It followed me home

[JHCC]

Interlibrary loan!

 Lots of good info on ballock daggers. 

[JHCC]

An unusual one: the historic Art Deco movie theater around the corner from work is having some repairs done on the facade, and the workers gave me a chunk (about 1/2” x 6” x 16”) of the original Vitrolite cladding. No idea what to do with it, but you don’t pass up a rare-material-salvage opportunity. 

[gewoon ik]

A buffalo forge.

Those are rare here in eu I think.

Was used as a bbq for the last 40 years.

Blower works, spins 1 turn extra. Is all greasy. No idea how to maintain it.

The forge bottom ia a bit wobly and rusty. Thats the only part.

Do I need clay or anything?

Price was cheap, so even i wasn't looking for a forge, it is hard to pass on it.

[Jobtiel1]

These are indeed very rare, in the Netherlands I've seen 2 champion blowers in 2 years, no buffalo's so far. Very nice catch!!

I've been wanting for a hand crank blower for a while now...

~Jobtiel

[George N. M.]

No need to clay it since it appears to be a steel fire pan.  Claying is to protect the more brittle cast iron pans.

You may need to open up the gear box and spray or pour it some sort of solvent if it appears to be gummed up with old grease.  If it is clean inside just lubricate and put it to use.

I'd say coal is the preferred fuel but charcoal could work with a small bit of modification.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

No need for clay but I would put dirt or refractory in to raise the level to make a ducks nest fire pot or use bricks around the fire grate so the fire would be deeper and not take so much coal to make a deep fire. You can see the mark on the wall of the pan how far it was filled in the past.

For the blower it takes oil not grease and not too much as they are notorious for leaking oil. All in all a very good find. Here is an example of a ducks nest fire pot. I made mine from fire clay because that is what I had on hand.

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus

[gewoon ik]

Thanks.

There is a greasenipple on top of the blower (painted over).

[M.J.Lampert]

got this  a last week for free, needs some fittings but otherwise good. Prior owner replaced it because it started to pump slower

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

18 hours ago, gewoon ik said:

greasenipple

Someone has added that Zerk grease fitting, not knowing the blower is designed to run in oil. It should be a flip or pull open oil port so the operator can squirt a little oil in. The grease will not get into the bearings and stay on the teeth of the gears causing premature wear. The oil system is called a splash oil system where just the teeth of the lowest gear runs in the oil and distributes oil to the other gears and bearings. I like to use 80 wt gear oil or chainsaw bar oil with a little STP mixed in. There a lot of threads about that blower in the Solid Fuel Forges Bellows/Blowers section. Here is just one it shows the oil port that should be on it.

https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/69998-new-buffalo-project/

You might want to start a thread there so it will get more responses.  https://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/64-solid-fuel-forges/

I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sails. ~ Semper Paratus

[gewoon ik]

Thanks. Irondragon. 

Its used as a bbq for the last 20 years orso, so i think the wear will be ok.

But will look into it. Thanks

[Donniev]

This came in a small lof mini swages I bought at auction yesterday, trying to figure out why it's hollow in the center. It has a hardy shank of it so it's meant for the anvil, just trying to figure out why it would be hollow, any ideas? Measures about 3.5"*3.5" 

[Les L]

Just a guess, but I think it’s for scale to fall through 

[Goods]

60degree swages can be used to make hex bar/heads. In that application, the work never reaches the bottom of the swage, but you don’t want the scale to build up. The slots would allow the scale to fall through. (Just a guess…)

Keep it fun,

David

[George N. M.]

I agree that the slots are scale catchers.  Cool idea. However, Goods. the corners on a hexagonal bar or head are, IIRC, 120 degrees.  I don't see how a 60 degree awage could be used.  If I am missing something, please explain.

Thanks,

George

[JHCC]

Hit, rotate 60°, hit, rotate 60°, repeat until done. 

 

This enables you to forge a hexagon of any size, not just the fixed size of a half-hexagonal swage. 

[Goods]

George, 60degree between alternating sides. I was initially confused by this also. Works great for forge welding bundles also (cable damascus and ends of basket weaves).

Keep it fun,

David

[JHCC]

You can use the same method to forge an octagon in a 90° V-swage. 

[Frosty]

Those swages are pretty deep the slots may be to give access for driving stuck bars out. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[Donniev]

Interesting, thanks for the responses everyone, you learn something new every day!

[JHCC]

Finding myself in Rhode Island on a business trip, I stopped in at Exeter Scrap Metal to see what I might see (and that would fit in my suitcase). Picked up a nice big clevis pin that was lying on the ground in the anchor chain section; I’m thinking raising stake. 

There was a LOT of old anchor chain, but I couldn’t find any that was obviously wrought iron. 

[Frosty]

Oh yes, a nice tall raising stake comes i really handy for deep forms. 

Nice score.

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

I was hoping for something I could adapt as tooling for the Hossfeld, but the only thing that was remotely close would have required machining beyond the capacity of my shop. Oh, well. 

[Frosty]

Yeah, improvising tooling for a Hossfeld isn't as easy as it should be. I'd sure like to try though. <sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

[Shainarue]

I took vacation time from work today to drive across Missouri (4hrs one way, 5hrs with traffic jams) to pick up another Buffalo Silent blower which I'll be trading TwistedWillow for a different already functional blower. 

The guy I was buying the blower from had a huge machine shed piled to the rafters with all sorts of blacksmithing and machining equipment and wares. Needed good balance to navigate the path through. He said he used to do a lot of blacksmithing, mostly gates and fixtures, but hasn't done much lately. As I could see, there wasn't room for any blacksmithing until he offloaded some of his accoutrement, lol

Anyway, he told me to poke around and while I was gawking around, he was showing me the pieces he was most proud of. Some really cool stuff honestly. He had a whole row of just old forge tables, one of them looking like a "newer" model of the Buffalo forges. I mentioned I'm currently restoring a Buffalo 0 forge and asked if he had any forge hoods like they used on those tables up on the top shelf. He went scrounging around and found this! It's gonna look great on the Buffalo 0 forge once it's all up and ready. And now I don't have to fabricate one myself. 

 

[George N. M.]

Shaina, cool score.  Coming across a place like that is like being a kid in the candy store and you can't decide how to spend your sweaty dime.  Even if you are forging outside you may want to put a length or two of stove pipe on the forge hood to get the smoke and fumes well above your head.  Also, it will draw better.

GNM