It followed me home

[MRobb]

They do indeed appear to be finely made. Nice close ups on the pics too.



Mitch

[Kenny O]

Oh Yea, one more score. This thing is freekin' heavy! Around 200 lb. It was a humbling lesson in physics, getting it up into the back of my truck, gravity did most of the work gettin' it out.
It has hammer marks all over it, so my guess is a very large power hammer was used to forge it, except for the giant rivet head,it has smaller strikes about it.
I picked it up in Selligman, AZ, I believe it was from a mining operation, maybe copper, lots of copper around there, gold too though.

It has WSC stamped on it, next to 3-1/2, it also has some other stamp, could be the blacksmith's initials.


I forgot to shrink the JPEGs sorry

[Bentiron1946]

Nice dividers, I have aquired several old pair over the years and have found that the points are forge welded steel to wrought iron, in other words, "steeled" points. After putting to a wire wheel to clean off the layers of rust it became obvious as to the location of the welds. I even have a set of PEXTO dividers that are forge welded and they aren't that old.

[Norseman C.B.]

A machinest friend of mine droped by my work this afternoon with a 5 gallon bucket of large used allen wrenches, said they were throwing them away at work. Anyone know what kind of steel these are ? Everything from 5/16 up to 3/4" was in there. Now to find a use for them :?:

I"ve made some great chisels out of old allen wrenches
they seem to harden well and are really tough
Happy hammerin.... Cliff B)

[Frosty]

Good score Cliff, allen wrenches are usually at the high end of medium carbon steel and make good cold chisels, wood chisels, san mai blade bits, flint strikers, chasing tools and such. A blacksmith can NEVER have too many donated old Allen wrenches!

Frosty the Lucky.

[edge9001]

If you are really interested let me know I will go and get one for you. I hate to see these things go to waste and would like to help others out. I would like to let them go for as cheap as possible, blower plus S&H. That being said do not ask for all of them.

How many can you get? I might need a few, 4 if you have them available. I have a few customers who want to buy forges from me.

[MLMartin]

I would also be interested in one or two of the Al blowers if you have a few on hand. I live in Ga, shoot my a message with your asking price and well see if we can make a deal, Thanks

[edge9001]

Where in ga are you?? I'm up north, between chattanooga Tn, and Dalton.

[MLMartin]

east of Atlanta, kinda far away

[millhoff]

We were in West Virgina at my wifes grandmothers who is 93 and her boyfriend who is in his 80's and still takes care of a 150 acre farm by himself. His sickle mower on his Ford 9N tractor broke a while ago and he couldn't fix it because of the work and weight involved so while we were there I replaced it with another one he had. He knew that I was getting into Black Smithing and after I fixed the mower he took me into his barn and showed me a leg vise that he had. He knew I was looking for one and said here you go if you want it, do I owe you anything else for fixing the mower? I tried to pay him for it because I fixed the mower to help him not to get paid and he wouldn't hear of it so I finally thanked him and accepted it.

I wish I would have taken pictures of it before I started working on it because it had set in the barn rusted and froze up for longer than I have been alive (31+ years). It took two days of constant spraying with Aerol Kroil (Best Stuff I have ever found) and a torch to heat it up to get it finally to move. After taking it all apart I used electrolysis (Never have and wanted to play with it) to clean it up. I then took a wire wheel to it to finish the clean up. Then I sprayed it again with the Aerol Kroil and rubbed it in to lube and protect it. The only thing I had to replace on it was the bolt on the leg where the two pieces connect because by the time I got it out it was ruined. When replaceing it I burned the hole a little bigger and put a hardened bolt back in place. Now it works fine. I also made a 3/4 inch round steel plate for the leg to sit on since I'm not going to put a hole in my floor. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product (Still need to attach it to my bench). I consider the price of the vise as free because I was helping him with his mower anyways.

Forgot to add earlier: The vise has a 6" Jaw, Stands about 43" and weighs 95 lbs. --- Also thanks for the advice Frosty, I will see what I have, Thank you.

[Frosty]

A perfect example of what goes around comes around Mark, good for both of you.

About the hardened bolt. Do you REALLY prefer to wear the old wrought iron vise than a cheap easily replaced, soft bolt? I wouldn't put more than a grade 2 bolt in it and hope to have to replace the bolt several times before egging the vise leg hole.

Then again putting a smaller bolt of whatever grade I had handy and sleaving it with a piece of copper pipe with a little oil hole in it might be good for all of it. Moving parts need a wear link at contact points or the most expensive, irreplacable and hardest to change part will wear fastest ala Murphy's Law.

Frosty the Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

I agree that it's over kill; but with the amount of time most of us folks get to spend wearing out our tools; he'd be lucky to have to worry about that problem!

If he keeps the joint greased his great grand kids might have to think about sleeving G-G-D's vise...

I once had a vise with the jaws pretty far out of level that I took apart and heat shrunk and rivited a plug in the original moving leg hole and then drill out a new hole to get the jaws aligned. It's the large old heavy duty/new student vise now...

The screwthread looks in great condition---that and the screwbox are what makes a post vise---everything else can be pretty easily repaired or remade!

[Pault17]

...
If you are really interested let me know I will go and get one for you. I hate to see these things go to waste and would like to help others out. I would like to let them go for as cheap as possible, blower plus S&H. That being said do not ask for all of them.

Let me know,

Scott

Here is a couple more shots of the blower gearbox and fan rust.

Scott,
I know this has been a while, but are there any more?? (picture in your mind a 'smith with hopeful, wrinkled puppydog eyes). I have been away for a few months, but have always been on the prod for a hand-crank blower. you can pm me or answer here

thanks,
paul

[Bentiron1946]

You can make a great set of repousse and chasing tools for silver and copper out of them, also you can make stamps for the same metals. :blink:

[Marksnagel]

This is a coupler knuckle from a train that a new friend gave me to try as an anvil. I previously used an old piece of rail but that had a lot of limitations. I used it laying flat but soon after recessed out the top of the stump and turned it on its end to give me a flatter surface. Until I get an anvil it will do and I'll probably still keep it because it works so good. It weighs @80 lbs. Use what you got.

The forge also has a blower that our farmer landlord told us was out back in the scrap area (farmers storage field). My son cleaned it up and got it working great. It's from Lancaster, PA and has a 1909 patent # on it. The best things in life are free.<><

[edge9001]

let me know how well it works turned on its end like that.
I've been considering turning mine up exactly like you have. it looks like it would provide a flatter and larger surface, only mine is mounted to a stump and I dont wanna ruin that mount incase it doesn't work to well.

[Marksnagel]

Hey Tim, It works really well. There are still 90deg edges and curves available. I'm new at blacksmithing but so far it does what I want. I figured if I didn't like it the new way I would put it back the old way. I can use the pin holes in the ends to bend rods too. I thought about putting a heated rod in one of the pin holes to warm up the anvil and keep my work from cooling too fast. Good idea? Bad idea? What do you think? I'm still in the kindergarden of smithing.

[edge9001]

if your in kindergarten, then I might be in second grade...maybe. howeverI do think the heated rods would do good to heat the anvil, just make sure you dont get it to hot to touch bare handed, if you do that you will ruin the temper in the steel, if there is any in the first place.

I think i will try to change the position of my anvil

[ThomasPowers]

The coupler I used to forge on was broken so it would sit with the flat up on it's own. Worked quite nicely.

[CurlyGeorge]

Just gotta ask. If you guys are in Ga & NC, in August, why would you need to preheat your anvil? :D

[Marksnagel]

Good question Curley,
I am looking forward to the colder months as my forge is outside. When I started forging this last winter/spring, I had that problem. You are right, if anything I need a bucket of ice to stand in now. Almost don't need a fire some days. ;)

[Dragons lair]

Good question Curley,
I am looking forward to the colder months as my forge is outside. When I started forging this last winter/spring, I had that problem. You are right, if anything I need a bucket of ice to stand in now. Almost don't need a fire some days.

Ain't no better indoors. Tried nite forging but the bugs are too bad. I am in the WNC Fairview not the central one
If ya are close to the Asheville area PM me for local guild info.
Ken.

[edge9001]

Just gotta ask. If you guys are in Ga & NC, in August, why would you need to preheat your anvil?

No need to prehat the anvil or anythign until winter hits, like marksnagel said Rigth now it feels like I dont even need to light the forge to form steel. a bucket of ice to stand inwould be great right now. summers get up in the triple digits, and winters get down to and below 0 at times.

My shop is nothing more than a 15x15 box with tin walls supported by minimal wood framing. so I feel all of the tempuratures outside and they get magnified into my shop, even the colder temps get magnified by the tin walls. in the summer I work in an oven and in the winter I work in a cooler, as the tin walls radiate the heat and suck it up with the cold.

I hope to but this time next year have a respectable shop built with a concrete floor and utility services installed in it.

[ThomasPowers]

I sure would like to put an adobe wall on the west side of my sheet metal sided smithy but as dry as it is in NM a fan works pretty well.

I did cheat and did not put the east wall up on the extension---overlooks the neighbor's irrigated alfalfa field which is sure cool and green to look at.

Come winter I'll need to finish the wall to help deal with the winds.

[Bentiron1946]

You got wind in New Mexico? Why to hear tell all New Mexico has is a gentle Zephyr breeze. Adobe would be nice to mitigate the heat and cold but the part I hate is stomping around in the mud pit making the stuff for the bricks. Did that a few times as a kid, I guess you just buy the adobe bricks from the brick yard now. <_<