John McPherson

Glad to see the paint holding up. That is not black, by the way, it is "Charleston Green". You see more and more of the green as it fades.

I took a group of students down to do some service-learning projects for Alternative Spring Break in 2007. Some before and in progress pics. I'm the fat guy in the denim shirt.

Thomas, I think he meant they were re-rolling scrap rail into smaller sections, not using it as-is. I have seen mills buy worn out rail by the hundreds of miles for quality products. It is very uniform, high quality scrap.

Bodkin points, Egad! Here, they confiscate the nails before they get back on the bus, because someone will get poked.

A leaf keychain for the teacher or parents/chaperons goes over well.

Tying an overhand knot in a 1/4" rod is always good, as is branding a piece of softwood at a black heat after it is too cold to forge. Shows the difference between too hot to touch and hot enough to work.

Having a suspended magnet to show the phase change in heated metal is a good Mr. Wizard science moment, too.

Face it, if that dude can't lift it, this Pillsbury Doughboy body doesn't stand a chance.

In theaters 6-16-2011.

Wow, I would love to get a trailer like that.....to haul my tractor.

Everything I take to a demo fits in the back of my van, and I have worked hard to get together a set-up small enough to fit in the trunk of a Honda. Everything needs to be as versatile as possible, and plan to do projects that require minimal tooling: i.e. scrolls with just hammer and anvil, no jig. Pre-cut lengths of steel for each project. Wrangling long steel bars in a crowd just shows lack of planning.

Bigger is not always better. I frequently have to haul all my gear from a parking lot to a grassy area in the shade with a hand truck. I may have to find or make a 50-75lb anvil just for demos. I ain't as young as I used ta be.

ABANA has a handout for demonstrators with checklist and hints. It's a good place to start. YMMV

http://www.abana.org/downloads/demonstrator_guidelines.pdf

Nice score! I would love to find one that size for traveling demos. Mind saying what you paid for it?

Is the waist crack a shallow seam from the weld line, a manufacturing defect, or possibly from abuse? Looks like they were not having the best day with the number stamps either, but to me that is just added character.

Someone else near me bought an identical one for $5 at a yard sale. Somehow I always manage to miss those deals. :angry:

Drewed (Druid?) Take a good size ball bearing, say about an inch if you can find it. Take a ruler, hold it vertical to the face of the anvil near the center. Drop the ball bearing from the 10 (inch, centimeter, cubit, whatever), and see how much rebound it has. 70-90%, turn a cartwheel, you got lucky. 10-20%, you may have bought a doorstop, or mailbox holder. Tap the face with the ball end of a ball peen hammer. If it dents, then its all cast, with no steel face. :(

This guy forges custom garden tools and sell major brands in his store, lots of ideas there.

http://www.redpigtools.com/servlet/StoreFront

Yes. NCABANA is the host this year, I'll be helping with setting up and tearing down. In the past, there were two demo stations that run ALL day, so there will most likely be other demonstrators added to the website. Plus, spouse classes,a green coal set-up, tailgating. etc., and it all wraps up with an anvil shoot.

More forge carts and vises. Mordecai updated the RevWar forge cart manual in about 1836, IIRC. Still the handbook for both sides during "The Recent Unpleasentness". I can't seem to find a CW era picture that shows the vise. Sketches and woodcuts will have to do.

Images of wagon tongue vises, a small clamp vise, a jewelers bench vise from the Funk tool museum, and finally a bigger vise meant for a table. Mostly web downloads, not mine. Except for the one huge picture. That's one inch pegboard, and a quarter on the anvil for scale.

As someone who appreciates sharp & pointy, it does resemble what would happen if Virgil England did a take on Lochaber axes, but less cluttered than his work. Well Done!!!!

PS. I looked at the photos a few times before it sunk in that this was 14' tall, and that you could not touch the blades from the ground. Weapons of heroes! Slice & Poke indeed!

Forget the cheap-o import vises for real work. They are fit only to hold a lawnmower blade while you sharpen it with your side grinder.

Go look at Wilton or Columbian vises in a catalog that sells industrial tools to professional metalworkers, and that $300 leg vise will seem dirt cheap. It would cost much more than that to make in the west today, just like everything else that blacksmiths use. Try pricing new anvils, or tongs. As long as there is a supply of used anything available relatively cheaply, it limits the market for new items.

How does anyone "let" anything happen? New car turn into a clunker, hot bod turn into a lardbutt, kids grow up to be hoodlums? Call it what you like: Sloth, Apathy, path of least resistance. The two most abundant elements in the universe are hydrogen and human stupidity.

Like the song says: "We never failed to fail; it was the easiest thing to do."

And that doesn't even take into account the sociopaths who delight in destruction.


I now have 4 abused anvils to repair/reface/rehabilitate, all picked up for about $1/lb, the worst for much less. And I have a line on some old post vises, in varying conditions. Summer projects.

I'm fighting entropy, but its winning.

Anyone get it for 338?

Nope, I quit at $300 with 5 minutes to go, $300 was my preset limit, what was in my pocket. Over $2 a pound and rising fast for an unknown make by an unknowing seller, etc. was too much risk for me. There is always that guy in Pageland, Madison in May, and other auctions coming up. You can't take it personally.

Plus, the hounding by Flea-bay was truly nerve grating. Red letters after every failed incremental bid, until you pass the other guy's maximum bid "You've been outbid!!! Don't let it get away, bid higher now!!!" Emails in my box, even after it was over. At live auctions, that behavior is considered shilling, and illegal.

I think this is another artifact of the internet, like the story of Yankees breaking horns off anvils.

IIRC, this was first suggested for Francis Whitaker about a decade ago on the old KeeneJunk forum. Then it was repeated for Bill Moran, etc, and spread from there.

How long do we have to do something before it becomes "traditional" anyway?

Sorry, nothing to say about this, really.

Just checking in to see the greasy spot where the dead horse was, way back when this started. Again.

Used with a pulling motion like a drawknife. Commonly discussed on knifemaker forums.

Now, if you had access to a milling machine, a keyway cutter would work.

MSC, Enco, McMaster-Carr, Grainger, Fastenal, Wholesale Tool they all sell the good stuff from the US and EU ($$$) and asian imports ($), and have sales, sometimes at deep discounts.

Where are you in NC? There is an anvil dealer in Pageland SC who has all kinds of used anvils. He buys and sells, and advertises on Craig's list. He is not cheap, but he is reasonable.

NC Tool also sells new gas forges and farrier anvils.

Files and rasps can be annealed with a coal forge and a bucket of ashes. Or, if they will fit in a propane forge, heat them until a magnet will not stick, shut it off, and then leave them inside with the doors blocked with bricks. When cool, they should be soft enough to cut with a metal cutting bandsaw. Check to see if they are soft enough with a file or hand held hacksaw. If they bite everywhere, you are good to go. If they skate anywhere, repeat with a slower cool rate.

A plasma cutter would make short work of them, too. Clean up would be a lot less than with a torch.

If you use any grinding wheel or wire brush for carbon steel, and then use it on stainless, the stainless will rust when it gets wet. When used to clean off slag between welding passes, it can 'poison' the weld. Just grinding other metals around stainless will deposit tiny particles on the surface.

Good welders will have a separate wheel to sharpen tungstens on, that never touches any other metal.

Commercial welding shops that work in different metals learn to keep them separate, and color code disks and wheels for each area. Disks are cheap, rework is expensive.

Stainless, nickel and copper also tend to be "gummy", and load up hard wheels.

Make sure the wheel you use is marked and rated for the RPM speed of the machine. There are still slow speed grinders made where not overheating the metal is more important than production. And there were hand crank grinders made in that size, stones may still be available.

One of the more common errors is buying a 12,000 RPM 4 1/2" angle grinder, taking off the guard, and mounting a 7" 6,000 RPM rated grinding disk or wire wheel. A Darwin award candidate, fo' sho'.

No, No, No! You've got it all wrong! You have to harness the mystic powers of the anvil.

You point the horn of the anvil in the direction of the spirit of what you want to make. (Using the bending fork in the hardy hole as a rear sight is optional for beginners.)

Scottish dirks? Aim for Edinburg. Bowies? Point 'er towards the Alamo.



And if it turns out that what you are hammering out looks like useless crap, you are probably lined up with Washington, DC.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

JReed, Here are some pictures that happen to show the floor in Peter's shop.

If you look in the background, you will notice that he has cinder block pavers about 3' from the walls where moisture would be a bigger problem, and to set tools on. It does not seem to be a fire danger, even around the power hammer with all the scale.