Frank Turley

I have not heard of Iron City of Pittsburgh making anvils, but their logo was a six pointed star with IRON CITY stamped within the star in two lines. The company formerly made leg vises and blacksmiths' hand tools. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Is Darren left handed?

Years ago, I used an old powdered wood putty that you mixed with water. Again, years ago, when ABANA was in diapers and there was no internet, I found very little info on pouring babbitt. I couldn't find it for sale in any catalogs. There was a brief article in Selvidge & Alton, "Blacksmithing." I think they suggested sooting the shaft that you were "surrounding" with the babbitt. The soot, when removed, would give an oil clearance (at least for low speed machinery). For my purposes, I applied the soot with the acetylene torch without turning on the oxygen. I was working on my Little Giant hammer, and I called a local machine shop to ask where I could purchase babbitt. The guy on the phone laughed out loud. "We haven't used that in years!" I called two more machine shops. The man at the third shop asked whether I had tried the windmill supply in Albuquerque. I said, "No, but I'll try." The windmill supply salesman said, "Sure, we have it in small ingot form. Do you want low speed or high speed?" Babbitt metal melts at 462ºF. It is an alloy of 7% antimony, 4% copper, and 89% tin. I fabricated my own pouring ladle of mild steel. Reference: "Metalwork Technology and Practice" http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Voltaire said, "If you wish to converse with me, define your terms." "Master" is oft misunderstood. You have the European style of apprenticeship which is formal and may last 6 to 8 years. Keith Austin served his apprenticeship under two master bladesmiths in Japan. He told me that it took nine years, but whoa! There are no weekends in Japan, so that means nine solid years. Keith was the only Anglo to receive an honorable mention for a sword in the big annual Tokyo show. I would add Keith to the list. Then in the U.S., the apprenticeship system is almost nil, unless you can find someone to take you under his/her wing. If so, it would be informal, not politically sanctioned. Again, in the U.S., a guy will sometimes call himself a master, because it looks good promotionally. I think this is legit in most cases. Francis Whitaker went to Germany as a young man, returned and worked at Yellin's for a while, and then set out on his own in California and Colorado. He has declared publicly that he did not complete his German apprenticeship, but nevertheless, I would consider him a master (in terms of skill). An exception to the apprenticeship program in the U.S. may be with the bladesmith's guild. One can become a master, albeit a specialist in knife making. Again, "master" may mean a shop proprietor. I think that this is one of the meanings in early English usage. In terms of skill, the proprietor may be ha ha "Captain Cob Job." However, his name went with the work that came out of his shop. That is not to say that all shop owners cobbled their work; some were super-skilled. I'm submitting this information for your consideration; the usage of "master" appears to be a gray area rather than black & white. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

That's a good question: how mini? Years ago, I saw the smith at Knott's Berry Farm make one pony shoe after another. The shoes had nail holes and the heels cropped. He would stamp the kid's name on the shoe and sell it to mom and dad to give to the kid. We would use the same technique as for making a regular sized horseshoe, say out of 5/16" x 3/4" x 11". Another demonstrator made his without the nail holes, just a rectangular countersink to simulate the holes. That goes faster. A time saver might be to make an undersized shoe and tack/arc weld it (the inside) to a plate, the whole fastened at a slight angle in the vise. Heat the entire shoe bar and use two small tongs, one on either end of the bar. Center it and push it around the small shoe form. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Kromer Caps sell the balloon top, wildly colored welder's caps. They also have wild beanies without the bill. A couple of old Oklahoma welders told me that the balloon style came about in the 1940's, when a guy complained to his wife that when he did 'overhead,' he got gradoo in his ears. He requested that his wife make a cap that he could pull over his ears. She agreed, but it was Sunday and the dry goods stores were closed. Looking around the house, she was able to scrounge some crazy colored material, and so began the making of the crazy colored welder's caps. I always saw Whitaker wearing the black, quilted welder's caps. He said he got them from J C Penny's. You can google baseball umpire's caps, and find short billed, dark colored ones. The "Greek Fisherman's cap" is available, but may be a little pricey. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Remember what ol' Satchel Paige said, "Don't look back; something may be gaining on you."

Little known. The old time smiths normally made the face of the tong rein scarf on the 2nd shoulder side; it's the little diagonal shoulder at the base of the jaw. The completed weld would have been hammered on the "sides" as you look down on them in the normally held position; ie., with the broad backs of the jaws facing upward and downward. The pivot-boss thickness remains pretty much the same all the way to the end of the rein. The face of the scarf is NOT made on that narrow edge. As to reasons, most forge welds are weaker that the native material because of slag inclusions, incomplete cohesion, and grain growth. The smith was aware of that, and he knew there was less chance of breakage with the side weld than with a top/bottom weld. The 2nd shoulder side was chosen for the scarf face, because if made on the other side, the shoulder may conflict with the face of the anvil. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

The second German vise is very much like the one I sold to the Moravian Smithy. I believe that they put it in the gunsmithing portion of the shop. The difference is that mine had a mount tenon, and the mounting plate was solid, unsplit. The vise I had was quite small and light. I have a vivid imagination. I can imagine a German immigrant off-boarding the ship in the U.S. and carrying it like luggage, perhaps in a canvas case with handle. You may note also, that some of the French and German vises had a curve at the top edge of the pivot beam, so that a portion near the base of the movable leg was following the curve as the vise jaws were opened and closed. The small anvil on the fixed jaw is clearly shown on the German anvil. I had a German visitor to my shop who claimed that he used that area as a sort of vee block, for bending. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

I am a fossilized computer rookie who is not fully digitized yet. You can see German leg vises by typing in "Schmiede Schraubstock" under GOOGLE - IMAGES. You might see some French ones by typing in "étau." http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

I've had four tenoned vises in my possesion; the mount-tenon dates most of those vises to 1800 +- 30 years (my educated guess). I have three such English vises and one German, the latter having been sold to the Moravian Smithy, Bethlehem, PA. The German vises, like yours, had the plates on the sides which fairly well covered up the spring. However, the German vises have a small projecting "anvil" on the fixed jaw, which yours does not have. My German vise had a triangular mounting plate, not the split and splayed variety. The English vises have the lug-like "ears" projecting over the washer in front and over the base of the screw box behind. Your vise is missing those. Some of the early French vises had a fleur de lis mounting plate. The jaw width on these old vises is about 3 3/4" to 5 1/4". I would guess that your anvil is from the European continent, not Great Britain. The side plates are Germanic, but the other features may not be. The date of 1826 appears to be right. Not much is known about the stamped marks on the old vises; many were not marked. Some British vises are marked "Sheffield." http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Reidster, Keep me informed as to time frame. Turley's is a one-man shop and I want to be there when you're there. 505-471-8608 land line. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

I'm using a Fontanini 250# "Rathole" anvil presently, and it is pretty nice. It is fastened down into a box of sand, has good rebound, and it's not noisy. What I like is that they are cast in the U.S. of alloy steel, and they are carefully sanded/finished by Steve Fontanini in Wyoming. Let's keep some money in the U.S. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

A Trenton anvil, made in Ohio, circa 1950. Reference: "Anvils in America" by Richard Postman. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

The nails should have a square tapered cross-section, not round. Drift the header hole to a square. This will be a time saver, and you'll have more strength because of the stock filling the corners of the square. Most nail makers forge the point first either on the base of the horn or at the far, radiused edge of the anvil. This helps prevent splitting and gives you a point of reference for finished nail length. When making a number of nails that should be approximately the same length, as a novice, you can make a mark on the anvil face with a Presto correction pen or soapstone, say 5/8" or 3/4" in from the near anvil edge, a relatively sharp edge. Now, after pointing, you lay the point on the mark and begin the two-sided shoulder with half-face blows, all the while drawing the taper and taking care not to shoulder too deeply. You don't need a shoulder on all four sides; it's time consuming. The hardie cut can be on one side only with wrought iron. With mild steel, you may need more cuts. The nail is wrung off of the parent stock after insertion in the heading tool. You expect the head to be lopsided, and it will be, because of the two shoulders. Therefore, your very first blows are angle blows to center the head over the header hole. Finish hammering the head. Many old house nails had heads which were eccentric to the shank, and no matter. In doing fine ornamental work though, the head should be centered. I draw a concentric circle around the header hole with the Presto pen. This gives me a guide as to hammer-centering the head. None of the above is engraved in stone; I'm just sharing my experiences. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

1 Hay-Budden; 227#; $700.00; 1995. 1 Hay-Budden; 225#; $150.00; 1990. 1 Hay-Budden; 211#; $211.00; 1985. Farriers' 1 Hay-budden; 140#; $240.00; 2002. Farriers' 1 Trenton; 250#; $200.00; 1972. 1 Trenton; 250#; $250.00; 2006. 1 Colonial anvil 85#; $250.00; 2006. English 1 Rathole; 250#; approximately $1,200.00; 2007. Steve Fontanini website

There are many ideas on dressing the face and peen, some of them conflicting. I was told to rocker/dress the face a little like a pocket watch crystal and to radius the edges. I have flattened and crowned the cross peen on my hammer somewhat after looking at Peter Ross's hammer. Therefore, on your workpiece, there is "less cleanup." Disc sanders, belt sanders, and Scotchbrite wheels are what I use. Nobody at the hammer factory is going to give you what you want. They EXPECT you to do the finish work to your liking. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

The only dumb question is the one not asked. What we've left out here is the temperature you reach before annealing or normalizing. For plain carbon steels and some low alloy steels, you want to reach 100 - 150F above critical before cooling. The ember fire would be a reasonable anneal resulting in slow cooling assuming you reach the annealing temperature first, usually in the cherry red ranges. On some high alloy steels, it may be above cherry red. Get the specs from the steel supplier. Normalizing is done in still air FROM THE PROPER TEMPERATURE.Air cool the piece on a non reactive surface like a fire brick or pile of coke; don't place it on a heat sink, metal for instance. Normalizing takes less time than annealing and is not quite as thorough in terms of softness. Nevertheless, it is a good treatment for carbon and some low alloy steels, as it enhances austenite formation before hardening. It lessens large carbide formation, which can occur with annealing. The large carbides are undesirable. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

It might be a farrier's pattern with the stub of a removed clip horn showing. If there is evidence of a rectangular cutting table, it could be a blacksmith's pattern. Farrier's anvils had no cutting table. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

Richard et al, Perhaps a metallurgist could better deal with the question of normalizing between hardenings. As I understand it, normalizing is preferable to annealing on carbon and some low alloy steels, because with annealing, "large carbides are retained," and these carbides are undesirable. This is according to the metallurgist, Quenchcrack, on anvilfire.com. With that said, I think that proper normalizing refines the grain structure, making it fine and uniform. From that state. the hardening heat is a rising one and the heat treater tends to retain that uniform stucture going into the hardening heat. After hardening, the grains change to a "needle like structure." If a guy reheats to harden from this martensitic structure, yes, he would be undoing previous heat treatments, but he would not be starting from that desired, normalized state. When I make a tool, I normally use four heat treatments, and here I include forging as a heat treatment. 1. Forging 2. Normalizing or annealing 3. Hardening 4. Tempering Grain size is important. You shouldn't take a yellow heat on high carbon and let it cool down to hardening heat, or you will retain some coarse grain from the overheating. This makes for a weaker tool which may be subject to spalling, cracking, or breaking. I offer a quotation from "Modern Steels and their Uses" by Bethlehem Steel. "Normalizing involves heating to a temperature of about 100 to 150F above the critical temperature, followed by cooling in still air. The uniformly fine-grained pearlitic structure which normally results enhances the uniformity of mechanical properties...Normalizing is also frequently used as a conditioning treatment prior to quenching and tempering. The purpose is to facilitate austenitizing, particularly in grades containing strong carbide-forming elements." http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

You want the ring weld to be a side scarf weld for ease of handling, not a top scarf weld. For example, when you first bend downward over the horn or anvil side, have the scarf face to the right, not up or down. When the scarfs meet, the heel of one meets the point of the other. Have the scarfs touching, no gaps. You can't help but forge a cross section of square, octagonal, round (SOR). Coming out of the fire, you shake the ring in midair to let some of the "soup" fall on the floor. You start on the anvil face near the horn hitting both sides of the weld with light to moderate blows. When you get cohesion, you can hit harder. If you still have a welding heat, take it to the horn and hit the edge-shuts. If you still have a welding heat, begin to work on the diamond taking down the corners of the "square section." It can take up to five heats or so to get it right on mild steel. Avoid big shower of sparking heats. Try to use sweating heats with few or no sparks. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

For plain carbon, 0.35% through 1.3% carbon steel, normalizing is recommended rather than annealing by present day metallurgists, because with annealing, you "retain large carbides." which are undesirable. With some alloy steels, you cannot normalize, because they are air hardening. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

"Materials Handbook" Eleventh Edition, McGraw-Hill, 1977; ISBN 0-07-007069-5 http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

The effect of alloys in English is offered in the Bethlehem Steel publication, "Modern Steels and their Properties." My edition is the 7th, 1972. See pages 19 through 23. dealoz.com has the publication for sale. It's a good book of 208 pages, paperback. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools

The bolster idea is shown in Donald Streeter's book, "Professional Smithing." Streeter was a professional period hardware maker in Franklinville, New Jersey, until he retired to California. He had a bickern that I assume he altered by drilling different sized holes in it. I think it was especially useful for Streeter when welding up pintles where the pintle could be placed in the proper sized hole. This would make for less "cleanup." Using the same sized pritchel hole for any pin diameter can leave edge marks on the bearing surface of the pintle. http://www.turleyforge.com Granddaddy of Blacksmith Schools