John McPherson

Some people say "I wish my anvil could talk". Someone silenced that one! If it talks, get a court reporter and issue a warrant for the criminal. Still, I would pay $.25/lb to rebuild it.Okay, who am I kidding. $.50/lb

What Thomas said. My first anvil was a century old, weld repaired Mousehole with a tapering trapezoidal, off-plumb hardy hole. After a few years, I had enough, and took a triangular file to it. Now any tool fits in any orientation. The pritchel hole is still 20 degrees off plumb, but it seems to eject slugs out away from me, so I call it a design feature.

Flew in to Denver Sunday, sightseeing the Rockies on the meandering way north. See ya Wednesday evening.

By all means, if it works, use it! Repaint it if you need it and it fits your style better that way. I was just giving you a heads up that it *may* be worth more on flea-bay, and you *might* be able to take the profit and invest in better tools. What I hate is tools going to waste. I once saw a leaky museum shed stacked to the ceiling with bellows, rotting away. The horror....

Now that is great! I love the picnic basket the size of a stretcher. The campfire set would be a treat to see in person. Anyone know if there are any modern museum galleries or other photos? I think something like this could be a big ticket item for those discerning individuals who entertain, but would never buy a cowboy grill. (Oh, Muffy! The rack of lamb looks divine! Pour me another glass of the '97 Cabernet while you are up.)

Sorry TP, that is a dead link. Could you spell out the title you were looking for?

Put out a donation bucket at the conference. Even a cheap old geezer thrifty seasoned citizen like me would add to that pot.

Definitely cast iron body, but the only way to be sure if the face is more of the same cast iron or a steel plate is to check with a hammer and a file. Even a soft ball peen hammer will easily dent cast iron if you use the edge of the face or the peen. A dull file should skate on a hardened steel face. BTW, in the last 15 years that I have been seriously looking at anvils, every other no-name anvil with that 1" thick band at the top has been a cast iron ASO. "Real" cast iron or wrought iron anvils only had 1/4" to 1/2" thick steel plates originally.

I confess that I have no idea exactly what is on a UK school aptitude test, welding or otherwise. I have never taken one of ours, either. But from the results that I see, the threshold is pretty low. All we can do is shorten the learning curve for the trainable ones, and give them the theory and background that they need. I tell our students that a passing grade and two year diploma just makes them worth hiring. A couple years on the job will make them real welders. Our greatest successes are those individuals who come back to school for advanced training, or retraining from an allied field. I do know that many large companies spend a great deal of time and effort weeding out those with no intellectual curiosity or problem solving ability. For a general knowledge test, the more you know about a wide variety of mechanical devices and practical physics, the better. The next phase of paper testing is then geared to your specific field, like machining, or welding. In the US, NCCER has standardized tests for all sorts of construction jobs. For a generator and turbine manufacturer, the actual 6G GTAW carbon steel pipe welding test that I proctored as a CWI was Phase 5 of their pre-employment testing. Less than 10% of the original hiring pool made it to that stage. Only then did the company use their own welding engineers and QA folks to do internal welder testing on exotic metals. They say its lonely at the top. The flip side to that is crowded at the bottom. Set yourself apart from the crowd by going past the minimum.

We have had to require basic skills tests in math and english (no phones or calculators allowed) to screen new students to take community college courses. Social promotion means that a high school diploma is now a worthless piece of paper for predicting if someone can actually read, write and cipher at what was a sixth grade level a few decades ago. Remedial courses in those subjects are now our most popular offering. The first few weeks of Welding blueprint reading class are spent teaching fractions and how to read a tape measure. Fabrication class is almost as bad. Budget cuts eliminated hands on shop and science classes in our urban county's high schools. But we have world class ball fields and indoor pools!

The yellow one is a Cold War relic, made for ventilation in a fall-out shelter. That is why it has a hose flange on the air inlet side. They still turn up occasionally. and have virtually no wear. Maybe worth more to a collector as-is, but I would either paint it black, or leave it as a conversation starter. The other sheet metal one is probably a 6" fan unit from a little rivet forge, although I have seen larger 9" models. I made a table top stand out of angle iron for my tiny demo set-up, and just use longer bolts thru the flanges to hold it together.

Mid 1800's English anvil, heavy waist and well supported horn form the wrought iron body, and high carbon steel face plate. What that means is that it will perform like a much bigger farrier pattern anvil. Looks to be in pretty good shape from the blurry pics, I say go for it at that price.

Hey Jim, could you download that dragon gate as a jpeg file, or give us the direct link? My wife loves it.

Lots of ways to do this. Truck tires upright between two rollers, re-purposed cement mixer, old water tank skewered on a pipe axle covered with carpet on the outside. Low speed or geared down motor. Putting it in a soundproofed cabinet helps maintain sanity. Dumping the finished contents into a chicken wire bottom box speeds up the process of media separation. One of my acquaintances buys barrels of new horseshoes and "antiques" them by putting them in a cement mixer with gravel. He then spot welds them into gun racks, hat racks and mirror frames and such. Very big on the 'horsey' circuit.

All of my demo set-up fits in a 4 cyl. Honda minivan without removing the seats. Anvil, stand, table, 3" leg vise, tongs & hammers in buckets, boxes of hand tools, tin slack tub, 10" farrier forge, hand crank blower, charcoal, stock and 10'x10' pop-up canopy. Yes, it takes a while to set up if there is no museum forge to work in. So what. Where I live now, I have no garage, carport or storage building. Every thing I own here has to go up the front steps and then down the basement stairs for storage. Bigger items are in a storage container at my farm, two counties away. Traveling farriers have a whole shop built in to the back of a mini or full size pick-up, and make a living doing it. Brian Brazeal gets his traveling show in a full size van, and that includes a sidekick, 2 anvils and sledge hammers. My most used smithing tools fit in a 18"x18"x36" job box, including the 100lb anvil and 2 small swage blocks. And that is 15 years of careful accumulation, one piece at a time. Military traveling forge carts of the 15th to early 20th century got by with less. We live in an age and country of plenty, the rest of the world gets by and gets on with life with much less than we dream possible. Start by figuring out what is essential, then add on as opportunity permits. The most important step is always that first one.

Machining and welding are both valualble, if not essential in a modern fabrication, architechtural or blademaking blacksmith shop. And they are in-demand, stand-alone careers. Most shops that have stayed in business and profitable in the economic downturn have done it by being nimble, and employing folks with a multitude of skills. The community college system with in-state tuition breaks is the best bang for the buck going in those two areas. But it will not make you a seasoned professional, just someone with enough up-to-date skills to be worth hiring. First look for a school in your state with the most up-to-date program, only then widen your search if necessary. Machining went digital & CNC years ago, and automated welding & cutting processes controlled by a pendant or laptop is gaining fast, especially in the power generation field. Advanced skills mean advanced pay. Orbtial welder operators and traveling Electronics Technicians (E-Techs) who can set up and troubleshoot machines can make six figures.

You got a DEAL! A fine brand in great shape, a Sodofors 200lb anvil at that price would have me grinning for a week, even in my sleep. Enjoy, and add your location to your profile. You will find there are blacksmiths and bladesmiths everywhere, if you know how to get in touch.

Bruce Wilcock retired some years ago, an active website is different than a website that just has not expired.

IIRC, for an indoor show, Jymm Hoffman made a plywood box in the appropriate size, and covered it with plastic faux brick panels that they put around mobile homes. Made a convincing Colonial fireplace backdrop for his reproduction hardware line.

Take it from someone who has had to get a sliver of steel cut out of their eye. (Not from blacksmithing, splitting wood.) One hour of emergency eye care costs more than you will ever pay for safety gear in a normal life. And you will gladly pay anything to make the pain stop. I wear safety glasses religiously now, even under welding and grinding hoods. And I still get stuff in my eyes, only now they are just low energy particles like dust. I have even had MIG sputterballs bounce around inside my visor and weld themselves to the inside of my safety glasses. Sooner or later the law of averages will catch up, always stack the deck in your favor and err on the side of safety. They don't prohibit folks from wearing modern glasses otherwise, do they? Get the simplest clear lens/clear frame glasses, funky lens and frame colors should be saved for another venue. If they don't like it, tell them you will hide them for promotional photos only.

Some great work done in a great old time theme shop. (Which is where, by the way?) Now put some safety glasses it that demo box, and learn to use them!

A tip from an old tractor forum is to put the parts in an old ammo box, paint bucket or other suitable container with your parts cleaner of choice and lash it in the bed of your truck for a week or two. All that sloshing around will dislodge most crud. Potholes and gravel roads are force multipliers. B)

You say you have been trying to figure this out on your own. Life is to short to try to recreate 6000 years of human advancement by yourself. That is what instructors, friends (and co-conspirators!) are for. Reading about something is good, but will only get you so far. Come to the NC-ABANA quarterly meeting this Saturday June 23rd at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds in Winston-Salem. Just be prepared to drink from the firehose of knowledge. You will find 200+ years of collective experience at any random blacksmiths meeting. http://www.ibiblio.org/nc-abana/

No idea on the maker, but that was about the size specified to be used in WWI era US Cavalry traveling forge kits, 17-25 pounds.