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I Forge Iron

Alan Evans

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Everything posted by Alan Evans

  1. I did dig them out and measured them up...they are a lot bigger than I remembered! The joint flat measures 1.5" x 3.5" the rectangular section at the base of the Vee jaw is 1.75 x 3.125" Reverse engineering forging going by the tell tales (largely that curved shadow line on the edge between the jaw and joint) it looks like they started out from square section. Forged the joint area down first and then knocked the jaw lump on the end down; dressing back the taper and cleaning up the joint offset. Then tapped the radiused edges of the end lump back to rectangular (forming that curve/shadow line); fullered it out sideways; then used Vee top tool on the anvil to chop the Vee centre in and then put it in between top and bottom Vee tools to form the shape. So allowing for the gain from the punched hole the cross sectional area of the rectangular bits after forging is around 5.25" so I would think it must have been between 2.5" and 2.75" square to start with. Interesting. Anybody analyse it differently? Alan
  2. I had to look that one up. I then remembered seeing a documentary about the period and the relatively enlightened setting up of Hospitals which were funded by the caravanserai which shared the premises (there is a clue for public health care!). The Empire's administration was largely carried out by the ex-Christians because the Sultan reckoned converts were more trustworthy. The documentary was about the amazing architect Mimar Sinan (also a Janissary) who organised the building of over 300 major projects for the Empire starting that part of his career at age 50. But you probably knew that. Alan
  3. @ Wayne My dad always told me that's what sons are for! He gave me the impression his dad had told him. You can tell your son that at least he won't have to push them into the ground as hard as the store bought wooden handled post diggers. Of course lifting them out plus soil will be slightly more problematic, so I would let him find that for himself. I will measure them tomorrow and see if I can figure out what section they started from. You are right, it was certainly around 1.5" Alan
  4. Talk sense! I think that is an extremely prejudiced view. I don't have much of a fortune and I only have (counting) 3 for hand hitting on...five for power hammer hitting on and half a dozen advertising ones from Bill Gichner's Iron Age antiques. And anyway, her fans are called Janeites and not Austenites...however hard that is for you to accept. Alan Unusually, I was wearing one of those chrome leather welding aprons today. I was gas cutting 48no. Ø30mm (Ø1.25") holes through 16no. 20mm (3/4") plates for the railway sculpture I am making. I went through various phases of wearing aprons for forging. The main reason I stopped wearing them regularly was that the chrome leather held the dirt and I started getting skin irritation on my forearms. Fine for power hammer work with your shirt sleeves rolled down...not so good for when hand forging in a Tee shirt. Maybe you should buy some saddle soap to keep it clean. Alan
  5. Do you not understand from my photos and posts, the fact that in my experience and from my point of view, the OP's is not a "larger than average tool"? Why was it "clearly dumb" to contribute my work practices and my knowledge of those of the smiths I have met, in direct response to the OP's query? Who are the others my post deterred, and how do you know there were any? Why single out and describe my contribution as dumb and meaningless and not dismiss the photo that Glen posted of an even larger holding device? I shared my experience and showed examples. You have made sweeping claims of having knowledge about the scope of all other blacksmiths' work which you are patently not in a position to do. Nobody in the world is. If you can't see this...well, I can't help you. Alan
  6. We hold those to be self levelling. Align
  7. tautological? pleonastic? circumlocutory? prolix? Maybe I am using too many words in this post meaning much the same thing? Alan
  8. A friend of mine is a timber mill machinery engineer. He brought in a few old bearings of that sort of size and asked me to straighten the outer races up and put a curved taper into the ends of them for use as pry bars/shifting levers. As far as I know he is still using them 30 years on. Alan
  9. Well I hope it was a joke. Given that Marc1 also claims to somehow know what most blacksmiths do (if there was an international survey it did not include me for one) I rather think he meant it seriously, hence my serious response asking for information. Alan
  10. You seem upset with my posts for some reason. What makes the information I shared a size contest? You appear to have taken it as boastful. I have simply stated and showed what I use in answer to the OP question. And yes, it is obvious to me which is why I wrote it. Would you prefer me not to share my experience with the forum as it is evidently at odds with yours? In spite of the images I showed, and my saying that most of the blacksmiths I know/have visited/met commonly work pieces larger than 1.25", you state again that it is exceptional. Please do tell us how you know this? Who devised the rule to which you refer? I begged to differ with your sweeping statement that it was not what "most normal people" use. I do not see myself as abnormal, that was the joke. I gave my reasons to say it is normal...that in my experience the smiths that I have met around the world are not restricted to pieces of metal smaller than 1.25". How many Damascus knife billets are smaller than this as one example? I asked you to give me evidence to support your statement in return. And you have not yet done so. You now make a statement that "Most blacksmiths use average size tools"....Well yes of course I agree...that is how an average is loosely calculated. But what is that average size you have decided on? I have given my (anecdotal and pictorial) evidence that 1.25" is well within the range of normal. Where is your evidence that this average size does not include 1.25"? I am sorry to read that you find the size of other blacksmiths' work a contest rather than interesting. I have always been fascinated by it, whether larger or smaller scale than mine. Alan
  11. Well its 1:20 a.m. over here so I am off to bed, can't wait for my head to hit the pillow...I am bushed. I will leave you lot to continue to needle each other. See you inner morning. Alan
  12. Well the bit of the lathe he was travelling on is called a saddle! Alan
  13. I remember hearing somewhere that the power station turbine spindles took weeks rather than days to cool down after forging. Alan
  14. Faced with the choice of telling you about the size of tongs I have and use, or just leaving you without that knowledge I chose the former. It was in direct response to your OP question. I am curious now...what alternative "intent" did you think I might have, especially given my riff on perception of size? Alan
  15. That is what I thought...hence why I shared my perspective/knowledge with you. No competition here. Alan
  16. I beg to differ. When you say "most people" you need to qualify it, unless of course you have evidence to support? Maybe most people on this forum, or most beginner blacksmiths, or most part-time blacksmiths, or most hand-forging blacksmiths. Most of the blacksmiths that I know around the world are full time professionals using power hammers, and tongs that size are definitely everyday. For example, here is my everyday tong rack...on the post on the right foreground are a 3/8" to 3/4" set of Off Centre Forge tongs and some Hofi tongs for size comparison. I presume those are the size you consider normal people use. As I said earlier, I generally hold larger pieces by other means, but these tongs are certainly not just "for decoration". The photos below are of a friend's everyday tong rack...he had a 1cwt hammer and worked smaller section than I. But many are in the same league or larger than the OP. Alan
  17. Perception is a curious beast. When I started blacksmithing I would look at a bit of 1" square bar on the rack with dread and think "oh you really represent some hard work"...As time passed and the projects and the metal and the tools became larger I had a real shock one day. I was setting up some press tools and had grabbed a handy bit of light bar to to test their effect...I kicked this "bit of wire" experiment out of the way and suddenly realised it was a bit of 1" square...no longer hard work. By then I was bending 50mm (2") plate and even 50mm square was not huge. Somewhere in between my two memorable moments with 1", I was asked to go and meet the blacksmiths at the Brunel Great Western Railway works in Swindon. The town council were hoping that they might be able to stave off the closure of parts of the factory if they could diversify...I was called in to act as designer for some gates the Railway blacksmiths could make for a couple of sites in Swindon. I was a bit full of myself and the non- traditional "New Iron Age" work that I was doing. When the 'smiths asked me what sort of work I did I started off saying rather grandly "I don't work in the 18.C / baroque idiom where you form lots of little bits and join them together...I start with a big piece and manipulate it sculpturally..." By "big" I was meaning something like 40mm (1.5") square. Just as the word left my mouth I looked down and noticed I was standing with one foot resting on a billet of steel about 200mm (8") square....did I feel a fool. Alan
  18. We took the dogs for a 5 mile walk along the River Thames National Trail recently, pausing at William Morris' Kelmscot Manor where we took a cream tea on the lawn...very gentile and civilised. We made light work of the scones. Alan
  19. I was thinking that the "torch-style" dealt with the tautological problem of both lamp and torch being included in the phrase. They are both words describing a light source. The piece is using the style of one as a support for the other which is actually providing the light. Including sconce is slightly confusing in as much it is often used to mean the candle holder, as in candle sconce meaning the holder part of a candle stick and not necessarily one on a wall. Most flaming torches were stuck in a wall bracket rather than being free standing I think. So torch and sconce are slightly overlapping too! Poor Alex, and you wanted english speakers to clarify!...Frosty, Stash and I at least all agree that "lamp" should be the last word for the torch style wall lamp description. Maybe I will stick with the one I just wrote then rather than thought about..."Torch style wall lamp" Alan
  20. I use larger tongs than that on a regular basis. I have shown this photograph on here before of some even larger ones than the ones I have made and use, which came from a drop forging factory...beautifully made, worthy of a gallery wall anywhere. The forging on the ground in front of me is from a lump of 80mm (3.125") square and I have tongs for up to 100mm (4") square. But as Thomas has said I often weld a handle on, or forge two or three bits out of one length before cutting in order to use the other pieces as a handle. My larger mouthed tongs are much lighter than the big boys in the photo. I use a hook or porter bar to take the weight between heat source and anvil...the anvil takes the weight thereafter...the tongs and porter bars are then just for manipulation. Clifton Ralph has this nice phrase about tongs just needing to be strong enough to keep you on the end of the workpiece. I do 80% of my forging under a 3CWT hammer, 15% (mainly punching) with hydraulic presses, 4% under either the 1CWT or the 50kG hammer and maybe 1% with a hand hammer, in case you had not realised. Alan
  21. My furniture maker father was slightly snooty about Tyzack saws...they were okay-ish...but most of his panel, back, tenon, dovetail and gent saws were Henry Disston...and whats more they had to be Keystone Philadelphia Henry Disstons. I gather the factory moved at some time and the old factory ones were naturally reckoned to be the best! I still have all his tools, his workshop too as it happens. His favourite planes were the handbuilt Norris and Spiers and all gouges and chisels had to be Addis. On the shelf under his bench there are a number of Bailey and Stanley shooting and smoothing planes...the Norris and Spiers were only used for Sunday best. Alan
  22. R Your street find looks suspiciously like a boot scraper and boot rack combined. Kept just out side the back door. The Wellingtons (rubber boots? Galoshes?) hung upside down on the rounds to keep the insides dry, and the lower cross piece for stability and scraping the mud off. The hand hammer I probably did most forging with was by Isaac Nash. Together with Brades and William Tyzack were all long established tool forging businesses in the Black Country. They combined in the 1950 after a couple of hundred years of reputation building. Tyzack did a lot of wood tools. Alan
  23. I would probably go with "Torch Sconce lamp". Or "Torch style sconce lamp" Alan
  24. There is a clue to the appropriate hardness or otherwise of cold chisels when you see how many of the old well-used but badly-maintained ones are mushroomed. It is better and much safer to have the struck-end soft enough to upset/spread (which should be dressed back before mushrooming occurs) than to have it shatter. For hot work punches you do not need anything like the struck-end hardness shown in your illustration for the tool to do its job. As a caveat...most of my experience with hot work punches are the ones I have made from Ø50mm (Ø2") Progen for the hydraulic press. I heat treat those so they will bend before shattering...and have done when someone has kept their foot on the pedal too long.. They stand up to punching and drifting mild and stainless steel fine. For the same safety reason most of the tooling I make for hot work, power hammer tools etc. are from mild steel. It stands up to hot work fine. I only use the added toughness of the Progen for focussed energy things like hot sets and punches. Alan
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