Spanish flea market finds & other stuff that might be of interest!

[jake pogg]

Aw,man,this catches me at some bad reception-time(took me a day to see only one of your photos!).

But from what i can see,it looks like a fairly common welding scheme,and pretty much as you say yourself.

Depending on availability of stock,+capacity of their particular shop,that smith chose to weld in that insert in front of eye,to add mass there.
Same results could've been achieved by a number of other means(very common equation in forging,many ways to skin that cat),like slitting&drifting the eye,but maybe their iron was not very refined/very fibrous,and bending it around was mechanically a sounder solution.

I tried to find that old black&white schematic that shows this specific method,and failed,but it's far from uncommon to weld up the eye like that,especially nice with poll-less axes of course.

Thanks,as usual, for posting cool stuff like that!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

You can see a similar forging when you go to the film linked in Balisong; The Woodsman topic. After the feature film there is a short segment showing this technique.

Maybe I have a different player or something but it didn't show after the Woodsman song for me. Thanks anyway, cool song!

I always get excited when i see you are posting some new finds!
Yes i am more and more intrigued by the axes and tools across the pond but your finds in Spain, Portugal and surrounding areas are at times most unique.
Thanks always for sharing.

Thank you Miller 72, it's nice to hear you like this stuff, sometimes after a while having made a few posts with no replies I do wonder if anyone's interested so it's good to know. I do see a bit of more modern stuff but it's the rusty lumps in the bottom of old boxes I'm on the lookout for!

Aw,man,this catches me at some bad reception-time(took me a day to see only one of your photos!).
But from what i can see,it looks like a fairly common welding scheme,and pretty much as you say yourself.
Depending on availability of stock,+capacity of their particular shop,that smith chose to weld in that insert in front of eye,to add mass there.
Same results could've been achieved by a number of other means(very common equation in forging,many ways to skin that cat),like slitting&drifting the eye,but maybe their iron was not very refined/very fibrous,and bending it around was mechanically a sounder solution.

I tried to find that old black&white schematic that shows this specific method,and failed,but it's far from uncommon to weld up the eye like that,especially nice with poll-less axes of course.
Thanks,as usual, for posting cool stuff like that!

Thanks Jake, sorry about the difficulty in seeing the post, the previous page 19 was very picture heavy as well. Hopefully now being near the top of a page you'll have it easier for a while!
Off topic, but I wonder if anyone can tell me if putting images in the "spoiler" thing so you have to click to open an image would make a page easier to load for slower connections? Just a thought.
The black & white image of different welding methods is still showing on Page5, post number 84 (albeit with the lovely big "Photbucket" water mark they were so kind to vandalize everyone's images with when folks wouldn't pay the stupid rates they wanted).

And today I picked up a Brades Criterion, pictured below after a quick wire wheel to read the name. And what I'm guessing is a Blacksmiths hot drift, it's made of wrought iron & looks particularly old

 

[Miller '72]

Thank you Miller 72, it's nice to hear you like this stuff, sometimes after a while having made a few posts with no replies I do wonder if anyone's interested so it's good to know. I do see a bit of more modern stuff but it's the rusty lumps in the bottom of old boxes I'm on the lookout for!

And today I picked up a Brades Criterion, pictured below after a quick wire wheel to read the name. And what I'm guessing is a Blacksmiths hot drift, it's made of wrought iron & looks particularly old

I agree, always the rusted and passes by. If it doesnt have rust, i am suspicious of it, amd usually pass by...lol!

That Brades has some beautiful cheeks!
I would love to know how long the the drift was originally lol!!

Great finds.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

I agree, always the rusted and passes by. If it doesnt have rust, i am suspicious of it, amd usually pass by...lol!
That Brades has some beautiful cheeks!
I would love to know how long the the drift was originally lol!!
Great finds.

The Brades cheeks have a lot of shape! I'll post some images when it's cleaned up.

Some images of the lovely hammer head from post 375 after some magic treatment to show the fabulous wrought iron "grain".

 

[Miller '72]

The Brades cheeks have a lot of shape! I'll post some images when it's cleaned up.

Some images of the lovely hammer head from post 375 after some magic treatment to show the fabulous wrought iron "grain".

Iron Porn...thats nice!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Iron Porn...thats nice!

It is indeed, it's great when the "grain" can be shown, not always the case like the recently cleaned stuff below, nothing extraordinary except for the two bits of wrought bar pulled from a crumbling wall on a friends farm that have some good grain.

Here's something I've not seen before, a drain spade I picked up at the weekend, the holes in the encrusted cement had me baffled.......

Untill I cleaned it up & found they were for broken copper rivets! It was surprisingly solid even though only one copper rivet needed drilling out along with the more normal two steel ones through the dry split handle.
Where the copper rivets had broken half has stayed in the spade.

From the other side. It's going to look cool with new copper rivets & handle.

Another great makers mark though haven't found much out about "Hansa".

And another Estwing in a terrible state with the steel end plate missing. Similar to the larger one rehandled in post 368.

1963........

Got it cleaned up now so time to start cutting & punching leather....

 

[Bradenk1987]

How did you clean the dried cement off of the shovel. It seems like every old shovel I find is caked in the stuff, and a wire wheel takes forever. Thought maybe you had a better way?

 

[I'mSoSharp]

How did you clean the dried cement off of the shovel. It seems like every old shovel I find is caked in the stuff, and a wire wheel takes forever. Thought maybe you had a better way?

I wish I had a magic formula but alas no, this one seemed a bit powdery & did wire wheel off eventually but another one recently was really difficult, I tried soaking it in a ferric chloride solution & that didn't work, in the end I got as much off as possible by shocking it with a hammer then used a stiff wire knot brush in an angle grinder. If anyone has a better way I'm all ears.
It's funny, the difference between washing a tool with a bit of water while the cement hasn't gone off & what happens when you don't..................


Anyway, here's the latest attempt at a stacked leather handle, I used some thicker hide this time & made a brass end plate. Pictured with the heavier one from post 368.

Both cold blued.

And another nice block plane I picked up today, I've not seen one with a threaded adjuster on the chip breaker before though it does explain the shape of irons I've seen on other planes used without the adjuster.

Peugeot? The lions indicate that, but within shields? A newer mark? Anyone know?

And on the chip breaker.

The iron looks as though it's never seen a stone, just the factory grinding marks which is odd because it's definitely seen some use as there are hammer marks on the wood where it's been tapped to adjust.... Should be a nice one to use with a sharpen.

 

[Ernest DuBois]

The slot with an opening in more common plane irons is to slide the cap iron onto the double iron assembly without having to remove the tightening screw but this is a clever adaptation making use of a similar feature for a different purpose. No doubt the double iron is a replacement, not bearing any signs of use. Could there be an accessory intended for making the depth adjustment or were users expected to improvise with a nail for example. Hopefully you can get it working. How's the mouth opening?. It looks like it could be fun to use if it functions as planned, and why shouldn't it.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

E Ernest DuBois , I understand why the slot is machined for the more usual chip breaker set up, the difference with this one is a small protrusion at the top of the hole to locate in the top of the adjustment screw, it's not modified but factory.
Somewhere I have a plane with the same iron but no adjuster that I'll dig out & photograph, I wondered what the protrusion was for, now I know.
This isn't a plane assembled from parts but a Peugeot model, thankfully I've found images & a description of another one also without a honed blade! A bit better condition than mine & different Peugeot marks, maybe older. - https://offgrid-woodbutcher.blogspot.com/2019/12/peugeot-frere-plane.html?m=1
I assume one is supposed to use a nail or something to make adjustments, when the iron & chip breaker isn't wedged up it's easy to move simple with finger & thumb.
I can't imagine what, if any advantage this type of adjuster has?

 

[I'mSoSharp]

I used my hatchet today to rough shape some timber & also tried a style of adze I haven't used before. This one I found in Portugal recently, a Jaguar brand that seems to have been popular in the past, I have two more slightly different ones found in Spain but haven't used them yet.
In Portugal they call this an Enxó, in Spain an Azuela, the radius of the blade is made to be correct when pivoted from the elbow......

At first it felt very strange after being used to having more of a handle on a cutting tool but given a little time I stated to get a little more used to it. Below are a couple of videos of them in use.

In Portugal shaping rafter ends in a typical Portuguese/Spanish style (comparison between new & old method) Skip to 3:00.

South America making a dug out canoe, skip to 18:00.

I couldn't make out the name on my blade.....

Then looking at it one day I realised I had bought a small planishing hammer head in Portugal over 20 years ago & it clicked...

Both being used to create this......

Definitely not fine woodworking , it's moved on a bit since this image so I'll post an image when finished to prove it's not a pile of fire wood........

 

[flexo]

it's more like a wooden christmas tree!

 

[I'mSoSharp]

While trying to find out more about the unusual "Enxó" Adze online I came across these images of three sold by an auction house. Wow!

Sadly not much info about them. I imagine they were carved by someone for the fun of making a unique item rather than being tools to use, especially considering the Lion's tail in the last image!

 

[Ernest DuBois]

All from Holm oak. Nice.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

And to prove it's not fire wood, carved with my hatchet & nearing completion. My next door neighbor was near so I asked her to give it a sense of scale.

Photo's to explain what it is soon.........

 

[flexo]

important sens of scale

 

[I'mSoSharp]

important sens of scale

Yes, many images on here would benefit by it.

Back to February post 320/321, I thought some Holly I'd turned for a chisel handle had changed colour a little, well @Square_peg was correct in that it stays white & doesn't change.
The smaller of the two below hasn't been touched since then & hasn't changed, either grubby hands or oiling (can't remember if I did) is responsible for the larger one's colour.

I'm currently making two more from Oak so wanted to look at these to copy the shape I like.

 

[Old Axeman]

Your chisel handles are truely a work of art. I have not worked with Holly for over 50 years, but when I did, I was at a friends place on the Potomac River in Colonial Beach Virginia. I could not believe it, the Holly trees were 12-18" in Dia. !
I have been rehanging some old chisels and gouges with Hawaiian woods--Koa, Koaia, Ohia, Milo, and Kiawe.

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Thank you O Old Axeman , the tree this Holly came from was about 16" & probably the toughest logs I've ever split! It's nice stuff to work though.

Today a couple more Block planes came along....... with two more nice marks.

I haven't seen this Peugeot stamp before.

And a new one to me "Hearnshaw Bros".

 

[I'mSoSharp]

Long time no post.
So here's a very large old claw hammer head that was found looking like a big chunk of rust, after many hours in vinegar it showed some amazing wrought iron grain. It's been stood a while unprotected so has started turning back to rust again!
(Rubik's cube for scale ). Just shy of 8" tall.....or long depending.........