Frank Turley

Iron Alchemy, I sent for the books. Thanks for the reference.

Yes, the tenon goes through an upper portion of the fixed leg and the spring. The tenon slot for the wedge must be placed accurately so when the wedge is driven, it draws the mount and the spring tightly. The spring doesn't need the little right angle bend at the top; that was only needed when the surrounding U-shackle came into use at a later date.

Is there such a thing as a leg vise aficionado? I am he. I have a vise similar to the one in the Zoffany painting, which I show in the three submitted images. I hope it can go to a museum or collector some day. I've also shown an elaborate French vise that I copied from a book. The same vise is pictured in d'Allemagne's "Decorative Antique Ironwork." Regarding a visible mounting, it sometimes doesn't show because it is under the bench top. This was seen at the Dominy clockmaking workshop in Hummel's excellent book/catalog, "With Hammer in Hand."

Specialization may help whether you're part time or full time. I just finished this little stand that will support a slender African, wooden, art figure. I've known two people whose work consisted of 95% this type of thing, designed mainly for collectors and retailers. The pictured one has a 3" square base and a 3/16" x 8" vertical. The work involves a little forging and some cold work. One might also be welding, brazing, tenoning, and using taps & dies.

I've made lots of scribers. Scribes sit in a chair and make figures on a ledger. A scratch awl is a scriber, probably if you're in a Southern state. For steel, I usually use car hood springs. Harden in oil; temper to a dark straw. The point is finished to 20 degrees included angle. Rattail on the other end and a twist in the middle. Blacksmiths twist; machinists knurl. Scribers are great giveaways, especially for "Iron in the Hat." This happened in a harpsichord factory. The old hand hollered to the new kid, "What's that measurement again?" The reply was, "Sixteen inches and uh, and uh, uh, two bumps past the big bump in the middle!"

Another decorative bread loaf from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, USA.

I've been around the block on this forge welding, so I'm offering a little info. "Soupy flux" can be a contaminant interfering with metal to metal contact when welding. That is why it is suggested to rap the piece(s) against the anvil or to shake them sharply in midair before hammering. It is also the reason that the faces of scarfs are rounding, If any "soup" remains, it'll get squeezed out from the mid point of tangency by hammering. I'll define what I call soup. When flux is applied to red hot iron, say borax, it melts and glazes the surface. If you're using hydrous borax, applying a little with a flux spoon is helpful and will minimize bubbling. Don't dip the pieces into a container of borax, or you'll get a ball of unmolten white flux surrounding the piece, and you're wasting flux and time. Don't overflux; just glaze the surface. When heating after the flux application, some already formed scale will melt within the coating, creating a compound, no longer straight borax. This is what I term "soup." It is molten, but the steel is not molten. You're doing a solid state weld. Wire brushing before flux application is often helpful. So the flux glaze is an attempt to prevent new scale from forming, but it can also assume already formed scale, both of which are good things. However, you don't need it an instant before hammering. Our localism is "Shake your grahdoo," accent of the second syllable. My Texas students introduced me to the term which in Texas, means any ol' kind of crud or crap. Some Texan welders call welding spatter, grahdoo. I'm calling the "soup" grahdoo.

If I were a mountain man heading for a rendezvous, I would be riding horseback with probably a pack horse. In terms of ironwork, I would have my rifle, a hatchet or small axe, knife, fire steel, and small tools to maintain the rifle. Not to forget beaver traps. I doubt seriously whether I would want to carry iron tripods, fire crossbars, s-hooks, and pots and pans. Gin poles (cranes), crossbars, and hooks can all be made of wood on site with hatchet and knife. I know. I know. At a modern day encampment, we're making a few exceptions to the way things were done in 1835.

There is a method of making pipe tomahawks of gun barrels in Peterson's book, American Indian Tomahawks.

Yes, a sweating heat only for high carbon steel. No sparks. Otherwise, the high carbon steel will crack, crumble, or separate into two or more pieces.

A human interest story appeared in our August 19, Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper regarding an old style castle, newly built, named Guedelon and located near Treigny, France. The living history medieval castle is being built using all craft techniques of that period. So far, the building houses a smithy, bakery, rope twister, tile making room, basket making setup, mortar mixing station, and a mill. Sounds like it's worth a visit if one ever makes it to France.

Yes, as pictured.

Some of the farriers' manufactured tongs had that appearance, so it became a sort of style for horseshoers. It is not necessary, although it looks "keen." In fact the traditional Japanese tongs eliminate the "third shoulder" leading into the reins altogether. Their first shoulder demarcates the jaw base; the second shoulder is the diagonal one which flattens the boss. From there, the Japanese smiths forge a taper in width going into the rein. Not a shoulder. Post Script. To each his own, but I like my reins to be parallel. On my tongs, I put a mild curve behind the "third shoulder" and fine tune the two reins hot so they are parallel and comfortable to the hand.

I have an old speaker magnet on a length of haywire used for dredging up pieces that accidentally have found their way to the bottom of the slack tub.

"Iron in its happiest state... rust."

It's old and it has the typical early English shape. The quotation seems pricey to me, but it you gotta' have it, then you gotta' have it.

Has the outline of a Peter Wright, or at least, a British appearance. The dots could be match marking during manufacture. Is that a vee shaped spring? If so, it is and oddball, maybe home made.

Lots of info on this thread. I'm just going to add a little based on what I've learned. First, in German, the correct spelling of the scythe anvil is dengelstock, not denglestock. In my collection of smithing goodies, I found my dengelstock and am enclosing a picture. In my 1939 Cassell's dictionary, the word dengeln is a verb meaning "whet a scythe by hammering." Finally, a little story about using the scythe stone. An acquaintance living in Iowa would go every summer to help on his uncle's farm in northern Missouri. His uncle used a scythe, and my friend noticed that about every 10 to 15 minutes, his uncle would stand the scythe upside down on its snathe and stroke the blade with his stone. He said, "Gee unc, you sure do that a lot" to which his uncle replied, "Ain't no time lost in the whettin'." I take his uncle's response as a pungent aphorism.

Is there a numeral stamped next to the handling hole, upper waist, under the horn? If so, it might be a Hay Budden.

A little about the rim horseshoe. In my early days of shoeing, I was only aware of one rim shoe on the market. It was mild steel and had a full crease or groove all around from heel to heel. The crease provided a place for nail holes. In use, the entire crease would fill with hard packed dirt which gave good traction. My use of the rim shoe was on a barrel racing horse and on a cutting horse. You can google "rim horseshoes" and find out a great deal by clicking images and descriptions. Nowadays, the shoes are steel or aluminum, some of them racing plates and some with toe grabs, the latter being low curved calks.

Thomas et al., The Pater Wright vises I have encountered all had the "sting ray," lozenge shaped mounting plates. I saw many PW's in Australia. Interestingly, most PW vises exported to Australia and Canada had very slight chamfering on the four corners of each leg. The deeper chamfered vises came to the U.S. I visited England at one time, not really looking for shops or vises. I ran across one large PW vise mounted outdoors in a yard. It had the slightly chamfered legs. I don't have a clue as to the difference in the chamfering depth, unless it had to do with the period of time of manufacture I've taken apart a few PW vises for cleaning, and some of the boxes have a numeral stamped on them. The box is removed to see the numeral. You can sometimes make out small stamped lettering on the movable jaw of a PW vise. It goes like this: P. WRIGHT PATENT SOLID BOX Most often it is gone via rust and wear.

I have three Peter Wright vises, and yours has the same appearance. The mounting plate is also similar and someone has said that it has the look of a sting ray.

You can double check, but I think the extruded, forgeable aluminum you would order is numbered 6001 or 6003. Jim Keith, the tool maker from Tucumcari, NM, likens extrusion to how a mule processes grain. When heated, the aluminum does not change color. Some smiths keep some small pine splinters handy and when sprinkled on the heated aluminum, it smokes, and you're ready to forge. A coal fire might make the metal surface ugly. You could heat, say, a 1/4" plate on the forge and lay the aluminum on top, heating by conduction, thereby keeping the work cleaner.

I have taken dancing classes, singing classes, and tai chi classes. In all of them, the wise teacher begins with postural advice and deep breathing. If sitting, the feet are shoulder width, calves vertical, soles "grounded." Don't hollow your back; sit on your sitz bones. Lift your head from the head top; the chin will tuck in a little. The tongue touches lightly the hard palate, the tip behind the central upper incisors. Hands resting on thighs. Relax all joints! If standing, the same principles apply. The tailbone will be tucked forward, the so called pelvic tilt. The hands relax down near the outside pants seam. Calm the mind and let the breath fill your belly and back. Ten minutes a day is better than doing nothing. The trick is bringing this relaxed state into the shop. Getting a good teacher will help in learning the correct posture and breathing. Besides the above, I see that you are near Touchstone Craft Center in Farmington and not too far from Peters Valley Craft School across the Delaware in New Jersey. If you can save up some money, taking a blacksmithing workshop with a teacher will help your focus. I see that an old friend, Glen Gardner, will be teaching at both places in September. Visiting museums and historic sites is another route to go. Finally, when I apprenticed as a horseshoer years ago, my mentor gave me this metaphor: "Don't take your horses to bed with you!"

The snowball hammer, sometimes called a "snow knocker," was found mostly in New England. It was used to knock built up snow from the hoof bottom. The built up snow pack could cause the horse to stumble or slip, so every now and then, the horse was stopped so each foot could be picked up and cleaned of its snowball. I have one, pictured, in my collection of iron goodies. It has a 3/8" round, iron haft and a swivel snap on the end. The other end was tenoned through the head and peened up a bit. The head, 3 1/4" long, has a pyramidal point. Overall length is 11". The snap was often attached to the harness to be within easy reach. I first encountered coal hammers when I visited Mike George's place in Alva, Oklahoma. Mike was one of the founders of The Saltfork Craftsmen and had a collection of coal hammers. The ones he had were all cast iron, most with raised lettering indicating an advertisement of a coal company, hardware store, or suchlike. I suspect most of these hammers were from the Midwest and were giveaways, much like wooden yardsticks were giveaways. I found one in a second hand store and sent it to MIke as a present. We think they were used domestically to break up large lumps of coal to better feed the coal burning stoves.