August 9, 201015 yr Finally what seems to be a unguided Bradley Helve (in France) in proper working order. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYigQPJalXE Looks as in almost as good shape as Michael's 500
August 9, 201015 yr Finally? Well thats a kick in the head... Does that say heat me or beat me. Maybe you should take your hammer to France.
August 9, 201015 yr Author Finally? Well thats a kick in the head... OH no!!! Michael I didn't mean it like that no not at all!!!!! I am sorry it came out like that I meant a unguided bradley! post is edited.
August 9, 201015 yr I know Sam, just busting you. I am pretty confidant my Bradley is in proper running oder, may be the last 500 left, to boot. How about a Bradley roll call?
August 9, 201015 yr 2 cudhioned helve 40# 1 125 upright 1 200# compact(not yet running but complete). There alot of bradleys out there hope lots will respond. Phil
August 9, 201015 yr I don't have one, but there is an artist blacksmith not too far from where I live that has a 200 pounder. http://www.craigcampbell.ca/load/ncraigcampbell.swf
August 11, 201015 yr We bought two hammers that day, I got the 500 and my friend got the 200. Nobody in the local blacksmith community knew this guy even though he had been there 20 years. The guy pointed chisels for his entire career with a coke forge, these two hammers and a pedestal grinder. I asked how many he thought he did, his reply was hundreds of thousands :blink:
August 12, 201015 yr I have a 300 lb guided helve and a 15 lb strap hammer. I know of at least two more 300 lb guided helves, one in Illinois and one that was in Ohio but I think may now be in West Virginia. Jim Hollo (welder jim) has several in the Akron Ohio area and has posted some of those for sale. There are still a lot of these hammers used in industry and your small time hobby or ornamental blacksmith would never know they were out there. I know that when I moved out here to Wisconsin, one of my coworkers told me he used to work on a 500 just like Michaels when he was working at a drop forge shop in Rockford, IL. That hammer was subsequently sold to a machine tool dealer in Ohio, but supposedly was going into the owners private collection. I suspect that there are still 500 lb Bradley out there in industry. As Michael noted, the prior owner of his hammer was using the hammer for and industrial/production job (pointing jackhammers) not for ornamental forging. Bradleys really wore designed and marketed as manufacturing tools and they were built extra heavy for continuous duty work. They were also a lot more expensive than many of the other hammers available at the time so they tended to be purchased by factories rather than local communty blacksmith shops. Patrick
August 12, 201015 yr Patrick, I would be interested to know what this guy in Ohio has in his "collection".
August 12, 201015 yr Michael, So would I. This was appently going to the W.F. Stumpf company, or someone associated with it. The company has since gone out of buisness, but they specialized in the resale of used industrial forging equipment. I have asked a few people, but know I've talked to knows anything about it. I am pretty sure is it was not at the liquidation auction. It is also possible that the information my coworker has was incorrect and that the hammer was resold to another industrial user. There is a prety active ABANA chapter in northwest ohio so I would think that if the hammer were in fact being operated in a hobby/ornamental capacity someone there would know about it. Patrick
August 12, 201015 yr Hey Danger! Glad to see you got the hammers that Richard had, he was a great guy. Had a nice gig, spent one day a week driving the perimeter road and picking up and delivering sharpening at rental stores. I know he was trying to sell the business, unfortunately he actually could have made as much by just renting out the building! If I remember, he was doing about $30,000/year. Glad you guys got the hammers, he took good care of them.
August 12, 201015 yr Pounding Out the Profits, as I recall, claimed that the guided helve hammer was in production for 40+ years. There must be a bazzillion of them "out there".
August 13, 201015 yr Hey Danger! Glad to see you got the hammers that Richard had, he was a great guy. Had a nice gig, spent one day a week driving the perimeter road and picking up and delivering sharpening at rental stores. I know he was trying to sell the business, unfortunately he actually could have made as much by just renting out the building! If I remember, he was doing about $30,000/year. Glad you guys got the hammers, he took good care of them. Interesting you know him Grant, is there some kind of industrial forge club I don't know about, could you at least tell me the secret hand shake? Richard is a interesting feller. I think he was glad to see them go, he was done, just wanted to go sail his boat. I think in the end China was producing the entire chisel for less than he could repair one for.
August 23, 201015 yr Interesting you know him Grant, is there some kind of industrial forge club I don't know about, could you at least tell me the secret hand shake? Richard is a interesting feller. I think he was glad to see them go, he was done, just wanted to go sail his boat. I think in the end China was producing the entire chisel for less than he could repair one for. You need to know there is a lot more than just a handshake for the keeper of the door to let you pass. Phil Ancient Master Forgers Company of Australia (No.5005)
August 23, 201015 yr We set up a seat like that that hung off a monorail beam so as to ease back strain when swaging out long jobs. did'nt work quite as well as I had hoped, but maybe that was because my back was already sore before we made the seat. Interesting that I see so many blokes forging under hammers but only turning the job through 90 deg back and forth. We always teach to go around 360 deg as that keeps the job in the centre of the bar forged and also helps to prevent a high corner from developing, this is especially so when forging jobs that have a head on one end and the shaft needs to stay on centre. Phil
August 23, 201015 yr You need to know there is a lot more than just a handshake for the keeper of the door to let you pass. Phil Ancient Master Forgers Company of Australia (No.5005) Thanks for the heads up, never much for crowds anyhow. In the end I might just scrape by...
August 23, 201015 yr Thanks for the heads up, never much for crowds anyhow. In the end I might just scrape by... Mike,just tell them you know Larry.They`ll let you in no problem then. Tell them you know Grant and they`ll escort you to a seat in the front. Don`t let on that you know me or you may wake up in the alley. :o
August 23, 201015 yr I know Michael and have forged with him. He is welcome through my door any time. Glenn
August 30, 201015 yr On 8/9/2010 at 7:58 AM, ciladog said: I really like that seat. me too, I didnt catch that at first until you mentioned, went back to look, spiffy indeed Timothy
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