Subject: Re: Beginning Equipment...

From: Michael Spencer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 96 21:58:41 EDT

> 	what tools are essential to get started. And
>	also, where you found your first hammer, tongs
>	etc...

Sounds like an invitation to yarn. :-) I was working as a foreign car
mechanic when an old guy came in to buy junk batteries. I'd got this
idea that maybe I could make hardware for a friend who was building a
repro of a 1740s post and beam house, so I asked the guy if he knew
where I could get an anvil. He was kinda tiltin' aft but he remembered
that he had one somewhere. So after work, it was off the the junkie
and sure 'nuff, not only a 125# anvil but a Buffalo rivet forge too!
US$30 for the pair. I already had a machinist's vise and a 1 1/2#
crosspein, so I was on my way!

As to what's minimum: more yarnin'. I spent a couple-three weeks doing
dune restoration on Sable Isalnd -- Sand, seals, wild horses, grass
and precious little else, 20 miles long with a population of about 4
weather station folks and their families.  Found a Buffalo blower
balled solid in rusty sand in trhe ruins of the old lifesaving
station. Cleaned it up, made some bushings out of plasic ice cream
container, got a ceramic cylinder from an old rf tuner junked by the
weather station people for a tuyere, knocked a hole in a cast aluminum
kettle for a firepot, some wire and sheetmetal from the weather
station junk heap to lash it all up. A broken 150# half of a wrought
iron ship's knee off the beach for an anvil (about 4"x3" and busted
off clean -- Sable's dangerous place for ships) and a claw hammer and
vise grips supplied by the dune crew. They'd used coal for the coarse
agregate in the foundation of the lifesaving station so I picked out
half a bucket from the rubble -- sun-dried horse buns worked fair but
burned up too quick.  Forged up a nice little ornamental hook as proof
of concept.

It was a little awkward, down in the sand on my knees to crank and
heat, then quick stand up to the "stake anvil" to forge. Reminiscent of
that scene in The African Queen where they forgeweld a 1 1/4" shaft in
a bonfire. ;-) And mean time between failures about 2 hours. 

So I guess a hammer and working blower would be the first things to
get. The rest is just this 'n that. :-)

- Mike
-- 
Michael Spencer               (902) 543-8375
[email-masked]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
---

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From: [email-masked] (Frost, Jerry)
Date: Tue, 30 Jul 1996 19:36:07 -0800

> get. The rest is just this 'n that. :-)

Good yarn Mike:

I've done some minimalist forging on occasion mostly for grins, once or 
twice for real. The African Queen brings back memories.

Anyway I set up one forge by driving an open "C" of stakes about 4' long 
into the sand leaving about 3' in the air, in a stocade pattern 3' 
across. I scrounged some old tin from the river bed and formed it into a 
funnel shape facing into the prevailing wind and attached the funnel to 
a piece of pipe with tape and wire. I propped the pipe tuyere vertical 
with a couple more stakes and some rocks, then filled the stocade with 
sand and made a fire pot and grate with stones and river mud. 

Of course I had to stop when the wind changed direction too much but I 
had some control of the blast using additional pieces of tin as a gate 
or scoop enhancement. It was crude but actually worked pretty well.

I'd brought a rail anvil, a set of tongs and a couple hammers along but 
an old truck axel made a dandy stake anvil and most of the stuff I 
hammered out was long enough I didn't need the tongs. We did our 
twisting with crescent wrenches and I forged a punch out of an old bolt.

I collected a bunch of willow and alder, built a fire and had a good 
time making fire pokers, pot hooks and other campfire stuff out of 
scrounged steel. 

You don't need to go this primitive except for fun or necessity but the 
minimum list of tools is pretty short before you have enough to make the 
rest.

Good luck and have fun,
	Frosty
-- 
If it ain't forged
It ain't real
wrought iron is
The FROSTWORKS