Nick Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 This is an interesting little oliver, mounted on the horn so it can be used with top and bottom tools in the hardy hole. It uses a striker's sledge secured in a brace. Probably best for longer anvils. I think this would be pretty useful though maybe a little time consuming to set up and take down. Not a real replacement for a striker or power hammer, though. Here's the link to the original patent from 1899, download the PDF for uncorrupted text. http://www.google.com/patents/US644589 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 The Blacker ran back and forth on a rack that allowed putting the head over the hardy, face or horn. IIRC, I think it also had some degree of to and fro movement on the x-axis so the smith could apply half-faced blows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CleetisMorgan Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Nick-- thanks for posting this. I have a Mousehole anvil with a horn shape that would work well with that setup. Yesterday I started gathering the material... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Can't wait to see the completed tool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaughnT Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I have a real hard time believing it would work in real life. Even on my biggest anvil, the distance from the horn/cutting table to the hardy is pretty short. Add into that the height of a top tool's striking face and I figure you're not gonna get much umph out of the contraption. It'd be a whole lot easier and more productive to fabricate something like chainmaker's used. The only thing I'd change would be to make it so the height could be changed and the hammerhead could traverse or rotate. That way you could strike on the anvil's face or a bottom tool of some kind. The extra weight of the hammer's framework would only help the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 I expect it would be used for specific jobs, or possibly as part of a traveling setup, where a full size ollie would be too cumbersome. The actual patent mentions sharpening plowshares. In any case, I'm guessing it never saw use outside a prototype, but I'd be interested to see one built and in use, just for curiosity's sake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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