Swage Blocks

I bought a pintle tow ring on eBay for $15.25. The dimensions are 5 ½” OD, 2 3/8” ID, 1 5/8” thick. It has a 1 ½” diameter tenon 1” long. It was likely forged of tough and weldable medium carbon steel. This might be a good swage for forming a large ladle. I will need to forge or grind down the tenon boss for it to lay flat on my anvil. The tenon could be forged square for it to fit the hardy hole to allow the ring to be used upright as a bottom fuller. I will let you know how this works. There are plenty more pintle tow rings on line if you want to try one. What do you think?

In 2023, Holland Anvil started making an armorer’s swage block. This is an authorized copy of an original pattern by Eric Paetow of Ironmonger Forge. According to the Holland Anvil website, the dimensions are 13-3/4″ long x 7″ wide x 4″ high. It has three dishing bowls at 3″, 4-1/2″, and 5-1/2″, a tapered vambrace form, and both open- and closed-end finger swages. It’s cast in ductile iron and weighs 65 pounds. I just picked up one of these at Quad-State and I’m planning a stand to put it on. The castings are a bit rough, but should clean up fairly easily. Even though I’m not an armorer, I’m thinking this should come in handy for a lot of unusu…

I seem to have aquired a set (A & Yater swage blocks through a friend of a friend who knew someone else that went to an estate sale. The blocks are like new with very light flash rust and the original shipping info on them. Looking for ideas for mounting these up and actually getting them into service. Thanks for any help folks.

Hi everyone! This is my first time here posting as I am an avid collector of cast iron cookware and related items. Recently, I was able to pick up a large amount of primitive items from an estate with documented items from the 1700s. I also picked up this swage block and forming cone (bickhorn?). A seemingly knowledgeable individual said it was much older than he has seen before, leading me to wonder how old it might be? Do the old ones have makers marks? How can he tell it’s much older than typical? Any information you can provide would be very much appreciated! https://imgur.com/gallery/yT7zR4b MC

Went to the father-in-law’s for May long. Traded a knife, a can of beer and a window in his cabin removal and reinstall. Wire wheeled the mud off and she’s in great shape. Now I have to figure out a stand. Only downside is the square holes are 1” and 1.5”. Hardy hole is 1.25”. Anyone recognize the pattern. 12.25”square and 4” thick.

I got my first v swage and migt do worse with it. Do these pictures show someting i need to hammer, cut off or just cut the loose strands out (they are melted in place, though poorly)? Thanks Does anyone know what 2 inch cable will shrink down to upon hammering? The bigger sized part of cable is freehand but maybe its not fully collapsed I think these csble ends got a weird start due to having ends migged and that stuff seems tough and to have grabbed everything

Mail just ran, an I got in my new swage block from hollands! I wanted a little block that could set up on the forge so I don’t loose a lot of heat while working on light stuff, and not take up a lot of space, its only 8.4 pounds, but still big enough I think it’s gonna work out great! This is the first new block I’ve ever owned, so I’ll have to learn to dress it, my ol beat up 75 pound block was already smoothed over when I got it,

Hello! Alright, ill just lay it out. I believe some of the older swage blocks out there were cast iron, right? I think John at blackbear forge mentioned it once. If so, does anyone have advice on casting my own? I'll give some more details. I have a nice 10kg furnace, and have done a few sand castings already. Nothing large, but I do have large enough drags to do a decent sized swage. I've never melted cast iron, but I know it can be done with the type furnace I have. (I've seen BigStackedD melt and pour it. He uses a devil forge furnace and mine is a cast master. Only difference I can tell is he has a fixed lid with a hinge, and mine just fits snug on. They both l…

Apologies if this has been covered - I tried searching but after about 30 minutes I gave up and started this post. I'm wondering how I would create a spring swage that would create a mid-ball. So you insert a square bar and it creates a round spindle looking thing - round ball in the center with rounded ends meeting each side. I hope that makes sense. I can sketch something up if I need to. I'm making skeleton keys. I really love the ball segmented look. Since I intended to do this semi-frequently, I thought it would make sense to make a spring swage. All the swages I've made have been done from an existing shape. So - if I want a 3/8 round then I take a 3…

Hello everyone my name is Thomas Barclay and I am new to I Forge Iron. I recently submitted an idea to Holland Anvil in Holland Michigan for a new Dishing Anvil which they just added to their website yesterday. After speaking with Greg Hagen the owner and his cad designer a design was agreed upon and it is now being sold. Greg and the team at Holland Anvil are great people and it was a joy working with them, and I hope all of the blacksmithing community enjoys the Dishing Anvil I helped design.

I recently had the opportunity to bid on and buy this Fisher made swage block. It was the one block I had the pattern for in the Fisher & Norris Factory Museum, but did not have an actual block. As you can see, the pattern matches exactly the finished block. The block is 18" x 18" x 4", and weighs around 200 lbs. The pattern is made from wood, probably clear pine. The black projections are the core ends. You can learn all about the history of Fisher & Norris from my book. Details are in the "About Me" part of my profile.

Last week I saw an add "Blacksmith tools for sale". According to the price man was asking I thought it's nothing special ... well it was! JEB anvil 132 kg, 9 different blacksmith tongs and a small swage block 12 x12 x 4 inches. Block is small and it is not in good shape but it's the first swage block for sale less than 1000 km from me I ever saw! This time it was really close to me, I couldn't resist and after a 40 km drive I took it home. I will reserve one afternoon to clean everything, including S&S anvil I promised to clean few month ago and will post new pictures! That's all folks :-)

Hi all. I have had an orphan bit of rail track in the shed that I keep stubbing my toe on so on a wet Saturday I decided to make a swage block out of it. Currently just in the roughing out stage. I am cutting it using indexible carbide tools, but it is pretty tough and so slow going. It will have 3 off 90 deg grooves, 3 off 180 deg radii grooves and a larger radius. I am currently waiting for a carbide ball end mill to arrive in the post for finishing the radii

I was looking at getting a swage block for drifting eyes on axes and hammers. I am leaning towards this one by Holland. My only concern though would be that it would be prone to breaking when used in the middle with a sledge hammer. What are your guys thoughts? Commercial link removed per TOS

Hi all, I recently came across this swage block on a market place site from around here. I've never seen a swage block with this design, and I thought why other blocks don't use the same design. I think it's pretty nice to not have to change the block's position to use the half round swages on the sides. what do you think about this design, I'm curious if any of you guys have seen something like this before. Unfortunately the price isn't right for me at the moment. ~Jobtiel

OK, I'm going to raise a question that I have had for years. Larger swage blocks usually have a number of holes through them in various shapes and sizes, square, round, rectangular, etc.. My swage block doesn't have them and I have seldom though I needed holes. So, I am wondering how they were used, if at all. I can hypothesize several possible functions. 1) to use when punching various sized and shaped holes. I don't know how practical that would be for the larger sizes. 2) Hardy tool holders at least for the common hardy sizes but why would you use a swage block rather than your anvil for that purpose? 3) A monkey tool to put shoulders on various sized and shape…

I've been thinking about this one for a while and finally got started on it. It will be a steel, 4 sided box with concrete as a filler. It's going to be about 12 inches square and 3 inches wide. I have one end completed and another side mostly there. I have still to make a 60 degree V swage and I would like to make some dishing swages too, although I don't have any steel in that shape . The rest of it is just pipes and angle iron so far. The strength in this design will be mostly dependant on the rebar configuration I have planned. The concrete will provide stiffness and support. If it works, it may provide an economical alternative to all steel units. We'll see…

I have an anvil with a one inch hardy hole. One inch square stock drops right through it so it's either worn or oversize. I have plenty of one inch square stock. I want to make a hardy tool so I can reliably shape the bits on a pair of V bit tongs. I came up with two ways I could upset a piece of one inch square stock and then a put shoulder on it so it doesn't drop right through the hardy hole and then forge the V shaped depression into the end of the tool. or I could bend a piece of one inch bar stock into a L shape so one leg of the L goes in the hardy hole and the other leg of the L lies flat on the anvil. Then forge the V into the this side. …

Finally got around to making a stand for my swage block.

They used to be manufactured by Thoro'bred. Small blocks for swaging race plates. They looked like a hardy tool but had no shank. Were fastened to the anvil by a saddle type hold down device. I know a bunch of you guys know what I'm talking about. Question I have is without violating the site's no advertisement policy can anybody tell me if there is a place that these things can be acquired anymore? I know a fellow that needs some and mine are definitely not for sale. PM me if you prefer. George

I purchased this SCABA swage block a few years ago. Rather than wait on a new shipment, I purchased this one even though the two halves of the mold were misaligned. How can I clean it up? Someone told me a Dremel tool but that would take way to many bits. I tried an angle grinder, but that was difficult to control.

Hello guys, This is my first time posting although I spend roughly 15-20 hrs per week browsing the forum because my job is equipment maintenance in a automotive factory. So i can sit in my area and browse around the web while equipment is running good. First off , Thank you to the people that spend so much time posting projects and information and most importantly guidance to people of all levels of knowledge so that they may be more proficient at whatever it is that there heart desires. A little background on me , I have been a knife maker for almost 20 years now, mostly stock removal but after completing horse shoeing school back in 2005 on occasio…

A swage block is basically a multi function jig? Jig meaning object used to do the same thing repeatedly.

Just gently tossed this little bad boy in the back of my truck and skipped home. Marked 4 1/2 on the top face. I think that means its around 230 to 250 Lbs or so. I am considering how I am going to build a stand for this and some of the older posts are unavailable. I'd love to hear what has worked for all of you. I have reviewed all of the posts back to 2016 or so where photos are no longer hosted. My Metal fabrication skills are just ok, so any advanced designs are impractical for me, but I do have an oxy acetylene cutting torch and an underpowered AC stick welder, cutoff saw etc. I am an OK welder as well. I have access to some new PT railroad ties which could wor…

Hi to all out there in the wide world... My swageblock has very worn edges around its square and round holes. I'm wondering if I could fix it by welding and grinding. Does anyone here got experiences with something similar? Greetings Sascha