Wednesday, January 12, 2011

"another man's treasure."

I ran across this photo last night. It is my haul from The World's Largest Yard Sale last year. I spent $14.75 for all the wonderful stuff you see here. A treasure-trove to me, but apparently not to the folks I bought it from. I was filling up my scrap bin and they were dunning- out theirs and we both thought that it was a great deal. It seems like an incongruous statement but it is not. The seller is rid of something that he would have sold for almost nothing and the buyer is joyous to recieve something that is almost worthless to it's owner, how could we both have received a good deal?

The people that sold me these items were cleaning out barns, bins, and buckets of junk that had been in their barns and sheds for many years. They now have space in their storage spaces and they actually recieved money for the "junk" they are now rid of. I was looking for knife making materials and I found them cheaply. I also found knife making tools and one incredible forged tool. Look closely at the photo and you will see a 2# cross peen hammer, a 2 1/2# cross peen, two slag hammers, a blacksmith's hoof trimmer, a deformed prybar, three plow bits, five files, eight rock working chisels, two jack-hammer bits, a two inch ball bearing, a conical drift, and a hand forged log-dog. Hardly junk.

The files, plow bits, and some of the chisels have been turned into knives or other tools. I have found that I like the small hammers, too, I am getting too old to use a big hammer all day. I straightened and heat treated  the pry bar and it is in it's second life now. Some of the chisels I resharpened and filed the tops clean. They are excellent tools.


If you look at the point where the top of the two large plow points meet, there is a tool just above that point. It has an eye forged on one end and on the other end is a sharp point that has the last two inches bent ninety degrees (sorry the photo does not show this well). This is the log-dog. It is hand forged and it is quite incredible if you know what went into making it. From the hammer marks I believe that it was made from a piece of bar stock or a piece of metal that was unlike it's present form. The sharp end was tapered to a point and given a two inch ninety degree bend. The eye was formed and the end was pulled  back over the bar and forge welded to form a perfect circle. It was hammer worked enough to smooth out the piece and then left as it was, a working tool. It appears that there was a chain link through the eye at one time and the smoothness of the inside of the eye makes me think it was used a lot. I bought it with the intention of making a knife blade from it. After closer study, I hung it over my work bench to remind me of a master craftsman of primative tools. I hoped it would inspire me to great work but mostly it reminds me of my dad who was a metal worker and mechanic and my grand father who was a blacksmith as a young man and then became a farmer. They were always making incredible things; I wish I still had them. Unfortunitely, my family had to get rid of the "junk" when they died.