Visitors To Ashley Iles

Barry Iles operating the press which cuts the blanks for flat tools such as scrapers. The material for these tools is bought in to the factory as a piece of flat bar cut long enough to make two tools. Two pieces are then 'clipped' out of either side in the central section to leave two tangs joined at their ends. These are then separated to make two tools. The cutting end of each tool is then shaped as required, and subsequently heat treated to bring it to the required condition of hardness.

A carving tool is forged on a spring hammer. This machine takes its name from the fact that the hammer is slung between two massive coil springs. This arrangement allows the operator to just kiss the work piece with the hammer or to deliver a hard blow without smashing the machine apart. Various dies are placed on a plate under the hammer to forge tools of different shapes and sizes.

The blacksmith sits in a swing chair which is suspended from the roof; he controls the weight of the hammer blow with a foot pedal. The spring hammer is old, well tested, technology; the machine at Iles was originally made at the turn of the century. In contrast the electric furnace which sits alongside it is the latest, state of the art, high technology. Inside the furnace are sensors, linked to a computer, which give precise control of the temperature throughout the furnace. This is no mean feat when one realises that the tool blanks are heated to 1000 C for forging.

The heat treatment area. The heat treatment of carbon steel is carried out in two stages: hardening and tempering. The hardness of steel is measured in degrees on the Rockwell Scale. When carbon steel comes into the factory it measures about 45 Rockwell; the finished tool will be at 61 Rockwell. To get to this position the tool is heated in the furnace to 800 C and quickly 'quenched' in a tank of oil. This produces a physical change in the steel which raises the its hardness to 65 Rockwell.(High speed steel tools have to be sent to Sheffield to be heat treated by a specialist firm as very high temperatures are required.)

The grinding shop. This is where the final operations on the tools, grinding and linishing, are carried out. The flutes of gouges are ground smooth, the tangs of chisels, scrapers, and carbon steel gouges, are cleaned up, the sharp corners on the long edges of flat tools are nicely rounded off, and the final polish is given. The most dramatic aspect of this is the cannelling operation. This is done on a pair of massive water cooled grinding wheels. They are 42 inches in diameter, they weigh half a ton each, and have a peripheral speed of 75 mph.