July 7, 2025Jul 7 From a garage sale. Straight pein sledge 4.5 kg (10 lb - I am going to have a lot of work cleaning the remains of a metal handle someone welded to the sledge); splitting maul 2.5 kg, sledge 2.5 kg; cross pein machinist hammer (jewelers hammer?) 75 g; carpenter hammer; french hammer 260 g.
July 7, 2025Jul 7 Nice hammers. I especially like the French cross peen. 1 hour ago, caotropheus said: I am going to have a lot of work cleaning the remains of a metal handle someone welded to the sledge It’s possible that the welding spoiled the sledge’s temper, in which case you probably wouldn’t make things worse by burning most of the remains out with a torch. Otherwise, I see a lot of cold-chiseling and filing in your future.
July 7, 2025Jul 7 Your straight pein sledge is a mason's (I think) dressing hammer. I have a 26lb. one I got at a garage sale for cheap, thinking it was a smithing hammer. Works well as one even though it's a stone mason's hammer. Good score, IIRC, the little cross pein (maybe jeweler's hammer) is a "Tin knocker's" or perhaps a copper (red) smith's seam closing hammer. It allows a blow to be struck closing a folded seam against a flat face without hitting the face. If you visualize striking a popsicle stick laying against your wall without hitting or up scraping the wall, you'll have the idea of how the kind of seam I'm trying to describe lays. Frosty The Lucky.
July 8, 2025Jul 8 Out of curiosity I looked into stone mason hammer and found these. Some are dual use for hitting stone and tooling, but some are only for use on stone. Does that mean some are not tempered? I.e. not hardened enough for smithing or am I making to many assumptions again.
July 10, 2025Jul 10 First time posting pictures so sorry if the images are bad. Got these both today for my first post vises. Both screw and unscrew well. Smaller one that I believe is an iron city from the marking is just short of 4 inches with the jaws slightly misaligned but when tightened they touch. The bigger one is just about 5 inches but couldn’t find any markings on it yet. Just hit it with a hand wire brush after work. This weekend I will get them cleaned and make the springs and wedges they are missing. Maybe need a new wedge set for the smaller one. Got them both for $150. Smaller one from a guy who collects them for his basement man cave. The bigger one from a farmer who was gonna mount it on a tractor years ago and then never did anything with it.
July 10, 2025Jul 10 Pretty decent score Neverscared. Good lighting for the photos. THANK YOU! Don't sweat the jaws not being aligned it's common and correctable though a lateral shift is a little more hassle but not bad. The wear on the screw in pic 4 isn't too bad but could be better. If you're interested in "detective" stuff it indicates the approx. size objects the owner clamped most often and or tightest. The wear on the other vise's screw is pretty negligible. The worst effect of worn screws will be opening them after you've put holding pressure on an object. Both handles are straight so nobody used a cheater on either which is unusual but good. This factoid puts a mark on the, most often, side of the reasons for the screw wear in pic 4. You got most of the parts for the mounting bracket too, that's not common. Sure, forging or grinding fresh wedges is common, they tend to wear anyway. 4" & 5" are good sizes. Both have straight legs which is another good indicator for little abuse. Frosty The Lucky.
July 11, 2025Jul 11 A bit of wire wheel and brushing and I uncovered these on the bigger vise. Any ideas?
July 11, 2025Jul 11 Perhaps a 2 or a 7 and a 0 on the back of the jaw. -80 on the . . . mounting plate? The little squiggly incisions look like somebody made a habit of tapping the vise with a tool while s/he was working. Could've all be in one session. Frosty The Lucky.
July 11, 2025Jul 11 There’s a c and an h just barely visible right below the squiggles. Honestly I’m just happy that it’s cleaning up so well.
July 11, 2025Jul 11 I can't see them though I do see what appear to be regular marks. Yeah, while it's interesting to know about your tools and equipment's history it doesn't effect how useful they are. I'm not a collector, I'm a maker and use my tools. I'm still interested in the what, who and when of them though. Frosty The Lucky.
July 11, 2025Jul 11 Good Morning 821, Typical Post Vice that has been used, the long post will have a bend from hard tightening, over time. The strength of a thread is rarely realized. If you close the Jaws and the top of the Jaws don't close tight, one of the legs has a bend. Typically, I set the long leg across a Hydraulic Press, with maybe a couple 2x4's to control where you will bend it to straighten it. It is not hardened, it will not crack. Use a yard stick as a straight edge and you will get it fairly close. Yes, it will bend again, over time. Do the same thing again. It is a Tool to be used for what it was made to do. It is not a museum piece or a piece of jewellery. You can clean it up and paint all the pieces, the pieces don't have to be the same colour (paint it like a Harlequin. Have fun with it), it is still made to do a Job. Sometimes the numbering on the different pieces is just the Part Number, that the Manufacture used when the pieces are/were made. Enjoy your Tools and Equipment. They are yours to do as you please! You don't need to ask anyone for Permission!! Neil
July 11, 2025Jul 11 No worries about them becoming museum pieces with me. The plan this weekend is to rip them apart, clean and degrease them, build a stand, put it back together and start hammering/twisting away with them. I was more just curious if someone off hand happened to know. I think i will skip the paint for some BLO and heat.
July 12, 2025Jul 12 Good plan, tools are meant to be used. One thing to make for the vice's are a set of different thicknesses of spacers to put in the opposite side of the jaws from the work piece to keep the jaws even when closing them hard . https://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/49131-whats-wrong-with-my-post-vise/ I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~
July 19, 2025Jul 19 It'd sure be nice but I doubt we're going much of anywhere this year. <sigh> Frosty The Lucky.
July 28, 2025Jul 28 Some goodies I picked up today. I have been hunting for a Edwards no. 10 shear for a long time now and I found one thirty miles away for a great price. I walked through the guy's barn and snatched up more; I'm glad I brought extra cash just in case. The Edwards shear needs a new upper blade, but is serviceable as-is. I tested it on some 5/8" square, 3/4" round, and 1/2" x 2" flat bar; worked great. The guy I got this stuff from is an antique dealer that recently bought out the shop of an old blacksmith in Jefferson, GA, that passed away several years ago; a fellow by the name of Strickland. Did anyone know him? He had a couple pieces of SBA and ABANA memorabilia from the shop, but I had no use for it. Maybe someone that knew him would be interested.
July 28, 2025Jul 28 Yep, picked it all up from the same guy today. He's a local antique tool dealer who like to overprice his anvils, but his other stuff was pretty reasonable.
August 1, 2025Aug 1 Today we were clean up around a new brazing furnace at work. A decision was made to throw away the excess ceramic insulation, so I got a scrap tag for it: Best part is I researched this material when it was brought into the plant due to safety concerns, it’s a bio-compatible ceramic insulation (made me feel better about how carelessly it was being handled) with a max working temperature of 2550F. Keep it fun, David
August 1, 2025Aug 1 Goodness David, my heart goes out to you when I think of the size forge you've committed yourself to build! SWEET score, biocompatible ceramic blanket refractory is becoming industry standard or was last time I looked. Frosty The Lucky.
August 2, 2025Aug 2 Nice! I didn’t take a photo of the thing itself, but someone was throwing away an ash and rawhide firewood basket like this one: This has now been disassembled into a pile of future tool handles and some rawhide, which I’m sure will come in handy.
August 2, 2025Aug 2 Goods, what a great haul! Lifetime supply or maybe make a little money selling it, eh? JHCC I love free stuff like that. I don't see things much anymore. People must hold onto stuff these days which I don't blame them
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