Ferrous Beuler

Nice little travel anvil you have there HOJPOJ. Don't be too concerned if your hardie hole is too small to accept the shafts of your hardie tools. Do not grind them down to fit that hole. Your post vice can hold any size hardie shaft you may have and gets the job done just fine.

No problem, I'm tougher than that. If you think I was banged up a bit you should see the car that hit me! LOL.

Don't be jealous just because the voices in my head only talk to me The icey cold I feel randomly circulating around actually is the dye contrast I was injected with for an MRI. It is called Gadavist which contains a heavy metal called Gadolinium which can remain in the body for several months to years. No worries though, this is minor league stuff. I am used to it. When I was 12 I got severe frostbite. Temperature that day was 0 with windchills of -35F. Froze my fingers solid and then lost all the skin from the last knuckle forward on all ten fingers. Had "frostnip" since then more times than I can count because my hands are permanently hypersensitive to cold. Anyway, being funky from lack of showering may actually be an asset. Tends to keep the bears away

Yup, its a tough go to be sure. I may or may not be done playing music. After 40 years as a guitar player I am not quite ready to let that go, was looking forward to forming another blues/rock band too, ugh. For now the Les Paul and Stratcaster sit in their cases, along with a few acoustics and a banjo too. I am determined to play again, so just waiting on my hearing issue to resolve. My skull fracture was on the left side just above the ear, temporal lobe. Also busted my left cheek bone, one end of that is rooted right next to my left ear so too much trauma in one locality it seems. Time will tell. Am looking forward to forging again but for now it will have to wait. Take care Thomas, Cheers.

Well, he COULD be back, just sayin'. LOL!

Hiya shloelessjoek, welcome to the addiction! I see this thread is a bit dated now but I was still in the hospital back in June so I'm playing catch up. Got hit by a car back in February and was still in the hospital at the time. I see you have discovered the NYSDB and hopefully by now you have attended a meeting. I joined them in 2005 or 06 after fumbling around on my own since 2000 when I found my first anvil in Holland, N.Y. If you attended that meeting I'm sure you realized that you will learn a lot right quick by being surrounded with folks who know what they are doing rather than being on your own with only youtube and books. I lived in Rushford at the time then moved to Geneseo. That's when I learned about the NYSDB, attended a meeting at Honeyoye Falls and joined the Genesee forge. I still have big gaps in my memory from the accident due to the TBI, Honeyoye Falls was just one member's shop and I don't recall where the regular meetings were held. The Rochester Arc And Flame Center is their home now but I haven't been there since being there and mig welding the firepots and coal forges to get the place ready. You will find that attending meetings at memder's shops apart from the home forge is common. I belonged to the Genesee forge but also regularly attended the Southern Tier forge as well so have been to meetings in Churchville, Honeyoye Falls, Angelica, Corning, and Hammondsport. There are smiths peppered all over the map who are not affiliated with groups such as NYSDB or ABANA too, one of them is near you in North Java. I bought a Champion post drill, a floor mandrel and a colonial anvil from him. So you see, we are out there (not just figuratively). Hopfully you have joined the group and I encourage you to attend those other chapter meetings now and then as well. I am in Clarence (Erie county) now and have yet to attend a Niagara region meeting but am looking forward to joining. I'm still on the mend from getting hit by the car so I can't drive yet but soon enough. Anyway, welcome.

Yup, I'm learning all about TBI. No fun. The doctors told me I suffered a fairly "massive brain bleed" which left behind a high concentration of iron from my blood in my cranium, mostly under my eyes. Busted my left cheekbone too. Had an MRI done back in April, "with contrast" which was a heavy metal they injected me with so it ain't gonna flush out of me any time soon because it tends to settle. Randomly I will feel it circulating around my body and it is beyond frigid, like ice water flowing through my veins. Back in my Marine Corps days I got bumped, tripped over some Aussie dude's leg and fell backwards out the open door of a huey helicopter but I didn't get half as banged up then as when that car hit me. Falling out of a helicopter sounds dramatic but it was just lifting off so I only fell maybe 15 feet. Fortunately the ground was there to break my fall, ha! Anyway, I have a long road ahead of me and no guarantees. I have an eye surgery coming up, "Strabismus" to get my eyes sorted out. Keep your fingers crossed so when its over my eyes ain't!

Thank you to all who replied. Just keep in mind that our health is ever subject to change with little or no warning so make the best of it while you can. I just turned 52. When I was 12 in 1977 I started playing guitar. Now with this constant tinnitus roaring in my ears I may be done. 40 years of guitar playing gone for naught. Irondragon, Old Crew and Glenn, thanks much!

Hiya folks! Have been out of circulation for a bit. Last time I did any forging was last winter, January or February, can't recall which. On the evening of February 15th, the day after Valentine's day I was walking near the house on the side of the road on the road my street connects to. Sometime in March, about a month later, I woke up in the I.C.U. Seems a drunk driver hit me, left me laying in the road with a fractured skull, multiple other injuries and he vamoosed. Usually when there is a hit and run involving a pedestrian the offending driver is never found and oh well, good luck with that, end of story. This time our hero returned to the scene and was noticed by the troopers there watching from his car as the paramedics worked on me. They checked him out and yup, DRUNK. Blew a .18 BAC. He also had his passenger side front fender caved in and was missing his side view mirror, go figure. Anyway, Wednesday night I went up to the local firehall two blocks from here where they were having an all hands meeting, I went because I knew they would all be there, to thank them for saving my life. Big applause, much appreciated I was in the hospital five months, in a coma for the first month and was released July 3rd. There was no July firefighter's meeting, so I made the next one. I am still on the mend, constant tinnitus and double vision. On the 20th I am having a surgery to correct the muscles in my left eye but it could be worse, I could be dead. Having just buried my father in January after 55 years of marriage I don't think my mom could take that. Anyway, keep the faith. Am looking forward to getting back into some forging

I agree with David Thomas. Emphasis on west coast and north of 200 lbs; the farther west in the U.S. the higher the price. Anvils on the west coast routinely go for much more than in the east. In Alaska and Hawaii anvils of any size and condition are scarcer than hen's teeth and can go for silly prices especially in an auction situation. At 259 lbs you have a rare commodity there in that market. The face does not appear to have been ground any appreciable degree, just polished. $2000 is a fair starting point in California and not exorbitant. If I were selling an anvil in good condition such as yours in California and it was under 200 lbs I would ask $6/lb. Over 200 lbs I would ask $8/lb. Prices have gone up quite a bit on anvils in recent years with blacksmithing being fetured in a few popular television shows and with that interest in the craft and demand for tooling remains high. Don't sell yourself short, ask $2000 with no qualms because that is where the market is. Good luck.

Looks to be in fine shape. Check the rebound (not my video)~ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t0qeuOf4IZ4 Depending on your location you should have no problem turning that into $1000 USD, roughly $4 per pound in the eastern U.S. and more out west where anvils are scarcer, perhaps $1500 or better. The price starts going up considerably when the weight is north of 200 pounds.

Howdy Chelonian, The Barcalounger reclining chair was originally manufactured here in Buffalo, New York. They are still being made today but the company left Buffalo many years ago. Barcalo manufacturing was famous for making a wide range of products such as your wrench but are most well known for their recliners. They are also credited as being the company that invented the employee coffee break in 1902. http://www.insyte-consulting.com/blog/2014/08/made-in-wny-buffalo-gives-birth-to-the-barcalounger/ http://blog.buffalostories.com/buffalo-made-laziness-sloth/

Mel, welcome to IFI. I suggest you take a class at John C. Campbell folk school here in the U.S. if you have the time and the means to get here. A biginer or intermediate class would be best for you, I recomend you request their catalog be sent to you and then select an intermediate blacksmithing class to attend of a one week duration. Good luck! Do you really think a trip over seas is best rather than taking a class more local?

Your dilema is our delight! Will that foundry ship to the U.S.?

Reminds me of when I worked as a carknocker in a local railyard years ago. I grew tired of my tools wandering off and sometimes not coming back so I gave everything a shot of dayglo pink spray paint. Lo and behold my tools stopped wandering. Most of the guys working there were the big burley biker/lumberjack types and they just couldn't bring themselves to be seen wielding a pink torch, etc. LOL. Anyway, about the 400s, both of mine and my Champion 101 post drill are plain cast iron/no paint. I've never seen any that appeared to have old original factory paint remaining on them but plenty sporting new colors applied in modern the era.