At some point down the trail, your self-sufficient homestead could make for a fascinating living history site. You have the blacksmith and forge, kitchen and oven, livestock pen, wood shop, well etc. Your team of pioneers are outstanding folks. Thanks for sharing this living journey of education and appreciation of those who have gone before us creating what has become OUR living history.
A trick to preserving the metal and also making sure the hinge will operate smoothly is after the finished product is ready for completion is to heat the item up to just dull red throughout and then to either quench it in oil or melt beeswax all over it and let it cool and wipe it clean. It will basically season it like cast iron cookware. Another tip is when you have to file your work is to hot file it. It removes the metal MUCH quicker and saves your files teeth as long as you keep it cool.
I study in a medieval building where a lot of hand-forged hinges and other components are still used, lovely to see the process to make them in the first place! I no longer have a forge but I do some coppersmithing so I may try making a small hinge for a little trinket box or something
Brandon's presentation style is so pleasant and clear - always, always interesting. Thank you, Townsends! Really excited to see that new smokehouse you guys have been working so hard on building!
I really think you have a amazing crew there at Townsend.I could watch any of you do nothing but fold paper and still enjoy the video.Thanks for bringing us along.
A man within a forest, just showing some simplistic blacksmithing. Extremely informative and to the point. These are the videos that more people need overall when explaining things. Just direct and to the point. Also the process explanation is nice and welcoming.
I like how Brandon made the forks for the hinges and using the whole width of the stock to go in between the forks will make a strong hinge. Thank you for the well done video.
Wohoo!!! SMOKEHOUSE! very nice hinge work. Gonna set up a small forge out back, you all have inspired me! Love these videos with Brandon. Keep up the fantastic work everyone! The new music is incredible, please tell me there will be a cd. Oh my gosh and the dog jumping! 😂😂
Another fantastic video, I don't know if RU-vid does awards for these but, these videos are so good I wish you could do much much more. No BS, just great content. Thank you Mr. Townsend.
Great project and nicely done! A good final step: heat the hinge up to a black heat, and then rub beeswax over it, (if it smokes a lot it is just a tad to hot) this will help protect the metal from rusting, and add some lubrication to the hinge pin.
Never thought it would be so awesome to watch somebody make a hinge. However I found it rather fascinating. Thanks for sharing this video and keep up the great work.
Nice hinge, the best thing about these blacksmithing videos has to be the wonderful sounds of hot metal being worked. It's musical, even the roaring, breathing fire and the sizzling quenching can't compete.
I agree completely. But when you look at the quality, and how some homes from back then are still standing and maintained without changing too much? You know the time was worth it in the end. But again, in the 18th century you are right, It was extremely time consuming for almost any task. We didn't have the technology we do now. But sometimes the best crafted items are usually made by hand if you do it right.
Pine tar might be a good coating for the hinges. Carburize it onto the metal like you would season a cast iron skillet. I use pine tar for most of the hardware I make when doing blacksmithing, myself and it lasts a long time and is easy to recoat.
For a young fella recently started out, you're coming right along with your skills. Big difference between the oven door handle and this hinge and other recent work. Keep the cold ends out...
The snow is flying. Many years the day after Thanksgiving for us meant rain. Many times all day rain. But not this year. I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving. 😄🦃🍗
Townsend is about to hit 2 million subscribers and 1000 videos. It would be really neat if your thousandth video was a celebration of both of these milestones
I’m always conflicted about the blacksmithing videos; I know I’m going to find them fascinating anytime I hear the gentle guitar and Brandon’s excited yet even way of teaching, but I also know I’ll only enjoy half of the video cause I’ll be asleep for the rest.
I used to dabble in blacksmithing a bit. I want to get back into it and try some more difficult projects, but I have two main problems. The first is I need to either find or make some kind of jig to be able to file a consistent edge on the knife blade I made before I can finish that project. The second one is difficulty finding material. I can use rebar from the local hardware store for some projects, but I haven't been able to find stock steel anywhere. The hardware store doesn't have anything suitable for making knives with, and all the places I found where I could order it online were geared towards industrial use. I couldn't find anywhere to get the steel I needed that didn't have a minimum order of half a ton or more.
It has been awesome sharing y'all's channel with family & friends during these holidays!! Thank you all so much for such enriching and just down to earth content.
When you were talking about the cold anvil sucking all the heat out of your piece (Thank you thermodynamincs...) I wondered. Would a frontier blacksmith in this situation ever pre-warm the anvil, maybe by building a little fire on it?
Absolutely amazing job can someone please call the carpenter and mount Brandon's poor anvils they are rocking and rolling making him work harder and harder
You guys are great. Were commercial iron mines a going concern during the time period? Would a blacksmith on a homestead have gone to the big town to pick up iron stock? Or would the artisan have been teasing his stock from bog iron or pyrites?
Commercial iron would've been available in larger towns,probably in hardware stores that sprung up along the frontiers river towns. It certainly would've been expensive, but neccessary for projects like this. It was also common to repurpose old worn out tools,horse shoes,etc.
@@ciphercode2298 The life of a horseshoe. Of course. You're taking the horse to town anyway. As you may be able to tell, the availability of iron on the frontier is not something I've thought a lot about up to this point. And of course, there must have been industrial metal concerns going back to the Bronze Age. I suppose it was the Vikings who got me going on the bog iron. Talk about rugged individualists.
I really enjoy the content you guys put out. You show us the skills and abilities people need to, not just survive, but thrive. If you were to take some of the top income earners in America and put them on your homestead they would most likely be less than worthless contributors to the homestead. I enjoy that you're content is making us rich with what is REALLY important in the long run.
I always learn something new with the blacksmith videos. I would love to forge with you sometime. I would also like to build a forge like yours to go in our little blacksmith shop we use for demonstrations to school kids. We have one brick forge with side blast. It's fashioned after one to make wagon wheel rims.
I love this show! QUESTION: Back in the 1700s, how would a blacksmith come into pieces of metal (or ANY supplies) whether on the prairie or in a town? And, how did they get paid? Through bartering? What would be exchanged in kind? Thanks.💞