I started to wonder how tey did things that far back. Like how did they make files? I've looked around the internet and found just about nothing. I have only a limited amount of available tim eon computer so has anybody found an links?
With a chisel, and lots of patience!
"The Art of Blacksmithing" by Alex W. Bealer [Castle Books 1995] ISBN 0-7858-0395-5
Amazon.com will sell you a new copy for $10 or a used one for $5
Check one of Lindsay's books, "English and American Toolbuilders". Files, going back many hundreds of years were made by gouging each line with a chisel. As far as I know, files have only been machine made for the last
150 years or so.snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (ken) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:
Some things never change. I am reading a book on Medieval technology in Europe and there is a report from the York Minster (England) building site works from 1345 in which there are complaints both by management and labor of shoddy work practices (leaving work uncovered), stolen building materials (timber, stone, and lime), slipping deadlines (because the owner had the only keys to the building and was not around often), wage complaints (workers asking for too much but getting too little [esp. for drink!]), and shoddy equipment (rotting wooden cranes). In some ways Western Civilization doesn't seem to have advanced at all.
Blacksmithing reached perhaps its purest form in the old west. A blacksmith wanting to set up shop carried anvil and a hammer or so out to make a new shop, and made all of his tools from scratch. Sorta like Gingerly, the first couple of tools were hard to make, but after a minimal toolset was constructed, the work became easier.
You might like the book Brunelleschi's Dome.
Here's how they were doing it by the early 19th century:
(these are pretty large .jpg files, it will take a while if you are on dial-up)
Regards,
Bob
Those are very cool pictures. I'd love to see the machine in person.
What I find absolutely amazing are lithic implements. Those are tools made out of stone. There were much more than projectile points. In the manner of projectile points, you had arrowheads, spear heads, atlatl heads, and dart heads.
In the manner of tools, there were scrapers, gravers, cutters, drills, notchers, and on and on.
If you ever get the chance, look at some of the absolutely intricate delicate exacting work these craftsmen were able to do with just rudimentary implements. Rocks, bone, sticks, fire, natural substances .............. AND ............. human hands.
I have tried knapping. That is making stone tools out of chunks of rocks. Easy it ain't. An old one who could crank out a good arrowhead had as much skill and talent as today's master machinist. If you don't believe me, just try it.
Steve
This would be the best:
snipped-for-privacy@chromisdesigns.com (Bob Edwards)
A wonderfully wrought device; seems to be a direct replacement of hammer and hand. Do you have any history--who/where/how is it known to have been used for files (other than that the toolbit seems right)?
IMO, file making was one of the trades able to be kept as secret as possible (at least the heat treating aspect), so as to delay the changeover to machine technology, but that machine says different.
The hand cut method would have used the same curved chisel, but perhaps with a second bit attached that you could set in a previously made cut to set up the next cut. The file maker's hammer has a short, curved handle for a break-of-wrist sort of stroke.
Frank Morrison
Here is a book that you all might find interesting.
Out of the Fiery Furnace by Robert Raymond, The impact of metals on the history of mankind
The Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN 0-271-00441-X A good read, especially for this group. Bob
Look for a book called :
"A Museum of Early American Tools" by Eric Sloane
Lots of 16xx -17xx (those were dates) examples of tools, some making hints - mostly hand drawn concepts.
ISBN 0805012923 around $20
Martin
Thanks tom - got to see the old library I spent so much time in - though it is larger some is the same.
Martin
It being a dull day, I decide to respond to what Hitch foisted Sat, 21 Aug 2004 11:17:32 -0500 on rec.crafts.metalworking , viz:
Some years ago, watched a documentary on building the pyramids. Archeologist hires a stone mason to do the actual test. At one point, the two are having one of the standard "why is this taking longer, and costing more, than planned? discussions, all nicely framed with the Pyramids of Giza in the background. I cracked up - some things haven't changed in 5000 years!
tschus
I'm going to try and make me a file. See how it goes. And thanks for the tips on the books. We have a new guy coming into the shop who now works at a major museum in Europe restoring guns made before 1750. He has been making the replacement parts as closely as possible to the way they were made originally. I don't want to be clueless when I start asking questions. This is going to be a unique situation to say the least. Ken
ken sez: " I'm going to try and make me a file. See how it goes."
Not smart ken -- the warden may be a RCM'er!
Frank:
It's on display at the Musee des Artes and Metiers in Paris, France in their machinery hall as an example of an early filemaking machine. They actually have a file blank clamped on the machine bed and cut about half-way down the length, to show how it operates.
You are right, it seems to be a "direct" implementation of the manual process, which also suggests an early machine. However, it does have adjustable pitch, adjustable stroke length, and several other adjustments that I couldn't make out what they do. I'd love to see it working.
Regards,
Bob
Here's a nice link on file making:
Cheers!
Rob
Did you know there is a drawing in DaVinci's papers of a file-cutting machine which looks similar to (but less complicated than) the picture I posted from the Musee des Artes et Metiers? I don't know if it was ever constructed, but the drawing shows the concept of doing this by machine was around very early.
I think it's not so much that the procedures for heat treatment and tempering of steel were not known prior to the Sheffield makers' use in the mid-1800's; more that good steel was hard to come by.
The basics of hardening steel have been known dating back to ancient times by swordmakers and other metalsmiths -- what was new in the mid-1800's were the new steel-making proceses, which greatly increased the availablilty of good steel.
Regards,
Bob
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.