[TheForge] To Nathan the new guy

[jerry Frost]

It sounds familiar Mike but I don't recall the story clearly though. 

Sounds a lot like my "Resurrection River Forge," story. I've told it so many
times, at least a couple here I'm sure. I think the only big difference was
I had a prevailing wind blowing down the river and made an air intake scoop
for the air blast. It was a ram charged forge. I'd found a heavy axle from
something, the shaft was about 5" dia and had IIRC a flange a good 10" dia.
Stuck it flange up in the sand bar and it made one of the nicest anvils I've
ever used. Nothing like a good 5-6' of medium C maybe even 4140 steel depth
of rebound. all I had to burn was wood and standing anywhere near that forge
was just plain brutal, even with the heat shields.

We were camped just above the spot in the river they dumped HUGE amounts of
wreckage from the 64 quake so I had all the stock a boy could dream of.
Dumping the wreckage in the river was erosion control, they HAD to keep the
highway open. With the damage to embankments river courses and such the
river was taking the road right out. I wasn't here but you hear things
working for State of AK, DOT, Geology section, Bridges and Foundations drill
crew. Funny how being there drilling helps a person find all kinds of stuff
eh?

Building a field expedient smithy and doing good work with it feels as good
or better than using tools you've made yourself.

Jer

-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike
Spencer
Sent: Monday, September 1, 2014 10:48 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [TheForge] To Nathan the new guy


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/                        ^^-^^
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