The furniture in a blacksmith shop consists of forge, anvil, half barrel, vise bench, drill press and tool rack. A farm shop also has a heating stove, shave horse, a woodworking bench, a good power driven grindstone and a double emery grinder.
Forge.—The old-fashioned forge laid up with brick in connection with an old-fashioned chimney is just as popular as ever. The same old tuyer iron receives the air blast from the same old style leather bellows, and there is nothing more satisfactory. But there are modern portable forges, [Figure 37], made of iron, that are less artistic, cheaper, take up less room and answer the purpose just about as well. The portable iron forge has a small blower attached to the frame which feeds oxygen into the fire. There are a good many different sizes of portable forges. Most of them work well up to their advertised capacity.
Figure 37.—Portable Forges. The smaller forge is for light work such as heating rivets for iron bridge construction. The larger forge to the right is meant for blacksmith work.
Generally, farm forges are not required to develop a great amount of heat. Farmers do but little welding, most of the forge work on the farm being confined to repair work such as heating brace irons, so they may be easily bent into the proper shape, or to soften metal so that holes may be punched through it easily.
Sharpening harrow teeth, drawing out plow points and horseshoeing are about the heaviest forge jobs required in a farm blacksmith shop, so that a medium size forge will answer the purpose.
Figure 38.—Anvil. The only satisfactory anvil is forged out of ingot steel with a power trip-hammer. It should weigh 140 pounds.