Machine Blacksmithing (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Machine Blacksmithing

It is not necessary that a system for the blacksmith shop be of the kind usually known as red tape, which often takes more time to handle than the time it saves; but a simple method of keeping track of work, tools, and material will save time and expense.

To begin with, the blacksmith shop ought to be large enough to pro vide a place for everything in the shape of tools and equipment, and permit everything to be in its place. Forges should be numbered with figures of size and color which can be easily seen from any part of the shop. The forges should be referred to by their numbers, instead of so-and-so's forge. This would insure work being taken to the place for which it was intended. With each forge there ought to be a tool bench of such size and design as would accommodate one full set of blacksmith's tools of the kind used at the anvil. Each tool should be marked with its size and the number of the forge to which it belongs, so that each blacksmith will know the tools which form part of the set he is supposed to use, even if they should in any way get mixed up with others. To insure keeping a full set at each forge, it would be well to give each man a list of the tools belonging to the forge at which he is expected to work, with the understanding that he will be held responsi ble for all tools not worn out or accidentally broken. If any tool is worn out or broken it should be reported to the man in charge, so that it could be replaced as soon as possible. Having a full equipment at each forge would be a decided advantage to a new man starting in to work, because, as anyone who has ever been employed in a black smith shop knows, as soon as a blacksmith leaves the shop in which he has been working, he is no sooner gone than there is a raid upon the tools he used, and it usually takes but a short time to have them exchanged for the poorest tools in the shop, or, perhaps, just removed without any attempt at replacing. When a new man comes along, he is heavily handicapped, having the worst tools in the place with which to work, and it sometimes takes weeks before he has a chance of show ing what he can do.

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