forging a anvil

[bruce wilcock]

last week two blacksmiths David Goldthope and ,Ian Baxter, came up to Shetland and along with Michel gjerde and myself forged a 1 1/2 cwt anvil
for the boss and feet i used pure iron a sort of low grade mild steel ,as it is easy to weld in the fire ,the only size i could get was 3 ins billet so i cut of 19 ins and jumped it up into a block and got the dog holes in , the feet we forged a triangular section and welded on tutning the ends in and welding them up to form the feet, for the top i used en9 at 60 carbon a 5ins billet 14 ins long ,first we drew out the tail and punched the hardy hole and prichill hole then whilst the other end to make the pike was soaking we made a pair of tongs to hold the tail with a sq to go in the hardy hole and clips to hold the side, we then forged the pike and put a dog hole in the bottom to line up with the hole in the boss and with a pin in the holes got the top and bottom red and stood th boss under the hammer and jumped the top on we then held it down under the hammer and Ian Baxter from Yorkshire welded the waist with the welder we had forged a deep v in the boss we welded the other side in the fire welding bars in the jop took two days finnishing at dinner so only one and a half days .I never have been able to get photos on this site but i did get some on Forgemajic ,,there was only a few photos taken as the man that was going to film it never showed up ,he went of to film a rare bird ,so now we know our scale of importance in the real world

[lazyassforge]

Bruce, I saw the pics at Forgemagic. That is a really cool project.Am I right, That would be 150-160 lb anvil? That is a LOT of hot iron to be working!

Thanks for the pictures, Bill D

[Ellen]

Bruce, looked like a great project, impressive to be sure. Rare bird? I thought those were cooked till pink in the oven. Man has his priorities totally messed up! Thanks for sharing!

[Dodge]

Where can I see pics of this project? sounds Cool (no pun intended ) I an currently working on an anvil I cut from 4" plate on a CNC flame cutting machine. roughed horn with a A/O torch and am finishing with flap wheel-Dodge

[yesteryearforge]

I am currently working on two anvils being cut out of the front plate on a 400 ton pressbrake the material is 7" thick
im incorperating the base into the anvil
the total anvil will be 60" long 34 " tall and 7" thick
dont know how good it will be / really dont intend on using it but its something to do.

[bruce wilcock]

i weghed the anvil today i had it in the van shoing and there were a set of scales new didgital at the yard i was shoing so i put it on 164 lbs .if i get time next week i will put the angle grinder on it .

[gazilla]

Hi Bruce,

I am thinking of a project like yours. Would you mind giving me some details of your work, like heating time needed, equipment used etc? It sure looks like a hellish job. Just great :-)!

Stefaan

[matt87]

Glad to hear you're still doing the big projects Bruce -- what with the prices of coke and iron going up and all. Would be great to get a DVD made up like your anchor-making one. Perhaps next time you should forge a set of shackles for the cameraman before you start on the anvil! ;-)

[bruce wilcock]

the anvil was made 2 years ago the only other job we have done since was to fire weld a new horn onto a old anvil the anvil had been given to us to have a go ,it was a total wreck, so there was nothing to lose the anvil was small around 70 lb without horn ,the job went well , used a floor fire for the anvil and the shop fire, for the horn i used iron out of old chain , we rough shaped the horn welded a handeling bar onto it ,got the anvil end to a welding heat ,pulled it out of the fire and tipped it on its tail , and jump welded the iron on to make the horn we then set it back in the floor fire and took 4 more welds to tidie it up ,i used the same fire i made the anchors on ,if you fancy having a go at some heaver work fixing a old anvil would be a good start as you dont need a power hammer just lots of coal and coke and some handy lads,give it a go.

[m_brothers]

Any pictures going to be posted on here?