gote Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Notownkid, OK, I understand. I am fortunate in that respect but when I started on my own anvil I believed in all advice to put it at knuckle height. That was enough to get me back pain. I now have it at wrist height and I am very happy with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Evans Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 4 hours ago, gote said: Notownkid, OK, I understand. I am fortunate in that respect but when I started on my own anvil I believed in all advice to put it at knuckle height. That was enough to get me back pain. I now have it at wrist height and I am very happy with that. Clenched fist knuckle height is a good rule of thumb (sorry)...If you stand a tall man beside a short one their knuckles average out fairly close...but it must be taken only as a starting point. Your findings bear out exactly what I say about not conforming to pointless "rules" which may not suit the actual circumstances. My anvil sits on plywood or hardboard shims on top of a cast iron base which in turn is on wooden blocks. The height is appropriate for most single handed forging projects for my height and back (and most of the journey men that have come through who are around the 6' height). The shims are adjusted to suit either the project or the smith when required. Lowered if we are using top and bottom tools and striking, raised if doing a run of small leaf work for example. Rule 1) don't make rules (a rod) for your own back!* Alan *having had disc problems myself, this time I am serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 You want the hammer face to hit flat on the anvil face. Check to see if the anvil face is level in all directions. Place a piece of wood on the anvil face and hit it with your hammer. If the crescent indentations are at 12 o'clock, the anvil is too low, if the crescent indentations are at 6 o'clock, the anvil is too high. If the crescent indentations are at 3 or 9 o'clock, the hammer is tilted. Adjust as needed. If this anvil is used with a striker, then adjust for HIS hammer. There is a fellow in the UK that is a specialty blacksmith that works sitting down and the anvil is tilted toward him for comfort. His hammer is made with the hammer face parallel to the anvil. The hammer is at an unusable angle for any other application. Point is to level the anvil and then adjust the anvil height to fit the blacksmith and the work he is doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gote Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 I could not agree more. I did that and ended up at wrist height. Fortunately I had not yet made my permanent stump. It so happens that my anvil now is at half my own height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borntoolate Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Awwwwa... I was hoping for more robot rules. I guess that is a bit off topic... but fun tho... Errr, I mean shop rules... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SReynolds Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 On 4/22/2016 at 6:05 AM, Alan Evans said: We have so many rules and regulations with which we must conform that we certainly do not need to impose any arbitrary conditions on ourselves. "Because I have always done it that way" "Because ....(insert name of favourite guru...) demonstrated making a turnip twaddler (nice universal object Thomas!) with it set that way, I must keep the faith and never deviate". It is your anvil and hammer and hearth and your project... do whatever you feel is right, and find most comfortable on the day. Alan I have worked with a smith who informed me "a jig has no place in a real smith's shop". "A real smith makes all items on the anvil w/o cheating" (aka employing a jig) I thought I had a real fire and a real anvil along with a real hammer, but apparently the fence posts I make are imaginary as I have employed a jig. I guess they **could** be used to support an imaginary chain, around an imaginary fire to-which hangs an imaginary copper kettle, holding within imaginary apple butter............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 (edited) Ah Mr Reynolds - I guess that makes me a Real Fake Flake...... Oddly though, I seem unable to muster up feelings of shame. Must be because I am sinister. One armed wannabe blacksmiths need not apply? Robert the Sinister Taylor. Edited April 27, 2016 by Anachronist58 addition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 My dexterity is positively sinister, but I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 JHCC, I'd like to see someone try to top THAT pun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 Just now, Anachronist58 said: JHCC, I'd like to see someone try to top THAT pun. I'd like to think you're right, but I'm sure that I'll be left in the dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 I need more coffee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 I've seen jigs used in shops of "real" blacksmiths; even 100+ year old shops. I'd like to see that smith do a shirt of chainmail with over 20000 links and make all the links without using a jig...I think this is a matter of them claiming that the way *they* do things is the correct way and the way *other* people do things is wrong. I don't use jigs---except for when I do! Like my father told me "every engineering equation has to have a $ in it somewhere". And there is a place for using jigs and a place for NOT using them in a smithy! As to the flurry of lefts and rights all I can offer is Ben Rumson's : "They civilise left They civilise right Till nothin' is left Till nothin' is right" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 I am thankful that I was allowed, as a child, to be left handed. It may have helped me to innovate a method for keeping the cartridge brass from going down my shirt! R Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidTodtman Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 I am left handed and it was really awkward at first. Then I was fortunate enough to get a left-handed hammer and boy what a difference that made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notownkid Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 My X was Left handed , when she was in a catholic Orphanage as 1st grader the Nuns tied her left arm to her side and made her learn to write right handed and then disciplined her when her writing wasn't as good as the other 1st graders by throwing her favorite doll in the furnace while she watched. On 4/27/2016 at 0:12 PM, SReynolds said: I have worked with a smith who informed me "a jig has no place in a real smith's shop". One mans opinion, everybody has some. Is this part of "the Jig's Up?" Would this be a TinSmith, CopperSmith, or maybe Smith's Shoppe which was the local place to buy Booze in my town growing up. On 4/27/2016 at 3:19 PM, Anachronist58 said: I am thankful that I was allowed, as a child, to be left handed. It may have helped me to innovate a method for keeping the cartridge brass from going down my shirt! I shot for a number of yrs. with a fellow who shot left handed with a right handed bolt rifle competitively. He adapted his style so he could shoot 10 shots in 60 sec, including loading once and was very much in line with everyone's scores. One had to watch him closely when he was shooting to figure out what he was doing. When left handed actions became more available I asked if he was going to have a new rifle built, he said no as he was too old to relearn to shoot that way. I did notice that when his son started shooting he had a left handed rifle made for him at the get go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 TinSmith? Sounds more like TinHorn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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