Yeller Tomcat Forge Tour

Bookie

Bookie

Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
2,010
Thought I would show you around the smithy. It's not big, but more than adequate. People from all over the world have gathered here to learn some facet of the black smith's craft at one time or another. Denmark, Taiwan, Russia, Georgia (the country, not the State), England, Japan, Canada, Germany, Jamaica, and almost every state in the Union. Several colleges have sent professors up here to learn something as well. They've all been made welcome and you are, too, so c'mon in an' git yerself dirty. We'll have a whole lotta fun! The hottest it's been inside was one July when we did a barrel welding seminar. The group's thermometer read 138 degrees Fahrenheit! The shingles on the roof curled and the drinking cups were melting.
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[/URL][/IMG] This is the front of the shop. The old vehicle plates are for decoration--I'm too cheap to invest in wall paper! They go back to 1915.
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[/URL][/IMG] It's an old blacksmith superstition to have a horse shoe nailed in this position over a smithy's door. It keeps the Devil out. Google the story about the blacksmith and the Devil and check it out. It must work. My ex-wife and her Momma ain't never walked through the door! The weather vane is made from brass and is the silhouette of the helicopter I flew in Vietnam.
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[/URL][/IMG] Had to hang up a sign to annoy the neighbors.
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[/URL][/IMG] Neath the hammered door grab is my hand made wooden lock. Has four tumblers. Made this out of a big chunk of black walnut and the guts & key were made from an old oak teacher's desk, new in 1923.
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[/URL][/IMG] Ye forge. I made it with the exception of the fire pot and tuyre. That's pronounced "tweer", Bawanna.
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[/URL][/IMG] Close up of where it all happens.
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[/URL][/IMG] My larger anvil. It is about 300 pounds and was bought new by the Maytag Company back about 1898. Many of my tongs were made by the original blacksmith they imported from Germany to run their shop.
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[/URL][/IMG] The blower. It actually puts out more air than I do! I run 140 weight oil in it.
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[/URL][/IMG] A selection of hammers, flatters, and miscellaneous. I prefer a 2 pound straight peen. Yes, the lantern works. There is no electricity in the shop.
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[/URL][/IMG] A hard to find item: a bick iron or "beak" iron, or a whatinthedickensisthatthing? That chunk of wood leaning in the corner is used for fire starting and is called sapwood. It was a pine tree that was felled in 1836 near Auburn, Alabama. The stump (which this is) was left in the ground until recently and the owner of the property gave it to my shop for use. One piece the size of your finger is all it takes to start the forge! Great stuff!
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[/URL][/IMG] Yangdu, this iron rose is for you. Thanks for the swell khukuri.
 
Wow! cool pics, looks so modern compared to what the kamis use. Brings a whole new respect for the kamis, after viewing a more modern forge.

That rose is very cool.
 
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Well ain't that the coolest thing. I'll remember to bring me a couple planks to ramp up into that shop. Very cool stuff.

Tweer huh? And flatter, that's a new one on me too. I'd sure like to take a pass through Corn Patch and check it out and get dirty, unknown fact about me, I like getting dirty. Turns out I got a gal I went to school with that lives about 40 minutes from you too, so I know somebody that knows somebody.
Saw her a few weeks ago at wife's 40 year High School reunion.

Love the helicopter, was gonna mention something, thought it was a drone was landing or spying on ya but you already spotted it.

Thanks for taking the time to post them. How many pounds ya reckon that steel rose weighs, just curious, quite a feat in itself to make something like that too.
 
Bookie, I can't think of a single thing I would change 'cept the fact that the forge is cold and you ain't hammering out more of that beautiful work of yours. Otherwise it looks exactly like what my imagination says it should.
 
Thank you for the nice comments. The rose probably weighs a little over a pound. That one happens to be #1 and that is why it's still around. Not nice enough to get adopted. The forge will be cranked up one of these days. Found another left over piece of twist pattern Damascus that needs to be pounded into a small knife. Perhaps two small knives. Shav, that yellow tank crossing sign behind the bick iron was stolen from Ft. McCoy about 30 years ago (along with an OFF LIMITS TO MALE PERSONNEL sign......you could probably wash it off and hang it over the TV to give your room some added "class", eh?
 
I'm soooooo proud of myself, I thought what yellow tank crossing sign,/???// where, where, where but I went back and looked and looked and looked and by golly I found it behind the beak iron? Boy I'm talking worldly now huh?
 
Bookie! Fantastic setup. Everything they said! Heli is awesome and so is the rose:thumbup: Ive been looking at some Champion blowers and Bufco as well to get started in this. Guess you just answered that question. Love that manual drill press as well. What the heck is a bick iron? Blunderbuss mandrel? Whatever it is you have to strap that stump to keep from splitting it eh? Do you roll barrels around it? Man you would never get me outta of there. Thanks for the tour!
 
Ndog, the bick is used like the horn on an anvil. It can be used to make greaves and other pieces of armor. It's longer and has more versatility. White smiths use them as well but theirs are They don't come cheap, either. I don't use it to make rifle barrels. I use the wrought iron rims taken from old wooden farm wagon wheels and use a swage block or "buffalo head" to form them. If you're up this way, the door's open.
 
Impressive stuff, Bookie. I found your website and those rifling benches are somethin' else.

I just have one question... what the heck is a clinker?? :confused:

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Phillll, since you are a phrend, a clinker is the ash from burning coal. It's impurities that have congealed together to form a hard mass, often quite similar to a low grade stone. The clinkers plug up or block off the air flow from the tuyre to the fire pot. This makes it difficult to crank the blower, prevents the fire from burning clean, and the clinker can stick to the metal and upon hammering it, the clinker impurities contaminate the metal. Looks bad. Won't weld for crap. The very first rule you must learn if you are to become a blacksmith is this: LEARN TO HATE CLINKERS! People who burn coal will save their clinkers and use them on their drives for vastly improved traction on snow and ice in the winter. Inexpensive, too. Coke is coal that has had the impurities burned out. Coke burns hotter than coal and quite a bit more expensive, but great stuff! The tongs holding the clinker are called "double pick-up" tongs.
 
Do you need an apprentice by any chance ?, I would happily move from australia in a heart beat!
You dream weaver you... dream weaved
 
amazing thread, love the no electricity workshop; the definition of handcraft :D; wonderful stuff bookie, thanks a ton for showing us around and letting us know a bit more about you. absolutely love your work, the tools alone you have are pretty much unobtainable, priceless artifacts; your whole shop is a rare collection.

beautiful.
 
Sir that is one heck of a shop you have there, so many incredible tools and that forge is just killer. Thank you for the inside look at your shop.
 
Kukrifan--G'day, mate! The wife and I visit Jan & Mike's place, Chesliegh, outside Sofala, NSW, for years now. Fossick for the yellow stuff and actually do quite well. Mike owns the Wallabies on the Turon and there's still quite a bit of gold to be picked up. Got started up at Hill End.
 
Here's a shot of how I melt silver quarters. After the silver is melted, it's puddled and then flattened to make a rough sheet. Inlays can then be sawn from the sheet. The other photo is of the fatboy hammering out a grip rail on a trigger guard.
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[/URL][/IMG] Shav, see the Master Army Aviator badge?
 
what kind of wood do you use on your guns? is it always walnut ( seems like walnut is the main wood of choice for modern gunstock blanks anyway)--and on that note, is there a reason it is always walnut?

also is not your fingers, forums were like this a few days ago, everyone double posted , i just kept myself from double posting by going to make coffee while this loaded.
 
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