Sources for antique stakes or foundries for new

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Sources for antique stakes or foundries for new

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Author	Topic: Sources for antique stakes or foundries for new
Vautrin Posts: 3 Registered: Jun 2005	posted 06-02-2005 10:31 PM As a first-time poster I'm grateful to find this forum as I have a few questions. I'll only ask two for now, though. Can anyone point me to sources or dealers, online or otherwise, who trade in older or vintage silversmithing hammers and stakes? And does anyone know of a small foundry that will take one-off patterns (sand and/or cire perdue) for the same? Thank you. IP: Logged
jersey Posts: 1203 Registered: Feb 2005	posted 06-02-2005 11:11 PM Hi! Welcome to the forum! Have you tried an online search for the info? I found several good leads. Try it. Jersey IP: Logged
Vautrin Posts: 3 Registered: Jun 2005	posted 06-03-2005 02:21 AM Thanks, Jersey. Yes, I've been looking online for several years , and while I've found a few interesting stakes from individual tool dealers (mostly specializing in woodworking handtools), the ones of greatest utility seem most elusive. It's rare to come across a fluting stake in good condition, and rarer still to find one in a non-Dixon pattern. Even though Tevel H. at Allcraft in NYC has reprised a few of the older pre-Grobet line of stakes, most are fairly vanilla, ho-hum, these days. This is why I'd like to find a foundry to cast some from patterns I've found in early books on the craft. I've fabricated a few from scratch but I'd prefer to only make mahogany or wax patterns and let others do the hot work. IP: Logged
Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 Registered: Apr 93	posted 06-03-2005 08:13 AM Welcome to the forums. I know at least one of our member smiths is away at a show so it be a few days before they return to the SSF. And then a few more days before they discover this thread. Hopefully some of our other member smiths will have some advice to offer. Are you related to Line Vautrin? IP: Logged
FredZ Posts: 1070 Registered: Jun 99	posted 06-03-2005 10:11 AM Welcome to the club Vautrin. The search for stakes is everlasting if you are a practicing smith. I can suggest checking with online auctions. I have seen several stakes from older inventory. They usually fetch high dollars. There are collectors of old tools who never plan to use them. I also suggest you search yellow pages for foundries in your area and see if you can find one that will work with you in making these stakes. You can have more than one made and resell them to cover the cost. Fred IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 06-04-2005 01:14 AM I have found a number of metal outlines for various forms at antique shows. For no clear reason, they were always in the booths of 'primitives' dealers, decorated with tacky fake flowers. Primitive dealers come up with more neat stuff and do more utterly bizarre things with it than anybody else. IMHO, of course. IP: Logged
agleopar Posts: 850 Registered: Jun 2004	posted 06-07-2005 02:59 PM Vautrin, happy to see another maker, but I do not have a great source of stakes either. The last pair I picked up came to me by luck. I may have the name of a foundry tucked away, I will let you know, the question is are they still in business? I would be more than happy to have a copy of what you have made (one can never have enough stakes!), if it helps when you do find a foundry. Also we could exchange forms...? I look forward to hearing more and will get back to you, good luck. IP: Logged
Vautrin Posts: 3 Registered: Jun 2005	posted 06-08-2005 02:42 AM Firstly, let me thank everyone for their prompt and generous welcomes and answers, and apologize for my uncharacteristic delay in responding. Scott asked if I am related to Line Vautrin. I get asked that a lot, but no, it's sort of a fluke. My use of the name derives from the perverse proto-Moriarty figure woven darkly through several Balzac novels applied to a somewhat macabre photographic self-portrait that I posted on a forum-related website as a joke. It stuck. This was just before I sidetracked to jewelry design and metals, so although it's something I'm inclined to drop to avoid confusion, I haven't been able to do so gracefully. FredZ, I'm assuming is Fred Zweig, a name I've encountered on the SAS site. Yes, I'm leaning more and more to patternmaking as the first step in getting the stakes I'd like to have. Seems that the small foundries and short run jobbers are disappearing quickly, according to a long time foundryman who now only casts aluminum. I've found plenty of bronze foundries, especially arts and sculptor services, and there's apparently a very good one in Sarasota, just north of where I now live in Venice, Florida. But I need a ferrous foundry, of course. I was fortunate to find a few stakes to get me going (I was sold four T-stakes and a stake holder for fifty dollars from a tool dealer I knew when I lived in New England), but it sure looks like I'll be wanting more. And more, heh. Yeah, agleopar, we'll definitely talk more and I'll keep actively looking for a foundry. And Dale... it's sad and funny at the same time. I've seen those horrible painted carpenters saws, saws I'd have restored and used (I really love handtools for woodworking), and other horrible redeployments of vintage technologies and treasures: the old cabinetmakers' benches used as kitchen islands, the moulding plane lamps, and a High Myford cast Victorian lathe base used as an aquarium stand. Glad to find my way here, guys. IP: Logged

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