Welcome back to the Bob Armstrong "Tool Collection", thread number 12.

Something I've just learned today. Although nearly everything in Bob's collection is for sale, he informed me that he won't ship anything. He loves to collect, trade and sell, but he doesn't want to be in the shipping business.

Bob really likes to trade. If you got an interesting piece and see something of his that you'd rather have, I'm sure you could work a trade deal with him.

If you see something you just gotta have, let me know and I'll try to pick it up for you and ship it out. I have no business relationship with Bob and am not looking to make anything here. Please don't ask me to ship a 400 pound anvil for you!

If there are too many requests, I'll probably bow out. I'm not into shipping either.

Okay, that said, on to Tool Collection #12.

Cheers,

Mark

"Catshead" hammers from Bob's "personal" drawer. I didn't see any makers mark on these but they are nice.





You've seen the "cheapie", multi-blade hoof knives on ebay and some of the retail outlets. Here's a set that isn't "cheapie". Made by Halptner.




Bob had an old driving hammer in his 'special drawer'. While showing it to me he mentioned that he knew the owner and had acquired the hammer after the gentleman passed on.

Here's a photo of that same man (far left) standing with some friends and a "small" pile of shoes.

An old shoeing box from Bob's collection. I suspect the top wear came from years of laying a rasp across the box.






Here's a hoof knife taken from the shoeing box (above). Still sharp, feel nice in the hand and that offset blade angle seemed like it would work really nice for deep footed horses.

Older pair of adjustable hoof nippers with replaceable blades.

This is one my favorite pieces in Bob's collection. Okay, it's not farriery or even blacksmith related, but either one of those trades might need a sharp pencil, right?

Anyway, this little gadget is a pencil sharpener.




Notice how the end of the pencil shows thru the recessed cut in the circular back.

As you turn the handle, the blades shave away the wood at the point.

Not only do the turning blade shave the wood, but the crank also turns the pencil at the same time thru a little gear reduction.



I had to try it out myself. Yep, it works! Asking price? $325 dollars!!!!

Now, this is one sweet little anvil. Don't know anything about it other than it's called a "Doctors Anvil". This thing is in really nice shape!

Anybody know anything about this kind of anvil?






Marked Alex O. Cunny, Cincinnati, Ohio. No date.

Block and Tackle that came out of an old blacksmith collection. Big piece of hardware!

I put a quarter on top of the block for size reference.




The anvil tucked against the wall behind the block weighs over 600 pounds!




That's a LOT of anvil! The special made tongs on the anvil are built to securely hold a railroad spike. Yep, that's a spike locked in the tongs.

I love this little set. Miniature anvil, cone, vise and tools. I put a quarter on the anvil for reference.







Folding hoof pick. Fits in your pocket!

I really like this little ballpein, particularly the octogon sided handle. Wonder how this handle would work on a driving hammer? Very secure, very comfortable, very balanced!







Soft-faced (wood) mallet.

A comment from earlier pictures of the draft shoe with the peened in calks. I have one of those with the calks welded in. I had thought they were probably threaded and wondered why the weld had been added. Now I suspect that a previous guy just didn't know the peening process Learn something new every day. Thanks Mark.

And that's all for Tool Collection #12 and also the end of the photos I've taken thus far.

As you can see, a guy could easily spend weeks (months?) photographing all the tools that Mr. Armstrong has in his collection.

I'll definately be going back over to his place and would encourage you to do so as well should you find yourself in Bethel, Ohio.

If I find myself taking any more photos I'll share them here. If you want to see details of something I've already shown, just let me know.

Hope you've enjoyed this collection as much as I have.

Cheers and have a wonderful day!

Mark Gough
Clover Creek Stables
Horsemanship Training & Farrier Services
Bethel, Ohio

Mark_Gough in gray

And that's all for Tool Collection #12 and also the end of the photos I've taken thus far.

Mark,

Does the tool collection include any Triple S nippers? Triple S pulloffs? Old DS (Dale Sprout maker, not the later stuff) alligator clinch tongs? GE Gooseneck Clinch Tongs? If it's not too much trouble and he has any of this stuff, lemme know by email how much he wants for the aforementioned (especially the Triple S nippers). Please respond to <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>, not publicly.

Thanks,

Tom

Hello Tom and Jack,

Tom, I'll check back with Bob and see if he has any of the items you listed. A lot of this stuff is really old and either isn't marked or markings are, in some cases, illegible.

I didn't see a lot of pull-offs but in some cases, particularly the old stuff, I'm not sure I would always know the difference between what a farrier might have used for nippers versus pull-offs. They often look very similar.

A lot of the stuff has already been cherry picked. Bob shared some photos of what the shop looked like a year ago. You could hardly walk in the place it was so full! He guesses that over half has been sold, much of it to Lee Liles in Oklahoma.

As I said, I'll check for you and if any of those things are in there, I'll contact via the email address you provided.

Jack, Mr. Armstrong has several of those old draft shoes designed for the special calks. I found the original patent for the idea, dated 1932. They were made until 1953.

Some of the samples that Bob has do have the calks welded in, particularly the smaller toe calks.

Here's some trivia for you. I was browsing thru an old blacksmiths ledger page and noticed that some entries indicated an owner would bring in their horse only to have the calks replaced.

Ledger was from around 1904.

Shows 4 new shoes, calked, $1.25. Four shoes, calks only, $.90 cents. Does this mean the cost of the four shoes was only about $0.35 cents?

So... I think this means the farrier would reset the same four shoes, replacing only the calks.

I went back to Bob's this evening to get pricing on some shoes for another farrier on this forum. While there, I once again walked past one of the shoe boards. The one with a sample of these same draft shoes and also samples of the calks and toe grabs that were available for them.

Bob gave me a price and well......

What can I say... Had to bring the board home!

I'll make a nicer board and get everything mounted for better display. Should look nice with a copy of the patent information.

http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg181/msgough/Blacksmith-Shop/IMG_0088.jpg?t=1225806616

Every time I visit I see something new I had not noticed before.

This evening it was a couple of old saws hanging from the rafters of his barn. Both were huge tools. One was used for sawing large blocks of ice. The other is called a 'pit saw'. That has an interesting history and represents what had to be one of the worst jobs I can imagine. I'll get some photos later and share them along with their use.

A lot of the photos I've posted present racks or groups of tools. In some cases I focused on an individual item such as a shoe or particular tool.

If folks here are interested, I could go over occassionally and select one or two individual tools or products and take detailed photos. I'd focus on those things we have a date for and particularly anything with a known history or brand maker.

Cheers,
Mark

Can't answer directly, but my father's auto business in the thirties still had a blacksmith. He got a dollar to shoe a horse. Inflation averaging 5 per cent means prices double every 15 years or so, 35 cents in 1904 would be about right. !