Furnace Town Meet
In Snow Hill, MD

Report by Bruce Freeman
Marshall Beinstock, and I drove down to Furnace Town on Friday to attend the demo and workshop by Walt Scadden. Due to inexplicable magnetic forces, we ended up at Jos. Fazzio's in Glassboro, from which we weren't able to extricated ourselves till about 3 pm. However, this still left us plenty of time to get to Furnace Town and to attend the slide presentation.

The demonstration on Saturday was of marine hardware. Walt was the blacksmith on the reconstruction of the Armistad, and had considerable familiarity with marine hardware before that as well. He demonstrated making a jib hank, an oarlock and some aspects of making an anchor.

On Sunday, we each chose a project to work on. Marshall chose to make a pair of oarlocks, and executed them with his usual elegant aplomb. After flirting with an anchor or sand anchor (grapple with flukes, not points) I chose to make a boat hook for a friend. This turned out pretty good. All-in-all, a weekend well spent.

Notes on the Furnace Town Demonstration
Courtesy of Marshall Bienstock

Drill Bit Angle Gauge

Drill Angle

JIB HANK
Holds sail to wood slide Start with 1/2" Sq. about 7" long Will need a 1/2" round bottom swage Heat 1 - Taper 2-3" on one end Heat 2 - Repeat on opposite end Heat 3 - Start swaging one end Heat 4 - continue down length of bar using hammer face Heat 5 - Use cross peen to widen out in swage Heat 6 - Work entire length in swage. Take a red heat and scroll one end towards curved surface
Repeat other side Take a red heat in the center of the piece and curve scroll back around. Curved side will be on the outside
Boat hook
1/4 x 2" flat - Peen one end to a flat taper Cut off

5/8 x 18" round Taper one end to a point Scroll end Finish bend around anvil horn Forge weld taper to rod Heat and flux both pieces Put together and reheat Weld using swage on bottom Walt uses 7014 rod if he wants to forge the weld afterwards
Anchors
Fluke
3/4" round
Upset one end
Start pointing end
Leave end thick for strength
Forge a ridge in vise
Side View
Top View
Shank
Bottom end
Upset end then flatten to a wedge shape (for strength)

 Top end split out for holes for chain and stock Stock weld collars around ends of bar to form balls, first one end and then the other after inserting it through the shank. End is bent if it is meant to be folded for storage.
Oar Lock
Start similar to jib hank after swaging mark center for slitting hole
Scroll ends
Bend to final shape, curved side will be on the inside
Slit and drift hole
Shank
Form Square tenon to fit above hole
Taper other end
Flatten end of tapered end for oar lock retaining pin Heat and insert and set tenon Some pictures will be posted on the web site.


Workshop group in front of shop
Mark, Marshall and Bruce

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