[TheForge] Making a Shovel

[Chris Worsley]

Yikes Jeff, that would reveal my secret path to success with colonial 
reproductions made for historical sites! ;-)
I would ask the docents and the white glove wearers at plantation sites 
if they cared about the process, and they were only interested in exact 
copies that they could let the public touch.
They could not care less how they were made, or that I dated and signed 
them to keep them from being mistaken for the real thing.
Few knew the diff between iron and steel, and as long as things were 
black and scuffed in the proper places, with perhaps a little rust here 
and there from years of  humidity, they were happy.

Chris


Jeffrey Polaski wrote:

>>put it in the fire and hammer till it looks like the 1860's.
>>    
>>
>You should but that in your sig!
>
>Jeff Polaski
>Research and Graduate Studies Webmaster
>University of California, Irvine
>http://www.rgs.uci.edu/
>949.824.6363
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Chris Worsley
>Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 1:43 PM
>To: Bob Ehrenberger; Sponsored by ABANA
>Subject: Re: [TheForge] Making a Shovel
>
>How important is this? Is the shovel going into a museum, or perhaps a 
>historical site where someone will lecture on the making of Civil War 
>shovels in detail?
>One thing you could do is try to get the seller of the shovel on ebay to
>
>send you a picture of the back of the blade. He has no buyers as of now 
>and might do it if you sound interested.
>Otherwise I would just  forge weld a socket on the back and rivit the 
>handle in place.
>If forge welding thin stock is a problem, mig it, put it in the fire and
>
>hammer till it looks like the 1860's.
> 
>Chris
>  
>