Estate auction from 1815 that's interesting

[Carld]

My wife does family tree research and publishes books. Here is something she found that we may find interesting.

Bullitt County Kentucky Will Book 1, page 205-207
Estate appraisal of James Welsh deceased, 3 May 1814, includes:
lott of Blacksmiths tools, appraised at $10
1 mandrell, appraised at $6

Estate sale on 7 Aug 1815
lott of tools sold for $6.01, mandrill for $6.12
(by way of comparison, a vise sold for $20.03)

So you may have thought mandrels were something new huh and he may have had a lathe of some type, who knows now.

[lynnl]

Blacksmithing mandrels are a different sort of animal than those used for lathe work.

They're forming tools.

...or maybe you knew that and were just jesting. If so I apologize.

Some examples here: http://www.swageblocks.com/cone_gallery.htm

[oil mac]

Carld &Linnyl,
Interesting post, I was most interested in the fact that over your side of the pond, you still seem able to pick up swage blocks and mandrels brand new, I would be most doubtfull if any of these items are still being manufactured in the U.K. When i was an apprentice i remember patterns for fairly large mandrels in the pattern store, these no doubt were plant patterns for the firms blacksmith &forging dept
Where metal forming was concerned, many of the big press tools for the boilermaking dept, produced swaging tools some of them weighing about three tons, these were used on the big hydraulic pressing and dishing machines.

[Carld]

Hmm, well no, since I only dabble in blacksmithing I always called a cone a forming cone but I guess they did call it a mandrel.

A friend has a blacksmith shop and does a lot of forging and forming work and makes tools.

Well, they did have lathes back then but crude compared to what we would think.

Mac, I think my friend does have a source for new swaging tools and other stuff but he does buy old blacksmith tools for his shop.