eric sprado

Here are my Two "users": My main one is #200Lb. HayBudden. Other is 400# Trenton. I also have a nice little 90#Wilkinson to take to "hammer ins" but don't have a picture of it.

John: I see you're a musician too. Checked out your profile. I'm a fiddle player. Flew out to close to your country a few years ago from Oregon to buy a new fiddle in Eastern Tennessee. I guess since I started this post I can corrupt it a little!! Sorry-Eric S.

That's kind of they way I figure it too.....

Just picked this up. seems to be weight designated with English system but is stated wrong? Shows
1 26 16 which would be 1 1 14 to be correct? Can't seem to identify it with Anvils In America. Any help.Weighs about #160 on my bathroom scale( which ALWAYS weighs heavy,right?) which would be consistent with 1 1 14

Do you guys use Way Oil on Mechanical Power Hammers like an LG 25#?? thanks, Eric S.

What a beauty!!! Eric S.

Egad! I don't know. How does one tell the difference between tapers?

Eric S.: Glad you found a deal. Maybe you could add a letter or something to make your Eric S. different from mine? I'm Eric Sprado but always sign as "Eric S." thanks, Eric S.

A piece of ceramic kiln shelf from your local ceramic kiln folks... Works great. they even have broken chunks sometimes that you can get free..

I wound up making a slotted radius jig for my Harbor Freight bender Works GREAT:

Trailer balls are GREAT bottom tools as they are for forming things round. Use something else for your hardy.....

My press is small: a #3 but it should do the job. Whew: I'm re-reading these comments to try to figure out how you matched the tool with the desired radius! thanks guys!!! Eric S.

Johnsons Paste Wax or Bowling alley Wax are some of blacksmith favorites. Get some REALLY cheap chipping brushes at the paintbrush store and apply while piece is still a black heat. Wipe off excess with a rag. Last a LONG LONG time!!

I remember my friends dad saying " one bad clinch can cut a horse wide open". Since just about all gait faults show up at the trot it must have been a nightmare to keep some of those horses going sound. I'm still intrigued by horseshoeing but am glad I had to quit twenty years ago. I'm just getting sound enough to play at being a blacksmith and probably don't have enough time left to become a "real" blacksmith!!!
Sorry-I guess we kind of highjacked this thread but the tools mentioned WERE about horseshoeing..

Grundsau: Or anybody else..I see your brake extends out from your press quite a bit. I need to bend some 5/16 by almost 3/4 the hard way in a radius to match the top of a fifty gallon drum. It goes about half way around the lid. I need to maybe weld some smaller angle iron to my jig to keep the metal going the hard way??? HELP!!!!

Frank: Interesting. Even though I am basically a product of Western states,I was born in a very rural part of New Jersey by the Pine Barrens. We left there to work in ranch country when I was still a pup.My first contact with shoeing was watching a friends dad in New Jersey who shoed trotters and pacers. VERY intricate shoeing to keep a horse that is Racing at a trot to keep him from speedy cutting etc.. Those shoers are also very concerned with how a foot lands and friction variables. I remember my friends dad making shoes that were swedged on one side and half round on the other. That being 60 years ago I might be remembering some of this wrong. I can't even remember to turn off the stove burners half the time these days..
I remember my friend's family were as poor as church mice. That was back when itinerant racers could leave and continue on the circuit and not pay a shoer! These days a phone call to a stewart would keep them from racing.I remember having thin potato soup over there and helping clean pidgeons his mom was going to cook for supper. Didn't learn my lesson as I should have!!!!

We Call them crayon burners in the Northwest because most guys use CRAYONS for the mold. They melt right out!! There are some pretty complete tutorials on NWBA site for the burners.

Any music store that also works on amplifiers has TONS of broken speakers with good magnets. I use them for picking up horseshoe nail ends, holding things, etc.. Always free in my experience.

It was used for making what we called swedge shoes. When serving my apprentice in Kansas in the early 60's,my instructor had a a lower swedge like that in a Little Giant #25. We would pull measured lengths of that with ends left blank(unswedged) all Winter long. Made them in pairs and wired them together. At a job you threw a pair of swedged blanks in the fire then shaped them. Since the swedge was deep it was easy to finish punching holes with pritchel even at a black heat. The blank ends could be used for heel caulks or brought around and forge welded if a therapeutic bar shoe was needed. I've never seen anybody do that to an anvil face before.Workable modification if that is what you do for a living.I've swedged a zillion half round shoes too. For swedging in the field I had a piece of railroad rail on a stand with grooved and half round swedges filed into it.

Little confused here. Handles for WHAT??? Sorry...

Go the local used restaurant supply place. Every fair sized town has one. As for their basically un-resellable area. LOTS of old steamer trays etc. CHEAP!! I get ones with lids to control flash fires...

The old blowtorches work great for one iron at a time and I see them regularly at flea markets for $15. I'm giving away my FAVORITE source for small,old tools here but search on: shopgoodwill.com I've bought tools and many fiddles off that site. Shipping is high due to their lack of knowledge but a lot of really neat old small tools show up there. You guys owe me if you find something neat there!!!! Just kidding. I'm at the point in my life where I don't need anything except a little more time Please God!!

Billingstwo: Where are you? I'm in Deadwood Oregon and have a few spare Morse taper bits if you are close by. Eric Sprado. Deadwood Oregon,97430

The main ingredient in Pam,I think,is lecithin.... Maybe look for Soy Lecithin based spray..

If you've formed the head,you've made the rivet. What else is there? Need to cut in to the right length and rivet the buck end. I'm a little confused about your "rivet making machine"...