[TheForge] barn repairs which relate to blacksmithing

[Adam Whiteson]

Seems almost certain they are soft iron or steel.  If they are forged then 
they will be from a time when steel was very expensive. And even if from a 
later date,  manufacturers seem to avoid the use of hardenable steel unless 
it's absolutely necessary.  After all, it's still more expensive to begin 
with and even more expensive to heat treat properly.  What if it didn't get 
hardened right and cracked?  What if it got hot later because it was too 
near a stove flue and softened?    I would be confident that it's soft 
steel and that  modern structural steel would be more than adequate to 
replace these brackets.

Adam



At 12:17 AM 12/12/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>hello;
>
>i spent a little time today inspecting the barn
>and found a few places that need to be repaired.
>
>several of the loft floor joists are cracked and
>sagging. in finding places where the loft joist
>were spliced there are roughly 2ft long by 4 inches wide
>by 13 inches tall black steel/iron upside-down "saddles".
>
>these show hammer marks so they were definitely forged.
>
>poor ascii art below ( definitely not to scale ):
>
>     ++   ++    +-------------------------------+
>     ||   ||    | cb   cb               cb   cb |
>     ||   ||    |                               |
>     ||   ||    |   cb                    cb    |
>     ||   ||    |                               |
>     ||___||    | cb   cb               cb   cb |
>     \_____/    \_______________________________/
>
>cb = carriage bolt, which passes through the steel/iron
>upside-down "saddle" and the loft floor joist. bolts look
>to be 3/4 inch in diameter.
>
>the loft joists look to be actual 2x12s and not 1.5x11.25s.
>
>would anyone have any suggestions as to what grade of
>steel/iron these "saddles" could be made of?
>
>btw, the loft is huge. i have no ideas at the moment what
>i would do with the area. my son said he would play basketball
>up there. you could play basketball easily in the loft area.
>
>there is old rigging for handling hay and straw bales which
>looks to be in need to repair also.
>
>lord willing, i may have a shop and storage space in the future.
>
>--
>Terry L. Ridder
>Blue Danube Artistic Forge (Blaue Donau Kunstschmiede)
>"We do not bend metal, we sculpt it."
>
>digging deep, i feel my conscience burn
>i need to know who and what i am
>this hunger jolts me from complacency
>rocks me, makes me meet myself
>----kendall payne--closer to myself---
>
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