Budding's Patent Mower - Iron Forgings

For thousands of years blacksmiths have forged iron to create strong and durable items for use in a wide range of applications. Skilled blacksmiths can treat and manipulate iron during forging to produce materials with varying properties. For example, the amount of hammering, the amount of carbon in the iron, the temperature at which it is worked (or wrought), and whether it is allowed to cool slowly in the air or quenched in water to cool it quickly all have an effect on the quality and properties of the finished item.

Components made using forging are evident on Budding's Patent Mower. In particular, the front drawbar or pulling handle assembly, "wish-bone" shaped on all known Budding/Ferrabee-built mowers, is made this way. Forged iron items can be relatively light, durable as well as easy to manufacture and use. Importantly the material is not prone to tensile stress fracture as cast iron is. This is one of the reasons the material was used for the axle spindle, frame trunnions, and clutch lever on Budding's Patent Lawnmower. Different forging techniques were also used to produced components such as the cutting blades and sole plates on the mower.

Despite the many advantages of forged or wrought iron, Budding's Patent Mower was predominantly manufactured using cast iron. The rear roller, side frames, the roller bearing housings, gears, and cutting cylinder trunnions are all made from castings. 

Casting techniques developed in the early years of the industrial revolution were well established by the 1830s. They enabled the production of cheap and durable components that could be replicated easily, cheaply, and consistently for assembly into increasingly complex and sophisticated "mass produced" products.

The image below shows a typical blacksmith's forge and the general layout would have been familiar to those working at Ferrabee's factory in Stroud in the 1830s.