s realized the benefits anticipat
far removed from a knowledge of tempering that would enable him to forge and finish a reliable tool of any kind as before; since to heat a piece of steel and plunge it i
ed by William Richardson, edge tool maker. Aspired, did I say? The expression is too feeble. The idea absorbed his thoughts, a
ays more or less under the influence of liquor. Indeed, he thought he could not temper an axe properly, unless he was half drunk; and it must be allowed that many of his neighbors were of the same opinion, while others said, he wanted them to break, in order that he might have a job of repairing. It was too early in the season to plough; the ice had broken up in the river, and having first driven the logs, cut and hauled in the winter,
g
nother stone on the stump
imber and boards in the course of next year to build me a frame house the year after; 'twill take two years to make the shingles and clapboards, hew the frame, and put the house up. Now I'll advance you money to buy an anvil beck (beak) horn, st
small size, and used to point horse-nails on. The beak horn was a very necessary
er favor, for I need an anvil sadly, though I ca
n advancing this money, I am benefiting myself and the whole neighborhood more than you. It will save me and all of us many a hard tramp throug
as good a blacksmith as ever stood behind an anvil, but mighty uncomfortable.
e there's work enough for two years to hew the frame, make the shingl
weld the steel to the iron, and knew he could do that. Although he had hired John to help him draw the large iron, because he could not do it, even with the aid of the boys, without great[Pg 82] outlay of both time and labor, he didn't care to expose his awkwardness bef
e heating, and put the whole in the fire for a weld. At the first trial the steel fell out on the ground the moment he struck it, and he lost his heat. He now shut the slit together so that the steel did not quite reach to the bottom, c
day, men wouldn't hesitate to travel twenty miles additional to a smith who had the reputation of e
g
ld have been less brittle; but he also knew the harder a tool is, the keener it cuts, and, forgetful of the fault in Drew's axes, imagined he could not g
proved so hard, although he had made the blade very thin by hammering, that it was almost impossible to grind it, though he put a liberal allowance of sand on the
with proceeded to a large hemlock that grew near, to try it. If unskil
who were all gathered at the foot of the
to cut; I
g
he wood, he pulled off his outer garmen
in the wood," broke from him at intervals, while the children clapped th
ruck the axe into it with all his might; but when he pulled it out, there w
this disappointment in the moment of victory; he merely said, as with one foot on th
shave the wood. I must now find out the hig
e had just broken, yet they were both wood tools, and good ones. He then tried a chopping axe made by Drew. It was softer still, but it cut well and sto
. How I wish I had asked Tom Breslaw!" He sat down on the butt of the tree to reflect. Clem seated him
mbering into his parent's lap, "wha
ound the little questioner, "to try and make it
father, when you've
h or clock, I'd let it cool two minutes, then four, and s
mark on it with her knitting needle, and says, 'When the candle burns down t
I want something that
who, with both arms around his parent's neck, had almost got int
now,
he axe in the other hand, he walk
cool, began to count, and continued counting till the ax
the
w, dear;" and he be
, the harder it is. What made that axe so hard was, that I het it so hot, and chilled it quick. If I had made it only half as hot, and then put it in water, the temper wouldn't have begun but half as soon, and then it would have been only half as hard. I guess that axe's about an eighth too hard. I'll heat it just as hot as I did before, and coun
he 'poll' of it in the fire to burn the handle out, and the wet cloths I had on the steel to keep it cool got dry while I was talking with a neighbor, and
uenched the whole of the steel in water till it
iron draw on the stee
e knot; it broke, but very little; put it in again,
e on the steel; takes the temper out too fast. I'll dr
g
eat, counted sixteen and quenched it. The axe cut much better and neither broke nor turned. He thought he would heat it, count but twelve,
t; don't know when I can come; to
d Clem. "I ain't comi
e frequent heats. But his attention was instantly arrested by seeing the bright steel change under his eye to a pale yellow, commencing at the point where the steel joined the iron, and gradually extending over it; while he looked, it changed to a
g
ld have come to, if I hadn't quenched the steel. I'll know." Heating the axe once more, he rubbed it bright, and looked for the colors. For a little time the steel was
what hands
he colors represented different degrees of hardness. When he found, by careful exper
etter regulator than David Montague's watch,
he house h
he blacksmith's do it, or, if I hav
gh the fire so many times that the life of it was all gone. He therefore put new[Pg 90] steel in it, improved the shape somewhat, ground the whole sur
. They came from Boston to Portsmouth, from thence to Kennebunkport, by wa
im, having ground it sharp. Watching his opportunity while Bradford was putting some top poles on the fence, he took Bradford's axe
nto the wood. It ain't my axe; it's Wil
de
ogs yo
those you he
you are using that John Drew
s what I ma
it into t
ay, and if it breaks or tu
g
Richardson had made an axe for John Bradford that beat Drew's all hollow. Every body won
make nails, and made nearly all Montague's nails in the winter evenings. He paid less and less attention to farming, and more to working in iron, paid for his land, and built him a frame hou
asten to the bench long enough to reach to the ground, and rise eight inches above the edge of the bench, and welded an old horse-shoe on the back side to fasten it to the bench.[Pg 92] The other he made but two-thirds as long, and by making a slot in one, with a hole for a pin, and punching an eye in the other, he contrived both to connect them, and for
he bolt in order to open or close it. By means of tapering wedges driven into the eyes in the bolt, he could wedge a piece of iron firmly into his vice to file it, could turn the calks of a horse-shoe or set them at any angle he wished. Whenever the vice did not come up to the eye, and the
g
orning, "will you let me h
? What do you wa
s-for my steer's yoke; father's
ld; you'
father
e he wanted a pair of
nt the b
ave my tongs spoi
t red and white
es
what I'm a m
es
with his rooster under his arm, prese
What are you going to
him. Andrew said
ast winter. What d
orse-shoe what's hanging
g
do you want of
some bow-pins
and after you have made
s busy enough. Clem was behind the anvil. They had flattened out the heel calks of the horse-shoe, straightened it, and lapped one part over the other. Just as he looked
in't wasting
Montague, and bought it. We are going to make some bow-pins, a
lem took the bow-pins to Mr. Montague, the latter tol
use. Montague and others built a sawmill and a grist-mill; the town was incorporated, and Richardson made th
rker going to get screw-bolts made. Now, it always galls me to have work go out of this place. I think you'd better send to Boston and g
eighbor. I'll
ot make something that would cut
a tree. He wondered what made it drop to the earth, rather than go in the opposite direction. However that may be, it
, he noticed Clem putting powder into a horn. The boy had rolled a leaf of his last year's [Pg 96]w
had finishe
that paper befo
d to the boy, who, interested in whatever attracted h
es on that pap
ey, fa
the p
d they were all
unny,
go to the wood-pile and get a p
n set off an inch at one corner, and drew a line from that mark to
is up hill, bo
, fa
the bark round t
dle; that's the way a screw does; it'
lem,[Pg 97] who was altogether of a pra
make one in the morni
r the bolt, pounded up and boiled some pieces of moose horns, made glue and glued it on solid, put the strip of birch bark around the lower part of the bolt, its straight edge in line with the lower edge, and glued it on. There was now a perfectly true spiral round the bolt, the quarter of an inch offset determining the inclination, and also the size of the thread. He now filed out a fork from a thin piece of iron just a quarter of an inch in width, the two points, chisel-edged, one sixteenth of an inch in width each, leaving a space of two [Pg 98]sixteenths between them. Commencing at the narrow end of the birch bark, he followed along its edge, cutting the bark sh
this hardened steel screw-tap with plenty of bear's grease, turning it forcibly round with a wrench till the sharp edges at the squares cut a thread on the inside of the hole, and then hardened the plate. With this pla
BOLTS C
rt time. He laid out the screw in the same manner as before, except that instead of sheathing it in bark, he dipped it in beeswax till it was coated, and cut the thread with a file and cold-chisel, and instead of putting the screw through both parts of the vice, made a box for it to work in. It is evident he could not cut a thread in the box, that must be square, like that of the screw, with a screw that was squa
d filed up, putting the filings and pieces into the box between the coils of wire with borax. He wrapped the whole box in clay mortar, and dried the mass;
e screw was turned. After accomplishing all this, he built a frame shop with a brick chimney, paying Montague in work