to the foreman of the tool department, who specifies the size
and gets the steel from the cutting-off department. After finishing
the machine work it goes to the hardening room, and this is the
problem we shall now take up in detail.

THE MODERN HARDENING ROOM.--A hardening room of today means a very
different place from the dirty, dark smithshop in the corner with
the open coal forge. There, when we wanted to be somewhat particular,
we sometimes shoveled the coal cinders to one side and piled a great
pile of charcoal on the forge. We now have a complete equipment;
a gas- or oil-heating furnace, good running water, several sizes
of lead pots, and an oil tank large enough to hold a barrel of
oil. By running water, we mean a large tank with overflow pipes
giving a constant supply. The ordinary hardening room equipment
should consist of:

Gas or oil muffle furnace for hardening.
Gas or oil forge furnace.
A good size gas or oil furnace for annealing and case-hardening.
A gas or oil furnace to hold lead pots.
Oil tempering tank, gas- or oil-heated.
Pressure blower.
Large oil tank to hold at least a barrel of oil.
Big water tank with screen trays connected with large pipe from bottom
with overflow.
Straightening press.
The furnace should be connected with pyrometers and tempering tank with
a thermometer.

Beside all this you need a good man. It does not make much difference
how completely the hardening department is fitted up, if you expect
good work, a small percentage of loss and to be able to tackle anything
that comes along, you must have a good man, one who understands
the difference between low- and high-carbon steel, who knows when
particular care must be exercised on particular work. In other
words, a man who knows how his work should be done, and has the
intelligence to follow directions on treatments of steel on which
he has had no experience.

Jewelers' tools, especially for silversmith's work, probably have
to stand the greatest punishment of any all-steel tools and to
make a spoon die so hard that it will not sink under a blow from
an 1,800-lb. hammer with a 4-ft. drop, and still not crack, demands
careful treatment.

To harden such dies, first cover the impression on the die with
paste made from bone dust or lampblack and oil. Place face down
in an iron box partly filled with crushed charcoal, leaving back
of die uncovered so that the heat can be seen at all times. Heat
sl