Handy - Buffalo Forge

[Highland]

I don't forge but my son and his two sons have started with a homemade forge. They are making hooks and small items and having fun doing it.

What I have for them is a Buffalo forge and a post vise. My wife's grandfather ( born 1899) was a blacksmith for the railroad and during the depression moved back to Mississippi to save the family farm from a tax foreclosure. After he died and the farm was being sold I saved a bunch of old tools that were going to be thrown over the hill into the ravine. These included a couple of corn huskers, a sit and peddle grinding wheel, a vise ( which I had no idea why is was designed the way it was), and a Buffalo Forge.

The forge has a hand cranked blower that works now that I took it apart cleaned out the mouse nests and cleaned it up. It looks like the gears sit in an oil bath.

Primarily I am looking for more information about the forge. Googling Buffalo Forge returns thousands of links. The blower cover has "Buffalo Forge Co" across the top, Buffalo, NY on the bottom and across the middle Handy.

Does anyone know anything about this forge? Any idea how old it is? Is has some farmer repairs on it but still can be used as a forge.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome aboard Highland. I suggest reading this to get the best out of the forum  READ THIS FIRST   It is full of tips like editing your profile to show your location, because many answers depend on knowing where in the world you are located, there are many others some will help in staying under the moderators radar. I have an old Buffalo Forge catalog booked mark but will take a while to find it. When I do I will link it for you. Well that didn't take as long as I thought. You may find the forge & blower in there.

https://ia803103.us.archive.org/14/items/BuffaloForgeCoCatalogNo801/Buffalo Forge Co Catalog No 801_text.pdf

Edited April 24, 2020 by Irondragon Forge & Clay
add link

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Highland, glad to have you. Good for you saving some of your Grandfather's tools! May we see some more pictures of what you saved? 

Does the forge have the pan as well as the blower? Leg / post vises are designed to take a hammering, literally and make an excellent addition to a smithy. The treadle grindstone is a sweet treat of a save. What other blacksmithing tools did you save? Any weird looking "hammers"? 

How about getting your Son and Grandsons subscribed to Iforge? We'll be honored to help them become thoroughly and hopelessly addicted to playing with fire and hitting things with hammers. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

BTW The Handy Geared blower is a number 500. Yes the gears sit in an oil bath, just the lower gear teeth, which distributes oil to the other gears and bearing/bushing. It's called a splash oil system. Too much oil and it will leak like a sieve. Just about any oil will work, I use chainsaw bar oil or 80 wt gear oil, others use 30 wt motor oil.

[Highland]

Thank you. 

Here are some photos of the forge:

It has had some farmer repairs over the years:

Here is the post vise. I had no idea what is was for until I started reading this forum. My son lives in Maryland and if this pandemic allows I will take all this down to him - and he will have to figure out how best to install it.

Don't have photos of the treadle grindstone but try and dig it out of the barn and get one.

One of the items I had hoped to find was a knife made by her grandfather. I remember him telling me he made knifes out of bandsaw bands since that was good steel but I could not find any.

There was some larger equipment I could not save - a corn grinding mill he ran off a tractor power belt. He ground corn on the weekend for the locals.

Something else I could not find was his blacksmith correspondence. He qualified as a blacksmith using a correspondence course. It consisted of about 10 small booklets - about 20 pages each. He sent in a nickel for the first book. He had to write in all his answer to questions about blacksmithg and metalwork. He would send it in with a nickel for the next book. If he got a high enough score he would get the next book. Once he had successfully finished the course he got a certificate as a certified blacksmith and got a job on the railroad.

28 minutes ago, Irondragon Forge & Clay said:

BTW The Handy Geared blower is a number 500. Yes the gears sit in an oil bath, just the lower gear teeth, which distributes oil to the other gears and bearing/bushing. It's called a splash oil system. Too much oil and it will leak like a sieve. Just about any oil will work, I use chainsaw bar oil or 80 wt gear oil, others use 30 wt motor oil.

Thanks for the reply.

It may need a gasket of some sort since there seems to be space along the sides. I will add some oil and see what happens.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Great family history. My grandfather was a blacksmith in the army. He was with Gen. Blackjack Pershing in the campaign to capture Poncho Villa in Mexico. During his service the army was changing over to mechanized vehicles instead of horse drawn wagons and they made him mechanic. When he was discharged he went to work at several automotive dealerships and worked on Franklin and Pierce Arrow cars. I sure wish I would have had the presence of mind to record all of the stories he would tell me.

The forge and post vise look to be in good shape. Please note the forge pan should be lined with clay before building a fire in it, to prevent the cast iron pan from cracking.

[Highland]

Very interesting history. So much our ancestors did that we don't know. And do we tell our grandkids all that we have done?

Thanks for the info on putting clay in. The pan has already cracked and a piece of steel has been bolted in above it. Guess someone forgot the clay. I will make sure we get clay in it.