Milling a swage block the "old way"?

[habu68]

I recently purchased a 15"x 15" x 4" industrial swage block and the large faces are dinged and chipped with hammer and chisel marks. A simple milling on the bridgeport of about .125 inch from each side would remove most of these marks and is what I will do the next time I can get to my brothers shop.

My question is this: how would a shop , circa 1800, mill and dress a block of this size. I am aware of files and scrapers in the hands of apprentices, but this is a little over 2 sq ft of surface area and we are talking a total of a .250 inch of removal. Maybe a mill stone like those used for grinding flower? Other ideas?


I love to pose questions like this to people when i do demos at historical parks. It would be nice to have a solution.

[kevan]

In all probability, the quality of workmanship and care of tools in those days would preclude having to do what you propose. But your grindstone idea is possibly what would have been used.

Kevan

[Ten Hammers]

My swage and most I have seen are soft and will be molested easily with harder hammer. Gonna have to agree with Kevan that chances are this would not happen in times gone by. A good sharp file ( shape-fill in the blank) will cut a swage nicely. I do not know but I suspect that some swages were perhaps forged from wrought and finished ( again I have no idea of this ). Most I believe would have been cast and of course the parent metal hardness would depend on the foundry. A hard hammer face will ding wrought ( or a chisel on the side of a wrought anvil ). Some were almost ruined by this tactic. Files still are my weapon of choice for many issues.

[Hofi]

Thee Question Is A V E R Y Modern Question And There For The Answers Are Modern Too.
In The Older Time They Did Not Ask This Question And Therefor Did Not Answer.
U Use Them And Forge On Them As They Are .
Like We Are Getting Older And Having Dings Screches Wrinkels ,they Too And That Is The Beuty Of Old Tools
Hofi

[philip in china]

SwageBlocks is worth a look for anything to do with swage blocks. It isn't clear to me why you want to redress the face anyway. I certainly wouldn't.

[agsolder]

Only swage blocks I have ever seen that look as if they might have been milled or even dressed with any care are Wallace Yater's unbelievably beautiful blocks. I have two really old and well-used blocks that show every minute of their age. Like me. No Botox for any of us if I have any say.

[ThomasPowers]

Postman wrote a book on an anvil company in England that mentions the large natural stone grinding wheels that were used to grind anvil faces after they were forge welded on and I have seen the worn down wheels used by an anvil manufacturer in Columbus OH to do likewise. The worn out ones were about 4' across and 1' thick and they rolled them into the river when they got too small...

However old swageblocks were generally cast using facing sand and so came from the factory with a much finer finish than you get from such items today.

Most of the old ones show wear and little if no refinishing or repair, Saw one at auction two weeks ago where one of the edges of a half cylinder had been broken off and no smoothing of the break in the 50 years or so after it had been done.

[habu68]

I also agree with Master Hofi and Phillip and others in their hesitation to modify old tools. In looking at this swage most of the swages around the edge and the holes in the body have damage to the shoulders along the face. This makes the swages almost useless for forming shoulders. I thought about cutting a radius on each of the forms but on closer examination most of the damage would be removed by milling the two faces about 1/8" each.

So far I have only sanded away the heavy rust with a flap wheel and exposed the damage.
The Jury is still out as to what I will do to make this a better tool for my use.

Thanks for the input.
I too could stand a good milling to remove the wear of time...


Mike

[rstegman]

Since the swage block is usually used in forming curves and other forms, I would not think that the finish would be quite so important. Finishing would be done with other tools and at another time.
Would flaws in the swage block really make that big a difference?

[ThomasPowers]

Perhaps not the best tool for making shoulders as you can see the edges are pretty fragile. Can you make a bolster plate for the shoulders you need to make?