A Year Later

A year later. 

Too much to do, not enough time- same old excuses.  You could call the last year "R&D", you could call at least two months of last year "Moving Giant Machines Around and Digging Giant  Holes". You could also simply call it "Getting Ready". 

I  made a lot of things last year, so many of them worth uploading here, but I'm going to limit myself to showing five or six images of work, just to help get the old Blog show back on track.

three traditional, forge welded carpenters axes of various styles

Small jewelers raising hammer

Nano Carving axes

The real changes have been in the heavy equipment field. 

The first, resounding addition to my arsenal is my 1921 Massey 2 CWT (110kg) power hammer which I bought, stripped, rebuilt, restored and installed last summer.   Here is a photo of her in her freshly applied green (6002 emerald Green! ) warpaint. I will do a blog entry all about her very soon. Including a few videos of her throwing down. 

Needless to say, the metal moving capability of this beast is simply remarkable compared to my 30kg goliath spring hammer. I am now limited by the metal I can heat up and carry, rather than the size of stock I that my gear can handle.

So that takes care of the large end of the spectrum. I have also collected my first ever piece of NEW (except hand tools such as grinders etc..) equipment, this Anyang 25kg (55lb)

I bought this hammer to compliment my new "annex" workshop which houses our traditional solid fuel  forge and also provide a real delicate, finessed type of hammer blow (that is not to say the Massey is not controllable- you can really be very delicate with it if required)



This brings us on to the Coke forge itself, which has been a wonderful addition and so pleasant to use after years of standing next to gas furnaces. I was "brought up" on a solid fuel forge and having the use of  it really feels like coming home in a lot of ways. It was all fine and dandy until after only 10 weeks of use the forge fan, after only the slightest adjustment to the electrical "rheostat"  controls made a loud pop and caught fire. This lead to a 5 week wait on a replacement fan and after installing the new one, the rheostat doesn't work properly so I am stuck permanently on "half air", which for these fans is an awful lot, so my fuel consumption is rather high. these frustrations are sent to try us, I am sure. ...

My Dad using the Forge

You can't have a forge without an anvil! So here is my lovely 2cwt, wrought double bick. possibly made by Peter Wright but stamped "Birmingham" (manufacturers of all sorts of things used to sell on stock to distributers back then and mark them as they wished. it's possible that this anvil is a "second" and thus not stamped PW)  The stand was a nice bit of improve- a basic frame made up in steel then lined with scrap pallet wood and filled with concrete.  The base weighs around 150 kg and is totally stable. It is also ideal for fixing tool racks onto as you can fix straight into the concrete with rawl plugs and coach screws. After a few days use, enough iron scale had worked its way under the feet of the anvil to totally deaden the ring. Tidy.

Ive also picked up this nice vertical bandsaw  (which promptly caught on fire after it's second use, causing an all out panic as the "on-fire" parts were totally sealed away under a panel held on with  eight Allen key screws...) after the fire was dealt with (it was an electrical fault in the inverter) it sat, sulking in the corner for over a year awaiting me to organise and install replacement parts. Which I did!... eventually..

Since it's resurrection, I have been very pleased with its performance, and overall usefulness.

I also bought a large pedestal grinder which... promptly caught on fire! (old age, the motor was just fully burned out). The grinder is still sulking, or is it me that is sulking...? Anyway- anyone want a grinder?- it's cheap! )

Between re-organising my workshop, spending all of my money on century old cast iron and putting out electrical fires, I have also spent a good amount of time working with my friend and all round good egg Owen Bush on various exciting projects including this giant sword for this years "Arctic Fire"  as well as other things.

Six Months Of Progress

Neglected for months, left abandoned without even a passing hello, this page has sat....

September to May is quite a pause- so Happy Halloween,  Xmas and new year, St valentines, Easter,  May Day and soon to-be Whitsun.

The flat reality has been that I have simply been too busy to maintain this page effectively so i will do a keep run-through over a handful of blog post to bring the page up-to-date with various projects and works I've engaged with since my last post.

With big changes a comin' to how I work,  I am also (AGAIN!!) re-affirm my promise to hold this page in a better state of maintenance with more regular postings.

In order to rattle through the last couple of months of work, I'm going to pick out a heap of pictures to post here today and then revisit the subjects in coming weeks to discuss them in greater detail.

Also, would just quickly like to thank HUNDREDS of you who drop in regularly to see if there’s anything new…. Sorry for the wait!

 Research trip to Ernest Wright and Sons scissor factory, Sheffield

 

Saddle grinders

 

Unfinished blanks

 

A proper furnace!

 



Decorated Forestry Axe

Experiments in Scandinavian socketed axes

 

Scissor and shear forging

Wrought Iron Bell Clappers

forestry and carving axe

 

Medieval carpenters axe

Hook Knife

Old dutch style trowel

 

Hand forged wrought iron left-handed Thumb-bow for tailors cutting shears. (More to come!)

 

Stone Mason's Toothed "axe"

 

5lb Jersey Pattern felling axe

Ripple Ash hafted camp axe

 

"swan neck" gouge

 

Wrought Iron and steel Hunter's Knife

Forging Tailors Shears- more pictures to come!

Photos by Anna Lucia Sadler

Portland works- Andy Cole.

I have known of Sheffield' Portland Works for sometime but a few months ago I decided to head down and check the place out for myself.

The heritage of this place is impressive, being the main building associated with original conception and implementation of stainless steel. http://www.portlandworks.co.uk/history/the-tale-of-portland-works-and-the-invention-of-stainless-steel

The premises is also unique as it is the only property of it's type still standing in its original use as a site of metalworking and cutlery. all others having been demolished or converted.

This time, I came to meet with  tool maker who occupies the original 19thC smithy in the centre of the courtyard- Andrew Cole.



Andy first started working at this forge in 1978, first under Wigful Tools and later his own company.
Whilst I was there we discussed the kind of work he had on at that time, which included forging several hundred socketed wood carving chisels.

I took some footage of him working that shows his well rehearsed and impressive "spinning" technique that means the work is put into "closed dies" that are each one half of the final form you are making. By keeping the work turning evenly you create a smooth finish on the work.

Loud video

 

I had some real envy over some of Andy's gear, particularly his larger Paterson mech hammer but his more unusual equipment included his old fashioned saddle grinder.

These large wheel stone grinders used to be common around Sheffield and other blade making centres around Europe but have now largely disappeared. Its always impressive to see them running...  and to think that there used to be many, very much lager stone wheel in use.








Andy's knowledge and breadth of experience is impressive and his workshop is pretty much an ideal set up for forging tools.

Im a little jealous....

Forging a Tudor Hammer

Once again I find myself apologising for a long rest between postings and a promise of more regular updates from here-on….

 

Months ago, a customer and friend asked me to make him a carpenter’s claw- hammer head with a form strongly based on several historic examples from the Tudor era.

Whilst not having the opportunity to study any of the originals myself, I was provided with a range of photographs that clearly showed the dimensions of the object. 

 

 

Not being able to view the original also means not being able to determine exactly how they were made, but it can be a safe bet that they were not made from a single piece of steel, more likely an iron body with forge welded steel face and claws.

It just so happens that, at the time, I had some antique “shear steel” that was a close approximation of the steel that might have been used on the original hammers we were trying to emulate. 

The first job was to fold and weld the shear onto itself to produce a piece of stock large enough to form the face and the claws.  

 

also made up a piece of wrought by the same process of “stacking” and welding.

 

 

Both the face and the claws were welded on by forming them into a “staple” shape wrapping around the wrought- they were hammered tight and then forge welded together.

 
After both ends of the hammer had its steel parts attached, a hole was punched and worked until it was the desired shape.

 

 

 

The whole hammer was the filed and details added as seen on the original examples.

 

Most of these great pictures were taken by Robert Nicholson who also happens to be a very skilled Greenwood worker. Here’s his Fb page.

https://www.facebook.com/Robsgreenwoodwork


Thanks Rob!