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Thanks Beaver CR, tinning and brazing in place sounds good to me. Tinning and clamping parts to be brazed is pretty standard when there isn't space or there is too much distance to rely on the hard solder to flow reliably. Do you use a past bronze? There are products available that are fluxed bronze or almost any alloy hard solder you can spread in the joint, clamp and heat. I've never used one but if I were in the business. . . Frosty The Lucky.

Now I want to try it so that you can know someone who has done it! if done properly, wouldn’t it be just as secure as the easy way?

A ballista would be fun. On further thought I have made log cabin tools with leaf spring though not draw knives. Slicks flat, curved, etc. and a couple froes. The froes were kind of different and used for splitting firewood at the stove not making cedar shakes. Frosty The Lucky.

Be nice to turn up something like that digging in our land. Frosty The Lucky.

Or linking another thread because it contains something relevant to the topic being discussed. You see marketers bumping ads so they're always at the top of search results. I run adblock to keep ads and bumpers off my screen but they sneak through anyway. Worse they advertise their marketing "service" boasting of their ability to keep your ad at the top of search results. Targeted advertising is often aimed at one word or combination in a search. I think I'm getting a handle on how Bumping applies to IFI. Frosty The Lucky.

True, like everything the technique should have a "within reason" disclaimer. I don't know of anybody forge welding strap stock edge to edge. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Reindeer, thanks for serving, glad to have you. If you put your general location in the header you'll have a much better chance of meeting up with members living within visiting distance. Telling us once won't stick in our memories after we open another post. Our club has quite a few vets, many are enjoying the therapeutic properties of anvil time. Getting into the zone can be very Zen. What do you want to make or do you have an ultimate goal? We love pics, work, shop, tools and equipment, pets, scenery, anything you'd show a child without having to explain adult stuff. Frosty The Lucky.

One of my stock answers is in a conversation, music came up and asked what my favorite rock group was. Was/is "Sedimentary though metal sedimentary is up there too." You don't do melts in a melter? It doesn't need to be much, just a few insulating firebricks. I don't recommend kaowool unless you rigidize and cover it with a proper refractory or you end up with vitrified ceramic fibers in your breathable air. Frosty The Lucky.

Make/buy/find the right tongs for what you are doing. It will save you a lot of time and effort and your face for hot flying metal. Also if you are melted something with a propane torch it is very helpful to put a brick or something to cover the top of your crucible or whatever you use the metal. Even just a brick makes a big difference in holding heat.

Welcome Reindeer, sounds like you may be located near Mpls/St Paul & even if you're some distance away, another local blacksmithing group to be aware of is The Guild of Metalsmiths https://www.metalsmith.org/ I've also taken classes at North House & before Heather and Pam got the fire arts center going, they were teaching at MCTC where I took some welding classes from them. The guild also operates the blacksmith shop located in the Jackson St Roundhouse, an old BN facility which has lots of neat stuff to explore. --Larry

Sodium hypochlorite pumped into the well, or as most people call it bleach. (yes i did have to look up the name) We had one of those whole house filter systems but i did nothing for the smell of the water.

Frosty, I agree with you for rings bent the hard way- but I found for thin stock rings bent the easy way it is more finnicky to try and scarf them to weld flat.

Haywire is a standard for me. As far as the bumping thing, as I understand it from warnings I've received on another forum, it is when you go into a post you made, say in tailgating and it doesn't get much traffic and you go in and post something like "bump" to move it to the top of the list to give the post more visibility. That is frowned upon. Also like Scott said if you go start a new thread and link another thread without posting something it's considered "bumping", but if you go into the other thread and add a post to it it's not bumping but reviving an old thread. Now I think I'm confused too. I can't control the wind, all I can do is adjust my sail’s. Semper Paratus

Billy: Your water smelled of sulfur because pyrite is iron sulfide and degrades into rust and sulfur compounds hence aroma. Do you remember how your lady de-stinked your water? IIRC charcoal filters work for sulfur but I'm not sure. Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks for the greeting guys! I'm a lifelong woodworker and not planning on starting a new hobby now. My plan is to find out what I have and get it into the hands of someone who knows how to use it. It's too heavy to be lifted alone. My guess it's 150 - 180lbs. The only marking are the name and A87. Is there a location that might have more marking? The anvil has a nice ring when tapped with a small hammer front to back. I will try locate a ball bearing for a better test. Thanks for the information!

One of the big uses of sand is to prop open the cracks created by high pressure in fracking to increase oil and gas recovery. The cracks in the reservoir rock are created by high pressure and then a sand slurry is pumped in to hold the cracks open when the pressure is released. Some of the best sand is produced along the Mississippi River in MN, WI, and IA. And the deposits are becoming depleated. Also, some alluvial sand and sandstone is unsuitable for some uses because of trace minerals. The sand and river gravel around here is unsuitable for making concrete because it has a small amount of volcanic rocks in it which have an origin in the headwaters of the Laramie River about 60 miles away in Colorado. The volcanic rocks react with the cement in the concrete and cause it to crack and weather prematurely. Sand used in glass making has to be very pure and much of any other minerals as trace constituents make it unsuitable. GNM

Welcome aboard Nimrod, glad to have you. As suggested putting your general location in the header can make all the difference, so much of the draft is location specific. Does your vise advance a little every time you move the handle or do you slide it into contact and tighten it with the handle? I've seen pics of "cam drive" rather than screw vises before but can't find a bookmark in my tools or blacksmithing files. <sigh> I did a quick scan of my favorite vise website but just a quick skim and didn't see the type. However, they answer questions about vises like this gang answers questions about blacksmithing. I don't think Vintage Vises is a commercial site so it should be okay to post here. https://www.vintagevises.com/ Frosty The Lucky.

Until I checked which words were capitalised, the title of the second song you listed had a very different meaning!!

I don't know ALL the verses, but I can sing Which Side Are You On and the Union Maid drunk, blindfolded, and backwards...and for that matter the regular way. Also, thank you for that ear worm, my wife just asked why I was going around the house singing "Oh Christmas Tree". Sigh... You're right about the sand. Want a weirder fact? They're running out. Different kinds of sand have very different kinds of uses depending on the composition, size, and sharpness of the corners making it up. Sand found say in the desert is no good for construction and cement making because it's rounded off from centuries of exposure and erosion. I don't think this is the article I was looking for, but... The Story Of Sand In 'The World In A Grain' : NPR Or did ya mean the one by Connell to the other tune?

If you lap the join on rings so they lay flat on the anvil you don't need to weld them on a horn or mandrel. By flat visualize a coil spring cut in a ring with a little overlap. The ends will lay one on the other while the ring lays flat. Yes? Don't let what works for me stop you from using your horn as you wish. This craft is different for all of us, what works for one doesn't mean diddly for others. There are so many ways to do any one thing there is just no telling. Frosty The Lucky.

Welcome aboard Paul, glad to have you. Do you blacksmith or are you flipping this anvil? Kohlswa are Swedish cast steel anvils and top shelf. As to what it weighs, put it on a bathroom scale and tell us. You don't show what is stamped in the side which is often where the actual as made stats are. Depending on who ordered it made of course. What someone somewhere wrote with a paint stick is pretty useless. The number stamped in the foot could be a company ID, a store stock/model#, etc. It looks to be in excellent condition so unless it's been through a fire and had the temper drawn down to far it should fetch good money. Do a rebound test to see if she's still hard or maybe have had torch damage. Drop a 3/8" - 1/2" ball bearing from 10" and read how far it bounces back up in inches as a %. A Kohlswa in undamaged condition will have a rebound in the 90% range, older ones say 1970 and older will rebound higher. Whatever it weighs if you decide to get into blacksmithing you couldn't ask for a better anvil. Frosty The Lucky.

Welding is easy once you forget it’s hard. I tend to do sloppy, dirty welds- I rarely scarf or upset, I get it too hot, I don’t flux- and sometimes it doesn’t work. But I suppose it all goes to show that there is a spectrum of “right” ways to weld. Smarter blacksmiths than me have failed with more precise parameters. have fun with welding

I'm hoping to practice more welding this summer so I can see how using the horn would be nice for making big rings.

Welcome aboard! That’s a very nice looking anvil, near mint condition . Good score! Frosty will be along shortly to congratulate you as well- he’s the local expert of Coleslaw anvils

I just came into possess of a Kohlswa anvil. I'm trying to get some information on it, model, age and weight. It has A87 stamped on side of the base, what is that telling me? It also has the numbers 168 painted on the base under the horn. I'm thinking this anvil was weigh and marked for auction at some point. I'm including pics and would like opinions on quality and condition, as I will be sell it at some point. Thanks Paul North Georgia