A pleasant surprise, antique forges found

[tradslinger]

I was looking at an old Singer treadle pedestal stand to be used as a stand for something else. The stand was buried in a lot of stuff in a big lean to beside a huge old shop of my parents. Now there are who knows what in there, they kept everything along with a lot of building materials (metal) tractor parts etc. The treadle was broken off on the upper right side and useless. But something else in the flashlight's light caught my eye. It was part of the old forge that my great great uncle used in the civil war period. My grandfather had told me stories about how the north would wait off in the distance as the south had work done. Then afterwards, the north would come in to have work done. The blacksmith was looked at as neutral ground because of their value. Anyways, after moving a lot of stuff, I found the hand crank fan set up and everything but the actual forge (it is buried in there somewhere). I had seen it all numerous times as a kid and young adult but didn't know what had happened to it all. Minutes later, I found another hand crank setup mounted on a super old stand but the forge for it was missing as well. The hand cranks on both still turn and move air. But since it was 103 degrees, the sweat was pouring and we quit looking for the remaining parts. This is above cool and very exciting for me to finally find them. Unfortunately, my arms are too weak to hammer much if any but these are family heritage that I will make sure get passed on down. I was a little bit nervous digging in that mess, lots of brown recluses and potential for a copperhead or two. But when it cools down some more, I will be looking hard for the rest of it all.

[Captain*Kirk]

That's really cool, Jerry. Especially the family history. Might take some time, might have to wait for coller weather, but sounds like you have a mission and a plan!

[Gdpolk]

What an outstanding find!  I'd sure love to be blessed with some family forging equipment for the shop.  I've done primarily stock removal work because I don't have a forge yet but I've been itching for one lately to help open up the opportunity for some creative work with moving metal.