Good one, Pete! Thanks for sharing. Also reminiscent of swage blocks the old gunsmiths used to
forge raw rifle barrels.

Bob Swinney
"spaco" wrote in message
.. .
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
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