Frank Turley

My old mentor, Victor Vera, was brought up in a blacksmith shop in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. He said that his dad and uncle both wore deerskin aprons that came to the tops of their shoes. Lots of farriers' aprons used to be made of muleskin which was thick and protective. Nowadays, their aprons are made of different materials or combinations of materials: "bull hide", cordura, "duratuff", latigo, etc. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

I use an undersized, hafted "slot punch" which is pretty much the elongated shape of the finished eye. I don't continuously rotate to get rid of the burr. I attempt to have one forepunch side and one back punch side. I drift from both sides. While the drift is in, I turn the piece on it's side and use a flatter to get rid of the side swelling. In Spain and parts of France, the side swelling (bulge) is often left on the hammer and is considered part of its aesthetic. Many hand forged hammer eyes and top tool eyes in the U.S. have straight sides and half round ends. I think the reason for this is that it is easier to forge the punch and drift cross-section in this way as opposed to forging and shaping an oval cross-section. There is nothing wrong with the oval; it is just more time consuming for a hand forger to get it right. Lots of manufactured hammers have oval eyes. As a rule of thumb, the length of an eye can be twice its width. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

I see that noted gunsmith, Bruce LePage, is still at work, probably either in Wisconsin or Minnesota. Bruce demonstrated the spiral welding of a gun barrel at the 1982 LaCrosse, Wisconsin, ABANA conference. I wasn't present, but I heard about it. I would suggest that he knows more about that kind of work than anyone on two hind legs. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

I'll be demonstrating some forge welding among other things in St. Louis, MO, November 21-22. If you can get away, come on down. There is no charge; the Blacksmiths Association of Missouri is only asking for a donation. Click on the Calendar on the above header for details. http://www.turleyforge.com

How about before drawing? Normalize at 1600-1700F. Anneal 1500-1550F. Harden in oil, 1525-1575F.

The following info applies to hand forged links, not ones placed between dies. There is no upsetting needed. The scarfs are often made with half-face blows on the near, radiused edge of the anvil face. The link end is slightly onto the anvil face (about the stock diameter) at a 45degree angle. Another way is to use the cross peen at a 45. In both cases, the scarf is drawn and angled toward the inside of the U bend. Leave the scarf points a little thick. For example, on 3/8" D material, leave about 1/16" in thickness. When the two scarfs are bent inward to meet, they should meet at a 90 degree angle, because you made the scarf shoulders at a 45. They should not meet smoothly, so that they look like a finished link curve; more like a gothic arch, negative space, inside. Looking inside the join, the shut should appear s-shaped before welding. The lap is fairly extreme, so that the scarf points protrude a little beyond each other. It is a side-scarf setup. The initial weld is done of both sides on the anvil face near the horn. Then go immediately to the horn holding the link at a 45, and swing it while hammering, so you're welding toward the scarf point. Turn it over and swing and weld in the same manner. Mild steel sometimes takes two welding heats; wrought iron, one. If another heat is taken, go directily to the horn and weld, holding it at various angles from vertical to 45. The only thing that gets the inside finished is contact with the horn, unless it's a large link where you can reach inside with the hammer face. When inspecting old, well made wrought iron links, I have noticed that a link will often have a somewhat peaked appearance at the outside top of the weld area. The inside will be smooth and rounding. This "peak" is done by judicious hammer control when moving the link and hammering over the horn. It gives extra thickness at the weld. I have also noted that the points of the scarfs may be visible on a finished link. These show as slight shuts and are not a problem, as long as the area between the shuts is solidly welded. http://www.turleyforge.com

About the idea of molten steel, "get over it!" The steel is not molten. The high tech guys call this type of weld a solid state or a solid phase weld. The metal is solid. There is some molten stuff on the surface. It is molten scale, if no flux is used. It is a molten compound of scale and flux, if flux is used. It is not molten steel. If the steel were melting, you would have either a burnt steel situation, or you would have a steel puddle underneath your hearth. The old time smiths said that the metal was "pasty" during the solid phase. During this phase, you have a relatively short time to get the metals to cohere. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

I have one block that I keep under my forge. When I'm normalizing a steel tool, I put it on the block, because the graphite is essentially "non-reactive." http://www.turleyforge.com

Wrought iron can take a higher welding heat than a comparable size of mild steel, medium carbon steel, or high carbon steel. However, that does not mean that you ALWAYS need a high heat to weld it. Many of you know that edge tools were often forged of wrought iron in the early days to save time and money. The high carbon steel was forge welded to the wrought iron in order to form a heat treatable cutting edge, but high carbon steel cannot stand a high forge welding heat or it will crack or crumble. So you wind up with two dissimilar ferrous metals seeking a common welding heat. That welding heat is necessarily going to be a "light welding heat" sometimes called a "sweating heat" with no sparks! Wrought iron does weld at the lower welding heat. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

In the late 1800's, there were beginning to be made "one piece spurs," but prior to that, the heel band had a rectangular hole in it to receive a tenon, the tenon being on the end of the rowel shank. After insertion, the tenon is peened into the hole's countersink inside the heel band. It was filed smooth and burnished. When inspecting old Mexican and California spurs, the burnished part is almost invisible. You can sometimes see what we call a "ghost of a rivet," a faint outline. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

In Tiemann's "Iron and Steel," he talks about the Catalan Forge being an open hearth type, a direct process of making a forgable bloom of about 300 pounds in 3 hours. Perhaps the precorsor of the indirect process (cast iron to wrought iron) was the st

It looks like a Hay-Budden, and I don't think that it is ugly. The faces are normally 4" wide or just under 4". Often, on an anvil of that size, the waist width is also about 4", measuring side to side, not horn to heel. My "Anvils in America" book gives an approximate date of 1912 for its manufacture, and that is based on the six digit serial number. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

I use Rockite. It can be mixed to be pourable, or by using less water, it gets putty-like and can be pushed into a horizontal hole. It sets up in 15 minutes, so you need to make sure everything is plumb, level, and square before applying. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

An out of print book by Robert M. Hall is "How to Make Bits and Spurs." I used DealOz.com Official Site | Buy Textbooks | Sell Textbooks | Used College Textbooks | New College Textbooks | Textbook Price Comparison | Cheap Textbooks | Cheapest Textbooks | Compare Textbook Prices | Textbook Buyback | Textbook Price Bot | New and just now and 3 copies showed up. Alibris has one for $27.00+. It is an excellent book and shows much of the California style including some silver work. http://www.turleyforge.com

Let's not forget books. I'm always marveling at the photos in books by Fritz K

I have three HB's in the shop. One is a big ol' blocky one that has hardly any marks on it. Another has a "1" stamped by the handling hole in the waist under the horn. Another has a "2" stamped by the handling hole. Not sure what they are, maybe an inspector's mark. Something to look for. http://www.turleyforge.com

I just returned from the shop where I spark tested a 10' length of the grounding rod that has been in my scrap pile for about 20 years! I got a medium carbon spark, meaning it's between 1030 and 1052, I'm guessing toward the lower end. I don't know of a quick way to remove copper from iron. In fact, at a heat, copper has an affinity for iron. Copper can be used as a hard solder for brazing ferrous metals. If the iron or steel is clean and at a good cherry red, the copper will melt and flow by capillary action between the tightly fitted pieces. It goes into the ferrous surface for a few thousands of an inch causing the bond. If the copper was initially deposited by an electrolytic process, perhaps that process could be reversed, but I'm out of my area of blacksmithing, so I'm guessing. Horseshoers are a different breed of cat than blacksmiths. A horseshoer is said to surreptitiously throw an all-copper penny in a coal forge in order to screw up another horseshoer's forge weld. Big joke! I have never experimented with this, but if the weld is messed up, it is probably because of cuprous oxides permeating the fire and getting on the work surfaces. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School

Wishing to no longer hide my light under a bushel and at the same time, wishing to toot my own horn...I will be the presenter at the Doug Hendrickson Memorial, a St. Louis BAM event, November 21-22, q.v., on the Calendar.

Plain and Ornamental Forging by Ernst Schwarzkopf has been reprinted by Astragal Press. I've been using my copy since I discovered it in a 2nd hand bookstore in 1965. One of the best and it may be out of print, is "Werk und Werkzeug des Kunstschmieds" by Otto Schmirler. Don't be thrown by the title which roughly is, "Work and Tools of the Artsmith." Each printed page is in English, French, and German. The photos and reproduced watercolor pictures make it a wonderful how-to book. The author was raised in and around his relatives' Viennese iron studio, where he became the designer. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

There is an Artist Blacksmiths Association, N.S.W, Inc., which puts out "erratically" a nice newsletter. Their address from 2006 was Graham Moyses, 8 Lake Spur, Laurieton, NSW 2443. Their membership and officers would be helpful. I demoed for the "Hot Iron Muster" near Brisbane in 2005 and had a wonderful time. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

For my house, I have a small porch stair railing, a wood stove, a paper towel holder, and a potted plant hanger, all "early Turleys." There's a quite old Spanish saying, a cognate to the shoemaker's kids. "En la casa de herrero, cuchara de palo." "In the blacksmith's house (hangs) a wooden spoon." Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

There are proprietary punch lubes, but for the small shop, coal dust works fairly well. It's best put on with a spoon or alternatively, if the end of the punch is cool enough to wet and hold some surface water, you can dip the wet punch in the dust and it will stick.

You know you're a blacksmith when you're: overweight; wearing your balloon top decorative cap; wearing Carhartt bib overalls or Carhartt workpants with garish suspenders; over 6' 2" in height; frizzing your beard with heat; strong and sinewy; wearing a shirt size 19-38; able to look through a keyhole with both eyes...at once!* *Just being facetious and fatuous [sort of]. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools

The London book, "The Blacksmith's Craft," talks about slot punches. The business end is proportionately narrow, parallel sided, and with rounded ends. You will remove a burr of steel when using it, forepunching and backpunching. Many smiths prefer this method to using a "slit chisel," as described and shown in Ernst Schwarzkopf's book, "Plain and Ornamental Forging." The thinner and sharpened slit chisel may leave small shuts either end of the cut which can allow for cracks to develop. If cracks do not develop, you nevertheless may see results of the slit ends even after drifting to size. I recently used a slot punch on a hatchet eye before drifting and going through 1 3/4" stock. I made my slot punch from S7, although one could make it from an old round punch or a ball peen hammer. It is a top tool with an eye and wooden handle. You may know that some of the old hammer eye punches had the haft (handle) put on at a 45

A few years ago, Peter Ross, formerly the head smith at Williamsburg, VA, came to Albuquerque to demonstrate for SWABA. The guy is a walking antiquary. As I recall, he said that there have been architectural "colonial revivals" occasionally, and they all miss the mark in some ways. He said that one 20th century revival idea was that the iron hardware on a door HAD to be black and it HAD to be on clear coated wood, so you could see the wood grain. The truth was that in the old days, the door AND hardware were painted over with whatever color suited, usually a lead based paint in those days. Another way of missing the mark was to put dummy hinges on the outside of a front door, even though the door opened inward. Then there is the idea of texture and color. A colonial smithy specializing in house hardware would most often have the forged hinges etc., file finished, and the hardware was sold with bare metal showing: NO hammer marks; NO wax; NO paint. Exterior European ironwork was often painted and in a variety of colors, not always black. I saw a red wellhead in Venice that had so many coats of paint that it made about a 1/8" coating. It wasn't wonderful looking, except from a distance, but the work was still extant after many years, probably because of the paint, not necessarily because it was wrought iron. Wrought iron rusts readily in a saline environment. How about texture? A smith/friend from the East got on the phone with a prospective client on the West Coast. The western man wanted the colonial period hardware to be crude, not rustic, but CRUDE! My friend said that the early work was not crude. "Oh yes it was!" was the rejoinder. They got into such a heated, loud argument that my friend just hung up on the party. Wrought iron contains an iron silicate, a slag. One book I read said that it was 4%, but it didn't say whether by volume or weight. Anyway, the silicate becomes microscopic filaments which are drawn lengthwise throughout the mass of the material when it is hammered or hot rolled. Some of this glass-like material would be on the surface of wrought iron as well as the interior. Not being a metallurgist, I would suggest that this helps to inhibit rust forming, a little more so than mild steel. By the bye, "Pure Iron" does not have this silicate, so it's another ball game. Turley Forge and Blacksmithing School : The Granddaddy of Blacksmithing Schools