Wrought Iron

The term “wrought iron” has come to mean different things to different people. To a blacksmith, it refers to a raw material, not a type of work. In the first half of the 19th century, much of the nation’s wrought iron was made in the mountains of Pennsylvania and in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. It was made right on the mountainside where it was mined, and was smelted in a furnace called a bloomery. The newly smelted iron was called a bloom.

Wrought iron contained a small amount of a rocky impurity called “slag” which was silica from left over from the rocky ore. The more the iron is forged the more the impurities are worked out of the iron. As it was forged out, folded into layers, and re-welded it became more refined. Iron could be refined through the stages of muck bar, merchant iron, single refined, twice refined, and triple refined. Each refinement produced a finer grain within the iron and silica.
Here is a refined bar:

One way to identify wrought iron is to cut a bar partially through and then break it. If the break looks fibrous and stringy, it is likely wrought iron. You can see that in this cut piece:

Wrought iron is very tough, malleable, and forges nicely. However, it cannot be hardened for a good cutting edge.  That requires steel--an alloy of iron and carbon. Here is a traditionally forged hammer head that has a wrought iron body and a steel face forge welded on each end:

Wrought iron was the main material used by blacksmiths until the late 19th century. The Bessemer process of making steel directly from ore was used by Carnegie Steel, and was responsible for making steel cheap. As steel became more affordable in the late 19th century it helped produce a profusion of tools and hardware made of steel. Wrought iron continued to be made through the 1940’s but it never regained prominence as the primary metal of industry.

Link by link, chain by chain.

Traditional blacksmith’s work is particularly satisfying when the item to be made is real and needed. Such is the chain maker’s lot. Forged chain was an essential tool that was in demand. It was used with horses and oxen to pull farm wagons, logging sleighs, and stone boats. Chain was used to anchor ships in the harbor. A forged chain was even strung across the Hudson River during our Revolutionary War to keep the British from sailing up river. Chain today is largely made by automated machines. But for over 1000 years (900 to 1900AD) chain was made link by link through craft and skill.

I have been making chain for the farmers to use with the oxen. Each link starts out as a 7-inch length of 3/8th-inch round bar. It is bent to a U shape.  Next, the link is prepared for forge welding. The ends are scarfed to a wedge shape and overlapped. They are heated and fluxed with borax to prevent iron oxide from impeeding the weld.  Working on the anvil and over the horn, the link is welded to a solid link and forged to a nice even oval shape.

When the smith has turned two-thirds of his pile of U-shaped links into nice welded ovals, the chain assembly begins.  Two welded links are scooped up with an open U.  The ends of that link are welded making a 3-link chain.  Once all of the links are joined in sections of three links each, then the smith starts joining sections of 3s together with an open link to make chains of 7 links.  Then, he joins two 7s with an open link to make 15s, then those to make 31s, and finally two chains of 31 with an open link makes a chain of 63 links.  Then, he might add a nicely forged hook to each end.

If all went as planned the chain is now 63 links, two iron rings, and two iron hooks!  It should be very close to 12 feet.  That is just right to use with oxen to haul the stone boat or the harrow in the field.

Throughout history chain was needed and highly valued. But it was also utilitarian and commonplace. Therefore, the chain maker’s work was essential and difficult, but carried no great prestige. If a swordmaker produced a blade with 500 layers of forge-welded steel, they were respected for having created a masterpiece. If a chain maker produced a chain with 500 forge welds they have made a 100 foot chain. It is just a half week's work.  Tomorrow, he would begin to make another chain link by link, foot by foot!  And be careful with those welds because everyone knows chain is only as strong at it's weakest link!

Spring Horseshoeing

Our Percheron draft horse, Zebediah (Zeb), came to the shop recently to have his hooves trimmed and shoes reset. Why is this done? The same horseshoes that protect his hooves from excess wear and damage also prevent them from wearing as they grow. Every two months he is visited by his farrier to check his hooves, trim them to proper length, and get new shoes as needed.

Dan and Zeb

The old shoes are removed. Then Zeb’s hooves are trimmed to a proper length and angle. Any problems are corrected. Then the shoes are adjusted to fit. Zeb’s shoes are hand forged, and each one is fitted to that foot. The front shoes are shaped differently from the hind shoes, and the lefts are different from the right.

Shoes may be used a second time if they aren’t too worn. Even shoes being reused are adjusted to fit the newly trimmed hoof for a perfect fit. Zeb’s shoes are hot fitted. That means that after the hoof has been trimmed and rasped smooth, the warm shoe is pressed to the horn-like hoof. A puff of blue smoke drifts away. A black line shows where the shoe has perfect contact on the hoof. Any white marks are spots the shoe isn’t in contact, and needs to be corrected to prevent the shoe from working loose and being thrown. You can see in the pictures that Zeb is relaxed, and that it doesn’t hurt him at all.

After the shoes are perfectly formed and fitted, each is nailed on and clinched. The nails are specially formed to fit well and stay in the hoof wall. It doesn’t hurt Zeb any more than getting your hair cut hurts you. The whole purpose of shoeing is to prevent the pavement and abrasive gravel from damaging and hurting his hooves.

Zeb really doesn’t mind the shoeing.  Once the shoes are well fitted and nailed in place Zeb is ready to work.  If you visit, look for Zeb at noon pulling our farm wagon.  He is an essential and popular part of The Farmers' Musuem.

A good day’s work in the Blacksmith Shop

The Fields Blacksmith Shop is both a historic building open to the public as well as a workshop producing restoration hardware for the Museum and items to sell in Todd's General Store. As a result, our work is both different from a shop in the 1840s, and from a modern ironworking shop. We produce accurate hardware and tools for restoration and upkeep of the Museum structures through use of traditional methods. We do, however, live in the modern world. Last week a little girl was visiting with her family. After looking around the blacksmith shop, she asked where I slept! She was a little disappointed to hear that I don’t live in the Museum.

Our day always starts with building fires and planning the work for the day. That can include a number of projects. We generally have a short demonstration project, a medium length repair or production job, and a long-term large project underway each day. When children arrive and want to see blacksmithing, we make nails, pot hooks, or other small quick items. Those are used internally or sold in the store. We use around 2,000 nails each year just maintaining our own buildings!

When visitors are patient we work on more complicated projects like trivets, tool-making, or historic repair hardware like hinges. Finally, when the shop is quiet, we work on the largest and most complicated projects. Currently, that includes making a large weathervane. It will have around 40 separate forged and decorative parts. I’ll post more about that project soon.  Here are some weathervane components:

At least once each week an emergency repair arises within the Museum. In the last week, we have made parts for the broom maker’s winding machine, helped the printer to cut type, and made display hardware for the Todd's General Store. We could easily get jobs like making nails to repair a door, parts for a latch, or repairing a tool for the farmers. Last week, we cleared a space in the shed for our farrier to shoe Zeb, the farm horse.

There's always something new to do at the Blacksmith Shop!

Worn out, broken down, rusted, and busted!

Our blacksmith shop is 183 years old. Several more of our buildings are more than 200 years old. At the shop we have had to become skilled at fixing things that are worn out, broken down, rotten, or busted! Hinge pins wear down, latches get bent, tools break, and even floorboards wear through. A small but important part of our trade is to make the hardware, fasteners and tools needed to get our museum in fine fettle.

The most humble yet unavoidable need is for nails. We make a number of kinds of forged nails. Rose headed nails, common nails, two-penny nails, ten-penny spikes, and door nails perfect for clinching. Last year we used around 2,000 hand-forged nails. Once, when doing a major repair, our shop needed to make that many in two days!

When the farmers repaired the 1830’s plow, the wooden plow beam was worn, rotten, and missing hardware. Our replacement utilized the dimensions of the original and the rust stains indicating missing hardware.

Old hardware and tools often have corroded, bent, and broken bolts. Making new bolts, nuts, and washers is part of the restoration process. We replace fasteners with new ones made using the same methods and tools as the original part.

The Farmers’ Museum has a dozen buildings that are nearing two centuries of daily use. Our craftspeople and farmers are working daily using traditional tools. For the blacksmith shop it is not a question of whether things will get broken and need repair, but rather a question of what will need fixing today!

Spring Chores at the Lippitt Farm

Spring brings a wide array of chores at the farm.  It is time to prepare for spring planting and for all of the new animals that will be born.  The gardens and fields must be plowed to break ground for spring planting. The farm grows vegetable, grains, hops, and hay for the animals. One chore is plowing the fields and garden plots.  Here is the first plowing with the newly repaired 1830's plow!  Farmers Wayne and Marieanne are working with Zeb our Percheron to plow a garden plot outside of the Lippitt farmhouse.

The farmers fertilized the hop yard with compost last fall, and now are putting up the poles for the hop vines to climb.  This year's hop vines will be trained to climb the wooden poles.

Spring is also the season of births on the farm. Our Cayuga ducks, Dominic chickens, and turkeys are laying eggs. The farmers are encouraging broody hens to sit on the nests and hatch more young for the farmyard. The ducks have made a nest and are sitting on it dilligently.

Daisy Mae is a Milking Shorthorn cow and provides milk for the farmhouse to bake, make butter, and  cheese.

Daisy Mae had a calf in mid-April. The calf is 3 days old is this picture.  Help name our new calf!

Our sheep have just started lambing.  Here are the sheep enjoying the sunshine and one of the triplets born 4/26/2010.

Spring on the farm is a season of constantly changing weather, hard work, and pleasant surprises.

Fresh Tilled Soil: Using the 1830’s Horse-drawn Plow

Repair to 1830’s Horse-drawn plow has been a year long project here at the Blacksmith Shop. Our previous blogs tell the story of it’s return to use for the Lippitt Farm.
http://ruralblacksmith.blogspot.com/

When plowing day came Farmer Wayne was as excited as a kid on Christmas. It was cool but sunny on Wednesday when the Zeb and Farmer Marieanne came to the Blacksmith shop with the Stone Boat to pick up the plow.

They brought the Stone Boat through the village to Peleg Field’s Blacksmith Shop to retrieve the repaired 1830's plow.

The Stone Boat was used to carry the plow down to the garden patch outside of the Lippitt Farmhouse.

Next the plow was unloaded and attached to the Singletree attached to Zeb’s harness. Farmer Marieanne Coursen is the Teamster holding the lines. Farmer Wayne Coursen is the Ploughman guiding the plow. Here they are turning a furrow.  This 1830's plow is newly repaired, and has turned a furrow in a lifetime.

First furrow!

The plow needed a few small adjustments to reach the proper depth. The Depth Gauge wheel helps guide the plow to the desired depth.

Zeb our Percheron is an old hand at plowing. His knowledge and Marieanne’s handling of the lines allowed the Ploughman to end the furrow, turn the plow, and start a new furrow going the other direction. It is an exciting ballet to see a 1,700lb horse make his turn while the Teamster is at the other end of 20 foot lines!

They are plowing a garden plot outside the Lippitt Farmhouse.  Vegetables are grown and stored in the root cellar to be used in our traditional hearth cooking.  The Farmers and Zeb plow the furrows back and forth.

Farmer Wayne, Farmer Marieanne, and I are happy to see the plow working so well.  It took over a year to research and perform the repairs on the plow.  Here's to a good day's work!