Hello from Mexico

[Missionary Farmer]

I run a small farm teaching and demonstrating through practical application skills that can help my neighbors farm more profitably. I enjoy making things in all materials whether wood, steel, stone or cloth. I do more fabrication and welding than I do smithing, but I have a couple boys who are excited about making knives and swords. We currently have several knives waiting to temper and so will be putting another forge together soon. We will be making a box full of dirt and using charcoal from our woods.  I have read posts here occasionally for many years, but never registered until now. The motivating factor was the post from a fellow asking about wood chunker designs. I ran across that when looking for info on making a forge for burning charcoal. 

One of the more frequent jobs I do is making steel points for the traditional wooden ard used in this area. I cut them out of leaf spring with a torch and then burn two holes that I clean up with a punch.

I need to learn how to make a proper socket for holding a hoe handle. I can't find any good quality hoes on the market here. Either heavy eye hoes of cast steel or cheap stamped sheet metal junk, both are miserable to work with.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I have the perfect hoe for you. It is called an Ozark hoe made by my mentor Isaac (Ike) Doss. It consists of a leaf spring blade, held on to a wood haft. Perfect for dry and or rocky ground. Here is a couple of pictures of them.

An original on the left and a copy I made on the right.

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard, glad to have you. I'm not clear what you mean by "Wooden Ard" I didn't have any luck with a web search.

What kind of hoe do you need to make? Garden hoes for weeding a garden or something for digging like the Ozark Hoe shown above? 

Forging a socket is a matter of drawing steel into a thin wide piece and rolling in into a socket, punch nail/screw holes before rolling the socket.

Making a hoe with a socket seems pretty straight forward, with a little practice you'll know how much leaf spring to allow for the blade.

Starting at a point back from the end of the leaf for the blade set shoulders on the point of the horn or a radiused edge of the anvil to isolate the blade from the socket.

Narrow down and draw out the area you set down, allowing it to thicken, adjust depending on how thick the spring is. You want the transition between blade ad neck to be rounded for strength, a square inside corner is a stress riser and a weak point where breaks can start.

Now you have two pieces of leaf connected by a round neck. Flatten and form the hoe blade. Flatten the socket, punch and roll into a socket. Lastly bend the neck so the blade and socket are in the desired orientation. 

I prefer to roll sockets first, it's easier to hold a socket with tongs than a flat like the blade or leaf spring.  

If you have commercially made handles available you need to make the socket to match of course and it might be worth the time to forge a bic to finish shape them on.  This bic would be roughly the same size and shape as the handle forged with a spike end at 90* so you can drive it into a log or the ground. Think of it like a special horn on the anvil for making sockets. 

If you're using wood harvested on site then the socket is less critical, folks will just carve them to fit. 

Bear in mind I've never made a hoe but I've done all the processes I just described, just not in this order. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

An ard is a kind of simple plow, with a spike sticking down into the ground to scratch a furrow. No elaborate plowshare to turn over the earth as it cuts.

You should check out Basic Blacksmithing: A Training Manual by J. B. Stokes, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The entire book is online at http://www.fao.org/3/ah637e/ah637e00.htm. It contains directions for a couple of different types of hoe.

That said, Welcome to IFI! If you haven't yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

[Randy Griffin]

Hey Randy, I need the specs on that Ozark hoe. I can see how the blade is made but what is that attaching it to the handle. Is that flattened allthread? I have some of the rockiest soil you ever saw. Rocks the size of baking potatoes.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Going from memory, the blade is 3inch wide leaf spring about twelve inches long with the point and cutting blade drawn out and holes punched then normalized. The bolts through the blade are 5/16 inch (3/8 would be better) all-thread flattened, with the through bolt holes punched. The through bolts & nuts are also 5/16 inch. The haft is just ash 2X2 with the hand portioned planed round four feet in length (can be longer). I gave the one I made to a friend and he loves it but one of the all-thread bolts broke and he keeps forgetting to bring it in to replace the bolts with 3/8 ones. Now that winter is over I bet he will remember it.

[Missionary Farmer]

IronDragon, Thanks for the ozark hoe, I've never seen that design before.  I have a little garden on the edge of a stream with really rocky soil, I can see that design working there.

Frosty, thanks for the detailed directions, I will try that. The commercial handles available are pretty poor and too expensive for most locals. In general people cut their own tool handles in the forest.

An ard is simply a scratch plow as JHCC said. The ones people use here are made from two pieces of oak with a steel point. I have seen old stone points, but nobody uses those any more. I'll try to come up with a photo. People pull the plows with a horse, usually a mustang, or a donkey. In the past they used oxen with a head yoke, but that has pretty much died out.

 

 

[JHCC]

Here’s one from an ancient Egyptian tomb painting:

[Missionary Farmer]

JHCC,  Thanks for the book link. Lots of good stuff in there, but I don't like either of those hoe designs.  The spike head attachment only works for really light duty work and the eye hoe is heavy and tiring to use. Hoes are really hard to get right, they must be strong and light. Working with a hoe you make multiple swings per minute, all day long. Ounces add up fast at that rate. There are several good designs, but I didn't know how a socket was made until Frosty gave instructions.

[JHCC]

They’ve been used throughout human history, all over the world. 

[Missionary Farmer]

This one is very similar to the local ones.

JHCC,  Do you know Tim at Sugarcreek Forge from Sugarcreek, Ohio?

[SLAG]

 

fowl-up,

See the corrected entry below

[JHCC]

1 hour ago, Missionary Farmer said:

JHCC,  Do you know Tim at Sugarcreek Forge from Sugarcreek, Ohio?

No, afraid not. Not quite my part of the state. 

[SLAG]

JHCC,

Alluded to J. B. Stokes blacksmithing books. There are two more books written by Mr. Stokes on blacksmithing.

Check out the FAO catalogue for the other two. They are well worth checking out and downloading.

SLAG.

[ThomasPowers]

One thing to remember when making a single piece hoe with a socket is that if it is a higher carbon steel---like leaf spring, when the socket section gets really thin it's very easy to contact quench it making it brittle. (unless you have managed to decarb it during the forging---bad for blades but will help toughen up a socket.)

I believe Weyger's first book is available free on-line "The Modern Blacksmith" and is written with improvised local materials in mind.

[Missionary Farmer]

45 minutes ago, ThomasPowers said:

I believe Weyger's first book is available free on-line "The Modern Blacksmith" and is written with improvised local materials in mind.

That is a good book, and I learned a lot from it. I have a copy somewhere in my library, I think that one is in storage along with some other books that I wish I had here...  Too many books and not enough shelf space.

On 6/6/2020 at 10:06 PM, SLAG said:

Check out the FAO catalogue for the other two. They are well worth checking out and downloading.

SLAG.

Thanks