John McPherson

Music wire is ASTM A228, a very high tensile strength spring steel. Specs are .70-1.00% C, .20-.60% Mn, very low impurities. It can be easily hardened up to 55-60 C Rockwell in small sections.

Here are some cribbed photos to get you going.

Record was a 100+ year old full line tool company that recently sold out to Irwin tools and moved production from England to China. One of my souvenirs from my trip to the UK is a centennial paperweight anvil, bought at an Ironmongers shop. (He was very put out that I called it a hardware store, that is what they call big box stores over there.) Towards the end they were having production problems. If you have an older model it may be OK, since you said the rebound is good. Test the top with a file and a hammer. If the corner of the tipped hammer face does not easily ding the surface with a moderate blow, and a worn file will just skate when pushed flat across the surface, it has a steel face.

This is a new role for you, so you need to see the world with new eyes. Take a step back and really look at everything about this, and think about every step. Is the shop staying in the same location? Who owns the building? Is it leased ,under who's name, can it be sub-leased, and how long before it runs out or has to be re-negotiated? Who pays the taxes and utilities, and out of what budget? How much of the books do you get to see? Neighbors, neighborhood, security issues you should know about? Do you have a showroom, meeting space/conference room, quiet office of your own? Do you need them? Is there surplus equipment taking up space? Do you need to upgrade anything to handle the volume? Is the traffic pattern well laid out, or does everything have to be on wheels to get anything done? Budget plenty of time and money for maintenance, both for the shop, and for the tools in it. A leaky roof can destroy a $10K welder in a weekend. A dim, dirty, disorganized shop can scare off clients, or even worse, make them think you are desperate for work and low-ball their offers. Budget time for the paperwork, emails and phone calls too, or you will find yourself putting in 40 hours in the shop, and another 40 hours in the office. Organize and label everything, and make sure there is time to put everything where it belongs at the end of the day. Constant searching for items will nibble away at your profit margin and your patience. I have gone so far as to buy color coded tackle boxes and storage bins for spare parts storage; red for Lincoln, blue for Miller, yellow for ESAB, etc. Makes it easy to tell your help what you want, and where to find it. Uncut grass and visible outside storage of stuff can get the unwanted attention of the neighbors and the authorities, and once you are on the radar, its hard to get off. A lawn service and some used shipping containers are business write-offs, and worth every penny.

The problem is not the specs for A36, the problem is unscrupulous vendors who will sell you whatever they have on the shelf and *tell* you that it is A36, or whatever you asked for. Always state up front that you need the "certs" (certified mill report with chemical analysis of each heat number, or batch) for each lot of steel that you purchase. That is a traceability requirement for ISO standards, so honest merchants will have the driver hand it to you upon delivery.

Mr. Sprado, I have never met you, so I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever met an honest auctioneer. Auctioneers, used car salesmen, lawyers, politicians, etc...90% give the other 10% a bad name. I have learned the hard way that most of what goes on at estate auctions around here is misrepresentation, either "puffery" or outright fraud. I have gone to many auctions only to walk out without making a bid, or leaving in the first half hour. The good stuff has already gone to an antique dealer, or been picked over by the family, and only the dregs are left.

(5) Drill some 1/2" holes thru the loose part of the face, clamp it down tightly, plug weld** to fill the holes, then weld the perimeter. Still a stopgap solution, but quick and dirty may get you by. It should stop or slow the continued delamination, without screwing up the heat treatment of the rest of the face. **Kinda like filling an ice cream cone, weld around the inside and work your way up.

Today's Life Lesson: Fail to Plan = Plan to Fail, otherwise know as &#!+ happens, everything else takes lots and LOTS of preparation. Sit down with a pad and pencil* and figure out what skills that you want to learn or improve, and what tools are missing from your forge kit. Start with punches and chisels, and work your way up to tongs and hammers. That will teach you how to maintain a fire, judge heat colors, hammer control, punching, drifting, riveting and heat treatment. Along the way you will find you need to make a cut off hardy and a rivet header set, and a few dozen miscellaneous tools. The ABANA website has a complete set of printable, downloadable lessons called Controlled Hand Forging (CHF). Mark Aspery, the new editor of The Hammer's Blow, has a wonderful set of books and youtube videos guiding you thru the steps. "The Backyard Blacksmith" and "new Edge of the Anvil" have plenty of projects to get you going. Once you have a basic kit and basic skills, you are ready to tackle bigger projects. *This part is important, a tangible record of goals, something that you can look at daily to keep you on track now, and keep forever. I have gone from punch cards and 300 baud modems to today, and the only records I can count on are hand written notes, copies and printouts. Websites can disappear overnight, data can be corrupted or unrecoverable. Backups can be incompatible with new systems.

Bend a short (6-8") section of rod into a "U" shape to fit into the pritchel hole and touching the side of the anvil. Do it hot and hammer it to fit, and it will kill 90% of the ring. Leave the shank long to make it easy to tap up if you need to use the pritchel. You will find that you seldom use that small section for anything, and the profile is low enough not to catch your work.

Excellent interpretation of the Ham Bowie! That and the mouse hawk piqued my interest at the Alamo as "real user" tools. On the size of handles and grips of antiques vs. today's work: it was made small because *most* people were smaller in stature than today, for lots of reasons. If you start measuring stuff in museums, you will see what I mean. (Two pounds is heavy for a pre-1860 single handed sword, 3.5 for a two-hander. Thin is in. Forget the crowbar with a handle RennFaire crap, and modern 3/8" thick machete sized Bowies. Pure fantasy.) Antique Scottish dirks have grips of 3.75" to 4.25". My troll-sized paw will not fit in a Sterling basket hilt, and if it does, ain't coming out without grease. The important thing is, an exact, museum quality replica should be made as close as possible to the original, in scale, methods and materials. (See Vince Evans work for examples.) A usable reproduction should fit the user, and can be made of modern materials if so desired.

Unforgivun, you are just a stone's throw from Tannehill State Park, where the Alabama Forge Council holds their state meetings. You should join them ASAP, not just for the educational opportunities, but for the tailgating and personal interactions. www.alaforge.org Batson's Bladesmith meet in the spring is a world class event.

ONR, I have met plenty of 'Nam era vets who had stories of heat issues. Heck, Parris Island used to kill a few recruits a year back then by running in the sun.

Trenton logo is usually a diamond, the logo on this one looks more like the Hay-Budden curve. Go for it!

No bull, lawyers and lawsuits have changed the world. Hammers, chisels and lawn mower blades, all have been made softer on purpose in recent history, why not anvils too? I have a friend with a big Vaughans that he had imported new maybe 15 years ago, and he loves it. Can't answer for todays models.

A date of 1741 is certainly possible. One way to date an anvil to the 18th century is to hold your hand so that you can not see the horn, just the body. If the body looks symmetrical, and the horn looks like an afterthought, its probably old enough to be around or even past the two century mark. The weight system is actually (C+Q+P), where the first number is hundredweights (CWT) or 112 pounds, the second number (0,1,2 or 3) is quarter-hundredweights, or 28 pounds (2 stones*** in a QCWT, pretty close, bentiron), the last number is pounds, 0 to 27.) So class, whats the answer? 1*2*25 = 112 + 56 + 25 = 193 pounds, or the stated weight of the anvil at the top of the post. ***And if you think this is bad, try to have someone explain the money: pounds, shillings, bob, crowns, quid, etc. On the plus side, when something is slightly discounted, you can tell them "Two P off!" (Thanks, Benny Hill.)

Vega Metals in Durham used to forge a lot with coal, maybe they have a supplier? Now called cricket forge http://www.cricketforge.com/

I have only used stumps, and a light weight box on a tripod in the past as anvil stands, and mostly with under 200 pound London pattern anvils. Inquiring minds want to know, especially before they butcher a one inch thick drop and lose half the mass that they paid for. So.... Dragging this one back up to ask some questions about the wide boat shape versus narrow profile base plates, for those who have used or own the Hofi/Euroanvil/Tom Clark/Rathole type anvil and specialized stands. (1) How often do you actually use the pass-thru holes in the base plate under the hardy and pritchel for upsetting long bars, etc? Would a plate on the ground beside the anvil and holding the stock against the base not do just as well as passing it thru? (2)The Avadon type stand with the longitudinal square tube looks like it would be in the way of the pass thru, unless you beefed it up as an intermediate height upsetting block. But that style seems to lack the holes in the base plate. (3) Do you really need to cut out the crescent between the feet on the near side to get *that* close to the anvil for some things? Or is that small shelf space more useful to hold your punch lube/chisel rack/spit can? (4) Is a triangular expanded metal catch tray under the baseplate really in the way unless you are crowding the anvil to work on the shelf on the far side?

It's like watching blacksmith snuff films: wrong on so many levels. Waste and destruction. The horror, the horror.

That top one looks like a red-tailed jelly worm for bass fishin'. You come up with the dangedest colors for steel.

"BTW, the procedure you are using is "Certified", the welder, once he passes the test is then "Qualified" Certifiy the paper ---- Qualify the welder. " Actually, just the opposite. Welding Procedures can be bought from the AWS, API, or ASME which are prequalified, or proprietary procedures can be developed and qualified by engineering testing methods. A welder can then be tested on any procedure which has been qualified, and become a card carrying Certified Welder in that procedure. As a AWS Certified Welding Inspector, I have done quite a number of these as part of my job. I have seen a few good welders with years of varied experiences, and a lot of rod burners with one year of experience repeated twenty times.

Welcome to the addiction fine hobby that is messing around with crafting hot metal, transforming raw metal and useless junk into beautiful and useful works of art. Wait, I think I got that last part backwards. Anyway, you have chosen to try to sip from the firehose of knowledge, good luck with that. What you have is the recipe for Gunter's Super Quench, NOT case hardening, which is closer to Jim Jones kool-aid, in that case hardening usually involves cyanide. A search of the forums will turn up plenty of discussion on both topics.

"Or the 'smith had one leg shorter than the other. (Probably explanation two)" Explanation three: Or one leg was permanently bent from resting on a bar rail for extended periods, whilst downing pints. I think Andy Capp made that one.

You can always make one out of heavy stock, and then attach it to the sacrificial 4x4 post with strapping and nails. Inertia alone will be enough to overcome any bat, straps will prevent sending the loose box thru a windshield of a drunk driver.

Rokshasa has a picture of his in the photo gallery above, why not ask him his opinion, if you can find him? Otherwise, matchless antiques sold one some time ago, here are his pictures and comments. http://vintagetools.biz/435-lb-kl-blacker-power-hammer-anvil-blacksmith

A set of small jeweler's files, and woodcarver's hones and stones in various shapes is a handy thing to have, as is a set of magnifying lenses or high power reading glasses to see just what is going on at the cutting edges. Lard, kerosene, diesel, any oil or grease will work in a pinch. I bought a gallon can of WD-40 marked down to $5 on clearance, and keep a spray bottle on the bench for any random shop task not worth searching for the ideal solution. IIRC, someone once mentioned that on products that had to meet NSF food grade standards, his company bought and used Crisco by the pallet for tap and punch lube. Anvilfire daily funnys had an amusing story about using condensed milk as a drilling lube in a machine shop. It comes back around periodically.