[Illustration: A chain hook]
Up to the present time our work has been with wrought iron entirely.
This hook is to be made out of soft Bessemer steel, which of course
is very different from high carbon steel. It is the cheapest of
the steels. All building material, railroad rails, boiler plates,
steel cars, etc., are made of this cheap soft metal. The process
of manufacture is quite simple. Molten cast iron, taken from the
cupola, or blast furnace, is poured directly into a so-called Bessemer
converter--a pear shaped vessel. Air is blown through the mass of
molten metal. The air adds oxygen to the bath, and increases the heat
to a temperature high enough to burn out all the impurities from the
cast iron. This converts it into steel. It requires no more than nine
or ten minutes to convert fifteen tons of cast iron into soft steel.
The air is shut off and a sufficient amount of ferro-manganese is added
so as to give the proper amount of carbon. The liquid steel is poured
into ingots and these ingots while still hot are rolled into the shape
used for the market. A piece of this kind of steel you are going to use
to make a hook. Soft steel can be worked in the same way as you work
wrought iron. It is not fibrous like wrought iron and is not apt to
split unless worked at a low temperature.
[Illustration]
_Stock:_ Soft steel, 5-1/4 ins. long, 3/4 × 1/2 in.
_Directions:_ The drawing gives all the steps necessary for the making
of this hook. Notice in the drawing when the stock is given it is
fullered down 1-1/8 ins. from one end. This is the amount needed to
make the eye. After fullering the stock it is placed on the anvil and
squared up.
[Illustration: Stock for hook]
[Illustration: Rounding]
[Illustration: Finishing]
[Illustration: Punching hole]
These square corners are knocked down, making it round. When the body
of the hook itself is drawn out, like the drawing, a hole is punched
through the eye, using the same kind of punch as you did to make the
nut. While using the punch keep cooling it off in cold water to prevent
its getting hot; if you do not, the end is apt to burr and rivet itself
into the iron. It also prevents its sticking into the hole. Place the
ring of the eye on the point of the anvil and round up carefully with
light blows from the hammer.
[Illustration: Rounding the eye of hook]
When rounded up drive the punch in again to the required size. This
finishes the eye. The body of the piece is now gone over carefully with
calipers and square to get the diameters and length. Bend the small
point at right angles to the axis of the hook, like the drawing. Now
it is ready for bending in the middle. Heat the middle very hot. Cool
off the point about 1/2 in. Place the middle on the horn of the anvil
and strike upon the small turned up cold nib to bend the hook from this
point. By striking upon the cold end to bend it one can do so without
destroying the shape. It will stand a lot of work upon it when cold.
When the hook is bent around as nearly like the drawing as you can,
flatten it out at its widest part by laying it upon the anvil and
striking with the hammer. The cross section of the drawing shows the
shape that this flattened part should be.
[Illustration: Shaping the hook]
This is what we call a solid eye hook. Another way of making an eye
is to take round material of sufficient length to bend an eye on the
end by placing the piece over the horn of the anvil. The body of the
second hook can be made out of round iron, pointed down at the end and
finished up the same as the first.
[Illustration]
_Bending a corner in iron and upsetting while bending:_ In this problem
we bring in the making and bending of iron, so that the thickness
at the corner must be sharp on the top side and rounding on the
inside--without flaws or cold-shut. This bending method applies to all
metals, whether of square iron or wide flat iron.
[Illustration: Corner plate]
_Stock:_ Piece 6-1/2 × 3/8 in. square.
_Directions:_ Heat the metal in the middle and bend it over the
rounding edge of the anvil.
When the piece is bent we still have to make it square on the outside
and rounding on the inside. The bend just made should be placed in the
fire and re-heated. Cool the stems off in the water to within one inch
of the bend. Place the point of the cold stem on the anvil and strike
on the hot corner. This is repeated on both outside corners until
the piece assumes the shape of the drawing. This same result can be
obtained by upsetting the metal in the centre before bending, as shown
in the drawing.