Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works

There is also another hammer used by them, which they call a riveting hammer. This is the smallest hammer of all and is very rarely used at the forge original: "Forge"; the furnace or hearth where iron is heated. unless your work is very small. However, it is used on cold iron for riveting, or for straightening or bending small work. In Figure 5, A is the face, B the peen original: "Pen"; the wedge-shaped or rounded end of the hammer head opposite the face., C the eye, and D the handle.

Of the Vice.

The vice original: "Vice"; a tool with two jaws used to hold an object firmly in place. must be set up very firmly so that it does not shake, and it must stand upright with its jaws Chaps: the jaws or gripping parts of a tool. parallel or aligned with your workbench. This is because square filing Filing an object so that its sides are at perfect 90-degree angles. is a sign of a blacksmith's great skill. Should the vice not stand upright and align with the workbench, the jaws pinching upon two square sides would make the top side of your work lean either toward you or away from you. Consequently, as you file upon the flat or horizontal plane of your work (as a good craftsman ought to do), you would take off more of the edge that rises higher than the plane and less of the edge that lies lower. Thus, with one edge being higher or lower than the other, your work—instead of being filed square—would be filed askew original: "Squire-wise"; meaning the work is rhomboid or diamond-shaped rather than perfectly rectangular. once you have filed all its flat sides; this would happen more or less depending on how much the jaws of your vice lean.

• AA The face has its two ends lying in a straight line with the middle of its face or plane.
• B The jaws must be cut with a bastard cut Bastard Cut: a medium-coarse texture on a file or the gripping surface of a tool. and very well tempered Heat-treated to increase hardness and durability..
• C The screw pin is cut with a square, strong thread original: "Worm"..
• D The nut or screw box also has a square thread and is brazed Joined or soldered using a brass alloy. into the round box.
• E The spring must be made of good steel and very well tempered; note that the wider the two ends of the spring stand apart, the wider it throws the jaws of the vice open.
• F The foot The long vertical support leg of a post-vice. must be straight, and therefore it will be stronger to withstand heavy blows upon the work held in the jaws of the vice, without bowing or trembling.