hdwarner Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 i think this subject is facinating anyone care to share thier thoughts chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt87 Posted May 26, 2008 Share Posted May 26, 2008 According to Bealer it was two 'boys of colour', two nailmaker's anvils, two forges, two hammers, two hardies, two forges, and a heck of a lot of 1/4" rods... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayco Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 One of the old blacksmithig books depicts an entire family sitting around the fireplace in winter,........Making nails by the thousands during a winter season. They used the fireplace as forge and had some small stump anvils as I remember. Thoreau wrote of scrounging the nails from an old shed to construct his 'cabin' at Walden pond.........This was around 1850 I think. Before factory made nails were available, nails were a scarce, expensive item. No wonder that early pioneers burned old shacks just to collect the nails! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 Nailmaking at Monticello Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted May 27, 2008 Share Posted May 27, 2008 It was more than two slaves; I've read TJ's business plan he wrote up on this as a way of getting Monticello out of a financial hole. it includes estimates of how many of what type nail each slave could make, etc. I was reading about it in the complete writings of TJ published in a multivolume set. What do you find fascinating? The fact that people who ran large estates and the US were businessmen of their times? George Washington was a whiskey distiller as it was a more profitable way to ship "grain". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hdwarner Posted May 27, 2008 Author Share Posted May 27, 2008 hello Thomas , can't put my finger on it why i find it fasinating but you may have just tickled the reason why. our forfathers which i hold in high regard are a great sourse of spiritual uplifting and sense of what sacrifice and duty means and when i find out tid bits of what they did in thier private lives to sustain a living it just adds to my admiration of great men . thanks for that george washington info. i will take the risk of sounding likea patronzing idiot but many that are in blacksmithing probally posess the same qualities as our for fathers . my thoughts are duty to self and family then to a higher cause such as hand forged utilities or art doesn't get any closer that that in my book i will leave it at that and you draw your own conclusions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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