any iron they had would probably have been of poor quality or suspect origin... unless a gift.

Thanks all, Some interesting ideas. Old cookery / domestic management books (1700-1800) suggest the two I mentioned above, I've yet to come across references elsewhere despite looking for them. The standard way to keep the spits shining was a trough of silver sand and a piece of leather and low-paid servant... I've used rouge and tripoli for years with silver and gold, not on steel though - excepting my silverworking hammers. Dave, please let me have the author and title of that book of yours.

Thanks for that, yes emory is good but... I'm looking for contemporary 18th Century materials, not modern ones!

I mostly make old style - 18th Century - fireside cooking equipment. Some needs a decent polish on it e.g. spits. I'm only aware of two abrasives that were used for cleaning and polishing cooking irons: silver sand and brick dust. I'll be grateful for any suggestions about other contemporary abrasives / polishing agents that were used for this purpose.

John, I can't speak for the way the continentals work with holdfasts, but I was taught to use them with a piece of scrap wood between the holdfast's pad and the workpiece. Unless, of course, it's a bit of rough work and looks don't matter. G.

Beth, when I attended the Hatfield Show this summer Andrew Hall gave me some forge-welding lessons. Revelation number one. The two key things being to build up the fire (i.e. the coke, not the flame) and most importantly to take the metal to its heat slowly. Having achieved the first weld by gentle taps, put it back in the fire and, again, give it time to get the heat in. Before the tutorial I was trying to weld using too hot a fire and too quickly = burnt metal. Now I have a much, much higher success rate and use no flux (see below). That written, on smaller stock - less than 1/2" & down to tiny - I still had problems, it simply doesn't retain the heat well / long enough to weld; until, revelation number two, Mick Maxen gave me some borax powder. Wonderful stuff, and I can't say I have noticed any corrosive problems so far - I am sure that with his standard of work, Mick would not use anything that damages the metal. Being a bit of an historical prig, I had my reservations about use of flux until I came across references to it being used with wrought iron in a couple of old books (silver sand though, not borax). That cleared up my 'ethical' worries and I am now happy to use it. (Oddly, I started out metal-working with silver and gold and have used borax as a soldering flux for over twenty years without question... )

Well made, no doubt, but I'm with bigfootnampa in re' the size. I've made a few of these for woodworking and a couple for use in my anvils; being an amateur each one needed 'adjusting' to get it to work properly, some more than others... The largest woodwoking one was from 3/4" (18mm) round stock and - until I'd altered the neck to allow significantly more flex - a hit on it did nothing more than enlarge (i.e. damage) the top of the bench-hole. It certainly held the wood, but it held not using its own flexability, but solely by being wedged / cammed / jammed in the bech-hole. Looking at the photo' of the one Joe has made, my concern would be that - being (or at least looking) too rigid in the neck - it might well do to bench-holes just what my large one did (and for which there is a pretty well known term not suitable for a public forum like this!).

An interesting series, but the titles can be a wee bit misleading. The 'Blacksmith's' tale, for example, branched off and dwelt in the distant world of the foundryman! Nonetheless, all to the good if it opens the public's eyes to metalwork.

If you have access to a block that will do all you want it probably makes sense to get it. But, if you want some special features, there is nothing better than designing your own. I did so and am very pleased with the block I now have. Surprising how many 'versions' I designed before I was satisfied; but this was the first time I had designed any such tool. With your pattern-making experience you should end up with a good one. Please keep us posted as you go on with this.

Thanks for that, I've tried to get some lube in there; if the problem persists I guess I'll have to take it all apart, hopefully not...

Any tips as to where / how to lubricate a motor powered Alcosa F20 fan? It sounds a little dry & there's a bit of a squeak; could just be a spot of general forge-dust in there. I've had an Alcosa fan before and the lube point was obvious, but not here. Is it a take-down job or can I do anything from the outside? Thanks for any advice.

My first, and certainly not last, experience of smelting. Very interesting and I learned a lot due to Mick and Owen's work and patience in answering a lot of questions. I've taken gold out of the raw before (sadly not on this scale) but this was something different altogether. Am really looking forward to making something(s) with the results of the smelt. I think the most remarkable thing is just how much could be achieved with such a simple, even primitive set up. The furnace was - as Owen stated at one time - something like a termite mound. But, despite the 'basic' nature of it, the other two managed it very well and were able to control the burn / smelt rate pretty well and the result speaks for itself. For all out there who are considering attending or having a go at smelting, go for it, there is a sort of primeval magic to it.

A very good demo' John.

I did my first degree in Cardiff and I was often in and out of the National Museum and St. Fagans (free entry to each Museum!), never getting tired of the displays and buildings. I used to sit in at some archaeology lectures when I had time, the experiemental stuff (from horn-work to metal) was always very interesting. Will you being going to this meeting Mr Budd? I guess it's your sort of thing, but may be a bit political if there are to be so many academics in one place.

A nice piece. I've not made anything like this in iron, however my first metalworking was with silver and gold and I did make a fair number of brooches. Some of these were in old styles such as Celtic, Roman, Saxon and later 'Pilgrim' badges. I was initially surprised by the size of the pins used in the original brooches, but I put that down to the fact that the fabric used then was coarser so a larger pin was not a problem. Wrong! A lady at the British Museum set me right... the fabrics were of a perfectly good quality; there were permanent holes (usually emroidered around, like a modern buttonhole) through which the pins passed, usually securing the two sides of the garment together. She believed that for most people the same brooch would have used on all the garments they owned.

Hmm... I will be at the Windsor Show and so will not be at the welding course - which is a great pity because I would both enjoy it and benefit from it a lot. John, any chance of a two day course with the focus solely on joining methods? I'm most interested in mortise & tenons, collaring and old-style brazing on the hearth. What's the critical number needed to make it a goer?

Hmm.. I have only made a few hundred shingles as an experiment with a friend for a small lean-to, so I can't comment advisedly upon the ideal froe for that job; I guess a single bevel could be fine for the short distance involved. However, I couldn't count the number of thousands of lengths of hazel, ash and chestnut I have riven using a froe with double bevel. Most of these have been for fencing of one sort ot another and hedging - paling, wattle etc. For this work I believe a double bevel is essential since, when the wood is in the cleaving break, you are using the combination of blade pressure and tension on the clefts to steer the direction of the split. A single bevel blade would tend to favour one cleft more than the other, leading to the split running out on the side of the bevel. I don't think a froe need be razor sharp, and a thick back to it is certainly an advantage; blade width, depends on job, for general riving no less than 1 1/2" would be my choice.

Chuck, the general concensus on IFI is that Glenn is a knowledgable and benign presence; however, I think his comment regarding the 'handedness' of froes reveals a darker, maybe even cruel, side... there will be no end to your troubles if you commit to a sharpening bias. Like religion and politics, avoid it and go for an even bevel!

I’m an amateur with no pretensions at all toward ‘professional’ status. I just work iron for my own pleasure and because it allows me to have things that would otherwise require a raid on a museum. Apart from the evidence above, just this weekend I met a self-taught smith who does quite superb, in fact outstanding, Damascus / pattern-welded work (save your blushes Mick, it’s true). So, with regard to qualifications I believe the question should be ‘more qualified to do what?’ In my own profession, law, I've regularly come across ‘qualified’ individuals I’d run a mile from rather than have represent me – and this is within a regulated and policed profession! An individual’s having passed an exam / test reveals one of two things for certain: 1) An incompetent examiner or 2) That the examinee met the desired requirements on the day of the exam.; if you don’t think this latter point to be true, ask yourself when was the last time you drove your vehicle as carefully as during your driving test? Without continued, randomly dated, testing it is nigh on impossible to make sure that an individual maintains his standards, let alone improves upon them. Such testing is expensive, time consuming and reserved for only a very few occupations; I write about the UK but guess it is the same elsewhere. So, we are back to survival of the fittest i.e. market forces which means that, generally, those who do good work will get more jobs. (Of course there will be exceptions, due to the dishonest and the gullible.) I hope the craft will continue and prosper; however, be it for industry or ‘art’, as long as the skills are being used and passed on they can always be transferred to other purposes in the future. I don’t know bigred by reputation or in person, but I think he has raised some (only some) interesting points; he has also raised some hackles and, sadly, I think that latterly this has been deliberate.

I have the blocks and they are pretty good; a minor problem on one but a bit of work with a dremmel should sort it out.

Interesting to read Dave's mention of the Roman use of holly, I have always found it an awful wood to work with other than in small wands <1" across. It has a sort of spiral shake (crack) to it if allowed to season in the round. When I've planked it, it needs any amount of weight on top to keep it straight, even then the slightest damp and it twists. I do know that it was traditionally used here (UK) for whip shafts - carriage and wagon whips, not hunting. I use ash for all my handles, in the round for set tools and in wrought section for hammers, no problems at all. Hickory is always raved about, but I can't say I've felt any benefit from it over ash when I've used hickory handled hammers. I think it is like French food, a successful marketing campaign put the idea in peoples' heads that it is great, and that thought has stuck even though in reality it is nothing special.