[TheForge] Making needles?

Mon Oct 14 01:51:16 EDT 2013

Bruce, There's a smith named James Joyce up around the Russian River in N Cal,
who freehand forges needles on request.
I talked to him about it when i was forging fish hooks some years back.
He had a fair failure rate but much less than mine.
He had a block of hard steel that he set up right in the forge as an anvil,
so he could duck in and out of the fire frequently with only a few inches of travel.
I ended up clamping a small torch so that it hit the anvil face at an angle
 and i could move in and out of the bounce flame while hammering.
He must have had a shallow groove in the little anvil.
My vague memory is that he used a special chisel to split and drift the eye after it was flattened a bit.
Music wire or spring wire ought to make decent feedstock, but if you are going to 
forge it out from larger stock, some S1 might be more forgiving.

On Oct 13, 2013, at 9:19 PM, Bruce . wrote:

Jerry,
That would be the answer if those damned needles were reasonably priced --
like, if I could find them in a local store.  The cheapest I can find
anything that meets the description is $5 EACH (as compared to about $1
each for a high quality sewing machine needle).  I can do as well to buy
the entire sewing awl kit at Harbor Freight (though the points may need
sharpening).

BTW, I cut off the needle I'm using now.  Breaking was an option, but
without knowing how brittle the needle was, and especially since the shank
is not round, but is slotted (for the thread), cutting was the better
option.

What I'm really looking for is a shortcut for centering a punch on a wire.
A V-block could come into play, but there's still the need to align the
punch.  No doubt I could figure out how to do this, but I wondered whether
the approach was already known.

The best idea I've had so far:  Clamp two metal blocks together and drill a
small hole along the seam.  Separate the blocks.  Through one of them,
drill a (larger?) hole centered on the seam and perpendicular to it.  Then
make a centerpunch to fit the larger hole.  Clamp wire into the pair of
blocks, insert centerpunch, and give it a whack.

Still, I'd rather do this without making custom tooling, if possible.

On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 11:42 PM, Jerry Frost <akfrosty at mtaonline.net>wrote:

> Sorry Bruce, I just realized you said you only need a couple few needles.
> Buy Speedystitch needles and trim them to fit. Snap them or use a Dremel
> size abrasive cutoff.
> 
> http://www.speedystitcher.com/
> 
> I've had mine for probably 50 years, it's de bomb.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce .
> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 5:30 PM
> To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Making needles?
> 
> Actually, here's an even better video on needlemaking, as it shows much
> more
> about how the tooling is made and used.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxmJ167obYw
> 
> And here's an article about the largely hand methods used in the 19th
> century:
> 
> http://www.interweave.com/needle/projects/Needlemaking-Article.pdf
> 
> 
> On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 8:39 PM, Bruce . <freemab222 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I need a few needles of dimensions I can't find commercially.  The
>> application is a sewing pliers (US Patent 1,352,508).  I have one of
>> these pliers and it's great for repairing those damned silly running
>> shoes you can't seem to avoid these past forty or so years.
>> 
>> The needle needs to be about 1" long, maybe 1.25", "heavy" thickness
>> (equivalent to a #8 Tandy sewing-awl needle).  Therein lies the rub --
>> cutting off the commercial needle to an appropriate length gives a
>> needle that isn't quite appropriate for mounting in the sewing pliers.
>> I have done this and it can be made to work, but such commercial
>> needles are not cheap and I'd prefer to make my own than to pay the
>> price for what ends up being a second-rate needle.
>> 
>> (BTW, sewing-machine needles seem all to be too long and too thin,
>> though I'm looking into them further.)
>> 
>> Now, commercial needles are made like this:
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZJPpuL2sqQ
>> 
>> In my case, I needn't follow exactly this procedure (even omitting the
>> machines), but I think the stamping approach to making the eyes might
>> be the most feasible, if reduced to hand-scale.  I envision partially
>> flattening the end of a (round) wire, then centerpunching enough to
>> mark and spread the flat, and either punching it through or drilling
>> it through.  This would result in a large round hole, which could be
>> cleaned internally of burrs, then "flattened" laterally to produce the
>> traditional long, narrow needle eye.
>> 
>> So the question come down to:  How to centerpunch a small, partially
>> flattened wire such that the punch is exactly centered?  Seems to me
>> that jigs would be needed, and I haven't figured out simple jigs that
>> would work.  Ideas would be welcome.
>> 
>> I've considered, but haven't tried, starting with oversized wire and
>> puncing an eye in that (presumably easier than smaller stuff), then
>> grinding or filing off the excess.  I've considered folding over the
>> end and welding it to itself to make the eye.  These both seem like a
>> lot of extra work.
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Bruce
>> NJ
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Bruce
> NJ
> ______________________________________________________________
> TheForge mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:TheForge at mailman.qth.net
> 
> TheForge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.shutterfly.com
> Login: blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
> Password: anvil
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> TheForge mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:TheForge at mailman.qth.net
> 
> TheForge mail list group photo site is
> http://www.shutterfly.com
> Login: blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
> Password: anvil
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> 

-- 
Bruce
NJ
______________________________________________________________
TheForge mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/theforge
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:TheForge at mailman.qth.net

TheForge mail list group photo site is
http://www.shutterfly.com
Login: blacksmithblacksmith at hotmail.com
Password: anvil

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html