Hand Forged Bolts & Nuts | ||
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Posted 10 years ago
hotairfan
(388 items)
I'm a bit of a fanatic when it comes to collecting hand forged items. Here are a few Blacksmith forged bolts and a few hand forged "Rams Head Nuts". Also a headers that were used to make bolts such as these.
PS. I tried to forge rams head nuts such as those shown here and discovered that it is not as easy as one might think to make. I had wound up with a lot more failures than successes. ....hotairfan
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How were the threads cut?
The threads were cut by hand in all the bolts in my collection of about 100 pieces. This makes them difficult to match up with a hand forged nut if it didn't come with the nut attached.
I believe that they must used something like a thread file to cut the threads in the bolt. and I have seen early hand made taps that Blacksmiths used in their shops. They have thread restorer files that they use today to restore damaged or smashed bolts.
I've done some blacksmithing & a lot of other related work but never found a description of how they made nuts & bolts that matched. You can't forge a nut around a threaded bolt because the nut would seize as the nut cools, so they had to have a way of taping the nuts. Getting the thread pitch to match a nut with files would would be maddening at the least. Do you know or can point the way to the information? I have wondered for decades.
hi blunderbuss2, I can only assume how they cut the threads in the bolts. I believe they might have used a tool to file, similar to a thread file, to cut the threads. The threads in the nuts must have been cut with a tap. Maybe the tap was made the same way that they made the bolt threads than fluted the tap like a modern tap to get cutting clearances, than hardening the tap. I found a photo of a thread file on Wikapedia (sorry about the spelling). Enter "thread restorer file" in the upper right box, it will show a photo of a thread restorer file. I wish that I had a definitive answer, at this point, I am assuming how they might have done it. There are a lot of savvy readers and posters on Collector, maybe somebody will have a better solution.
I never even got to the threads on the rams head nuts that I tried to forge. I had a problem shaping the nut evenly and with a uniform curl to the horns. I guess this is a testament as to my poor blacksmithing skills, but, I'll keep trying. Thanks for the response, my curiosity is really in hi gear now. .. hotairfan
interesting that they are called "ram's horn nuts" because they are actually heart shaped. rams horns go the other way I think. I have a few items with ram's horn and heart shaped finials. The touches make the item special.
I am crazy about forged items too.
Yep BHock45, these are more bull shaped, but I have seen them where the curl travels in a complete loop. That might explain why they are called rams head nuts