Hi: Depending when and where , people made needles diferently. Some started with wire , some with sheet or bar stock. So I am willing to say that any method that results in a usable needle was done somewhere Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 Your video is one of my inspiration sources when trying to develop a needle making technique. This is a video I made for a 0.8mm brass wire needle, the finest I could get is 0.5mm but that's kind of the limit. The technique made something that resembles factory made needles which made me pondered why the needle eyes isn't rounded in the first place. ruclips.net/video/bdnszjLTy3U/видео.htmlsi=HmtGIY6lsGmdLQKo
I learned about your channel from your comment on Townsends on the cast iron cooking tools. So I came over to see your work. I am a life long seamstress, and I never really thought about where needles came from in the distant past. Thank you for this history and manufacturing lesson
Hi: Happy you liked it! I do a lot of "odd" historical forge work, like to make people think about a world where everything was "made by hand", from needles to ship anchors. Daniel
What is interesting to me is that even small towns had a broad local shop production of stuff. People often have a main job and a sideline , a farmer who made rope in the winter, a Blacksmith who made pencils. Lots of small needs made locally. Daniel
My morning started horrible when I realized I had no sense of smell. After a little grumbling I said since I’m not going to work I’m going to do I’ve been wanting to do, so I when out in the garage and forged my first needle. Thank you
I have the book of old-time trades and tools and was fascinated with the needle making section after watching you I am now going to go out into my shop and make a punch and giv this a go thank you for sharing
Just oh my gosh! Work id never pondered on being done pre industrial revolution. Very educational. Thank you 🙏 Blessed day and well wishes Sir Crawford out ⚒️🧙♂️
I always wondered how they made needles and fish hooks back in the day. Was just doing some reading on George Washington’s rough fishing kit. EDIT: I would have thought they were case hardened! That iron wire is some soft stuff. I’d have never thought cold working it like that would give it that much strength
Hi: Fish hooks are easier than needles. They mostly did not bother to punch an eye, just a wider flat end that the knot tied around the shank could not slip over. Barbs cut with a chisel , couple min.s a piece and you can make them in camp. I used to make fish hooks for the Rev War soldiers and Long Rifle campers in the 1970's -80's Daniel
Hi Again: Some of the "Factory" needles made in England were case hardened because it was faster than hammering on thousands of needles. Then it was just a matter of a big pot to cook them all for a day or so. This is why I described this as the small shop method, harder to justify the time firing a furnace for a day to caseharden a dozen needles. Same with trade knives and some lock parts, lots of English ones are case hardened, American ones are iron with welded on steel. Daniel
BRANN I 1 second ago Fantastic and highly important tools are the needles. Thank you for sharing your skill and knowledge. Very fascinating. Could you simply forge a delve in the end on the side to tie thread onto? Instead of having an eye? Could you perhaps bend the end over and forge weld an eye??? Fiddly work but handy if in the Bush with no files, punches etc..........
Fantastic and highly important tools are the needles. Thank you for sharing your skill and knowledge. Very fascinating. Could you simply forge a delve in the end on the the side to tie three onto? Instead of having an eye? Could you perhaps bend the end over and forge weld an eye??? Fiddly work but handy if in the Bush with no files, punches etc..........
Hi: I know a couple other ways to make needles. Forge welding works, I will be sending one of those to a friend in Norway. The simplest way , if you have fine wire, is to twist a bent loop using a small rod , then pulling or flatten the sides of the little eye left after removing the rod. Thanks for watching Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 oh great! Thanks I'm gonna give that twist idea a go! Thank you again for your excellent teaching skills and clear knowledge of the subject. Kind regards, brann
@@danieltokar1000 I thought I,d also ask.........if you don't mind helping. Do you know how to harden tools/iron/steel thee old ways like carburizing, or pack carburizing???? I saw a video of a guy wrap up some mild steel in leather and oil then encased in clay. He cooked it in a forge for one hour and it was high carbon steel from either iron or mild steel. Would be good to know how so I can make a fire spark steel for flint and steel fire lighting. Any info would be fantastic please. Thanks again, brann
hi: Iron will pick up carbon from any carbon material at a high enough temperature. The hotter , the faster it picks it up, but there are limiting problems. The carbon is "drifting in" from the surface, so the surface will be high carbon first , without the inside being much higher. So they did a couple things to help that, they made thin plates and staked them with carbon between , then welded the stack together to get carbon more even in the bar. Or they cooked it for a very long time ,. blister steel was a week at bright yellow heat. An hour could work as either very thin layer , or very high heat that melted stuff with carbon , like making wootz steel. Much easier to try using an old file to make flint strikers, they are not hard to find . Daniel
Yes, 20th Century Medicine where they cut and sewed people like garments. Suture needles back then were not a lot different, triangle points on curved shanks. Thankfully I have not run into many that want to reenact 18th Century Surgery Daniel
So with today's wages and cost of the shop and lights. How much would you need to charge for a needle to keep the lights on? Thank you very much for your great video and information.
Hi: The other part of that question is , what is the batch size? If I made one needle, set up and other costs , $40.00 for one,. Making them for one day , make 50 needles, $5 each.
Hi: They are made from low carbon steel and would not harden by quenching. They do work harden, that happens from all the cold hammering. This is how some needles were made, some were case hardened, none were "all steel" and hardened till the 1800's. Daniel
Hi: I have used different sizes, the stuff in the video was 18 black iron binding wire , like they use to tie rebar in construction. Acid of any type will remove galvanizing . The size is more dependent on the work the needle will be used to sew and the size of the eye punch. Sheet metal works, cut narrow strips, cold hammer to round and punch the eye. I used an old steel PC computer case to make some. Not the best , but they worked. Daniel
very nice, i have made needles also, mild steel and bronze. What gauge wire do you use? I had gotten down to 20 gauge, found that a small sharpening stone worked better that file and sandpaper to get a good point. Biggest issue has always been the eye, need to actually make a couple of decent punches and harden them properly
Hi: I don't know, it was the first spool of wire I found in the shop. I have made needles in larger and smaller sizes , this was a fast video to show the simplest way . I did not do a smaller needle because my camera will not focus close enough to see anything. I have run some smaller needles thru a jeweler's wire drawplate to make them smaller, with a tiny plug in the eye to keep it open Sterling silver and brass needles work well for fabric. For the eye punches, I shape them a bit large then finish grind them down to size after heat treatment. The 6" grinding wheel makes a good radius taper to the last 1mm, then straight sided tip. It helps to keep in mind that my videos are often set up to show a simple way to make things that does not require lots of tools that most people may not have. Not always the "best "way , I hope it shows the basic method. Daniel
The only proper needle "forging" videoin youtube. Thank you.
Hi:
Depending when and where , people made needles diferently. Some started with wire , some with sheet or bar stock. So I am willing to say that any method that results in a usable needle was done somewhere
Daniel
There is a video from west africa of a man making needles vin a blacksmiths hut on youtube. He cold forms from a sheet of steel
@@manchagojohnsonmanchago6367 Thanks! I will look for it.
Lots of traditional smiths still working
Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 I'll find it and post it here
@@danieltokar1000
Your video is one of my inspiration sources when trying to develop a needle making technique.
This is a video I made for a 0.8mm brass wire needle, the finest I could get is 0.5mm but that's kind of the limit.
The technique made something that resembles factory made needles which made me pondered why the needle eyes isn't rounded in the first place.
ruclips.net/video/bdnszjLTy3U/видео.htmlsi=HmtGIY6lsGmdLQKo
I learned about your channel from your comment on Townsends on the cast iron cooking tools. So I came over to see your work. I am a life long seamstress, and I never really thought about where needles came from in the distant past. Thank you for this history and manufacturing lesson
Hi:
Happy you liked it! I do a lot of "odd" historical forge work, like to make people think about a world where everything was "made by hand", from needles to ship anchors.
Daniel
Absolutely thrilled I found this channel
Thanks
I enjoy the blacksmith dictionary entry's. Another practical and historic lesson. Thanks.
Never knew all of that process went into making needles. Fascinating
What is interesting to me is that even small towns had a broad local shop production of stuff. People often have a main job and a sideline , a farmer who made rope in the winter, a Blacksmith who made pencils. Lots of small needs made locally.
Daniel
My morning started horrible when I realized I had no sense of smell. After a little grumbling I said since I’m not going to work I’m going to do I’ve been wanting to do, so I when out in the garage and forged my first needle.
Thank you
I have the book of old-time trades and tools and was fascinated with the needle making section after watching you I am now going to go out into my shop and make a punch and giv this a go thank you for sharing
That is the best comment possible!
Just oh my gosh! Work id never pondered on being done pre industrial revolution. Very educational. Thank you
🙏 Blessed day and well wishes Sir
Crawford out ⚒️🧙♂️
That was cool, thanks for sharing, always interesting content on this channel
I always wondered how they made needles and fish hooks back in the day. Was just doing some reading on George Washington’s rough fishing kit.
EDIT: I would have thought they were case hardened! That iron wire is some soft stuff. I’d have never thought cold working it like that would give it that much strength
Hi:
Fish hooks are easier than needles. They mostly did not bother to punch an eye, just a wider flat end that the knot tied around the shank could not slip over. Barbs cut with a chisel , couple min.s a piece and you can make them in camp.
I used to make fish hooks for the Rev War soldiers and Long Rifle campers in the 1970's -80's
Daniel
Hi Again:
Some of the "Factory" needles made in England were case hardened because it was faster than hammering on thousands of needles. Then it was just a matter of a big pot to cook them all for a day or so.
This is why I described this as the small shop method, harder to justify the time firing a furnace for a day to caseharden a dozen needles. Same with trade knives and some lock parts, lots of English ones are case hardened, American ones are iron with welded on steel.
Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 very interesting and thought provoking. Honestly had never thought on either of these items. Thanks sir
🙏💜🔥⚒️🧙♂️
Hi:
Even George Washington needed to sew on a button every now and then.
Daniel
Very nice.
BRANN I
1 second ago
Fantastic and highly important tools are the needles. Thank you for sharing your skill and knowledge. Very fascinating. Could you simply forge a delve in the end on the side to tie thread onto? Instead of having an eye? Could you perhaps bend the end over and forge weld an eye??? Fiddly work but handy if in the Bush with no files, punches etc..........
Never would of thought needles would be something made by a blacksmith.
Most times they would be made by dedicated needle forgers
Fantastic and highly important tools are the needles. Thank you for sharing your skill and knowledge. Very fascinating. Could you simply forge a delve in the end on the the side to tie three onto? Instead of having an eye? Could you perhaps bend the end over and forge weld an eye??? Fiddly work but handy if in the Bush with no files, punches etc..........
Hi:
I know a couple other ways to make needles. Forge welding works, I will be sending one of those to a friend in Norway. The simplest way , if you have fine wire, is to twist a bent loop using a small rod , then pulling or flatten the sides of the little eye left after removing the rod.
Thanks for watching
Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 oh great! Thanks I'm gonna give that twist idea a go! Thank you again for your excellent teaching skills and clear knowledge of the subject. Kind regards, brann
@@danieltokar1000 I thought I,d also ask.........if you don't mind helping. Do you know how to harden tools/iron/steel thee old ways like carburizing, or pack carburizing???? I saw a video of a guy wrap up some mild steel in leather and oil then encased in clay. He cooked it in a forge for one hour and it was high carbon steel from either iron or mild steel. Would be good to know how so I can make a fire spark steel for flint and steel fire lighting. Any info would be fantastic please. Thanks again, brann
hi:
Iron will pick up carbon from any carbon material at a high enough temperature. The hotter , the faster it picks it up, but there are limiting problems. The carbon is "drifting in" from the surface, so the surface will be high carbon first , without the inside being much higher. So they did a couple things to help that, they made thin plates and staked them with carbon between , then welded the stack together to get carbon more even in the bar.
Or they cooked it for a very long time ,. blister steel was a week at bright yellow heat. An hour could work as either very thin layer , or very high heat that melted stuff with carbon , like making wootz steel.
Much easier to try using an old file to make flint strikers, they are not hard to find .
Daniel
@@danieltokar1000 That's great. Thanks for helping out. I,'ll go give it a try. Thank you!
Very well done. Thank you.
You're a boss 😅👍
"I'm a blacksmith Jim, not a seamstress"(sorry, bad startrek reference). Well done sir! 😀👍⚒️🍺
Yes, 20th Century Medicine where they cut and sewed people like garments.
Suture needles back then were not a lot different, triangle points on curved shanks.
Thankfully I have not run into many that want to reenact 18th Century Surgery
Daniel
Dadgummit JT. Luve that out take🙏💜🔥⚒️🧙♂️
Amazing!
can you show us which machine is used to stappling the needle
Hi:
I use a hand tool , no machine.
Daniel
So with today's wages and cost of the shop and lights. How much would you need to charge for a needle to keep the lights on? Thank you very much for your great video and information.
Hi:
The other part of that question is , what is the batch size?
If I made one needle, set up and other costs , $40.00 for one,. Making them for one day , make 50 needles, $5 each.
....you don't harden them?
Hi:
They are made from low carbon steel and would not harden by quenching. They do work harden, that happens from all the cold hammering. This is how some needles were made, some were case hardened, none were "all steel" and hardened till the 1800's.
Daniel
What gauge of wire did you use? Also was it non-galvanized? If I can only find galvanized wire is there a chemical to remove galvanized glaze
Hi:
I have used different sizes, the stuff in the video was 18 black iron binding wire , like they use to tie rebar in construction. Acid of any type will remove galvanizing . The size is more dependent on the work the needle will be used to sew and the size of the eye punch. Sheet metal works, cut narrow strips, cold hammer to round and punch the eye. I used an old steel PC computer case to make some. Not the best , but they worked.
Daniel
very nice, i have made needles also, mild steel and bronze. What gauge wire do you use? I had gotten down to 20 gauge, found that a small sharpening stone worked better that file and sandpaper to get a good point.
Biggest issue has always been the eye, need to actually make a couple of decent punches and harden them properly
Hi:
I don't know, it was the first spool of wire I found in the shop.
I have made needles in larger and smaller sizes , this was a fast video to show the simplest way . I did not do a smaller needle because my camera will not focus close enough to see anything. I have run some smaller needles thru a jeweler's wire drawplate to make them smaller, with a tiny plug in the eye to keep it open
Sterling silver and brass needles work well for fabric.
For the eye punches, I shape them a bit large then finish grind them down to size after heat treatment. The 6" grinding wheel makes a good radius taper to the last 1mm, then straight sided tip.
It helps to keep in mind that my videos are often set up to show a simple way to make things that does not require lots of tools that most people may not have. Not always the "best "way , I hope it shows the basic method.
Daniel
Obama said you didn't make that.
Thank you Sir