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I Forge Iron

Emerson and Stevens Ax Company Maine Hand forged axes..


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The big hammer is great. The grinding contraption he's wearing is a perfect example of ingenuity in commercial production. We had weird one off tools like that at the rubber refinery. Tools improvised for doing one specific process.

Great video, I love old industrial shorts too.

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  • 9 months later...

the contraption for grinding the axes is actually used in many of the grinding industries of that era and earlier.. 

It give a 3rd point of contact.. this helps to stabilize ones motion and makes it more sure footed so to speak..   It also adds some protection.. 

Many don't realize that some of the old grinding wheels were huge.. some 6-9ft across..   Many of the natural wheels exploded doing serious damage.. 

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Jennifer,

You are correct concerning the size of those grinding wheels and the tendency of some of them to explode.

One of the main reasons for large grinding wheels exploding was caused by stopping the wheels rotating at night after the last shift.

The wheels sometimes shattered after the wheels were set to rotating, again.

The number of  incidents of wheels exploding was reduced dramatically when the wheels were not stopped and allowed to slowly rotate through the night.

Why?  you may ask?

The wheels rotate through a water 'bath' when in use.

Stopped wheels had only the bottom portion of the wheel resting in the water. The upper portion of the wheel experienced water drainage into the water trough.

This water drainage resulted in an unbalanced wheel. That is what caused some wheels to shatter.

I mention this in order to alert, anyone using water cooling for sharpening wheels.

Of course we do not have to run the wheels throughout the night.  But, during  start up, the wheels should be rotated slowly for a sufficient time to saturate all of the wheel, before grinding.

SLAG.

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Yup, that is one reason..   The other reason is they used natural stones...   the incidence of wheels exploding slowed as did the size of the stones and as modern wheels (bonded) replaced natural stones..   A modern grinding wheel put together with binders was stronger and more homogeneous with no hidden seams or week spots..  The other major factor is the grinding wheels could now be made smaller because they did not wear as fast..   

Can you imagine a 9ft grinding wheel spinning around nearly 1ft or more wide..    At the correct rpm for use.. How many tons of stone is that spinning like a centrifuge? 

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Large diameters were to get high SFM at low RPM as most water powered equipment did not turn very fast---but they could turn very *strong* and not only the water powered ones. I remember being told that the "Black Cat" windmill in the Netherlands was rated at 90 HP at full speed; I've owned cars with less!

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Yes, they are all just after or just before the war..  Germany saw the culture disappearing and they wanted to capture it  for future generations.. 

 

There are a whole bunch of them I ran across..  wood, metal, clay, 

 

A whole response got deleted..     I'll just say this.. water turbines were in use with industry very early on..   So high speed was possible.. Not only this but people were very smart and new about ratios and such. 

 

Inventions in turbine technology 

Some of the key developments in hydropower technology happened in the first half of the ninteenth century. In 1827, French engineer Benoit Fourneyron developed a turbine capable of producing around 6 horsepower – the earliest version of the Fourneyron reaction turbine.

In 1849, British–American engineer James Francis developed the first modern water turbine – the Francis turbine – which remains the most widely-used water turbine in the world today. In the 1870s, American inventor Lester Allan Pelton developed the Pelton wheel, an impulse water turbine, which he patented in 1880.

Into the 20th century, Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan developed the Kaplan turbine in 1913 – a propeller-type turbine with adjustable blades.

 

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Not only Germany; I have a book on Log Cabin Building that was done in Central Europe in those times too.  Look at all the stuff documented in the USA by the WPA, I've read some of the oral histories done in this area about the homesteaders.  Makes you appreciate the stuff around you when you've read about how they had to back up the local hill as reverse was the lowest gear in cars those days!

You might consider it one of the few positive aspects of the nationalism of the times.

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