Frank Turley

I turned down doing a little steel end table that would have duplicated an already made, ugly end table. I've corresponded recently with the respected Tucson smith, Tom Bredlow, and in his recent letter, he talked about opening his shop, August, 1964.. Somehow, he wound up making some knife blades, which he hated doing. His father told him that since he was in business, it was an economic necessity to do anything that came through the doorway. Tom disagreed. He maintained that he didn't even want to finish the work he hated. He wanted to do work that he "loved." Tom got his chance when the National Cathedral contacted him to make a Yellin candlestick to match one of a pair, that had been stolen. He did so and later got some gate jobs for the cathedral. My opinion...wonderful design and workmanship. If you visit the cathedral, take a look, or purchase the book, "Beauty in the Shadows."

Drill through branch and countersink or counterbore. Screw straight into studs, prayerfully on 16" centers. Fill countersinks with some sort of putty, maybe even jb weld. Sand smooth and paint.

In the British book "Wrought Ironwork," there are written and pictured directions on how to forge 'scroll ends' going from simple to complex. These ends wind up being the decorative centers of the formed scrolls. Great exercises.

I googled and found the name of the ironworker who made the Notre Dame hinges, "Biscornette." It was said that he was a mysterious fellow, that nobody ever saw him make the hinges. I was told some time ago that these wonderful hinges are not on the main entry, but rather on the two western portals. Legend has it that the workmanship was so exquisite that Biscornette must have sold his soul to the devil to be able to make the hinges.. Maybe that, or he consorted with the devil in some manner. That might explain the use of the word 'devil' in the video. The two men are not making Notre Dame hinges; they are figuring out the techniques that were used on the originals.

About 20 years ago, a buddy and I were returning to Santa Fe from a trip to Texas. Our car broke down about 12 miles east of town, twilight approaching and a chill in the air. It was Halloween night. We were about 200 yards from a filling station, the station being closed. There was a phone booth, but I had not the proper change. I knew that the owners lived behind the station, so I hiked to their mobile home and asked if I could use their telephone having explained our plight. I was not treated politely. After all, children were supposed to be asking for candy; an adult male was not to be trusted, apparently. The door was closed on me. As I made my way toward the highway, I saw that they turned their dog loose. The dog came trotting toward me, growling. The glass enclosed telephone booth was about 15 feet from me, so I quickly ran to it and slammed the door just in time. The dog kept growling and lunged himself repeatedly against the booth's door. Needless to say, I was unhappy and was beginning to think, "This really was Halloween!" The dog finally gave up and headed in the direction of the mobile home. I waited about 20 more minutes till all was quiet. I opened the booth door and tried to walk quietly through the gravel, my plan being to hitchhike, even though it was now dark. Luckily, I got a ride to Santa Fe in about 5 minutes. In town, I arranged for a tow truck to take me to our car where my friend had built a fire and was standing, warming himself. From that point forward, things got better.

I use a disc sander and sometimes my hand held belt sander (Makita; 21" x 1 1/8" belt). The belt sander can be set at the slower speed. After using the finer grits, I often finish polish with my Scotchbrite wheel. I tell folks the face should approximate the curve of an ol' pocket watch crystal.

...and have a fairly loose grip so the hammer rocks slightly in the hand. Think about the work-holding hand. As a beginner, I would try to forge a square cross section, and I often got a parallelogram section. I thought it was my hammer hand error, but it was my holding hand not turning the work 90 degrees. A guy told me that when he was learning house building, his mentor charged him 50 cents for each owl eye left around a driven nail (meaning a hammer mark on the wood). He quit leaving marks after one day.

"Close enough for government work" initially meant the work was good, accurate. Later on, it came to mean the work was not so good.

Good work. Having shod horses for a time, I can appreciate the tools. The adjustable bar on the testers is nice.

Terminology. Not trying to be too nitpicky, but you have iron tires. The rim is wooden and composed of fellies, iron tire on the outside and spokes inserted on the inside. The wheel is the whole shootin' match assembled, including the hub. And yes, the wrought iron in tires are often single refined and stringy to work. I'm open to being corrected.

Lots of things can go wrong when heat treating. My spec sheet says to harden at 1525/1575F which by eye, is a bright red just hotter than the cherry red ranges. Above that, you're creeping into an orange heat, which would be too hot. Oil should work but should be pre heated to change its viscosity, which speeds up heat abstraction. The oil bath should be agitated by stirring before immersing the 4142 work piece.

Much of our coal is in large lumps, some larger than grapefruits. We have a concrete pad outside with a homemade steel tamper. We use it for the big chunks, but we have also learned to build decent fires with baseball sized chunks. We get a fire going with fairly small pieces; then we surround the fire with the baseball sized coal...and put a few on top. As the inner faces of the coal start forming into coke, those areas fractionize and the coke can easily be chipped off with the rake, thus replenishing your fire.

Many times, a non blacksmith will enter my shop and notice the many wooden hafts hanging from my top tool rack. The remark is usually, "Geez, you have a lotta hammers!" I used to take time to explain that they were not hammers, but tools of "indirect percussion," to use the archeologists' terminology. Then I had to explain "direct percussion," such as a hammer. After a while, this explaining became tiresome. Nowadays, I simply reply, "Yeah, I got a lotta hammers."

Charles, A little off topic. Jim Keith of Tucumcari, said this, "Extrusion; how a horse processes grain."

Be mindful. If you're not there, it doesn't happen.

Pushin' that puddle around is fun!

I have a Peter Wright vise that is stamped on the visible box in small serifed letters: P. WRIGHT PATENT SOLID BOX I think that on most PW vises, these markings have been obliterated because of rust and wear. I have two other vises that I think are PW's, because I've carefully compared them to the above mentioned one. On one of them, I removed the box from the screw and a letter 'W' was stamped on it, but not visible when the vise was assembled for use. I suspect it was an inspector's mark, but who knows for sure? To my eye, your pictured vise has the overall conformation of a Peter Wright vise, but as Thomas points out, no guarantee.

"He didn't know whether he was punched or bored."

Sorry Slag. I don't have an answer to your query.

I once told a French guy that if he turned his French hammer head around, he'd have a good looking hammer. He became incensed. Ha! I have a hunch that regional styles of hammer heads occurred over years by happenstance. Perhaps a very talented smith used a personal pattern hammer for his work. Others saw that, and made their hammers look like his in the hopes that their work would improve. This thread also reminds me of hammer face shapes. On the Continent, a squarish face is common. The French face is rectangular. In the U.S., the round face was not frowned upon. The Channellock Company made an American model, cross peen, forging hammer of square stock, but they corner chamfered to provide a round face. The peen was centered on the hammer head length. The hammer weights in pounds were 2 1/2; 3; 4; and 5. I currently use the Channellock 2 1/2 pounder as my everyday go-to hammer. I like it, but I wouldn't twist your arm to make you use one. Channellock quit making the hammers about 35 years ago. A saying. "You can get used to anything. You can get used to hanging if you hang long enough."

Yah, I misread the description thinking it had 7 1/2" jaws. Sorry. The asking price is higher than a cat's back.

It might be a Peter Wright, except the vee shaped spring is probably not original. The rest of it looks really nice, and vises that large are hard to find.

Can't tell much from your picture. That weld is commonly a cleft weld, sometimes called a "bird's mouth." The mild steel is split and each split end width is tapered. I open the split a bit and use a ball peen at the anvil edge. The tool steel is tapered on one length so you have a rough triangular cross section. This steel is going to be somewhat wider and longer than the cleft. The tool steel taper is made ragged on edge by using a hot cut repeatedly and diagonally along its length. This gives gripability when the room- temp 'bit' is driven into the red hot cleft. I find it easier to squeeze the sandwich together in the vise than to hammer on them before welding. At a welding heat, NO SPARKS, use moderate backing-up blows to better seat the bit and to perhaps squeeze a little undesirable soup out the edges. Then hit on the flat, center of blade first, then toward one corner. Hit the middle again and work toward the other corner. It might take several welding heats.

Nice stirrup.

I agree with Bigundoctor about maybe being an IRON CITY (meaning Pittsburgh). The star stamp is normally on the right hand side of the movable leg, as you're facing the front of the vise.