irontwister

workin on it. its hard for me to work with computers. im not too good with them.

What have I gottin in to? The worst addiction in the free world. 1 Anvil leads to many.
1 postvise leads to many. One tool to many. Welcome brother to the world of I want.
Ken

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. visit ebay's poor boy blacksmith shop to buy them, or the best way is to go to a flea market, old farm auction, and borrow one from another smithy while you look for some.

everyone in my computer class(in high school) thinks im just a little bit strange because they all stare at me when i bust out laughing at the you might be a blacksmith if... jokes and they just looked at me and laughed at me cause i was laughing hysterically at that picture.!

my grandpa gave me a different forge. this one weighs about 500 pounds. me and my uncle had to man handle it out of the barn and into the truck by ourselves. there is 4 inches of concretein it and it is about 4 feet wide and 4 feet back ...filled with concrete . it wasnt a fun project.it is made of a brake drum and it is the best brake drum forge i have ever seen. full range with walls all made of 1/4 inch steel and a little bit of 1/8 inch steel.6 feet tall. like i said me and my uncle had to manhandle it in to the truck at 9:00 o clock at night . in west virginia it gets dark at 7:45 now. not fun.

ive been wondering about this for some time. im wondering how many i forge iron users are in west virginia or near also. im a member my self thanks.

id tell ya if i had one.lol workin on gettin one.

i often say that to myself, but the truth is that i should always do it better. i need to make money and a name for myself. if i say that im not doing the best i can do. i want to make it perfect which is not possible but it is what i strive for. i want people to start showing the product that i made for them to their relatives as their pride and joy of their living room. every time i say that its "good Enough" i take a step farther away.

thanks i think that i'll do that.just to play around with it. that or buy it. im so cheap that it is not funny, it would kill me to buy an object that im supposed to be able to make!

what about getting a piece of 1/8 inch steel and getting it really hot so that i can pound
a spoon into it so that itmakes a swage.

A good hardwood, oak or the like, grind a dish into the stump on the end grain and go to work. A good idea is to have the wood wet before you start your forging on it. You can do this by soaking a rag or towel and laying it on the block before forging. Cuts down on the smoke and your wood will last longer. When it burns out to a larger size than you want just pick a new spot on the stump or if needed get another stump. The bottom of an oxy cyl. works real good for dishing bowls. Cut a piece of pipe the dia. you want and forge the end to a nice smooth radius. There are more ideas but I'm sure you get the jest...you don't have to have a swage block.

the round sswages on the side might be handy as i could forge weld a handful of 1/4 inch round stock together? could i do that? again i would Never sell it, but itwould be nice to know how much it is worth. it has a few chips in the sides and a little wear on the insides but other than that it is in tip top shape.its at least 200 lbs how much would it sell for? my grand pa likes for me to research stuff like that.

Congratulations for finding grandpa's swage block, sorry to hear that someone stole his anvil. I have only seen maker's names on modern swage blocks, old ones would be difficult to identify. Swage blocks are used for forming stuff in their groves, and as stake holders. They are useful for such things as making chisels, bending heavy iron bands for wheels, making spoon and bowl swages, and such. I find them very useful. One of my swage blocks has only groves for wagon bands/tires.

if it would'nt of been for the fat ground hog that lives in the side shop at g-pa's farm i never would have found my swage block.it had a hole in the old shop right in below a pallet(the pallet beside i had placed an anvil of his that i had found in the rubbish and pulled out for him which had gotten stolen last week!!! verrrry angry!)i was lookin at the hole when i moved an old tool box to see the hole better when i then realized what it was setting on.A SWAGE BLOCK! i had been really wanting one. i decided i needed a propane forge more but this one i dont know how to use. its a regular one without spoon shovel or bowl swages which is the ones that i needed the most. how and what do i use them for. its 200 - 225pounds. thought id get a hernia carrying it to the truck.lolany info will be appreciated. how do i find the maker too.thx willie

mine is a #208 H.B! i love it I love I LOVE IT!!! its my main anvil it starts with a 1 ithink on the serial number i need to learn how the logos are setup because i can see the name and the weight and the serial number and i know that there is more but i dont know what the say. i need to know what to look for.

All my trentons have weight on left serial on right. All my hay buddens have serial on the left.
Ken

what if you cant decide about the numbers? exmp. 3 or 8?

i found my serial and weight on my hay-Budden. how do you see it better ive donethe oil and wirebrush. any others

grizzly.com has anvils for low costs. i seriously doubt that they are any good but they looked like a mousehole. bout 25 dollars for a small one. take the gamble if you want.

May be a trenton as they did serial numbers on left foot when facing horn IIRC.

might be a trenton( definetly not arguing with you Mr.powers!) butit still might be a hay budden, or a arm and hammer, but im not familiar with arm and hammers. a little familiar with trenton but ive only used it once and looked at lots. they look like hb's if you ask me. im pretty familiar with hb's though.

hay-budden, really looks like a hay-budden to me. im no expert but i have been lookin at a lot of hb photos and i stumbled across one that looked like that. it was a 70 pound but i dont know if it really was or not. i dont remember where i saw it but i will try to remember. last night i just found my serial number and weight on my Hay-Budden. its a #208.

hey thanks guys. i have pictures but i cant get them on here. the site keeps saying that it is not a valid image. i have pictures though.how do i get them on here?

i also might be able to through in some tools to sweeten the deal too. what do you nned exactly?

is it on the bottom of the foot? how big is it? can you polish it p or more what im wanting to do is keep it from rusting. what oil do you use? ive been told wd40 but some say that it wil go into your work if you do that. i tdidnt make much sense but im a noob so i didnt know. i really need to keep the rust off, HOW!
thanks,
willie