Ramsberg

Does anyone know if he started blacksmithing so that he could make that axe? Thanks for posting this Brian, he was a man after my own heart. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Phillip and Dave, I don't have much experience with air hammers, but some with using gases for power. Could the reason that it doesn't like to run in cold weather be that the moisture in the air is freezing inside the cylinders transfer valves as it is throttled when they close? Dave are you sure that the cylinder is getting oil? Have you checked and seen if there is any oil inside the exhaust tube, there should be a light coat. That reminds me, the fighter planes in World War One mostly used rotary engines which were lubricated with castor oil admited with the air. The way they would check and see if the oiler was doing its job was to look down at the wing. It it was being coated in oil then you were OK. That and the acrobatics/fear of death upset their stomach so when they landed at base their favorite drink was milk with a good bit of wiskey mixed in. One to take care of the stomach the other for the fear. Caleb Ramsby

A lot of the old industrial shops(including smithing shops) used blocks of wood set in the ground with their end grain up. They were set just like a brick floor, but were cheaper and easier on the feet. They are said to be very fire resistant because only the top of the block is exposed. I a video linked to on here recently. . . uhh about making a pintle, the Woodright video I believe. That smiths shop had a floor just like I described. Caleb Ramsby

Thanks guys, Here are a few close up scans in more detail of interesting objects in the photo. At the time Kirkland was the drop off point for sheep on their way into Slaughter crazy Chicago. This was before the bad mutton overseas during the great war really cut down on the taste for lamb. To make the vehicle even more ironic, he was one of the first in the small town to have a self propelled vehicle! Frank Ramsby made up for it though, he eventually started a trucking company. A few questions for anyone looking. What kind of hat do you think he is wearing? What the heck kind of chain is that? Does the hammer on the table in the Shoe Hammer file look like more of a smithing or shoeing hammer? Caleb Ramsby

Maybe this will do it. A bit smaller size. this is 4 megs. Click on the attachment 100k

Hey Dave, Sorry for the belated reply, I lost track of this thread somehow, it must have moved. Yeah, exactly what I was saying. Two of your designs, one above and one bellow. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Dave, What about riviting the two top hooks onto the main one? Caleb Ramsby

Hey Dave, You seem to like unique forms and ideas, so here is one. How about framing it. Where the hanger would attach to the shop make it symetrical top and bottom, with the bracket on both top and bottom being 1 1/2 times the height of the sign at the attachment point to the building(maybe larger it would have to be drawn to find the most artistic proportions). Then furthest from the shop have the top and bottom curve into each other and form a finial past the furthest edge of the sign. That way the sign would be enclosed from all sides by the frame/hanger and frame it as the work of art that it is. This, amoung being rather unique and eye catching, might get visiting customers thinking about a hand forged frame for that unmounted painting that they have had laying around for years. . . Caleb Ramsby

Hey Bill, Hadn't seen it mentioned yet, so thought I would chime in. You can finish a piece just like you finish a cast iron pan. Just apply some vegetable oil and bake in the oven just like you would the cast iron pan. It will give the same even finish that you get on a pan. If it won't fit in an oven then I just do like has been mentioned, get it to a high black heat and rub vegetable oil on it. Caleb Ramsby

I think that vise is an old caulking vise used for horseshoes, or at least originally used for such. Great find! Caleb Ramsby

Hey Dave, Have you ever made a Treble Clef Chime? Here is a link to its description. http://www.anvilfire.com/iForge/ It is item 23 entitled Cleft I used to make them out of 1/2" square on the diamond, the flag end is also something that you could consider for your triangle dinner bells. To my taste they look 10 times better with square on the diamond(the Treble Clef Chime) a bit tricky though. Caleb Ramsby

Paddy, What I would do is take three sample pieces of the size that you want to twist together, stoutly wire tie them together in a pyramid at one end. Then take a piece of stout stock, flatten the end and then with the stock hot wrap it around the three pieces at the end to make a socket for the twister. Then make another twister to hold in the vise. You may need a dog bolt in one end to keep them even while twisting. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Ianinsa, They say that one should keep a horseshoe with its gap pointed up to hold in the luck. . . unless one is a blacksmith, then one is supposed to keep the gap down to dump the luck out onto the forge. That must have been the luckiest blacksmith shop in history! The caulking vise is one thing in it that I had never seen before. One would use the foot lever to hold the horseshoe to pound out the toe calks. Hey John McPherson, Thanks for the identification! Also thanks for the photo, it looks from your photo to have three gears inside, most that I know of only had two and are a bit more compact. Do you know if the Canedy Otto blower runs any smoother then the other ones? Caleb Ramsby

Well, I hope that these show up. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Mchann, They recently discovered that along with the interiors of the ancient buildings and homes, the exertiors were painted, often with scenes. The marble statues were also painted in full and originally most of them had armor and other objects attached to them. I did a little bit of research on the history of machine tool painting and found that in 1942 the government(the War Department) sent out a decrea that there was to only be one color of paint used on the tools, this in an effort to keep minerals in supply. Before the 1900's some of the tools had very deep colors, pinstriping and rarely small scenes painted on them. If you were an artist back then and very good you would probably be painting small scenes on the side of the horse drawn carriadges, this is what Sir Hiram Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim machine gun and many other things, did in his early life. The picture in question was taken in somewhere between the 1910's and 1920's by his wife who was a photographer. I am going to take it out of its frame tommorow to see if there is a date on the back of it, as well as take a high quality scan and post it in this thread. Maybe someone here will know what type of blower he had. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Joshua, I prefer mild steel, it can be dunked in the slack tub to cool it without worring about it getting brittle on you. One piece of advice would be to keep the transition sections of the tongs as well rounded and thick in section as you can. The most common point of failure of tongs is where the flats that form the pivoting material turn 90 degrees to form the jaws. There is a lot of stress there, especially if the jaws are adjusted a lot and they should be very thick and smooth. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Mchann, I have a black and white picture from my Great-Grandfathers blacksmith shop and the blower in it looks very light colored, not white but bright, it also has what appears to be raised letters which say "Hands Off" on the blower. From the photo it appears that the letters are raised in the casting, they are very dark and were probably red. A lot of the old original advertisements for blacksmithing equipment in magezines were in color print so digging some of them up you may find what they looked like orignaly. Dablacksmith, Interestingly enough, it was not the cost of the paint that urged Ford to use black, but it was the drying time. The black(carbon and oil) paint dried quicker then any other paint and since his whole scheme was time in, product out, that is what he went with. They used large long hair horse brushes for the paint which had a valved pressurized paint line going directly to the hair part of the brush. No dipping in a bucket, just slather it on! The brushes appeared to be perpendicular to the handle, although that may have just been brush droop. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Duke, Different coal goes for different prices. What type of coal did you get your hands on? The fines arn't worthless, if you wet them and then pat them into balls the size that you like your coal chunks to be, they can be used just like regular coal. They puff up a bit and hold together as they are heated. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Ironstein, I really like both the flowers and the damascus pin! Looking at them side by side I couldn't help but wonder what a damascus flower would look like. . . Caleb Ramsby

Firstly, what type of charcoal are you using? Is it a real wood charcoal or is it brickets which are used for grilling? If it is the latter then there is really nothing that you can do to keep them from sparking like crazy. For the quantity of air, you can greatly increase your control over it if you make a plate that can pivot over the air inlet for the air pump. Caleb Ramsby

. . . or a pit for him. If you used both you could call it the "Pit and Stool Forge". Sorry couldn't help it. Caleb Ramsby

One way to make straight chisel cuts is to use a punch when cold to mark every 1/2" or so on the line that you want to chisel through. These marks will show up fine when hot and then just connect the dots. Caleb Ramsby

Hey Charlie, For general use the top of the anvil should be just about at the knuckles of ones fist. If you measure the height of you and your daughters fist from the ground when in a comfortable stance, those would be the heights to make the anvil. I am with Bob, a spacer(simply a stack of boards) or two stands to give the two heights is your best bet. If you make the anvil somewhere in the middle of the two heights then it will just make both of you miserable. Caleb Ramsby

When my late blacksmith(hobby) uncle was in Malaysia they showed him how they cut the leaf springs hot. They got them hot, flatened them and then used a hot cut(with a striker) to cut them to shape. They used them to make machetes. Caleb Ramsby

PANIC!