Leland

I've had pretty good results forging coiled spring steel into tanged chisels, gouges and so on, but really wanted to replicate my early 20th C. Buck Brothers bolstered tools...and I'm getting a lot closer. The new goose-neck gouge I forged yesterday has a nice (if rather too-thick and conical) bolster right where it should be. I finished grinding and draw-filing today, and plan to heat treat next week, then hone and test. The bolster, besides being a self-challenge, is there to support the gouge blade when the tool handle is struck with a mallet. Intended for roughing-out work, I plan to turn the handle from osage orange and will post pix of the completed tool later. Leland

Great tips, guys -- I've wondered about that myself. Thanks for the info!

The Postman tome, "Anvils In America," is a good starting place. If you don't have this doorstop of a book, posting some photos of your mystery anvil would help others who have it look for photos of anvils similar to yours. Good luck, Leland

Congrats! Some guys have all the luck! So, what'd ya pay for that bad boy? And, if ya got it for nothin', LIE to us about what it cost you, huh? :rolleyes:

Most of them are nameless, and the masterful products of their craft and skill were intended to serve -- not as inspiration to distant ages yet to come, but the more pressing demands of hand to mouth. But in sustaining life with hammer and tongs, these unknown forgers managed nonetheless to touch the ages: A bevel, curl, or twist that served no purpose but to delight the eye; perfect symmetry where a lesser sort would have done as well; an attention to detail that transcended craft or need and humbly -- quietly, and largely without recognition -- blossomed into Art. They are those whose ornaments and filigree caused Sonn to note, "There was nothing too small to take pains upon," and whose anvils yet ring in Ruskin's admonition: "When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labour and wrought substance of them, 'See! This our father did for us!'" Leland

How come so many anvils survived the WWII scrap drives? My grandfather kept both of his Dad's anvils (one of 'ems mine now), but did EVERYBODY save their anvils from salvage efforts in the war years? The need for iron scrap was so desperate and voracious that my Mom remembered collecting nails to turn in, but there's an incredible amount of pre-1945 anvils around. Or does it just seem that way?

Ridgid's parent company (The Emerson Electric Company) acquired Peddinghaus c. 1997.

Hey, that's pretty cool. Here's another article on smithing you might find interesting, from Backwoods Home Magazine: forge and fabricate your own hardware

Boy, do I feel like a pansy...I was griping to my kid about that paper-thick layer of frost on my truck windshield this morning. I actually had to WIPE it away with a rag before driving! Winters are, like, totally brutal here in SoCal, dudes ;0)

Hey, Terry: Thanks, I appreciate the explanation of your forging duties. :0) It looks like the "buy or build" calculus of your employers clearly favoured a more vertically-integrated procurement process for the items you forged. A change in the variables (distance to suppliers of these specialised components, lower cost or faster turnaround from outside vendors) would/should have impacted that calculation's result. My hunch is that blacksmithing is not a growing trade, and I suspect that the percentage of employed persons whose income is produced at the forge is very tiny. And that's why when people (at demonstrations, for example) start a conversation with the comment, "Blacksmith is a dying art..." I gently interrupt and correct them: It's not a dying art, but rather, it's a dying trade. As an Art, blacksmithing is flourishing at a rate never before seen in its millennia of service as a craft; artists wielding the hammer and anvil are more numerous now then ever before in the long history of ironworking. I wonder, how many smiths here derive their sole income from the forge? How many would encourage their children to engage in smithing as a vocational pursuit? Just thinking out loud, offering my own myopic, non-scientific, small-data-sample opinion. Thanks for the counterpoint :0) Leland

Hey, Terry: You've desribed yourself as an "industrial blacksmith," using traditional techniques in a modern setting. I'm curious - what is it you forged? My reason for asking is that I suspect "scale" factored into your employment as an industrial smith, inversely as it factored into the demise of smithing in other sectors. Blacksmiths were phased out of employment because machinery supplanted their labour-intensive efforts; the only reason for continuing hand-craft trades is the higher cost, difficulty, or highly-specialised-but-low-demand of creating a particular product or action with a mechanised counterpart. (Examples are seen in other fields, especially if one watches WAY too much of the 'Discovery' channel: Oysters are shucked by hand, for example.) It would probably be a safe bet to say that you were forging highly-specialised pieces with low quantity demand (that is, they were not created in large numbers of identical pieces). Whatever you were paid to forge was less than the cost of producing a machine to create these specialised forgings, and -- as a percentage of total forged products created by modern industry -- your nearly-three decade output was probably quite modest. Though of unquestionable quality :0) Leland

You "nailed" the answer yourself! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Horseshoes compensate for the unnaturally rapid wear on the hooves of working animals by eliminating virtually all wear on the hooves*. However, some wear of the hooves is necessary to maintain the animal's posture and correct gait. So, horseshoeing is a two-part solution: The shoes protect the hooves from excessive wear, and the trimming of the hooves (analogous to trimming our own nails) replaces the natural wear the animal would have received without the shoes' protection. Hoof growth is such that the average cycle time is 6 to 8 weeks. You'll hear shoers and horseowners talk about "resets," the practise of reusing and re-fitting (or "resetting") the previous shoes which aren't worn out by the time the horse's feet need trimming. As to making shoes last longer, tool steel shoes would be a real bear (IMO) to work, but in hard-use environments (draught horses, for example) which would otherwise cause shoes to wear out prematurely, hardened steel caulks may be inserted in the shoes, or carbide granules may be brazed in place to resist wear. This is analogous to hard-facing the blades of bulldozers and so forth. *The heels of the hoof are free to flex laterally, and thus minor wear occurs in this area. It also polishes the hoof-side portion of the shoe at the heel.

What? A dull bit, on MY shoein' rig? It's INCONCEIVABLE! Standard joke/gripe among my group of shoers (circa 1982) was "Sure the Izumi shoes are good -- they're made out of salvaged American battle ships!" And, now that I think about it, while they shaped readily, those heels back then needed a LOT of work to smooth 'em out.

When I was shoeing, I used primarily Diamond-brand shoes, which are mild steel. BUT...sometimes they'd have to be drilled and tapped (say, when I made a hospital plate shoe or installed removable caulks). And sometimes...I'd hit a hard spot in a quenched shoe that simply wouldn't drill. I figured it was just a matter of inconsistency in the smelting process that let some random alloy slip past into the finished "mild steel" shoe. Sometimes I used Izumi shoes, imported from Japan, and they were perfectly consistent, never exhibiting this tendency (in my experience). They were uniformly soft and oh, boy, what a breeze to shape, hot or cold!

Okay, it's probably miscategorised, but darned if I can find the right thread, so... Last week I was at one o' my favourite flea markets and nabbed a nice...not beautiful, but NICE...4# hand sledge. Got it home, cleaned it up a bit and, sure enough, that logo was sorta familiar looking...it's a four-pound ATHA! Doggone new handle cost more than the hammer...which I got for two bucks!!! :D

I seem to recall that Albert Sonn ("Early American Wrought Iron") referenced an early Virginia statute forbidding nail salvage through arson. I'm sure Eric Sloane alluded to the tradition as well but probably without citation.

Sorry for the wild goose chase I use the Ace Hardware in Fullerton, and they tried to sell me Pop rivets, too. I found the solid rivets in the store's specialty fasteners bins.

Hey, Sabre: Call me lazy, but rivets are something I "forge" using my McMaster Carr account. If -- for my next visit to a Ren Faire or an SCA meet -- I just GOTTA have hand-forged rivets, then yep, upsetting is the way to go. Local yellow heat on the end of a 1/4" rod and light taps; finish in a simple "heading jig," which in my case is a scrap rod offcut with a hole in its middle. McMaster Carr is online, and they while they do have a minimum purchase requirement they've also got most rivets known to man. However, if there's an ACE HARDWARE nearby (or other "Mom 'n Pop," non-Home Depot type hardware store), try there. Look in their specialty fasteners bins, where my local Ace Hardware has a surprising variety of rivets available. Ask for "shovel rivets" or "solid rivets," or you'll be directed to the Pop rivets. If you don't find rivets, look at the various bolts sold and see if one or more of the head styles available would make an acceptable finished product. It is possible to use a plain steel bolt as a jerry-rigged rivet, though expect the peened end to turn out a bit rough (even using a monkey tool); the threads are going to deform.

Welcome to the ancient and addictive craft of ironworking. Now, maybe change your moniker to "The Shawshank Smith?" Leland

Wouldn't bet against that one, NuViking -- my little lawyer/anti-paternal-tyranny-activist spends a good deal of time poking around in various art books in my library and his; he decided on the shape himself. I know he has a fondness for all things Celtic -- not much of a lateral move from Nordic, eh?

Nice work, and a good set of photo tuts! Thanks for sharing it here!

My son's 15, and has been around craftsmanship all his life (well, the part he spends with me anyhow); he's picked much of this up through osmosis, I suppose. Flaming S, my son got tired of visiting Rockler Woodworking nearby and hearing me say, "The Bank of Dad is not funding your tool purchase, kid." Since said kid's no better able to afford the fancy cutting tools sold there than is the BoD, he's been inspired to continue smithing!

The finish was something that caught my son's eye in the Rockler store: Sunwax? Outdoor Furniture Wax - Rockler Woodworking Tools I wanted beeswax, but didn't want to shell out 22 bucks for a block of the stuff. This product is a blend of waxes in a petroleum solvent...and, oh boy, didn't it make that wood buff out nicely?

The gouge made for my son's Christmas gift has served part of its intended purpose and motivated him towards advancing his own smithing skills. Here is a knife my son made: Full-blade tang, slightly tapered towards the butt, zebra wood scales fastened with epoxy and brass rivets. AND my crafty little 14-year-old made himself a nice leather sheath to go with his new blade! Happy New Year everyone, Leland

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I built a parting chisel with a cocobolo handle the Saturday following Christmas: ghostlyshows/Blacksmithing Projects - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting And, maybe one of these days I'll get a REAL lathe instead of this little ShopFox pen lathe :0)