Frank Turley

My bob punches were rounding on the end, a little ovoid in cross section, for making a depression when starting a clip. For your job, I don't see that clips are going to be necessary. The creaser looks to be the right size. The end of the pritchel is dressed to be the size of the middle section of the nail shank. The shoe is hemmed before using the creaser in order to keep from spreading the shoe too wide. Google hemming and creasing. I didn't look up nail hole spacing on google or youtube, but you might find it. You probably won't need more than three holes per crease, although we see four on manufactured shoes. Post Script. Instead of saying 'upset,' horseshoers say 'bump.'

I have a large old slick made in England, and it has a slight bend in the center of the blade length. This is probably done, so if the non-beveled edge is against the wood, the workers fingers are further away from the workpiece.

Yes, the baking is done in an horno, the Spanish word for oven. It is spheroidal and of adobe with a small hole near the top acting as a simple flue. The horno has a flat floored bottom and a small entry on one side. A fire is built within and when deemed hot enough, the floor ash is dragged out with clean, wet rags on the ends of reaching sticks. The loaves are inserted and withdrawn when baked, with wooden peels.

There are probably trade secrets regarding color case hardening. An old gunsmith told me that leather gives red and bone gives blue. After the sealed casing pot is heated red and held that way for maybe 6 hours, the clay seal at the lid is broken, and the contents dumped into an aerated bath of water. I had an old book which showed air bubbles throughout the quenchant supplied by an ordinary hose run into the bottom of the bath. I don't have personal experience with this. Color case hardening is done on low carbon wrought iron and steel, not high carbon steel.

The rope reminded me of a friend in Kansas. He said they tied a log chain on the gate post. When it's straight out, the wind's blowing.

How do we construct the vane to point windward?

Almost two generations ago when we were reviving our moribund craft, I was watching a demo in the Midwest, and the demonstrating smith's short-sleeved shirt was suddenly afire. The entire shirt blazed up. The smith quickly pulled the shirt off over his head and threw it on the ground. Fortunately, there was no physical damage except for some frizzed, kinky head hair. In many areas, I don't think our smith was stupid, but he was unaware that man made materials were so flammable. I don't know what the material was...nylon; rayon; Dacron? In any event, at that time forward, I always wore cotton, wool, or a leather apron at the forge.

I don't know whether to recommend these. I will only report what I've found.They are Converse, made in China. The boots have an ASTM number on a tag inside the tongue. They don't have a steel toe, but rather a strongly reinforced toe externally. They are brogan height with the ankle cushion. I got them last year on sale under $100. They have been good to my feet.

I had a coal fire at a fair, and the other vendors complained of fly ash landing on their displays. I also had a couple of small items stolen. The robbers are quicker than a snake astrikin'. I therefore got a display case with a hinged plexiglass top. Have a lot of change so that you can make change.

Native American made at Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico, USA. Yum.

I've seen a lot of old Mexican irons made of wrought iron with amazing riveted areas, mortise & tenon, and forge welds. I make mine for sale out of mild steel. Most of the time, I arc or oxy the connecting rods. If they want all forge welded, that costs extra. I always taper the cross section of the stamp stock so it is a bit thinner on the hide side; the thicker top holds the heat longer. All the well made old ones were forged that way.

In the U.S., we can add..."and my grandmother was a Cherokee Indian princess.

Hard to describe with words. The "knub" is called a clip horn, even though it is not a horn. A clip can be drawn at the toe or side(s) of the shoe. To begin, the shoe is held at about a 45 degree angle off vertical, foot surface down, ground surface up. A small portion of the foot surface near the outer edge of the shoe is made to contact the far semi-circular edge of the clip horn. Working hot, that portion of the shoe is hammered back into the clip horn. As the hammering continues, the shoe is lowered bit by bit until it is no longer at 45, but plumb, ground surface away from you, foot surface toward you. If all goes well, you will be drawing a relatively thin projection, the clip, over the top of the clip horn. When the shoe is nailed onto the hoof, the clips are visible and are cold hammered toward the hoof wall to conform to the wall angle. Clips do not help hold the shoe on the foot. They keep the shoe from shifting on the foot, especially used on athletic horses, such a hunters, jumpers, and game horses. After the clip is drawn, an inspection of the shoe's foot surface will show a slight crescent shaped depression which is where some of material came from to form the clip. Lots of farriers did not like this depression; they termed it "gutting out the foot surface." Therefore, most farriers drew their clips off the straight side of the anvil with the ball end of a ball peen hammer or a similar hammer of their liking. This preserved more of the foot surface.

If you never ID it, at least you may say that it is old and it is English. The overall conformation tells us something. Lots of material in the waist and a relatively short heel tells us English as compared to American. Also the line from waist corners lead down to four "feet" which are roughly triangular shaped joining the base, whereas the American anvil has a squarish shape there.

A good book that I have had for years. It gave me the terminology for lock parts and keys and their reasons for being. That helped me make my first lock and key.

A couple more recently made bread loaves by the Native American women at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, USA.

Wanna' be nit picky? Colombia in South America is spelled with an "o" where we use the "u".

It looks like a Peter Wright. I found in my travels to Australia, Canada, and the British Isles that the legs on Peter Wrights are slightly chamfered as yours is, but the ones imported to the U.S. were deeply chamfered. I don't know the reason, just curious.

"Columbian"

Nice job. I guess we're agreed about the chain. I like to make chain for these kinds of jobs out of straight lengths with a turned eye either end of the bars. It can be one length with its eyes or multiple shorter lengths attached to each other. A clearer picture of what I'm talking about can be got by allowing your search engine to find "antique surveying chain" images. For our purposes, each "link" can be round in section, square in section, or a forged shape to your liking.

Mild steel should work for most small to moderate sized tongs, say, 14" - 17" overall in length. You might be working too cold. In "The Blacksmith's Craft," they forge each shoulder beginning at a welding heat, not because they are welding, but rather so the work goes faster and the metal is easier to move. Don't try to move or bend the steel at a dark red or black heat. You'll be looking for cracks.

Nice work. A 3 cornered collar...wow! Looks like a lot of careful measuring and calculation. An old smith told me one time with a wink of the eye, " It's easy to make the first one; now I have to make another one just like it."

If I remember correctly, our well known "dean of American blacksmiths," Francis Whitaker, used a 150 pound Soderfors for all of his forgings. I got to use it one time when I demoed for the Rocky Mountain Smiths in Carbondale, Colorado. Hey, you're in good company. Francis, RIP.