What would be your choices?

[irnsrgn]

If you were going to be the Smith on a small expedition such as Lewis and Clark took. What would be the ESSENTIALS you would include in your kit? Remembering that it would need to be carried on your own back or on a pack animal or in a canoe.

[whitebear]

i've actually done this so i'll tell you what i brought. i brought this:

a tuyer pipe (like a 1" ID black iron pipe about 3 or 4 feet long) very nice because you can use it like a walking stick as well.

no more than 2 hammers (i brought a 2# cross pien and a 1.5# ball pien

i small anvil like a 4"X4"X8" piece of steel. ( mine was mild steel and only weighed about 20#

two or three pairs of tongs.

and steel. (i took about 30# of steel)

i carried all of this on my horses back. and walked from houston to san antonio and back. it took me about a month. going and coming and was probably 35-40 years ago

hope this helps

Son

[gerald]

I would expect that as a bare minimum, I'd have to take a hammer, chisel, and punch If I were carrying my "kit". I'd also need to take some iron from which to forge items from. A handy rock would be my anvil, tongs made from two crossed sticks.

Lewis and Clark carried literally TONS of stuff with them, much of which was cached when the got to the Mandan country. The three smiths that went with L&C had the luxury (?) of keeping/cacheing burned out iron stoves and other items from wich they salvaged iron to make trade items, repair items, etc. The fact that they had iron stoves along with them is evidence that they didn't always travel light.

[whitebear]

Gerald makes a good point. L&C didn't fully know what kind of country they were traversing. so they brought the ecamping norm to them. the smiths did indeed have a good time with thier smithies along the way. i know for a fact that each one of them brought a full sized forge with them and alot of coal to burn. hammers aplenty and tongs . and they each had there own anvil. plus they had all thier camping apparatus. I.E. tents furniture, lanters, bedding, ETC. and they had pack mules and trollies and carts to carry things in. not carrying it themselves.

Son

[irnsrgn]

I can just see it now, an expedition to search for the lost smithing tools cached by lewis and Clark on the history channel, for a lost and found segment.

[gerald]

Well, they've already been out looking for latrines. One of the most common meds they took with them was Mercury pills. These were used for everything except, perhaps, for broken bones. A side effect of these pills is diharea (sp). Merury is a very persistent element and the researcher thought that the latrine spots with super high mercury content must have surely belong to the "Corps of Discovery".

Personally, I'd rather look for cached tools. :)

[gerald]

The Corps did cache a bunch of smithing tools when they left the Mandans and headed west. They recovered the cache when they came back thru. Not wanting to pack a bunch of heavy/bulky smithing tools back to St. Louis, L&C gave the equipment to Charboneau (French husband of Sacagawea). He supposedly used the equipment to establish the first permanent blacksmith shop west of the Missouri River.

[gerald]

But I digress, in addition to the lightweight kit mention originally(hammer, chisel, punch, iron) I'd add a hand bellows. Now if I knew that I could always depend on having a pack animal and/or canoe, I'd add a few amenities such as tongs, small anvil, maybe a vise.

[tzonoqua]

I can tell you what the Gaduliya Lohar (blacksmith nomads of India) carry with them and I would tend to agree with them!

-about three hammers (ball pein, cross pein, sledge)
-anvil (large chunk of steel, railway iron, whatever!)
-two pairs of tongs
-chisel and punch
-hand bellows (sometimes the leather airbag type, sometimes more elaborate hand turned wheel and fan)
-hand file
-small bag of coal/coke
-assorted scrap

In fact, that is their tool kit whether they are in an encampment or on the road -They build this tiny little forge in the earth and work magic!! It's pretty amazing what they can do with just that!!! (which tended to be more than I can with my welders, grinders, gasser and air tools!)

oh ya, and I almost forgot- they also bring along their whole family to assist!!!

[ThomasPowers]

Gerald, in some parts of the USA a "handy rock" might be a 3 week walk away. I'd take some sort of anvil, maybe one like the 11 pound viking one or even better how about a sledge hammer head to be anvil when needed and sledge against a stone anvil for heavy work where possible?

A couple of pairs of tongs, small single action bellows and short tue iron---or use a dismounted gun barrel, 2 hammers, some high carbon steel (repair for guns, flint & steel sets, etc) and as much wrought iron as I can get away with

Also when considering the "first permanent BS shop west of the MO river" I assume you are discounting the spanish ones in NM and CA that had been there over 100 years before the William and Clark expedition?

[Bentiron1946]

I'm glad you brought up the Spanish and Mexican smiths they had been working in New Mexico since the early to mid 1600's. It's not like they were bone idle. I think the the idea of a big sledge, 10 to 12#, for an anvil is a good one. You would definitely need a pack horse or a striker. I don't see how one man could carry all of the items necessary to do the job. Two hammers, a sledge, two pair of tongs, files. chisels, punches, bellows, spare iron. Lots of spare iron because on a trip like this you ain't going to find any junk laying around to work. You could make your own charcoal. Not easy.

[John Martin]

I've only been smithing for a few months, but this is what I would bring.....

3 Hammers (Ball Pein Straight Pein and Sledge Hammer)
3 Tongs (Round stock Sqaure Stock and a everything tong....)
Two Rail road trackplates, 15LB and 25LB
Punches, Chisels
Hand Bellows
Charcoal/Coal
Lots of spare iron

The track plate works decent enough, it's what I'm limited to right now, waiting to buy anvil.

[HWooldridge]

The Spanish priests had smithies in the San Antonio missions back to the 1500's. They taught the local Indians how to do ironwork and some of the church ironwork was made by them. The Balcones Forge blacksmith's group in Central Texas has restored Mission Espada's forge and it has two single lung bellows and a small, square, stake anvil. It's perfectly suited to horseshoes on down to nails and/or gun parts and you can get to welding temps using lump charcoal.

My list is about like everyone else's but I would definitely have a vise if I had a pack animal to tote it. A mule will carry 150 lbs or so and you could get a small vise and a small anvil in that size load.

[gerald]

OK, guys, you've forced me to go check my sources. When will I learn that it doesn't pay to "shoot from the lip" on this board. What I should have said was:

Capt. Clark records that Charbonneau was discharged and paid off on August 17. This interpreter, husband of Sacajawea, “was offered conveyance to the head of the Illinois if he chose to go. He declined . . . observing that he had no acquaintance or prospects of making a liveing below, and must continue to live in the way he had done.” So, Charbonneau and his “blacksmith shop” remained with the Mandans, thus establishing the earliest known “permanent” smithy on the upper Missouri.

Firearms, Traps and Tools of the Mountain Men , Carl P Russell, The University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-8263-0465-6

So it wasn't the first shop west of the Missouri as I said.

[Bentiron1946]

OK, you're forgiven:D

[Rravan]

i would only bring
a small bellows
a ballpeen hammer
a pice of L shaped pipe
and a high carbon plate aboul 2cm thick with spikes to nail it to a tree stump or something, to use as an anvil
plus some iron
i would use wood/hand made charcoal for fule

[Don A]

I know a lot of you are familiar with Jim (Paw Paw) Wilson's "Revolutionary Blacksmith" book.

I learned a lot from his description of the main character's portable rig in the smith's wagon. I thought it was particularly interesting that he would harvest charcoal from the cold campfires when they broke camp.

I reenact at a F&I fort in E. Tennessee. They carried everything they had from Charleston, SC, so I think about this kind of stuff a lot.

Don

[ThomasPowers]

One thing about stump anvils that have a spike on the base to hold them in the stump---works a lot better when stumps are not nice flat sawn things but had beveled edges from trees being chopped down with axes...A plate would work if you cut a flat on the side of a down'd tree but you probably would not be cutting very large trees on such a trip.

[Frosty]

Good point Thomas.

It wouldn't take too long to adze the side of a log flat. Still, having tried to forge on a piece of plate I'd rather use a sledge hammer head or proper stump anvil.

My list:

Stump anvil and bickern.
3 hammers, sledge, 2lb+/- and 10 to 16 oz finisher.
A chisel, couple files and hacksaw blades.
Draw knife to make handles.
Appropriate stock to replace items I couldn't repair.
A horse can carry the farrier's supplies.

Frosty

[easilyconfused]

Given what we know today, I would take:

1 hammer, likely a 2.5 or 3# ball peen. For most basic repairs you wouldn't need much else since many smiths start out with one hammer anyways and a cross peen really isn't necessary if you can make a simple fuller out of round rod or use the anvil edge. Look at many Japanese and cutler's hammers. They get by with a single faced hammer.

1 20# sledge to be set in the ground for an anvil or sledge against something else hard if needed. At least it's duo purpose if you need.

Various metal to make whatever I need, including chisels, tongs, fullers, punches and whatever I'd need and then reuse the tools if needed.

Some leather to make bellows out of a pit or two dug in the ground close enough to the the firepit to just poke a hole through the ground to connect them.

I'd just use the campfire after it's burned down a bit from cooking supper.

[Ten Hammers]

I was invited to be the smith on a wagon train earlier this year but couldn't go. This would have been period 1820-1840 I think. Lewis and Clark would be back far enough that Iowa on the map would be north Looziana. I believe that being the smith in the times we are speaking of would also entail cooper work, farrier, carpenter, wainwright and wheelwright skills would possibly be known, gunsmithing perhaps. The others attending the trip would have some skills for the period, yes and could assist the smith perhaps. Frosty brings up a very good thing or 2. Hacksaw and drawknife. I also suggest an axe ( poleaxe ). files were mentioned and they would of course be very handy. One good stout box could hold hand tools ( hammers and tongs, chisels, punches and the few things I've mentioned above). I might add a brace and bit set. You have to figure that if you were invited in the times we speak of, you probobly would take stuff that you had in your shop at home. A small anvil would be nice. Small set of bellows too. Building a ground forge on location would not be really that tough in some areas. Other participants in the event would be expected to carry their own stuff as well ( their tools, knife, gun, powder and possibles ). Depending on who headed up the trip, somebody would need to be the cook perhaps and somebody would need to carry a few staples ( inc medicine of whatever capacity ) and foodstufs perhaps. Asking me to outfit for this kind of event today ( remaining period ) would be a challenge that I would love to have.