[TheForge] Re: Minimum Tools (RE: [blacksmiths] Hi, and so it begins.)

[Michael Horgan]

Nice list Andy. I'll have to look into the goat horn hammer.

A Stake Plate  is indeed nice to have, although you can saw a hole through 
a steel plate and bolt it to a stump as well.  One of the neatest tools I 
have is a nicely polished snarling iron I made years ago for working the 
insides of deep vessels.  It drops into the hardy hole of the anvil or into 
the stake plate. I've used it for everything from reshaping silver pitchers 
for repairing  pewter mugs that had been fallen on.   Even worked well 
taking sword dents out of a steel helmet when I was teaching in Britain. 
<GRIN>

I've found a certain synergy in my blacksmithing , gold and silversmithing, 
and now the latest, making copper boilers for small live steam 
locomotives.  Metalworking is metalworking, although scale is 
important.  Soldering prongs onto a ring for stone setting  is different 
only in size from brazing the new nut for a post vise repair. Both need to 
be fitted perfectly for it to work, and the nut will take a lot more heat!

I've been wondering about doing a granulated nickel pattern on steel for 
"damascus" work...


Michael D. Horgan , lughaid@earthlink.net
http://members.aol.com/lughaid/
posting from
  A BRAZEN FORGERY
Blacksmithing and Metalwork
Claremont, Ca.