Old and Odd Tools at the Smithy
NOTE: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.
Conditioning a Grinding Wheel -- Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Conditioning a Grinding Wheel
Business End ( a bit fuzzy here, but it was really dark, so it's not too bad for 1/80 sec at 125mm ) -- Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/80 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Business End
( a bit fuzzy here, but it was really dark, so it's not too bad for 1/80 sec at 125mm )

While in Pierre Nadeau's smithy that I wrote about yesterday, I noticed this odd-looking tool lying around, and like many of the odd-looking things lying around the 100-year-old workshop, I had no clue what it was (unlike the majority who answered the “What am I?” quiz correctly the other day).

When I asked Pierre about it, he demonstrated that it conditions a grinding wheel used for sharpening knives and the like. I don't think he uses it when he makes swords, but he also makes various tools on order, so I'm sure his grinding wheel gets a lot of use.

There are actually a couple of different grinding wheels in the small space... here's another one whose pedestal has developed quite a patina of grinding-wheel dust over the years...

Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/1000 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/800 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos

Along the same lines, in the 1960s the workshop was fitted with various mechanical tools all run from a single electric engine. Because the engine was the most expensive part, a series of pullies and wheels were used to distribute the energy out to multiple tools, such as the big pounder thinging seen yesterday, which I think is the only thing still hooked up to it.

Source of Power precariously distributed via pully -- Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/2.5, ISO 6400 — map & image datanearby photos
Source of Power
precariously distributed via pully
In Action just waiting to take off a limb or two of anyone not paying due attention -- Pierre Nadeau's Smithy -- Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan -- Copyright 2011 Jeffrey Friedl, http://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 — map & image datanearby photos
In Action
just waiting to take off a limb or two of anyone not paying due attention

One comment so far...

Jeff, I believe “the big pounding thingy” to which you refer is called a power hammer. Also, I was astounded to read that you take your shoes off in such a place. Do you then throw your socks away?? What with the dust, the dirt floor, the specks of metal filings and bits of slag, they couldn’t possibly come clean again. Nor could socks protect the feet from hot coals or metal slivers. Odd custom to us outsiders.

You take off the shoes only to step into position on the circular straw mat, which is kept clean. Sparks of metal and slag are blocked by your body anyway, so it doesn’t take much effort to keep one circle of physical clean, which does wonders for one’s mental state. —Jeffy

— comment by Grandma Friedl in Ohio, USA on May 19th, 2011 at 10:33pm JST (12 years, 10 months ago) comment permalink
Leave a comment...


All comments are invisible to others until Jeffrey approves them.

Please mention what part of the world you're writing from, if you don't mind. It's always interesting to see where people are visiting from.

IMPORTANT:I'm mostly retired, so I don't check comments often anymore, sorry.


You can use basic HTML; be sure to close tags properly.

Subscribe without commenting