Todays job: moving 10,000lb power hammer

[Ironwood]

Well, my buddy Ed (the blacksmith) scored a HUGE find a J&L Steel plant with a 1930-80's blacksmith shop intact after closing it's doors 30 years ago. He has moved all (10's of thousands of pounds of tongs and great stuff) except the "Cadillac" of power hammers, a 3B Nazel. This was the last piece left there. I showed up with my 2 year old to see them cutting a hole in the roof and raising up, up and out. 10,000 lbs of flying iron. They had to bring a utility box supply van, tractor trailer w/ dozer, and crane. I told his total iron ratio was a bit scewed (150,000 lbs of iron to get only 10,000 lb machine ;D) . This is the holy grail of smithing hammers, AND the tooling he hauled out of here would take a lifetime to collect if you could even find them, things like swaging tongs in 20-30 piece sets by 1/8" increments (almost unheard of).  REALLY nice find.

         IRONwood :D

[Tom]

Holy Smoke!  Where's our resident blacksmith lady when you want to show something off? :P

[zopi]

Toys!

[Dave Shepard]

That's awesome! There are a lot of blacksmith shops around that just closed the doors and have been sitting untouched for years. Nice to see it was moved to a loving home. 8)

[Ironwood]

I have seen tons of steel mill pattern shop sales in the last 10-15 years. This is definitely a hollowing out of our industrial base. The commercial blacksmith shops in these facilities are definitely in class by themselves, the tooling that is present is UNBELIEVEABLE. No where else could you find such a complete and extensive set of forming and handling tools, they just make them, anywhere, anymore.

       Ironwood

[DanG]

This is definitely a hollowing out of our industrial base.

That is a very true, and very very scarey statement.  I don't see how we are going to survive as a Country without some way to produce goods.  Do y'all remember just a few short years ago, when anything made of Chinese steel was patently inferior?  That was because it was being made in people's back yards by folks that had little or no knowledge or equipment.  Well, our steel mills are almost extinct, and the few that remain are headed for the auction block soon.  We are very close to the point where the "Made in USA" sticker will be sneered at and assumed to be a mark of junk. >:(

[fstedy]

If we keep going in this direction we'll be a third world country in another 50 years.

[isawlogs]

 Dan that is true , ya remember when made in Japan was a big joke ... Now it is some of the best to buy , I am afraid of the day that made in China will be looked at as a quality control , but they have all the technologie to do it and ressources  :-\

[mike_van]

Ironwood, you get around some of the neatest [heavy] stuff !     Some 10? years ago, down around Easton-Allentown, we drove past [slowly] someones old steelmill, long shut down. Massive cranes, buildings. How sad to see everything that was still there just falling apart. I could spend a day just wandering around that place.

[Ironwood]

Mike Van,

There is now the Bethlem Steel Museum in that area. I need to go see it, but haven't yet.

I grew up in the Youngstown Ohio area, my Dad worked in MANY mills (mostly Youngstown Sheet and Tube) and we could drive right over the open hearth and sheet rolling area  on the Center St. bridge in Struthers, my Dad worked right there in a crane. It was neat as a kid to see that glowing iron coming off the rolls to the cooling tables AND know exactly where he workd to boot. I can still smell that "prosperity", and see his iron oxide stained tube socks. I have very vivid memories of seeing the hundreds of men coming out the "turnstyles" at shift change when we would pick him up from work. While in college I got into one of the old plants, WOW! 1000's of feet long hundreds wide, I can't imagine what it must have been like to be in there during a shift. I was able to scavenge a few neat old signs and a few tools/ tongs. GOOD stuff.

  We lost a school mates father to a "cat walk" accident while in high school, he fell into the molten iron (no body left to bury), very sad, great family.

            I guess this stuff attracts me. IRONwood

[Warbird]

Ironwood, thanks a lot for sharing all of this.  I agree with Dan.... I personally view this kind of thing as a tragedy.  A turning of the page of history, if you will.  I suppose that if things ever get real bad, the folks who own this history will be able to put it back into production.  Here is hoping there will still be some around who have the knowledge.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Its one of those things that will come back to haunt us 1st world countrys as our standard of living has gone up wages ect it puts preasure on producers to supply thigs on a lower margin i read a report on the furniture industry the other day that made me sad alot of mid to large sized  furiture are closing down or getting things made overseas the way it works here for mountain ash furniture the mill i worked at  exported atleast 2 x 20' containers to china per day half its production usually one for a furniture maker in Melbourne  and one went to a Glulam plant that subcontracted to the mill as it was cheaper for them to send it overthere then ship the products back as they would have to have upgraded their plant in aust and also the glue that was used was baned by workcover here. ( the glue was safe but they wold have had to supply more  safty equipment and with that higher wages ) ;)
What will happen after we have exployted all the 3rd world countrys trying to save a buck  after each one has had its own Industrial Revolution and catches up  : well we will all go back to getting things made at Home and we will all have to relearn and retool plants ect and start All Over Again  ;)  :

I just think its Bloody Stupid to start with  ;)

Anyway After that little rant  :D :D Ill justay Nice pics IWood and thanks for sharing  did ED buy all tha black smithing equipment  ??? if so i would have looked at buying the whole lot land and all as you get a differnt feel when you walk into an older plant
than you dont get with a a shiny new one  ;D same goes for old sawmills  :D .there is a small but growing movement in our countrys towards buying homemade product not due to quality issues that will see alot of opertunity for the savvy buissness person as it think a good percenage of are sick and tyred of picking things up that they think are made at Home ;D only to find out that its imported   : :(  >:(

Reguards Chris

[Ironwood]

Medows miller,

Ed bought ALL the tools. I would NOT want the enviromental issues that would come w/ that purchase. Today the due diligence of enviromental studies necessary would cost a fortune and a historic industrial property like that would definintely have SERIOUS issues. Sometimes there is federal remeadiation grant money available for "brownfields", but it is all a roll of the dice as to availability, and timing. You could really make out IF you could pay cash AND knew that federal or state monies were available for remeadiation.  NOT a risk I would take!

    Ironwood

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Its Like that here too Ironwood  ALOT of Red tape to get anything Done :

Chris