Pie Posted August 31 Share Posted August 31 Hello, me grandfather are working on restoring a forge to working order. it has likely not been in use for at least 50 odd years but is more likely to be closer to 80 or more. also I am uncertain if this is the right topic to be posting in so if its not please let me know. I would give to building a estimate foot print of 15ft by 40 ft. it has wide rough cut planks on the walls with wide gaps between its roof is of tin. it has a very tall roof with slopes on both sides the forge is made of stone that had a bellows then a buffalo blower. The anvil is mouse hole Armitage with some wear on cornor but otherwise fine Photos of building attached bellow The forge I do apologize for the poorly done photos ill try to get better ones tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Welcome aboard Pie, glad to have you. This is a fine place to ask questions about building, rebuilding, restoring, etc. shops. Boy, restoring an old smithy is quite a project, do you or your Grandfather do any blacksmithing? In the day there wasn't ONE way to do anything outside areas strongly controlled by guilds, say New York or similar. A small town smithy would've been more generalized fix it, make it shop though not so much only 50-80 years ago. Were this my project I'd start by cleaning out and cataloguing the tools, products and fixtures inside. You can learn a lot by the tools and equipment in a shop. For example heavy bar shears and a roller could indicate enough wagon wheel work to justify the expenditure. A wide variety of punch sizes could indicate lots of riveted work, a number of rivet sets would add a check in that column. What kinds of hammers are there? Don't confuse them with "top tools" like movie makers do. Bottom tools look like top tools but don't have handle eyes, they have hardy shanks. . . Probably. Is the forge concrete, or lime mortared / dry lay stone? A shop's rafters is an excellent place to store stock, be it, round, square, flat, etc. bar steel or wood. What's the square beam in the rafters with the holes in it? How close is it to the forge, anvil or benches? I'd almost think it could be an adjustable place to hang a chain fall or chain loop to help support long stock in the forge or on the anvil. Of course that's just a WAG, it might be up there to get it out of the way until it could be sawed into something more useful. I'd be digging into the iron work on the forge myself. Any I couldn't ID myself I'd lay out on a sheet of something NOT rust colored and with space between them. Maybe group by common characteristics, say things with square shanks in one group or with handle eyes in another group out in the open with good light and walk around taking a pic from all 4 directions. Show us stuff like that and we'll be all over it. We love this kind of stuff almost as much as we love pictures! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitewill1412 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 That's awesome. I would love to have something like that to spend my time on. Keep us updated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Welcome from the Ozark Mountains. I would say you have a job ahead of you, however it will be well worth it to get the old shop working again. Any questions as you progress will be welcome. Remember the only dumb question is one never asked. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s.~ Semper Paratus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 2 hours ago, Frosty said: wood. What's the square beam in the rafters with the holes in it? Show us stuff like that and we'll be all over it. We love this kind of stuff I do some blacksmithing I'm working right now on getting better That square beam is a seed planter that someone shoved up there actually a dude note about most those beams alot of them are adjustable you can move them around. On another note about the wall in the outside shot there is that it use to have a large door there The tools that were in there were mostly removed but when they did that they didn't do a great job on it a couple hardie tools were left, a blower (that I already got to work again) a hammer that still had the handle, a handled punch(I'm very much unsure about that but that's what it strikes me as) sadly the vise appears to be gone Any tools I find I've been throwing on a plank of wood I'll probably upgrade that to a door scrap The forge from what I can tell is morterless stone except that small wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Welcome aboard from 7500' in SE Wyoming. Glad to have you. A couple of thoughts: If you are planning to use this shop year around you will probably have to make it more weather tight. Even in VA the winters can get cold and wet. You may want to put up battens (thin strips of wood) over the gaps in the walls. You may need to decide what time frame to which you are planning to restore the shop. If you are planning to make it Civil War era you will need a manual bellows, probably a 2 chamber "great" bellows, since crank blowers did not come in until about the 1890s. If you are doing early 20th century that will add and subtract certain tools. Do you have power to the building? That has major ramifications even if you are using all non-electric equipment. If you are going to actually use the shop once it is restored two of your early purchases should be a 5-10 pound dry chemical fire extinguisher and a carbon monoxide detector. You may want to contact the local affiliate of the Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. They may have some valuable suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 27 minutes ago, George N. M. said: planning to use this shop year around you will probably have to make it more weather tight. Your probably right about that even as mad as I've been called I don't think I would enjoy the cold that much As for the time frame I think I'm going to go for just after the 1900s as that Is probably the last time the shop was in use and I because I already got a buffalo blower from in there to work. I am restoring it to working order mostly probably with no electric tools will be about the constraints I'm putting on it There is currently no power my current plan is ti have a car battery hooked up to a solar panel out side (battery hidden with a wood box or ammo box ) and then just run some lights off of it, or to install some old we have windows on the ceiling. Luckily for most of safety stuff I already have that laying around (goggles aprons fire extinguishers) I also plan on getting some burn spray to toss in there I'll do that as well as getting around to talking to my local guild -Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 Heres some photos of some cool stuff I found The blower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 You may want to use a metal detector or a large magnet to recover more stuff. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Uh. . . Pie. You posted the addresses of pictures on YOUR computer and seeing as you are the only one connected to it all I see are links to nowhere instead of pictures. Try this, do a "Save As" to a folder on your computer, and edit as you wish. Then do a cut or copy and paste it in the post to the forum. That copies and pastes it as an image rather than a file address. Make sense? Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Posted September 2 Author Share Posted September 2 4 hours ago, Frosty said: Uh. . . Pie. You posted the addresses of pictures on YOUR computer and seeing as you are the only one connected to it all I see are links to nowhere instead of pictures. Oops sorry about that frosty here is atempt 2 I'm putting this one as separate so that it jumps out more but this at the end of the blower pipe and seems too small to be a fire pot but it the only thing I can think of. air blows though it around that lip of the inner part there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 No sweat Pie, it's just part of the forum's learning curve. No idea what the first pic is. What's it made of? It looks like concrete of some sort but . . . ? Nice blower, avoid taking it apart at all costs, putting them back together makes PITA an understatement. Expect it to make occasional scraping noises, the fan blades tend to do that. Just a few drops of oil at the beginning of a session is plenty. I don't know if this model has a case with what appear to be level plugs but if it does do NOT fill it! Then tend to leak oil till almost dry if you do. The short round object with the handle eye in the next pic is a punch. I don't know what the blade looking thing on the square shank it. It might be a bottom tool if the shank fits the hardy hole in the anvil but that's just a WAG. Next down on the left might have been a hatchet or maybe a tack hammer. The one to the right might have been an axe blade but that guess is based on the apparent curve to the edge on the right and what might be a lug. The bottom pic is a type of air blast, usually seen in larger forges. I've seen pics and folk on this forum have described how they work but it's been years and I don't recall how they deal with clinker. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pie Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 1 hour ago, Frosty said: No idea what the first pic is. What's it made of? It looks like concrete of some sort but . . . ? avoid taking it apart at all costs, putting them back together makes PITA an understatement. The bottom pic is a type of air blast, usually seen in larger forges. I've seen pics and folk on this forum have described how they work but it's been years and I don't recall how they deal with clinker. Its made out of something cast and has a shank that fits the hardie hole I made that misatake luckly we all on this farm are half a mechanic half the time Well now i know ehat to look for geuss ill be checking air blasts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted September 16 Share Posted September 16 On 9/2/2024 at 10:10 PM, Pie said: Its made out of something cast and has a shank that fits the hardie hole In my humble opinion, the bottom tool for possible forming tenons. That said, my personal preference is that a properly built, balanced, and installed grand bellow is much more enjoyable and less strain on my poor shoulder than cranking a blower. Plus, the click click of a grand bellows, to me, is the calming sound of the heart and lungs of the blacksmith shop.... Just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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