January 31, 201412 yr Besides Blacksmithing, my other hobby is gardening. I love to take a seed and make it into food. (that being said, I only really have a small garden) I have been pondering more and more how I can combine the two, other than the food from the garden powering my blacksmithing. So, I am interested: Is there a good resource on colonial/early American farming implements made from iron? I like the history and look of colonial America, and I have been trying to research this topic without a whole lot of success. Is there a resource, or have any of you forged farming/gardening hand tools from past times? Thanks, Ridgewayforge
January 31, 201412 yr A Museum Of Early American Tools, by Eric Sloan. The Blacksmith, Ironworker and Farrier, Aldren Watson.
January 31, 201412 yr Colonial Williamsburg has a large number of gardening tools on display and in use around there town. The Anderson armory & blacksmith shop has made a large number over the years.
January 31, 201412 yr Author Gotcha! Thanks for the resources. I was looking into the Colonial Williamsburg website, but they don't seem to have any pictures of their displays online. I suppose I will soon have to traverse down there! I will also look into those books! Anyone ever forge any gardening implements? I'll take all ideas, even more modern ones!
January 31, 201412 yr 'Colonial Wrought Iron' by Plummer has a lot of interesting tools in it. Iron dibbers were popular, the long ones were used in pairs - one in each hand -while the man walked down the row. Other than that, what about onion rakes, hoes, spuds etc?
January 31, 201412 yr I am going to have a go at a regional monster version of the serfuette. It looks like a double pronged pick with a long skinny blade (like an axe) on the other end. My french is not good, the only thing i have heard it called is "the big one". dibble sticks fruit buckets seed winnowing forks measuring chains daisy lifters celery hooks grafting knives sickles and hedging tools these are things I dont see a lot of at museums There is was a lot of oddball tools made for specific crops or jobs that are just gone.
January 31, 201412 yr https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/108205902509248083781/albums/5954067773768733809/5975193543198906450?pid=5975193543198906450&oid=108205902509248083781
February 1, 201412 yr Gotcha! Thanks for the resources. I was looking into the Colonial Williamsburg website, but they don't seem to have any pictures of their displays online. I suppose I will soon have to traverse down there! I will also look into those books! Anyone ever forge any gardening implements? I'll take all ideas, even more modern ones! I made a hoe, shovel, and several other tools but they were for movie series set in the 1st century A.D. They had hired a Jewish archeologist to insure everything was period accurate. Long story short, all of the tools I made are now in a museum in Israel on display....and no, dummy me, I have no pictures. Oh well...
February 1, 201412 yr I made this ho a few years ago as a demo it has a piece of file welded to the cutting edge. it works real good and was a fun project.
February 2, 201412 yr Check "THE KENNETH LYNCH TOOL COLLECTION CATALOG" available through the link below; https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_P1cjplazYgVGFRWEZYa3RRQmc/edit?usp=sharing There are quite a few gardening implements shown along with (very) brief descriptions on their use. An extensive catalog of tools used by many trades - a good resource to help identify that unusual find. Don
February 2, 201412 yr Spanish colonial tools are shown in Simmons & Turley, Southwestern Colonial Ironwork."
February 3, 201412 yr Don Shears! Thank you so much: you posted top quality material. It's one thing that it is good and useful to read, but it solved right away a mystery about a hammerhead discussed here: In the Catalog it is said to be a knapping hammer (p. 10 KL144m). Thanks and greetings Gergely
February 5, 201412 yr seems to me I read a small book called farm blacksmithing or some such, probably is listed on google books somewhere.
February 6, 201412 yr lol yeah just one of the wonders of being a part of a group. I enjoy getting to be a part of all the fun :D Thanks I like the photos but never know how useful they will be for others.
February 6, 201412 yr Didn't the UN manual(s) on blacksmithing include making farming tools based on rural African usage
April 5, 201412 yr I am a little late getting here... check out Dewit Gardening tools they are forged (by machine) in Holland. May give you some ideas if you look at their product pages. http://www.gardentoolcompany.com/brands/DeWit-Garden-Tools.html?gclid=CKD-qazFyL0CFfFFMgodcxsAeQ
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