[TheForge] To Nathan the new guy

[Mike Spencer]

Jerry wrote:

> ...how to build a complete blacksmith's shop from found junk, a
> couple field expedient blacksmith shops and you can build darned
> near anything from just about nothing.

If you were reading the Anvil's Ring in the 70s, you may recall a piece
I sent in. 

I spent two weeks on Sable Island [1] doing dune restoration/preservation.

In off hours, exploring around, I found a Buffalo blower totally
balled up in salt, sand and rust.  Got it apart, made bearings out of
a plastic ice cream container, reassembled with twisted wire. Rooted
for odds and ends through the dump used by the weather station staff
for many years.  Found a wrought iron ship's knee on the shore, about
4' long with one leg broken off, which made a fine anvil when driven,
fat end up, into the sand. Forge pot from an old electric kettle, pipe
from old transmitter cooling parts, tuyere from a ceramic inductance
coil core. Fueled with dried horse buns (not real good) and then with
some coal reclaimed from the crumbling foundation of the old 19th
c. lifesaving station where they'd used coal as coarse aggregate.

Only tools were Vice Grips, claw,  ballpeen and sledge hammers, screw
driver.  Could have done better if it had been a serious project as
there was a whole Land Rover 3/4 buried in the sand at the dump.

IIRC, I made a little hook out of scrap as proof of concept.

So you don't *have* to start with fancy gear.

FWIW,
- Mike

[1] 20 miles long, narrow enough to walk across in a few minutes, all
    sand, enough vegetation to support a small herd of (now) wild
    horses. Graveyard for many ships over past centuries. No permanent
    residents. 

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^