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I Forge Iron

Look what I grew


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Well, I was out feeding sheep and I saw a hunk of rust poking out of the ground that wasn't there before the 5" of rain in 24 hours we got a couple of days ago. It turns out to be a hand forged gate bolt. It fit the Hardy hole perfectly in my anvil, it almost rested on the anvil block while being snug in the hole, so I guess i could lengthen it to make a post hardy, if there is such a thing. When I found it I looked around some more in the various fields as I was feeding and found a few more things to add to my pile 'o usefulness. A half a grader blade, an old bolt, and a broken pair of 3" flat stock tongs!! I was thinking of using the grader blade to hold my yet to be acquired/made hardies so they aren't sitting in a crate, it already has square holes I just have to enlarge them. Any suggestions on how to do that without too much headache?

The shiney piece is a 12" ruler for scale, but there was too much glare to see the numbers in the picture.

I've seen a couple of impressive piles on here and wonder if anyone else "grows" useful finds after rain or wind storms

IMG_20180411_173013285~2.jpg

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Cool finds. Think those tongs can be salvaged?

Funny, I was just talking to a local farmer today about anvils, and he told me a story. A long while back, there was a friend of his who was visiting one of his buddy's farms, and he was warned to be careful when he pulled in, as there had always been a sharp object poking up out of the ground there. Evidently he was like me and just had to dig it up to find out what it was, so he did. Turned out to be the horn of an anvil that was almost completely buried in the driveway. They looked around some more and ended up finding more artifacts of what was believed to be the place where travelers had dumped the things they finally could not carry any longer, about 100 years before.

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I think they can be salvaged. They look like they are pretty solid, it was just the one of the reigns that broke so I think I can weld on a new one and get the rivet area hot to get it moving again. The ranch I live and work on has been in the same family since 1877 so I'm always finding old glass, broken China, and odd hunks of metal every time I dig a hole. I even know where there is a tree that has a couple of pipes grown into it where they stacked them on it.

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A mix of ATF and kerosene or diesel will go a long way towards breaking the rivet loose in the tongs. Good luck with the grader blade, a cutting torch is about the only way to work with the stuff.

Nice finds, think a metal detector would be a handy thing?

Frosty The Lucky.

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Nice harvest!  I love finding things like that, and wondering what their story might be.

Those tongs are really nice and you have to think long and hard about what the local smiths might have been making with 3" flat bar.

Throw them in the forge, get them cherry hot.  That'll bust up all the rust and loosen the rivet if it can be loosened.  Weld on a new rein and put the old girl to work.

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3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

Heat and drift or gas axe for the grader blade; they are made to resist abrasion for grinding is a waste of time, media, and effort. (Heat and drift will leave a better surface...)

Have you heated and drifted VascoWear or the equivalent? I'm not saying it won't work but I've never heard of anyone doing it. 

Frosty The Lucky.

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Thanks for the replies everyone, I will try to drift the holes, but from the sound of it it will be a beast of a job. I haven't heard of a gas axe before, does anyone have a pic?

Once I get a welder again I will work on the tongs, until then they will go in the to do pile.

Here's a picture of the pipes growing out of the tree. It's been in the tree for the 10 years I've been here, and probably a while before that

IMG_20180413_113729018.jpg

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A gas ax is a nickname for an oxy acetylene  cutting torch. I would torch those holes before attempting to drift them. To drift them will require a bunch of heat, a BIG hammer, and a whole lot of effort. Dozer blade is tough stuff. A torch will have the job done in minutes and with a guide can provide a very clean cut.

When my Dad bought our 260# Fisher up in Lincoln CA he said they had a post vise that had been attached to a tree years ago. Long enough that all you could se was the outer jaw, and it still worked. This was back in the late 70's so snapping a pic with the phone wasn't around at the time. I would have liked to have a picture of it.

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