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I Forge Iron

help me date my forge


JeremyP

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I just found a coal forge at an auction the other day, paid a premium for it because something told me to get it. I'm curious if there is a way to tell the approx age of this piece? It has a champion No. 40 gear blower and the pan is cast iron. The pan has a bit of pitting in it but no cracks, it either looks fairly new or only moderatly used. The blower still turns nice and the gears are in really good shape. here are some pics! :D

15333.attach

15334.attach

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IF you want to date it, ya should start slow, try asking it to dinner and see where that goes...

Sorry I had to after reading the title... Looks to be in good shape. I have no idea of the current resale value, But I have seen them go for a few $$ around here, and that does look to be in great condition.

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I just bought a very similar forge and blower. Mine was a No 400 blower that is in great shape (2 full rotations after I stop turning), but the forge is the same geometry as yours except it has a slack tub on the end. The slack tub goes down in a triangular fashion, and is rusted out a bit.

I stole it for $25, and a 5 hour drive one way to pick it up. I would have paid $500 or more for the set-up. Glad that woman did not know what eBay was!

-Doug

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Everyone always want's to know the date first thing. Even I do on my stuff, but as I look back at things - it doesn't really matter as long as it's in good enough shape to use( even though it is nice to know the history of things ). Freelance - just fill'er up with cola and light the fire and get after it. - Have fun - nice find - JK

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Freelance. Take a look at the blower, does it have any patent dates on it? You then know it is newer than the newest date on it. Does the forge bed have any writing on it? You can try to find the google cataloges that have been scanned into the net. It might help. Just a couple of suggestions.

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Hey guys well I googled champion blower and forge co and came up with a person who is selling a cataloge of products they used to make where one could probably determine the approx year my style of forge was built. However its $30. Yea its nice to know the history of some of this old iron. I fired it up the other day and I was surprised how much that blower puts out. The pan doesn't say anything about lining it with clay for use but do you think I should line it anyway?

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Looks like it is after 1909, after perusing my 1909 catalog reprint. The Lancaster geared blower in it have a different gearbox arrangement. I'll check my Sear's and Roebuck catalog reprints later when I get time.

Nice piece, by the way. Should serve you well.

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