[TheForge] Power Hammer for Nicaragua

[terry l. ridder]

hello;

okay, sounds like a worthy project. i do have various questions that i
would rather ask here than of a person i do not know.

what does 'abs' stand for?
does anyone know burt foster?
does anyone know of the missionary mike diebert?

depending on the answers i would be willing to underwrite a hammer or
two. it is not clear to me what type of hammer he is looking for. i
assume a treadle hammer. however, he does use the phrase 'power hammer'
throughout the e-mail.

does it cost $3,000.00 usd to build a clay spencer-style power hammer?
i honest do not know, i have never looked at the clay spencer-style
power hammer.


On Sun, 28 Jun 2009, Dave Mudge wrote:

> Dave,
>
> I'm not an ABANA member, I'm an ABS mastersmith, but I have something
> that might be near and dear to a lot of ABANA folks.  I want to know
> if you'd be willing to post the following thread on the ABANA forum.
> If not, that's cool.  I just thought that North American blacksmiths
> would probably be in a position to help out a good cause in a
> not-so-great part of the world.  Thanks, Burt Foster
>
>
>
> Hey guys,
>
> I need some help with something. Anyone who's an ABS member saw the
> story about Jason Knight going to Nicaragua last year to work with a
> guy named Mike Diebert who's an American missionary running a
> blacksmithing trade school in Nicaragua to teach a valuable trade to
> men who have very little options when it comes to supporting their
> families.
>
> After Jason got back, he and I talked several times about returning
> together to work more with Mike and his students on different aspects
> of making knives. A big part of our reason to return was the idea of
> building a power hammer for the school (specifically a Clay
> Spencer-style spare tire hammer). These guys do a ton of forging and
> it's all done by hand. Large work is done by gang hammering with 2 or
> 3 strikers and one man holding the steel. It works but it's not
> efficient and it takes a lot of time. Another problem is that Mike is
> training these guys so they can return to their home towns, open up
> shop for themselves and become self-sufficient. This is hard when they
> face the possibility of going home and having to figure out how to do
> the work of several men alone.
>
> However, the more we thought about, it, Jason and I weren't sure we
> could find what we would need and build the whole hammer in the week
> we were there. I've committed to Mike that I'll get him a hammer one
> way or the other, and the best option as I see it is to buy one here
> and have it sent down on a container. One obvious benefit of this
> style of hammer is that once these guys get a hammer down there and
> start using it, along with a set of Clay's plans, they can figure out
> how it works and begin to build others. This way, when a guy returns
> home, he can take with him a tool that he can use by himself to run
> his own shop and support his family.
>
> What we'd like to do is to raise $3000 for this project so that we can
> buy a hammer in nice condition and have enough left over to send him
> some grinding belts and other things they very much need. (And Mike
> has connections that will allow us to ship the hammer for no cost to
> either him or us).
>
> I think we can send money through his parent organization so I don't
> have to personally take the money, and you can use it as a tax
> write-off if you're so inclined.
>
> For those interested, Mike's web site is:http://www.esvoministries.com
>
> If you can give anything at all, please do. $20, $100, whatever. This
> is a great cause, this guy has a big heart for God and wants to show
> the love of God to these people in a very tangible way.
>
> Contact me at burt at burtfoster.com and we'll nail down all the donation
> information.
>
> Thanks Guys,
> Burt
>
> P.S. If anyone has a line on a hammer, please let me know.
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-- 
terry l. ridder ><>