I burn fuel oil in my forge. I scored almost 250 gallons FREE yesterday when a customer was converting to natural gas! He wanted to get rid of it and the oil company wanted to charge for removal. I did spend $10.00 on a plastic 55 gal. drum to put the 30 or so gallons that wouldn't fit in my tank, but I was very happy with the score. That should keep my forge going until March or so anyway!

I think this was a pretty decent score. Got these from the neighbor across the street's scrap pile. I asked him what he wanted for those items, (the rest was just trash, rusted out drums, fencing and such) he said 'Take what you want. I'm sending the rest to the landfill.' I thanked him for that and loaded everything up, even broke out the weedeater to clear the grass that had grown up around the stuff and picked up all the little pieces of trash. Like someone on here in a previous entry said "leave the place better than when you got there" (paraphrased and sorry I didn't remember who or have the gumption to look back. :) )

 

 

The three pieces of railroad track in the picture are approximately 2', 3' and 4'. There were also five smaller pieces; 8", 8", 9", 11" and 2".

 

About four pieces of 1/2" rebar ranging from 3' to 4'.

 

The flange cover (big metal disc) is about 2' across and 2" thick. I haven't weighed it yet, but it is very difficult to lift into a truck bed by myself...lol. Thinking maybe swedge-block outta this... any ideas?

I have a flange a bit smaller than that that I used for truing up 3 and 4 legged trivets. I have a selection of solid pieces to use on top of it to place the center of the trivet on and then bend/forge the legs till they all are even. I store drifts in the holes when it's not in use.

Ricko13 - I saw the Kijiji post for the rack of tools and thought "I contact them tomorrow." Too late (obviously.) Some great looking and hard to come tools going by the pics. Don Shears Trenton Ont.

In the long ago days of horseshoeing, my client asked me whether I did any blacksmithing ironwork. I said that I was learning to be a smith. He said, "Well, I bought these tongs new back in the 1940's, and I'll never use them," whereupon he gave me a matched set of Stanley Atha tongs. The pair 2nd from bottom is an original ATHA, before Stanley, and they came from the Flea Market. The other seven were given to me.

 

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From bottom to top, bolt tongs: 1/4"; 1/4"; 3/8"; 1/2". Then flat jawed: 1/2"; 3/4"; 7/8"; 1". They were all stamped as to size.

Ricko13 - I saw the Kijiji post for the rack of tools and thought "I contact them tomorrow." Too late (obviously.) Some great looking and hard to come tools going by the pics.Don ShearsTrenton Ont.

They are in good shape, now i just need to figure out all their different uses...

Went by the fleamarket today; bought a lifting eye to make a spoon swage from. I'm thinking of trying to forge this one oval as I have a couple round ones already. I'm going to preserve the screw thread and bolt it into a hardy stem. Hmm if I use Sq tubing I could forge the top into a round swage for working hot sheetmetal and so have a double swage tool. One fellow had about a 20# straight peen sledge with a pipe welded into it for a handle and covered by so many layers of high gloss black paint no markings were visible. Ugh! He also had an old drilling sledge and a RR spike sledge head but wouldn't put a price on them and got insulted when he demanded I make an offer and I did...He seems to want new retail prices on things that are used and at a fleamarket...He does have an old ATHA hammer that's beat up, soft and about 3-4 pounds...and some new shoeing tongs for $35; my old ones that cost me $5 will last longer than I will I reckon.... Thomas

Got an email from a guy I demo'd for this year they were cleaning up an old farm lot and had a bunch of iron/steel and wanted to know if I wanted to look at it. I did mostly old farm machinery pieces and equipment pieces. I figure close to 1200 lbs plow points, shafts, axles, coil and leaf spings. Some wrought iron. The cost is one tomahawk and some flint strikers.

Nice score MO!

these came home with me yesterday from a yard sale not sure what the one with the holes is but it looks neet. the tongs are for hot coal and don't know the about the hammer but learing is half the fun. I spent a total for $5.00 for all

This will be a welcome addition  to my forge. Hopefully it will keep me from cranking as much.

Got it running shortly after these pics were taken. Motor is marked Buffalo Forge and Blower Co. Feb,13,1913.

AC or DC power, 20,30,50,or 60 phase. Rated to same as rheostat.

Got to go to the scrap yard Saturday, thought I was going to get skunked until I got to an area with new stuff dumped and ended up getting 134 pounds including some nice unused strap stock the size I use for teaching fork making---about 40' of it so about 80 student's worth! Also other strap stock a good size for decorative door hinges. 3 wire milk crates---I use them for storage in the shop. Also a wrought iron wagon tyre---I'm up to about a dozen of them now. Finally something I have no clue of what to do with but couldn't stand to see them get crushed and sent to china. About 8 Packard hub caps that look in pretty good shape to my eye having been out in the bone dry west!---Any clue on how to get these to someone who could use them appropriately? Oh Yes: $15 for the lot. (last time the boss told me that 24 cents a pound was the rate and the previous time the helper sold me at 11 cents a pound was *wrong*. This time the Boss sold me at 9 cents a pound??????)

Packard hubcaps, put up on eBay and I'm sure someone will buy them pronto. Aren't you glad the boss was wrong about the 11 cents a pound? Looks like everyone has done well setting out bait so stuff will follow them home. Blacksmiths keep the landfills safe from unnecessary deposition of scrap iron and tools.

Went to an auction about a month ago and picked up a nice ~160lb anvil & a ~102lb swage block for $300. The anvil is real nice shape except for some weld splatter on the face. Its looks like its stamped 1 . 1 . ?. The swage block has damage to the one side around the 1" sq. hole. I didn't notice it when I bought it. I should have flipped it over. To me it looks like either a casting defect or a gouge from a cutting torge.

 

before that I picked up a homemade digging bar I think is wrought iron. I haven't had a chance to investigate further yet.

Old English pattern at appx 160 pounds the marking would be 1 1 2X with X probably be between 0 and 7 as 1 1 would be 140 pounds (1x112 + 1x28) and anvils often shed a few pounds during their use life.

As you will probably not be using the swageblock on both sides simultaneously no problem with the defect.

*Very* good price for the combo!!!

How do you plan to test the digging bar?

On the side of the swage block without the gouge the edges of the holes are more rounded. I was hoping to use the 1" hole to upset some hardy tooling and I'm wondering if the gouge might cause the block to crack there when in use.

 

To test the diggin bar I was going to cut part way through and bend/break the rest of the way & inspect. Also a quick polish & etch.

This plan chest followed me home recently. :D

*Nice* full sized drawings can make making the stuff in steel a lot easier!

Two flatters and a punch in this tool poor area. Only the third time I've seen any tools since I've started looking and the first time it wasn't priced as an antique. Needs new handles but that is easy.

Top one looks like an eye drift for hammers and such, they all look pretty nice. Really nice looking little set hammer there on the bottom.

Jacques, that's a great score!  The set hammer and flatter look pristine, and will certainly be very useful.  

Hi Everyone, 

 

Went to an auction today and everyone else was looking for snow blowers and lawn mowers, so I ended up with this.  

 

29 jackhammer bits for $32.

23 inch rail for $10.

What I believe is an old shear for small bolts and large wire, $7.  It has "The Bench Machine Tool Co. Philadelphia PA" on the label with Type RC1 and a serial number.  Thought the handle alone was worth it.

 

The auctioneer kept bundling items so with the rr track came an assortment of junk, after all, who would want a two foot section of track?

 

I still don't have my forge set up to make any hardy tools, but my friend John has a nice lathe and machine tools so we are going to attempt some cones etc.  Some of the bits are already almost that way already.  I like the one that looks like a meat tenderizer.

 

Kent.

(or queens for queensdudleyanvil) 

 

 

 

"What I believe is an old shear for small bolts and large wire, $7."

 

Those are handy for shearing small rods to length. I took a tour once of a chain factory and the smaller chain machines had them mounted at the infeed end.

QueensDudley, That is a nice haul! Tell me, where was this auction they held? I've been looking for one aroud Frederick, but to no avail!

Hi Ridgeway, 

 

This one was in Boonesborough, but there was nothing special about it.  I go to at least 1 sale a week, and some are good and some you find nothing.  Last week I went for a Peter Wright anvil and it sold for twice what I was willing to spend, but I did walk away with 2 nice tractor suitcase weights.  You just never know.  I have noticed a lot of the heavy equipment and farm sales have a scrap pile that goes really cheap.   I see you are in Woodbine, I'll send you a PM.