[TheForge] Treadle Hammer History - Bruce Freeman (Long)

[David E. Smucker]

This post is directed to Bruce Freeman, but I thought other of you here on
TheForge might be interested and some might also have more information /
history for me.



I recently did an article for our newsletter (Appalachian Area Chapter of
Blacksmiths Newsletter) on a Clay Spencer Treadle Hammer Workshop.  For this
article, I had done some research on the history of treadle hammers
including using some information supplied by Bruce on his website.  The
earliest treadle hammers I learn about were the "Oliver" hammers used in the
1700's for chain making in England.  Women under sweatshop conditions made
most chain and they used a treadle hammer to help them in this production.
It was called an Oliver - after Oliver "the hammer" Cromwell who led the
Parliamentarian victory in the English Civil War 1642 - 1649.  I also
learned that Old Sturbridge Village Blacksmith Shop in Sturbridge, MA has a
treadle hammer that dates from around 1830.  It used a "wooden spring" and
had it own custom anvil set very close to the floor.



Then we came to the more current era - with my understanding that the first
"modern" treadle hammer was the Gade - Marx swing arm design that became the
early ABANA design.  From Clay I knew that he built one of these hammers in
the mid 1980's and I have assumed that the Gade - Marx design predated this
by only a few years at most with the formation of ABANA in 1976.



Then last night I was reading (rereading) the Otto Schmirler book Werk und
Werkzeug de Kunstschmieds.  (I can look at the pictures).  There on page 99
and 100 was a treadle hammer that was the design on which the Gade - Marx
design was based.  This takes nothing away from the Gade - Marx design, most
designs evolve over time and that is how really good designs are made.  (I
worked with rolling mill designs for 30 plus years, and they are based on
200 years of evolving design.)  In fact while I really like my Clay Spencer
In Line Treadle Hammer, I find the simple Gade - Marx design to be very good
and in some ways better that Clay's revisions prior to the In Line design.
The Fusstritthammer (footboard hammer or kick hammer) shown in Otto
Schmirler's book predates 1980 when the book was first published.  I don't
know by how much.  It is interesting that the return spring is a compression
spring rather than a tension spring as in the Gade - Marx and Spencer
designs and because it is very long (in a tube with a guide bar) an almost
constant force spring.



Anyone have anymore of this history?



Dave Smucker