Rational Horse Shoeing and Wagon Making
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with rules, tables, recipes, etc., useful to
manufactures, blacksmiths, machinists,
well-drillers, engineers, liverymen,
horse-shoers, farmers, wagon-makers,
mechanics, amateurs and all others who have
occasion to perform the work for which this
book is primarily intended.
of the tools used. I will not spend any time in explanation
about the more intricate tools like drill presses and tools of
that kind, because no smith has experience or facilities to make
tools of this character that will be worth anything. I shall simply
give a few hints on the most common tools used, with
illustrations that will be a help to new beginners. Before we go
any further let me remind you of the golden rule of the
mechanic. A place for everything and everything in its place."
Some shops look like a scrap iron shed, the tools strewn all
over, and one tenth of the time is spent in hunting for them. I
shall first say a few words about the shop and give a plan. This
plan is not meant to be followed minutely, but is simply a hint
in that direction.
In building a shop care should be taken in making it convenient and healthy. Most of the shops are built with a high
floor. This is very inconvenient when machinery of any kind is taken in for repairs, as well as in taking in a team for
shoeing. Around the forge there should be a gravel floor. A plank floor is a great nuisance around the anvil. Every
piece cut off hot is to be hunted up and picked up or it will set fire to it. I know there will be some objection to this
kind of floor but if you once learn how to keep it you will change your mind. To make this floor take sand and clay with
fine gravel, mix with coal dust and place a layer where wanted about four inches thick. This floor, when a little old,
will be as hard a~ iron, provided you sprinkle it every night with water. The dust and soot from the shop will, in time,
settle in with it and it will be smooth and hard. It will not catch fire; no cracks for small tools or bolts to fall through; it
will not crack like cement or brick floors. If your shop is large then make a platform at each end, and a gravel floor in
the center, or at one side, as in figure I. This floor is cool in summer and warm in winter, as there can be no draft. The
shop should have plenty of light, skylights if possible. The soot and dust will, in a short time, make the lightest shop
dark. The shop should be whitewashed once a year. Have plenty of ventilation. Make it one story only if convenient
to do so, as an upper story in a blacksmith shop is of very little use. The shop is the place where the smith spends
most of his time and he should take just as much care in building it, as a sensible housekeeper does in the
construction of her kitchen.
