Finishing the cord winder and more Blacksmithing

Two projects worked on today, More on the rope machine and I finished the line winder. The rope making machine was worked on first, but I will write that up 2nd because the line winder is more exciting.

Finishing the line winder

 
 

Quite a while ago I finished all the parts for the line winder, I had made the spike, the string holding base, the top bar, the knob and the spike for the other end of the line. The idea was to attach the top bar with rivets and add the knob by riveting it on the top bar. Then while I was looking at it, i decided to replace one of the rivets with the knob. The bars were drilled and the knob shaped to fit the hole. Both the knob and the rivet were cold riveted. the center post of the winder was then placed in the forge to heat up the top end. The body was then slipped over the heated and and the eye formed. this took a few heats. Once that was done there was nothing left to do but attach some line and go figure out a straight line. Oh, and yes the line on the device right now was some of the rope I made as well.

Working on the rope making machine

Back in the forge again. This time to make the 3rd hook for the rope making machine and to work on the rope winder as well. The 3rd hook was made exactly as the other 2. Starting with a 3/4 in round bar, I marked of an inch from the end. I then took a cutter and marked the point all the way around. With it marked I then used my guillotine to with a 1/2 inch stop to reduce the last inch of the bar to 1/2 in round. I then used a monkey tool to form a crisp shoulder.

once the 1/2 in section was completed an inch of the reduced section eas measured off and marked off. The rest of the section was then reduced again to 1/4 in. The exact same steps were followe dto produce the 2nd step down. Once both steps were completed, 1 1/2 inch was cut off from tthe first shoulder. This section was then drawn down, rounded and shaped into the hook.

Once the 3rd hook was completed, it was time to get back to the line winder.

The Start of the Grimmsfield Ropewalk

Hello again,

In the research I did for the flax project that Lorelei and I worked on, I came across some information on rope making and rope walks. The rope making machine was a device used to twist single or multiple strands of fiber into a twisted rope. This led me down a rabbit hole into ropemaking that I have begun to explore.

At first I thought this was only going to be a quick side note to the Linen work I was doing. I had spun some of the tow( lower quality fibers from the linen making process) into line. To make it into rope, i purchases a simple rope twisting device from The Woolery, called the Schacht Incredible Rope Machine. This I used to create a simple rope seen below:

This was fun and it did create rope, but it was only a toy copy of a true rope making machine. The rope was twisted correctly, but lacked the tension and tightness of good quality rope. So I began to explore more into the process of rope making or ropewalking as it was called. I went on Ebay to see id there was anything I could find that was more substantial. I found several with gears and then I cam across this: Rope Making Machine. I know nothing about the age or the manufacture of this item, but it seemed to fit the description of what was used as close to period as I could find. Based solely on the photographs from the listing, I set out to create my own.

This would have been mounted on an upright board attached to a weighted sled. as the rope was wound, the sled would be pulled forward to account for the loss of legnth to the twist. The other end of the rope would be fastened to a solid post.

The first thing to work on was the hooks. These needed the hook on one end and a double step down on the other. One level to hold against the wood frame and the next step to use as a rivet to attach to the turning bar. To create the hooks, i started with a 3/4 in round mild steel blank. I marked off 2 inches to begin the reduction for the part that would go through the wood frame. The decision to reduce this much stock down to 1/2 inch was a mistake. This drew out to almost 4 inches of 1/2 inch stock. This should have been 3/4 to an inch to draw down and that would have left me with plenty of metal. I then proceeded to cut the reduced section to one inch and then draw down the last 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch round.

This was then cut from the bar stock leaving an inch for the creation of the hook. The stepped end was done first to allow a good surface for the tongs to hold while the hook was worked. This was first squared off and reduced, then rounded into a taper. This was then worked over the horn of the anvil into the final hook shape.

Thus the first hook was created! There was way to much time wasted on drawing out the first step down. The next 2 hooks should go much quicker. I will get into more details and an update on the progress soon.

Back in the forge and (hopefully) back to blogging.

New Blacksmithing project:

I was just scrolling around the interwebs and came across a string winder on Pinterest. It had some cool features that I wanted to try to forge. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/503488433365362385/

This was a piece a bit newer then I usually do., but I have not seen anything that has sparked my interest recently.

Having started out to just make a cool tool, I felt compelled (it’s a sickness I know) to find out if this was a period design. Could this have been created for the SCA. Even though this is one of the coolest and most stimulating object to ever be created, I ended up having a hard time finding any history on the object.

The earliest example I have been able to find was an illustration by John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February 1706). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Evelyn. In his diaries he drew a sketch of the tools used by his gardeners. This illustration included a line reel very similar to the one I am in the process of making.

I was hoping to find more on this tool, but so far my searches have proven fruitless.

Onward to the forging:

Day one (2/15/25):

My first attempt to make this tool was started on February 15th and was my first time forging in quite a while. To start this project I decided to make the central bar of the tool. This was done with a piece of 1/2 in bar stock that was 9.5 inches long.

This was then marked at 4 inches from the end and I attempted to draw this out into the shaft that would support the line holder. this was to be drawn down into a 3/8 in round shaft. Without doing any review of the process of drawing a taper, I proceeded to spend the next 2 hours hammering away at the bar until it snapped at the joint between the shaft and the remainder of the stock. This was the end of forging for me for the evening.

 
 

Day 2 (2/17/25):

The next day found me reviewing the proper steps to drawing a tenon properly in hopes of avoiding my former mistake. The 17th found me back at the forge with a 8 inch piece of 1/2 in square stock. This one was marked at 3 inches for the shaft. I then proceeded with the proper steps to draw out the shaft.

The drawing out was done with a combination of a spring swage and a guillotine tool with a circle guide. a firm shoulder was created by using a bolster with the proper sized hole drilled in.

I have gotten well out of the practice of documenting my work as I progress. I am missing several pictures of the work in progress as well as a final picture of this part being done. I hope to go back and take a few more pictures for these steps. Either way, once the spindle section was completed, the work on the other side began. This was a much simpler process of drawing down the square into a point. This ended the work for this day.

Day 3 (2/18/25):

Today found be in much better spirits as well as with a bit more time in the forge. The first thing I was going to work on was the spike that goes on the opposite end of the line. This was going to be made from a piece of 3/8 in round stock 18 inches long. The first step done on this was to drift a hole in the shaft to tie the line to. This was dune by creating a flat on the shaft then drifting a punch to create the hole. Drifting is done to preserve the stock as apposed to drilling which removes stock.

following this, the top 2 inches were drawn out and wrapped into the eye and the bottom was formed into the spike.

Punch for forming the holes.

Bending jig used for creating the eye.

This completed this part of the project. Now it was time to move on to the line holder part of the tool. This was started with a 22 in bar of 1/4x1/2 rectangle stock. this was marked in the center as well as 6 inches from each end.

from the ends the 6 inches is rounded and drawn out to an 8 inch length. a hole large enough to fit over the spindle of the shaft was then punched in the center of the bar.

The 2 rounded ends were then treated the same way, a 3/4 in flat was added to the end and then the rounded end was doubled over the center and rounded to hold the line. this was done on both sides and evened out to create an even design.

 
 

once this was done, a bar equal to the length of the opening at the top was cut and a hole drifted through the center. with several of the other line winders that I had found images of, several had a knob on the top for securing the line to keep it from continuing to unspool. this could also be used to facilitate the winding of the line once done. I decided to add one to mine as well, so with the scraps of the broken shaft from the first day, I fashioned a tie down to be added to the top bar.

With the forging of thios piece, I was done for the evening. It looks like it will take at least one more day at the forge. All the pieces are done, it just takes putting it together:

  1. attaching the line stop

  2. attaching the top bar at both ends

  3. forging the loop at the top of the spike.

  4. winding some line on it.

The rest of the project will be documented in another posting. I didn’t want to get to far away from the start that I would get overwhelmed. Thanks for reading and there will be more to come.