Judson Yaggy

Good score. Please post pics, I'm really curious about the mechanism at the pivot.

Anyone ever seen a vise like this? Note the pivot- adjustable? Sorry for the bad pic, not mine.

No, not a typo. Not sure of the variety, but especially in the wetter areas and if I don't mow or brush hog for a year or two, the grass gets shockingly tall for a month or two. We get a LOT of rain- if we didn't have winters with periods of -20 deg. F, I shudder to think of how overrun with vegetation we would be. One old pasture I remember walking in as a child is now covered in 4" diameter new growth sugar maple, and I'm in my mid 30's. Maple isn't known for being fast growing (just the opposite) but Vermont is the poster child for micro climates.

I hand mow quite a bit. Our property is 200 year old cow pasture on fertile valley riverbottom, so the grass gets upwards of 7 feet tall by early July. I use a traditional American recurved snath and 2 different blades, a long thin "grass" blade for the easy stuff, and a shorter, wider more curved brush blade for the more stemmy stuff like thistles and goldenrod and that accursed godawful #$%@&* wild parsnip. The snaths were made locally out of steam bent Vermont white ash by what I believe was one of the last American manufacturers, Derb & Ball of Waterbury, VT. My parents recall them going out of business sometime in the 1970's.

I find it to be a good workout and definitely faster than using a weed eater once you get proficient. Plus no spray of green mush and no fumes to breathe. Like any physical skill it takes some practice to get good at it, I had to mess around with handle position on the snath and my body mechanics and the blade angle relative to the ground for a while till I found what worked for me. I imagine the variables are different for everyone. There are a good number of youtube vids of people hand mowing. I buy an occasional stone and other supplies from these folks- http://www.scythesupply.com/

I'm curious about the odd looking power hammer, not the Star or whatever it is, but the one with the offset anvil. The clutch and linkage look factory, but the rest home made? An old sheet metal hammer? If you had any other observations of it please share! Thanks.

DESTROY...DESTROY... Any Dr. Who fans out there? Looks like a Dalek head

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the process, evaporators run HOT. If you are not boiling your sap as hard and fast as you can you are wasting fuel and time. It takes around 45 gallons of sap to produce a gallon of syrup, that's a lot of steam to make and get rid of. As far as I know all the commercial wood fired models have blowers to really heat things up. They also have linings of both firebrick and what looks like spun ceramic insulation like the Kaowool we use in our gas forges, and cast iron parts to reduce warpage. I'm sure you could forge with the fire inside of them if you wanted a forge with doors down at floor level.

SQDQO- Where are you located? Perhaps we could put you onto a local metalworker for more advice.

That's great! Love the hook. My 7 year old smithing son says to say hi to your 9yo from Bristol, Vermont, USA. I may just be seeing what I want to but I love the way kids around blacksmithing seem to be more aware of the way things work. Here's a vid of Alex making twisties.

Just screws in? Dunno. Good info Grant. Never looked at that part of mine specifically, just assumed it was a cast/steel fit like the jaws. As usual what you say is obvious once you think about it thou. I'll try and unscrew it if you promise to replace the busted casting when the experiment goes south. OTOH a 3" diameter leg on a vise would be wicked!

Anyone else care to share photos/specs?

Ok, since the original CL posting is gone, let's post some photos of Fisher double screw leg vises. Here are a series of pics of mine, 6.25" wide jaws. Opens to around 7", jaws stay parallel the whole way. Not surprised that Monster thought they were made in only 2 sizes as I've only ever seen the 6" and 8" in almost 20 years of looking. Anvils In America shows adds and photos of a whole range of sizes thou, so they must have made them. Anyone have or seen something besides the above 2 sizes? IIRC Nol Putnam down in VA has a big one, and another smith here in Vermont has an 8".

Not sure if it shows well in my photos but it looks like Fisher used the same steel to cast iron technique with the jaws/body of the vises as they did on their anvils. Note that the roller chain on mine is not OEM, it was missing when I found this vise. Actually good luck for me as I could dicker with the seller, "gee that is BUSTED, missing parts, I'll only go as high as $200" .

http://nwct.craigslist.org/tls/2243734160.html

Fisher 2 screw vise in CT, not cheap but these are really rare and very sweet.

I buy my screen from McMaster-Carr. Check here, do some reading. http://www.mcmaster.com/#wire-cloth/=be683m Even if you don't buy from them their descriptions and sizing details should give you the vocabulary to get what you want from other sources. I'm sure someone will note that there are cheaper suppliers out there but McMaster will have it in stock and DELIVERED the next biz day. That's worth at least + 30% to me.

Skin.

"Tup" or "Ram" or "Head" refer to the moving part or working mass of material that is moved by the mechanical linkage/fluid power/gravity. A relatively small part of the machine called a "hammer". When you read about the weight of a power hammer i.e.: 25#, this is the part that folks are talking about. Many 25# hammers actually have a total weight of 900 to 1000 pounds. The part of the ram that strikes the work-piece is called the "die". Note that there is one die fixed to the tup and one to the anvil, optimally by a dovetail and wedge arrangement but bolts or welding are acceptable. The dies are best made of properly heat treated alloy steel.

When you see video of home made hammers jumping around that is indeed due to lack of mass, mostly missing mass in the anvil portion of the hammer. Best practice is to have a 20:1 anvil to tup weight ratio, thou 10:1 is minimally sufficient. Sometimes it's because of unbalanced mechanisms or machines that are not fastened down to the floor, but most of the time it's simply lack of mass.

If you are on a limited bandwidth connection, look for your information the old fashioned way. I strongly recommend the book "Pounding Out the Profits" by Douglas Freund. An outstanding primer on historic power hammers. It's out of print but if your local library hasn't fallen to budget cuts try to ILL.

eric sprado
Posted Today, 06:59 PM
Experience that I had: I made the "structure" of the lamp,but paid a UL certified shop here in town to wire it. The WIRING is the UL part. The cost was minimal compared to liability.

Some literature for Fairbanks/Dupont here http://newenglandblacksmiths.org/power_hammer_info.htm Scroll down about half way for the Fairbanks stuff. As for dies you are probably on your own. There are some folks making/importing dies for other hammers but for most antique stuff you have to make your own or if you want to pay it done go to a machine shop and heat treater.

Mainely,Bob
Posted Today, 04:27 PM
As someone who has never had much money I have to agree with KYBOY.
There is no way I could afford a nice Harley when I started out so I rode a Triumph at first and learned how to fix it myself then customized it and sold it for enough to buy an old Harley,learned how to fix that and soon was building them for others and now have a Snap-On toolbox full of overpriced but money making tools,most of which I bought used.
I couldn`t afford to pay for ornamental ironwork so I learned how to do it myself and soon was hammering out stuff that people wanted to plunk down cash for.After taking the time to practice and learn the trade I could go to the nearest boatyard,haul home a load of scrap and turn it into cash.Now I have a small lathe,milling machine,brand name welding machine,torch set,etc.I learned how to repair and make tools and now do that for added income.I never let an old tool or machine go to the scrap yard if I could help it.I rebuild them and either sell them cheaply,trade them for what I need or give them to someone who needs and will appreciate them.In return those same folks bring me what I need for cheap and sometimes for free.
Skills are the real high dollar commodity and you can`t develop the proper skills without the tools.Mow lawns,dig ditches or wash cars if you have to but get or make the tools.Once you have the tools you can develop the skills that will make you money and then money will no longer be a problem.

As we`ve all seen,if you buy high quality used tools at a decent price, take care of them and treat them right they can usually be sold for at least what you paid for them.In the mean time you made a pile of cash with them so why complain about what they cost?

If I recall, Steve used 4140 for Jim's arms. They were forged to rough shape, had the bends pressed into them (hot) under a hydraulic press, then were machined. After all that Jim had them heat treated by these folks http://www.trowandholden.com/ They are the chisel manufacturers that Gensh mentioned.

GSM and others interested in Vermont blacksmithing- We are doing just fine. I just posted a response to this mini thread over in

GSM and everyone- Blacksmithing in Vermont is alive and well. The guy with the $500 kit sounds like he's either moving on or just selling extra gear, hard to say from his brief CL listing. I've sold similar kits for similar prices several times and judging from the responses I've gotten lots of folks are interested in smithing. The other guy is getting divorced, here is an excerpt from the email I received from him (names edited for privacy).

quote

Sorry for the mass reply. I have gotten many inquiries about the blacksmith tools and do not have time to respond to all of you. Here is a little information.

The tools and equipment are from my blacksmith shop, formerly the Swanton Forge. I apprenticed to Percy XXXX from Ascutney, Vt back in the early 1970's and then bought Gagnes Welding Shop on 1st St in Swanton in the late 70's. Adrian XXXXX was a French Canadian smith who came from multiple generations of blacksmiths and he lived over the shop while I ran it in Swanton. A wealth of knowledge. I operated a blacksmith and fabricating shop for about 14 years and made spiral stairs, railings ornamental ironwork, traditional ironwork, furniture, small syrup evaporators, horse drawn equipment and basically anything else anyone would pay me for so I could support my family. That is where my tools come from.

I am going through a divorce and not living at the property where the shop is so it is going to take a little time, but my plan is to inventory everything I have and take a bunch of pictures. I will keep all your contact information and let you know when I have completed the above task. My preference is to have the entire contents of the shop sold as one lot and have it all removed by the purchaser. There is a fair amount of scrap metal that a blacksmith is likely to save and there was a lot of boxes of old fasteners and wagon and carriage parts that I moved from the shop in Swanton when I built my shop in Fairfield. Someone may or may not want this stuff. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.

Here is a summary of some of the items I have (from memory)

2 anvils
1 one large cone mandrel
1 caulking vice
2 stand up post vices
1 swage block
1 Bantam Ironworker with various punches and dies
1 lever operated shear/punch
1 post drill hand crank
1 post drill set up for pulley and motor
1 tap and die machine and various tap and dies
a couple motorized forge blowers
a couple hand crank blowers
a couple forge pots and tuyeres
a large wheelwrights ring (for mounting in floor)
a tire shrinker
1 hand crank adjustable tire roller/bender
a wheel wrights wheel stand
several axle spoon or pod reamers
old electric motor and shaft and pulley set uo for the tap and ie machine and drill press
various benches including one bench with a ½"x4'x8' table top for welding and layout.
Hand shear that cuts to 1/8"
Cut off saw
Dozens of tongs, boxes of punches and chisels
A lot of hammers and hardy tools
A small sheet metal roll
Homemade sheet metal brake
Homemade bender
Homemade hydraulic press with dies
A lot of hand tools and some old farrier tools

end quote


Anyone interested in finding blacksmiths in VT please drop me a line, there are a good number of us. Probably 20 or so full time professionals that I know of, perhaps more, and lots of semi-pro and hobby smiths. I had a hammer-in at my shop last October, the mailing list was just over 100 folks and even with short (2 week) notice we had about 25 attendees. Not bad for a state with only 600,000 people.

As Glen mentioned in another thread, one nearby teaching center is the Brentwood facility, owned and operated by New England Blacksmiths, our regional group. Brentwood is about 2 1/2 hours from Montpellier. http://newenglandblacksmiths.org/brentwood_teaching_facility.htm NEB also has spring and fall meets around New England, a year ago we had one at Jim Fecteau's shop in Huntington that had almost 200 attendees. Note that in some parts of the country people will have to drive up to 6 hours one way to attend a one day "local" meet.

There are several nearby groups with occasional striking distance meets, google NYSDesigner Blacksmiths, NE Blacksmiths, and the New Jersey group, I forget their exact name right now.

There is also the New England School of Mealwork in Auburn Maine http://www.newenglandschoolofmetalwork.com/ 4 or so hours from Montpieller and pay to play, but worth it in my opinion.

The most local resource for Vermont blacksmiths is the Green Mtn. Blacksmiths' Assn. No website yet. In the best Vermont tradition decentralized and occasional meets, but we average about 3 per year. Often at one of the pro's shops, but usually every spring we have one at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum http://www.lcmm.org/ where there is the great shop of a retired professional, a historic replica shop, and a 4 station teaching shop equipped by donations and tool making workshops sponsored by GMBA. We have also had hammer-ins at Ben's Mill http://www.bensmill.com/ owned by a historical society up in the Northeast Kingdom. GMBA also has demos at various fairs and farmer's markets during the good weather, catch as catch can. And there is almost always some art smith or another opening or closing their shop in Burlington.

Blacksmithing is NOT in decline in Vermont. Anyone who is interested please send me a PM and I'll have your contact info put onto our GMBA mailing list.

Here's a bi-fold screen I just finished, I went with 1/8 by 1" rear frame over the 1 1/2 wide fronts to give room for lapping the doors tight onto the outer frame and to allow space for welding on hinge barrels on the inside. In order to get a really taut screen I cut it oversize so it overhangs the frames by about an inch. I don't weld the frames together, just rivets, because that way I can grab the screen with duckbill vice grips and pull it tight as each rivet is set. Then the real trick to a good looking rear of the screen- Take your torch with a welding tip on it and run it with an excess of oxygen, and run the flame along the edge of the inner frame, melting the wires of the screen and cutting off the excess. The wire will either melt right out of sight under the back frame or ball up right on the edge. No sharp little wires sticking out and no grinder or chisel marks.

You're gonna need a MUCH bigger power hammer if you keep making those and follow the logical progression.... I'll buy one when you get up to 500# or so ;)

Swedish anvil and large forge combo kit, $500
http://burlington.craigslist.org/tls/2137418989.html

Cutting- Torch is the fastest tool folks will generally have at their disposal. If you don't have a torch or other heavy tools try this. Cut thru the base and web with a bandsaw, score the hardened face with a grinder in line with the bandsaw cut, put the cut over a fulcrum of some sort with the grinder notch facing down and snap off with a sledge hammer. Wear your ppe.

Here you go guys- http://at-95.com/