Blacksmithing content: forging coal shovel heads or "blades" andthe use of a blacksmith's swage block
 

On Oct 13, 7:13*pm, spaco wrote:
I know that many machinist types don't go in for beating on hot or cold
iron, but there may be a time when a blacksmith's swage block could come
in handy. * We tend to think of them as huge boat anchors, but that's
not always true.

This little piece focuses on just one shape in a particular swage block,
the coal shovel form, but this swage block, like all others is good at a
number of other things, too.

---
I have been using a 34 pound swage block that Roger Lorance sells for
over 20 years. *Just last Saturday, the Badger Blacksmiths (western
Wisconsin *ABANA affiliate) bought a bunch of them--- (8 or 10, I think)
and they were almost all sold on that very day.
* *Anyway, I offered to dig up the instruction sheet that used to come
with them. *I did find it and sent it to our secretary so he could get
it to the new swage block owners.
* *That got me to thinking about the evolution of shovel head-making
that I have gone through, so I put up a webpage on the subject.

I have gone from it taking about 2 hours plus down to about 2 minutes to
make one.

Here's the url:

http://www.spaco.org/Blacksmithing/L...SwageBlock.htm

Pete Stanaitis
----------------

That's cool. It's been a long time since I've done any blacksmithing.
Karl