Glenn

If the "I" beam anvil is 6" wide and 1" thick plate top and bottom and as I recall maybe 24" long it weighs in at over 70#. I do know it was heavy stuff and may have been larger than the dimentions I used. If you look for any longish piece of RR track, don't turn down the 20 foot section. You just bury it 17-1/2 feet into the ground and it will make a wonderful heavy anvil Contact Old Moose or Honest Bob, both deal in anvils and are on this forum. Bill Epps or Tom Stovall from Tx may have a handle on an anvil. And don't forget the Farriers anvils are still anvils, they just look funny cause they are designed for making horse shoes. There are too many used anvils available to spend much time fussing with RR track. Buy a drop from a steel yard of 4 inch plate that is 12" by 12" and you have a 160 pound anvil to beat on for junk prices. . . Pictured is a 4" x 18" section of round bar that weighs 75# on top of a 100# Peter Wright. It is as long as the anvil, has a wider face, a 4" round horn and is easier to move. Cost = $0.00 This is not to talk you out of your RR anvil. Use it and learn how to use it to it's full advantage. But don't spend too much time and effort on trying to make it work like the real thing. Start looking for a real anvil, ask everyone you see if they know where an anvil is located and chase down the lead. Chances are there may be a second anvil over behind a door in the same shop. Or they may know where an anvil is located. The local blacksmithing organizations can help locate an anvil for you also.

Best forging use I have found for a RR track is to stand about 3-4 feet (or more) of it on end and have the mass of the metal under the impact area. 3-4 feet weighs in at something close to 100 poounds depending on the size of the track. If you spam that 3-4 feet the middle becomes real limper under a hammer. But for a small desk top anvil RR track will do a lot of work. Sometimes it is better to start with a flat top to begin with rather than weld up something. :wink:

BP0108 Carving Ramp BP0114 Carving Block BP0125 Wolfe Head Did someone mention the IForgeIron Blueprints :idea: It is a good source of information for blacksmithing? :shock:

To cut a rod (round or square) in half. balance on the hot cut hardy and tap with hammer. You have a mark to use as a guide for hot cutting. rc

I purchased an magnetic engine block heater for my truck. The idea came to me that it would work great to heat my anvil and tongs. I tried it that night and have enjoyed fingers that don't get too stiff and a comfortable warm feeling while I work. Wind Chapman

Remember when the spring house actually had a spring in it? > The family car had suicide doors on it. I can see the eyebrowls go up on this one LOL

IForgeIron does no warrant any of the information for any reason including fitness of purpose. Research and understand the dangers of each action before you start, and protect yourself and others. If you get hurt, you have only yourself to blame. The use of any electronic or printed information is solely at the users risk.

Rob Gunter's Super Quench Solution 4 1/2 gallons water 5 lb. salt 32 oz. Dawn dish soap (blue) 8 oz. Shaklee Basic I Stir before each use. Use for mild steel only * Additional reference

Remember when you stayed up late night listening to the radio. Built the images in your own mind as to what things looked liked. Remember when AM WAS Radio? And who was the first president you remember in office?

I had to fix the images and include then in his post. Sorry for the suspense.

I have no idea why this did not display in Irnsrgn's post earlier in this thread.

SWE_Karl Takes lots of photos and with a little words, put it together in a report to be posted on IForgeIron.com so we can follow your travels also. Best of luck with your adventure.

When using "www.yourimg.com" as a place to store your photos on the internet: Use the 4th set of coding down called "Your Image in BBCode" and just copy and paste it directly into the forum and the image will show up with no additional coding needed. If you wish to use the "img" button on the forum to place your photo into the text, click on "img"- use the last line of code provided by "www.yourimg.com" - and click "img" a second time to close the code. All this can be done manually using before and after the URL for the image. No matter how it is done, using the preview button at the bottom of the input page where you make your post, will show your post exactly as it will be seen on the forum. If you have problems, PM or an email to Glenn or the site admin will get their attention and they can usually fix things.

It is the contributors that make the site work, I have the privilege of operating the keyboard and appreciate being able to do so. Merry Christmas to Y'all and those you hold dear. May you have a prosperous New Year.

This was started by Garey Ford. The following are Rules of acquisition of the Blacksmith: 1. if its metal & free get it now. 2. if you can get it in your truck take it home. 3. if 2' of steel cable is good to take home then 100' is even better 4. if you can hide it from the wife take it home. 5. if there is a remote posibility that someday you may use it take it home. 6. if its to big to move by yourself call some of your nonblacksmithing friends to help as they will not want some of it. 7. always check out the dumpsters.

The local junk yard has several spikes and track plates. They were turned as scrap for the money. For the cost of junk, it would seem to be a way to collect all the material you need from one spot. Contents of your junk yard may vary. :wink:

Sometimes when you visit the junk yard you need to look in the corners, behind things, in the odd areas. Then you need to recognize what the underside, the ends, the odd angles of things look like. When I turned this over - surprise - it is a forge ! The pan is maybe 28" diameter with two side tables. The rest of the story? Seems someone cleaned out an old garage. The forge went to the junk yard alone with the rest of the rusty metal. One junk yard worker took 20 to 25 pairs of tongs to his father to be hung on the garage wall as decoration. Maybe that many more tongs were added to other scrap and shipped out. :cry:

www.yourimg.com is another site to post your images on the net.

To post a photo, the photo needs to be no larger than 400 pixels wide and somewhere on the internet. Then use the following code with no spaces.

. Pj Just show us how you go about doing something, or do something already posted in a different way. There is no compition in the Blueprints, just different ways of doing the same thing, grouped together by subject, so the viewer has a choice of methods. One will method will work better than another method due to circumstanses in the viewers situation. You should try to make a blueprint. It then becomes fun and you want to do more. It also gets you to seeing things in a different way and learning. If you need ideas, let me know

Visitation is from 5pm to 7pm Tuesday December 13, 2005 Funeral is 7 pm Tuesday December 13, 2005 Both at North Side Baptist Church North Side Baptist Church is on Hwy 78 E. Jasper, Ala. Burial is 1 pm Wednesday December 14, 2005 Walker Memorial Garden More details as they become available.

There was some misinformation on the date, Jeanette passed today Dec 10, 2005 I appoligize for the confusion.

Jeanette Wolfe, the wiffe of J Wolfe passed on December 9, 2005 Funeral arrangments are incomplete. The family requests no phone calls at this time. More details will be posted as they become available.

Good grief a fellow can not even blink without you folks geting all technical. Best laugh I have had in a good while, while being informed and learning the proper ways of how supposibly simple tools work. Thanks. Well I need to go recalibrate my 2 pound smithing hammer to an extra decimal place so I can now do precision work instead of just beating on iron.

Ralph, you, Dawn, and your family have prayers on the way.