Greetings
“Use little fire and more hammer.”
“A good bright red and draw quick.”
“Finish, heat to a good cherry red and hammer light and fast.”
“Don’t hammer after the steel turns black or you will injure the steel.”
“Learn your trade both in theory and practice.”
“We must practice with our hands to help our brain.”
(Advice from The American Blacksmith, 1909)
This Newsletter features forge welding past and present, as well as riveting at Ballard Forge in Seattle. For more about riveting, plan to attend our upcoming webinar:
Webinar Shop Tour: Ballard Forge, Seattle
June 15, 2022, 1:30 – 2:15 pm PDT (4:30 pm EDT)
To sign up for the webinar, send me an email (meslerv@gmail.com). You will receive a link to the WebEx event the day before. Steve Howell will tour us through his shop; there will be time for questions.
Vern Mesler 2022
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I never tire watching the 1904 film of craftsmen forge welding a large metal ring at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It begins with a craftsman stoking a coal fire with long metal tongs on the top of a large metal ring (it could be wrought iron, as wrought iron was a metal that was much easier to forge weld than steel). There is no sound in this film, but those who have worked with iron and steel can hear the sledgehammers striking the iron, smell the coal, and feel the intense heat of the fire.
As I stroll through each blurred image, I try finding details on how the sledgehammer and powerhammer (tools prominently shown in the film) are handled by the craftsmen.
There is a wealth of unwritten shop knowledge within those blurred images. Long handled sledgehammers are gripped by craftsmen, their stance solid, knees bent, the power of their swing felt and heard as the hammer head slams against the semi-molten iron. Their eyes are focused and their hands grip the sledgehammer handle firmly, allowing the hammer to build momentum on the back swing and then bringing the hammer head forward to strike again the semi-molten iron.
Forge welding was an essential process in the fabrication of wrought iron structures especially in pinned connected truss bridges. It was a process so commonly used and yet a description of how these welds were made on historic bridge members is hard to find. Brick and mortar libraries, as well as digital libraries, are filled with engineering analyses of forge welds in bridge members but nothing on how the forge welds were made. There had to be jigs, fixtures, measuring devices, and tooling. A sequence, an order, a setup. It appears no written record exists; only the senior craftsmen’s unwritten words, passed on to the apprentice. In the 1904 film I can make out a sledgehammer head that appears heavier than its pein, and I wonder what was the advantage of having this style of hammer. As the work progresses the craftsmen pull the large ring to a powerhammer and position the heated weld under the hammer head. Positioned at the controls, the powerhammer operator hammers the pliable iron. With the weld quickly cooling, the operator pauses the hammer and another craftsman places a cutting tool alongside the edge of the malleable forge weld. Using a light touch at the controls, the powerhammer operator slices and trims the edge of the forge weld.
I’ve worked in steel fabrication and as a welding instructor for many years and held certifications for several electric arc welding processes. I understand the importance of a weld joint design and the importance of fusion. I have found that when a forge weld is cut, polished, and etched, it has as well-defined a fusion line as an electric arc weld. Forge welding became an interest of mine during my work in the preservation of historic metal truss bridges, and my intention is finding out how the forge weld is made and with what tools. While there are numerous structural analyses done on the reliability of a forge weld on historic bridge members, there is no detailed description that lists the steps craftsmen used to make a forge weld. However, I have learned a lot by watching and interacting with blacksmiths as they do their work, which I described in a recent article (see below).
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An April posting on Facebook showing the transportation of the 1942 Murray 100# Power Hammer (Vern) for the Blacksmith Association of Missouri (BAM) 30th Annual Ozark Conference in Sedalia, Missouri, led to our decision to attend the BAM event. It was one of those quick decisions that proved to be an important educational experience for me in my search for those unwritten craftsmen’s records of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century fabrication processes. Forge welding is a process used in the fabrication of many of the critical members of historic iron structures, and it is the least known process used in the fabrication of these members. What were the tools and fixtures and methods used for producing a forge weld? During an email exchange with Bernie Tappel (an experienced blacksmith and member of BAM), I asked: if I brought some wrought iron sections to the event, could I get them forge welded with the 100# Murray. “Sure, we can find someone to do that,” Tappel responded. He and fellow blacksmiths and members of BAM Steve McCarthy and Ken Jansen accepted the challenge and produced a successful forge weld using those craftsmen skills of sight, sound, and touch. |
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Many historic structures, valued for their industrial look, could be enhanced by incorporating new riveted elements in these renovated or re-purposed buildings: additional riveted columns and trusses in a craft beer brewery; riveted bar features in a hotel located in a restored historic building; riveted exterior structures that complement a park shelter or the entrance to a building; a new pavilion fabricated with riveted trusses. |
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Re-educating the industrial community to do riveting as part of new construction can have the additional benefit of providing those responsible for making the decision for saving a historic riveted structure (bridge or building) with the knowledge that the industrial community has the expertise to perform both the engineering and the fabrication services required for riveting.
Steve Howell, proprietor of Ballard Forge in Seattle, Washington, has on his website a resume of new riveted ironwork for commercial and residential customers. Howell has demonstrated with his skills as a craftsman and metal fabricator his ability to replicate riveted features from historic buildings and bridges to enhance modern architectural practice.
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Howell describes himself as a "tinkerer/ inventor type," and his custom-built hydraulic riveter built for the Cut River Bridge project is testament to his skills as a steel fabricator. Howell was contracted in 2018 to fabricate new replicated sections for the Cut River Bridge, a Michigan Department of Transportation project that involved replication of riveted sections for the replacement of worn or damaged sections on the bridge, an innovative approach to the preservation of historic riveted truss bridges currently in service.
Webinar Shop Tour: Ballard Forge, Seattle
June 15, 2022, 1:30 – 2:15 pm PDT (4:30 pm EDT)
To sign up for the webinar, send me an email (meslerv@gmail.com). You will receive a link to the WebEx event the day before. Steve Howell will tour us through his shop; there will be time for questions.
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Preserving Historic Iron and Steel Bridges as the Craftsmen’s Record.
Vern Mesler presents at the SAE/ASM West Michigan Section Meeting, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Featured was the Calhoun County Historic Bridge Park and the preservation of five of Michigan’s historic bridges. (4-18-2022)
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Contemporary and Historic Tools for the Repair and Rehabilitation of Historic Metals.
Vern Mesler presents at the 2022 Spring Seminar of the Association for Bridge Construction and Design Western New York Chapter (ABCD-WNY, 4-1-2022)
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For a unique Michigan summer adventure, visit the Calhoun County Historic Bridge Park in Battle Creek and stroll across five restored riveted metal truss bridges from Michigan's transportation past. Restored to their original fabricated design for Michigan's early road system, they are a history book not written in words but in the metal fabricated by the hand of a craftsman.
Group tours can be arranged for those who want to learn more about the history of the five historic bridges, the wrought iron and steel they were fabricated with, and the manufacturing processes used to fabricate and erect the bridges.
For reservations for special events (weddings, reunions, etc.) contact
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In addition to the June 15 webinar at Ballard Forge, there will be an August webinar (date TBD) with Cole Cavalieri, Assistant Bridge Engineer for the Mackinac Bridge Authority. |
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Please consider contributing to the Iron and Steel Preservation Program Fund. This fund was established to support projects, research, conferences and scholarships related to the repair, rehabilitation, and restoration of metals. The Lansing Community College Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation.
Select “Other” under “Designation” and type in “Iron and Steel Preservation.”
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Copyright © 2022. All Rights Reserved |
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