The Armour Archive

http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0302 ... ithing.pdf

Found this pdf while on another site.

That's pretty awesome.

Lovely! Thanks for sharing. I've always found the old smiths that I've been able to work with to be an absolute treasure trove of practical advice on how to perform simple (seemingly-simple!) mundane mechanical tasks. Things are so much easier when you have an open forge running all day

Kerr wrote:Lovely! Thanks for sharing. I've always found the old smiths that I've been able to work with to be an absolute treasure trove of practical advice on how to perform simple (seemingly-simple!) mundane mechanical tasks. Things are so much easier when you have an open forge running all day

My grandpa (who passed when I was about 10) was a blacksmith. By the time I came along (#5 of 6 from #7 of 9 ) he was in his 70's. By the time I got to the point where I was interested in metalwork, he was gone.

I've run across a number of text books with titles like "Farm Shop Practice" and dating to the early half of the 20th century when the large number of "Agricultural and Technical" colleges were still doing basic Ag training. (I even knew a lady who had a 2 year Ag degree from *Yale*!)

Usually dead cheap on the used book market. I keep a couple around for when I need to do a technique I am not familiar with---like lacing a leather flat belt or torch soldering galvanized

Thomas Powers wrote:I've run across a number of text books with titles like "Farm Shop Practice" and dating to the early half of the 20th century when the large number of "Agricultural and Technical" colleges were still doing basic Ag training. (I even knew a lady who had a 2 year Ag degree from *Yale*!)

Usually dead cheap on the used book market. I keep a couple around for when I need to do a technique I am not familiar with---like lacing a leather flat belt or torch soldering galvanized

Anyone who wants a modicum of self sufficiency should have both Stohlman's leather manual, and Morgan's "whips and whipmaking".

Throw in the "planes and planecraft" book that Woodcraft has reprinted.

A lot of these manuals can be found through sites like Gutenberg or archive.org.
Though the welding technique mentioned in that book looks a lot more like iron than the steel most of us use.
Old iron is a lot easier to weld at the forge, though finding a source for any volume can be difficult.
Mild steel seams to be more temperamental I think due to grain structure, and slag inclusions that make iron sticky at welding temps.

I'm going to have to download this and read it at work tomorrow.

Legitimately that is.

I work at a farm museum and am the resident "Blacksmith" (though I make no claims myself).

As such, I can burn some time on the clock downloading and reading this.

Please tell me that it is obscenely time consuming.

It should be good for a few hours longer if you breakout the notebook and sketch or take notes on future projects.
Archive.org has a copy of laking armour if you really want to loose a few weeks.

Alas! All of my smithing is still either volunteer work or on my own nickel. If only I could find a paying position. Sigh. Still, I'm allowed a lot of leeway in what I make at the forge, even at historical sites, so it's really not so bad ....

As for books, it all depends on what you find useful, really. I've held onto books for years before suddenly realising that they were the exact thing that I needed. In a lot of cases old smithing books are useless, but from time to time they can throw up a real gem that produces that sublime Ah Ha! moment.

Thank goodness for sites like this one, that are worth so very much

Vladimir wrote:I'm going to have to download this and read it at work tomorrow.

Legitimately that is.

I work at a farm museum and am the resident "Blacksmith" (though I make no claims myself).

Say that too loudly in these parts and you might find someone puts a hit out on you they day they send in their resume to replace you. Congrats man. Sounds like a sweet gig. I only get to play with metal outside of work.

Sean

Sean; stop blabbing it around or he'll start to take precautions!

I must admit that I refer to Moxon's Mechanics Exercises more often than Richardson's Practical Blacksmithing (And Divers Arts more than PB too!)

You really want a job with a rotating schedule that forces you to work over half of your weekends, while giving you no benefits, and having recently cut you to 29.5 hours per week at the most?

Vladimir wrote:You really want a job with a rotating schedule that forces you to work over half of your weekends, while giving you no benefits, and having recently cut you to 29.5 hours per week at the most?

Umm.. if smithing was my hobby, and someone was offering to pay me to do it? Hell yes!

That's LIke Knoebel's (family amusement park here in PA) hiring me to display on their giant lathe, that runs off either water power or the steam tractor, depending on what overhead shaft you put the belt on. please don't throw me in the briar patch!

Might be different if I could do it more often.

But, since my arm injury I've only done one program in the past 3 years.

Prior to the injury I only did a 1 hour program each month, or every other month.

Too many other things to do.

Money muddles everything. There's a big difference between doing it for love, and doing it for money.

Meanwhile: the book! At first I thought I had it in my collection (due to very familiar drawings in the first part); but the other information (splices, &c.) is really nice.