Jeff Seelye Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 I work occasionally with a guy who does historical bridge restoration. Several of his bridges have eye bars with a prick punch at each end before the eye. They were forge welded bars. Some have welded eyes, some look upset and split with the forge weld being in the middle of the bar. My question is, were these punches used to locate length overall or do they have some other significance? Sorry, he has no pictures. Do we have any historians who want to chime in? My "semi-educated" guess is that they needed an overall exact length and they went from mark to mark. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 18, 2010 Share Posted May 18, 2010 I still use a prick punch to mark stock when I want reproducible lengths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Seelye Posted May 20, 2010 Author Share Posted May 20, 2010 Thanks Thomas, I also wondered if this was not just in the welding process but if a eyebar was to short, they could have prick punched each end heated stretched the center. Either way it was an interesting detail of how the bridge was made. Thanks again! Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Thompson Posted May 27, 2010 Share Posted May 27, 2010 Now you've spotted them, you'll see punch marks all over hand made stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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