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.
Take a piece of one-inch square Swede iron, hold the iron
diagonally over the anvil, with your left hand a little toward the
horn, the end of the iron to reach out over the outside edge of
the anvil. Now strike so that the sledge and hammer will hit
half face over the anvil and the other half of the sledge and
hammer out side of the anvil. Hammer it down to about three
eighth of an inch thick. Now pull the iron towards you straight
across the anvil, give it one half turn toward yourself so that
this side which was up, now will be towards yourself; the end
that first was outside the anvil now to rest over the inner edge
of the anvil, push the jaw up against the anvil until it rests
against the shoulder made in the first move. Now hammer this
down until it is the thickness of the jaw that is desired. Next,
turn it over, with the bottom side up or the side that was
down, up; push it out over the outside edge of the anvil again
so far that the shoulder or set down you now have up, will be
about an inch outside and over the edge of the anvil, now give
the shanks and weld in half inch round
iron to the length desired. The jaws
should be grooved with a fuller, if you
have none of the size required take a
piece of round iron and hammer it down
in the jaws to make the groove. Tongs
grooved this way will grip better. Next,
punch a hole in one jaw, place it over
the other in the position wanted when
finished, then mark the hole in the other
jaw, and when punched rivet them
together, the jaws to be cold and the
rivet hot. The following story will
suggest to you how to finish it. An
apprentice once made a pair of tongs
when his master was out, and when he
had them riveted together could not
move the jaws. As he did not know how
following story: An apprentice once made a pair of tongs and when he had them riveted together he could not move
the jaws, and as he did not know what to do he simply threw them away, thinking he must have made a mistake
somehow. "What a fool," said the master, "Why didn't he heat them." At the next opportunity the apprentice put his
tongs in the fire and when hot they could be worked very easily.