I saw these things lying around and one of our visitors said he thought they belong on a forge. If they are some kind of tuyere it must have been a whopper forge. They look more like cart axle centres to me, but I can't explain the pipe.This guy was adamant they belong in the blacksmith shop.

 

Water cooled air blast?

Grab them and use them as blacksmithing cones.

that old vessel behind them, rusted with the rivets,  that has my attention

The riveted thing behind them is an ore bucket from an old tin mine. Some of the blacksmith made buckets, handles and tumblehooks are expertly made. Those old fellas were legends.

Water cooled tuyere for a sideblast?

Yes, suggestions are that they are some sort of water cooled air delivery turnout. There must have been another pipe where the hole is and some pressure system to keep water circulating. I might just display them in our blacksmith area. The occasional visitor will know what they are and the rest won't look at them anyway. 

I'm pretty certain your informant was correct,  they appear to be side blast water cooled  tue irons/tuyeres, not particularly large, previous ones I have been involved with with inlet and outlet connection facilities were over three feet long, the size will depend on type of work being undertaken.

These are industrial units, and were usually connected to a heat exchanger, commonly a coil within a large tank, the tank being fed through a ball valve arrangement, to maintain the water level, and the heated water could then be used for other purposes within the locality/facility.

You mention 'your visitors'  so are these part of the industrial debris around a local heritage/visitor attraction, (Which may give somewhat of a clue as to what the secondary use for the heated water may have been used) or just people visiting where you have them?

 

These are industrial units, and were usually connected to a heat exchanger, commonly a coil within a large tank, the tank being fed through a ball valve arrangement, to maintain the water level, and the heated water could then be used for other purposes within the locality/facility.

There you go, a forge fired coffee maker! Just what every blacksmith needs!

Send one down to me, save me making one -))

Seen a few barrels like that around different places.  One is up on the main drag thru town with some other old mining equipment on display.  Another I think is in the Museums outdoor display.  And I'm reasonably certain I have seen a rusted out one next to the tailing of one of the mines in the nearby hills.  Couldn't say for certain where or when, covered so much ground on the dirt bikes.  Out over the bank from the Snowshoe open pit  there are several barrels for lifting out ore but they are 55 gal drums with two holes punched near the rim and a piece of 1 1/4" stuck through with a loop in the center.  guess I'll have to try and get a few pics one day soon.

 

Good Morning, Ausfire

The pieces that come out of the cones, Are they tubes or solid bar like a handle?

Neil

The pieces coming out are pipes, not solid.

John, our 'visitors' are tourists. I am the curator of a Historic Village, the place where I also do the blacksmith demos. The previous owner of the Village was a real bowerbird and collected everything from outback station dumps, old minesites, etc. As a result, we have acres of scrap metal, and things like this turn up all the time. These cone shaped things are in a little-used area which we have just opened up to visitor traffic. I had not taken much notice of them before until one of the tourists asked about them. I think there are more of them among the scrap.

It is always fascinating in historic places where visitors abound, playing guess what bit fits where, and what does it do and how do you use it.

Some years ago I had a similar enquiry from someone in your part of the world NZ iirc who was in a group trying to bring an old industrial unit back to life and they too were trying to figure out what a similar item was, and how it was used. Sadly, i was not kept up to date with the progress, but these things are usually a very long in coming to fruition for various reasons, usually financial and red tape.

Enjoy your curator's position for future generations to benefit from.

Edited June 18, 201510 yr by John B
spelling and mild addition

John,

We have a special display set aside for small things that we find and that we don't have a clue what they are for. I have an answer sheet nearby if people want to suggest identification ideas. It doesn't take too long before we have plausible suggestions for most items. One or two still remain a mystery.

I wish I had known of this IFI site before my wife and I visited England a couple of years back. As it turns out we were quite near your place in Devon. (Everything is near everything in England). We stayed for a while in Axminster, which I think is a stone's throw from you. Would have liked a chat.

We did find one artist blacksmith in the hills around Shropshire.

We have a number of blacksmiths in the area, Axminster is about 28 miles/45 km's from our training facility, you would have been most welcome to have a visit and a chat, maybe a play time too.

Maybe next time?

We need more pictures of that wonderful ore bucket.  How big is it?  Still solid?  Did you want to mail it to me????

Hi Ausfire,

definitely water cooled tuyere's for a side blast forge.  I've got a copy of an old foundry catalogue and it lists them and all sorts of other blacksmith/wheelwright goodies.  Check for rust holes before putting them to use.

Andrew

Sorry to repeat but that barrel is a beautiful piece!