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CHAPTER VII. HE FINDS THE CLUE

Word Count: 5526    |    Released on: 17/11/2017

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

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