Some of these tools you have used in your copper, brass, and silver
work. You will need your vise, files, your various punches, dividers,
hand cold chisel, and square. In addition, you should have the
following:
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Position of fullers]
[Illustration: Top fuller]
[Illustration: Bottom fuller]
[Illustration: Bottom swage]
[Illustration: Top swage]
[Illustration: Swages in position]
_Hand hammer:_ A hand hammer is used more than any other tool in the
shop. The flat face is used for shaping material and the round plain
for riveting, etc. The top and bottom fullers are used for making
depressions in iron and steel. This process is called fullering. The
top and bottom swages are used for rounding square iron or steel or
reducing large sizes to smaller ones. Hot and cold chisels are both
used for cutting iron. As the name shows, one is used for hot iron and
one for cold iron. Gouges are for cutting ornamental shapes on sheet
iron or steel, hot or cold. Calipers are used for measuring diameters.
The broad flat surface of the flatter smoothes rough places. The set
hammer is used to make square shoulders. It is a small hammer and
does the work in narrow places which larger tools cannot reach. This
sledge weighs about eight pounds. It is used where heavy hammering
or driving is needed, and in conjunction with such tools as swages,
fullers, set hammers, etc. The hardie is a sharp cutting tool used to
cut small pieces of iron and soft steel while hot or cold. Tongs are of
all sizes. Those most called into use have the following shapes: The
shovel for the fire must be small and strong so the clinker formed on
the bottom can be shoveled out without carrying too much coal with it.
A poker, rake, and dipper also are needed for use about the fire.
[Illustration: Hot chisel]
[Illustration: Cold chisel]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Set hammer]
You know now all the tools needed to equip a shop. I want to tell you
about the fuels, such as coal and charcoal, which you will use, and
something about pig iron and wrought iron which I think you ought to
know.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Hardie]
[Illustration: Tongs]
The smoke is the most troublesome thing in a blacksmith's shop. The
old-fashioned forge is perhaps the best made to draw the gases and
smoke out, except when exhaust fans are used for that purpose. Hoods
are fitted to pull down over the fire, completely covering the smoke
area, and the suction made by the fan will draw all the smoke from
the fire. This, of course, is possible only in modern equipped shops.
The portable forges that we use have none of this drawing-out system,
except through a natural draft chimney, made either of bricks or by
extending an iron pipe from the hood through the side of the shed or
through the roof. The down-draft system is a hood placed to one side
of the fire. It falls over the fire by means of a hinge placed on the
hood. This is not as effective as the overhead system on account of the
smallness of the hood. The pipes are all underground, otherwise the
system is the same as the overhead system.
[Illustration: Water dipper]
[Illustration: Fire tools]
_Danger of explosion:_ Coal gases leak into the tuyere when the blast
is shut off. When the blast is put on these gases are blown up into the
hot fire and they explode from the heat. They do no harm, except the
noise made by the explosion.
_Fuels:_ The coal used in a blacksmiths' shop is a soft coal called
bituminous coal. It is supposed to have less phosphorus and sulphur
than any other kind of coal. Coal containing either of these
ingredients should not be used. Sulphur makes iron hot short and
phosphorus makes the iron cold short that is, the iron is made brittle
while hot by means of the sulphur, and brittle when cold through the
effect of the phosphorus. When this soft coal is heated the coal tar
is burned out and the coal burns into a coke.
_Charcoal:_ Charcoal is a solid fuel and the very best fuel for heating
purposes. It is free from the impurities mentioned here. It is made by
burning hard wood in a closed oven or kiln. This kiln in turn burns the
wood into lumps of charcoal. The cost makes the only real objection to
the use of charcoal as fuel.