Michael LaRong and fellow HistArchers,
I have found blacksmithing and wheelwrighting trade journals very useful
in researching and writing my 1985 master's thesis. As Lester Ross
pointed out in his posting, the term stock pile is ambiguous, smith's
maintaining stocks of new barstock and scrap, often sorted by material.
The Blacksmith & Wheelwright and Carriage Builder's journals, available
to university libraries from the Center for Research Libraries in
Chicago, provide lots of detail, although neither started publication
until the late 1860s/early 1870s.
 
Rather than attempting to formulate all sorts of scientific sampling and
data recovery methods first off, I would carefully examine the rich
documentary data base on smithing, develop interesting and well-informed
research questions based on that material and the historical context of
the specific smithy with which you will deal, and then develop
appropriate methods and techniques for data collection and analysis.
 
Focusing on method first likely will result in a thesis on methodology
that will contribute little to our understanding of smithing in the
development of the Upper Peninsula mining industry. And methods
developed apart from well-crafted, well-informed research questions
likely will have little value for the rest of the discipline.
 
For more specific references on the trade journals, feel free to contact
me off-list. Good luck with your thesis.
 
Jim Gibb
The Lost Towns of Anne Arundel Project
Annapolis, MD  USA