Question about blacksmiths

46m · Dec 29, 2015

Question? Are there any blacksmiths out there that can sharpen plow lays? 40 years ago they were keep busy all summer sharping plow lays that,s how they made there living. They have all prolly went the way of the plow. Just woudering.

Tom in TN · Dec 29, 2015

46m,

I live near Columbia, TN, about 40 miles south of Nashville. There's an OLD-TIMEY machine shop in town named General Machine Works. It's dark, dirty, and filled with old presses and other machines from long ago. The man who owns the shop, and his three or four employees, are old school metal guys. They don't call themselves blacksmiths, but that's what they really are. If someone needs metal work done, they can do it for them.

Tom in TN

46m · Dec 29, 2015

Years ago they would sharpen plow lays when we were plowing wheat ground i see on here people asking where to buy new lays just thought they could have old ones sharpened. Remember the old trip hammers and the forge they used. Don,t know how they stood the heat got used to it maybe.I,m getting to be one of the old ones that go back that far.

Taylormade · Dec 29, 2015

I've been told on the putting green I have the touch of a blacksmith, but I don't think it's going to help your situation any.

Kickinbull · Dec 29, 2015

It might be a location thing? What is a plow lay?

DeltaRed · Dec 29, 2015

"lay" or "lathe" is just another term for plow share

rrlund · Dec 29, 2015

I guess I'm guilty of the same thing,but maybe we old codgers need to adjust out time frame reference. 40 years ago was 1975. It's probably been more like 60 or 70 years since blacksmiths were kept busy sharpening plow points.

Bill(Wis) · Dec 29, 2015

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has called them plow "points" all my life. I remember having to take two horses into town in 1945 (70 years ago) to have new horse shoes made for them. Old George Johnson was the blacksmith. He must have sharpened millions of plow points over his lifetime as a blacksmith. I last met with him in the local nursing home in about 1995. He was about 95 then and still appeared as strong as an ox. Looked better, though. He'd gotten some new teeth. (;>))

casecollectorsc · Dec 29, 2015

Don't know if the lays were sharpened much here. Use to be a manufactured strip that was welded on a old plow lay to give it a new edge. Have
a couple plows you can see the welded strip.

Paul from MI · Dec 29, 2015

We always called them "points" also--North Central Ohio. If you have an Amish community near you, check with one of them. They still use the old style plows. Good place to look for replacement combine canvases too.

fixerupper · Dec 29, 2015

Back in the early fifties dad changed his Deere 44 2-16's over to replaceable lays because he got tired of waiting for his turn at the blacksmith shop. Aren't they technically called shares?

moresmoke · Dec 29, 2015

The old slow speed plows were the ones that you would sharpen of reforge the lays. On newer high speed tractor plows, they were meant to be replaceable. There isn't enough material to most of them to do any thing with once they are worn down. The newer plows also have a much steeper "rake" angle where the older ones were flatter to the ground and had more of a slicing action, hence the need to be sharp.

Earl-IL · Dec 29, 2015

Ploworx in Salem Ohio has dies to make the most popular old plow moldboards, blacksmith shares, shins & landslides. His Ph. # is 330-277-7634

Jim in rush co · Dec 29, 2015

The term (lay plow shares) around this area was the process of laying on new points, edges and landslides. My dad spent many hours at it 1940-50s by the end of 50s most went to throw away. He also sharpened by using forge and trip hammer and put in the suck. The welding supply places supplied the new points, edges and land slide pieces. When I was a kid I would clean up all the spent welding rods on Saturdays. I still have a few of the edges the are 1" wide tapered from 1/8 to 1/4" thick 16-18" long. He would also hard surface the points or noses.

jm. · Dec 29, 2015

R I am like you on think of 1975 as not long ago , easy for me to think of things that happened 65 years ago.. Lots of vocations gone buy the way in my life. Type writer repairman used to be a good job, man that could sharpen saws, just a lot changed in 65 years. By the time I was plowing we were using replaceable points and shares.

gab · Dec 29, 2015

I only remember one blacksmith and that was my uncle, used to like going over there in the 50s when I was just a little kid. He was busy, did the plow shares, welding, fabricating, sickle sharpening and so on for farmers for miles around. His old shop had a plank floor, the basement was open to the south so a few cattle could go in so it had some straw in it, he had a forge in the shop, had some holes in the plank floor and he'd pull something out of the forge, lay it on a big anvil and start beating on it, sparks going every direction and I could never figure out why it never burned down. Iron was laying everywhere out front, both his welder and his torch looked like they had a mile of cable and hose on them. He had an old one stall garage with a cement pit in it, only one I ever seen until all the quicklubes opened up... and the old boy liked to talk about what he did in his younger years, ran a dragline and dozers in I think the Paradise valley, where ever that was, California maybe. When I was in my early 20s I'd take him a 6 pk of beer once in a while and listen to the same old stories, cats and draglines.

teddy52food · Dec 29, 2015

I used to fix them that way too. I still have a few points and edges.

Question about blacksmiths

46m

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Tom in TN

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46m

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Taylormade

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Kickinbull

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DeltaRed

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rrlund

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Bill(Wis)

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casecollectorsc

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Paul from MI

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fixerupper

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moresmoke

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Earl-IL

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Jim in rush co

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jm.

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gab

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teddy52food

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