It followed me home

[Frosty]

Oh yeah, 16ga. steel wouldn't be an issue to those. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Sharpening the jaws?!? Why didn't I think of that?
 

[Nobody Special]

Because you were too busy fighting a bit of sheet metal. Happens, you get so frustrated by the thing that you can't look past it. One time I spent three days cussing Mopar for not using brass freeze plugs BEHIND THE BLOODY FLYWHEEL (not that I'm still angry about it) on my 2nd generation Ram.

To save something like $0.20 per car, they went with shallow stainless steel cups, which of course rotted out. So to replace an 80-cent part you have to drop the trannie, which means the driveshaft, exhaust, etc, and take a cross member out. Went fine, took a few hours, but then the cross member wouldn't go back in. After two days of banging, cussing, prying with a spud wrench and going deaf, I realized that with the cross member out, the frame had sagged inwards. 

Not much, maybe a quarter inch and a little, but enough that you couldn't make the cross piece go in for love or money. I didn't have a jack long enough, so I put a bit of 4x4 between the frame rails diagonally, then hammered it straight to push them apart, and wouldn't you know, it went back in and got the bolts in, in maybe 5 minutes. I swear the theme song for 2nd generation Rams should be the Masochism Tango.

[JHCC]

Mail call: a new addition to the library, and some pieces for replumbing the gas supply on the forge. 

[caotropheus]

On 10/7/2024 at 11:02 PM, Julianb said:

Hello,

I have found yet another small vise, I couldn't pass upon. Not for it being sold 250m away from my workplace.

Slightly damaged, but for 25€...

 

Cheers!

I have a locksmith vice very similar to  this one. They are very nice and mine is made out of wrought iron 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8N0G7NMlFQ

 

[Goods]

Not today, but earlier this week and just opened today:

Delivered from Blacksmith supply…

Keep it fun,

David

[George N. M.]

NIce.  How heavy?  Is the other side flat or does it have other shapes? 

Do you have any idea how you will use the various shaped holes.  I have never really figured out a use for them except to lighten the weight a bit.  And, yes, you can put hardy tools in some of them or use them as a backer for punching but you have your anvil hardy hole available and you would need a serious power hammer or press to punch something the size of many of the holes.

Are you going to build a stand for it?

[Goods]

The underside is flat. My main purpose for this is drifting hammers/hatchets and upsetting hardie tools. (It will be setup just outside my normal working triangle (forge, anvil and power hammer)

I already built a basic stand shown in another thread…

Keep it fun,

David

[caotropheus]

Not mine, I just helped a friend gather this haul. We can say "It followed him home". The big anvils weigh on the range of 180 kg to 220 kg. The small anvil weighs about 50 kg, it is in lovely condition and has a rebound above 90%. He refuses to sell it to me  The vice is a French bench vice also in lovely condition. There were some hot cuts of different sizes among the hand tools he bought (including several sickles of different sizes). I kept the sheep shears, nice addition to may scissors collection.

[JHCC]

On the road for work, picked up a trio of volumes at an old-school used bookstore:

[JHCC]

And ten bucks well spent at a used tool place outside Albany, NY. 

[TommyVee]

So, this isn't quite a fit to this thread, but this item followed my wife home from a hike off in BLM land in New Mexico, where elk are common.  We think it might be some kind of meat hook, and it's probably been out there for a very long time.  Can anyone identify it?  

 

 

[TommyVee]

(I should have been clearer in that post, but our guess about a meat hook was based on guessing that it was something that was used by elk hunters in that area)

[Daswulf]

I don't know but it sure gives me mammoth scrapart vibes. Cool find. 

[JHCC]

Vibes for scrap art of a mammoth, or vibes for scrap art on a mammoth scale?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

To me it looks like an adjustable game Gambrel for large & heavy game. The top part (ring) to hang it is missing. I saw one similar at a pig farm but not in use when I was there so I'm guessing. If the hooks will pass each other, it also could be a claw hook used in logging. Was there any timber operations there in the past?

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

[TommyVee]

I think you're onto something there about the game gambrel.  That's a new word for us, and helps us look it up some.

I don't think it's a logging hook because the hooks are very rigid and can't pass each other --- they can flex a little bit toward the center (which I think is what that sliding ring is there to control), but can't move at all in the plane of the hook.

The top ring is clearly broken off.

The area is piñon-juniper forest, but in fairly remote, deep canyons and not likely to have been heavily logged.  It was, however, found not far from some ruined homesteads from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.  Its use for hanging game seems very likely.

[Frosty]

Looks like a game hanger or gambrel to me. I haven't seen one like it in a long while and am almost certainly misremembering what that one looked like. The hooks were on a hinge pin so they would fit different animals. Those pictured above might've been hammered out on a farm to hang hogs or similar small animals.

That's just my guess of course I could be wrong.

Frosty The Lucky.

[caotropheus]

This is the third time I've been helping a friend transport blacksmithing/antique items for his business, 2 hour drive. 

This time  I got this payment 

She weighs 24 kg, arrived from France (either French or Belgian origin) rebound above 90%

Next step: electrolysis cleaning 

[JHCC]

Nice!

[gewoon ik]

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

Nice!

That is in france, so could be

[Frosty]

Got you there John!

That's a good looking anvil Gewoon the edges and face don't appear damaged and it only has surface rust. When Americans say, "nice," in a situation like this we're referring to the condition of what we're looking at. Not it's location. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Not to be confused with Nicea, which is the ancient name for İznik, Turkey. 

[Gazz]

Tommy Vee I look at that thing and I see what looks like an iron wheel hub and two spokes that were modified.  It doesn't look like the small end ever had a pivot or hinge especially in the last picture.

[TommyVee]

I agree, there is no hinge and the hooks don't pivot.   And yes, the place where the hooks join does look a lot like a broken wheel hub.

The hooks are rigidly attached to the "hub" and there is a sliding ring looped around them that looks like it was meant as a keeper to hold them closer were they to be squeezed together.   But there is not much flex in the hooks, so I don't see much point in that ring being there.

If this really was some item left behind by a homesteader, I could easily picture it being a broken wheel repurposed and reshaped into some sort of tool like a gambrel.