John McPherson

A few tricks to try that will not hurt the anvil, and may bring out the markings: 1) Take a piece of white printer paper, tape and an old fashioned graphite/wood pencil, tape the paper where it won't move, rub the side of the pencil across the print like a windshield wiper. Save this paper, you now have a unique "fingerprint" of your anvil if it ever gets stolen, and the white page is lots easier to read than a photograph. 2) Lay the anvil on it's side, and do the same thing with a chunk of welder's soapstone right on the metal. Gently blow or wipe off the excess dust to read the letters, then take a photo. 3) Same as #2, just dust the anvil with baby powder. Powered wire brushes or pads will tend to smear the details if used too aggressively. Hand wire brushing, combined with hand soap and water, will remove only loose rust and dirt. Dry it off, and a wipe-down with non-detergent oil will keep it from rusting.

Rule #1: Follow the money. Most people buy new things based on price point in the market, and comparison shop when they can. Successful manufacturers in the past used just enough material to do the job it was designed for, and no more. (Now they make it look pretty and last just long enough to get past the warranty, so you will come back and buy another one.) That means they can sell it at a price point that keeps them in business. You, on the other hand, can over-engineer anything you build for yourself, because you intend to keep it for the rest of your life. Iron and especially steel did not get to be relatively cheap until a little over a century ago, and the pattern for leg vises was set long before that. More to your point, smaller vises were made from smaller stock, were made to hold smaller items in the jaws, be used in a more delicate fashion for filing and such, and the pivot could be higher. And (drum roll please) vise versa.

Edited because I did some Google research while lunch was heating. That cutter may be really old, because Josiah Wilcox was a tool maker in 1840, and became part of Rhys & Wilcox in 1850. Three companies merged to become Peck, Stowe & Wilcox in 1870, before it became Pexto, After that, poor old Wilcox may have just joined Roebuck and faded away into the sunset. P.S. Robar, you lucky dog, I have been looking for a deal like that on a floor cone for 13 years, that's really a score.

OK , get the tar and feathers ready, because I am about to suggest blacksmith blasphemy. Good wrought iron is going for $3 a pound. Crappy anvils with the face broken off are going for 50 cents a pound. Slice and dice. There, I said it and I'm glad. If you can't bring yourself to do that, I have seen 100' lengths of wrought iron ship chains in the scrapyard, but could not afford to buy the whole thing, because that was the only way they would bother to did it out of the pile. Aldo, the NJ steel baron, sometimes sells chunks in flat rate boxes on his website to knifemakers. http://njsteelbaron.com/

Peter Ross has retired from Williamsburg and now resides, forges hardware, and teaches workshops near Pittsboro, in central NC. He hosted the fall meeting of NC-ABANA at his new shop and "new" (old, restored) house. I was so impressed with his shop, his depth of knowledge, and his effortless control over iron that I did not notice if his head bobs. (I would trade a head movement like Stevie Wonder to forge iron like that.) I took 10 pages of notes and 50 pictures. Heck, I was impressed by the literal tons of wrought iron bar stock, and Popeye would envy his forearms. So, he comes up to my chin, and could hide behind me if I turned sideways. He gets the job done, and does not seem to have any long-term damage. In fact, he moves pretty good for a man half his age. He has hooked up with some guy named Roy that nobody has ever heard of, and a bunch of other ne'er-do-wells in an effort to "educate" the gullible public in outdated skills that are totally useless in this digital world. http://www.woodwrightschool.com/

Just a side note before we start. The AWS and ASME do not recognize any standardized welding procedure utilizing short arc MIG as a joining process except for sheet metal, and as a root pass followed by another process, such as stick or flux core, when used for plate or pipe. This is not the be-all and end-all process, it is just fast, cheap and shoddy. It may be acceptable for your purposes, but is never used in critical applications. Wire size relates to carrying capacity as far as voltage and amperage is concerned. Voltage + Amperage is your heat input, to melt the wire AND the base metal. Bigger wire = more juice. Match the wire thickness to the base metal thickness. Good penetration is getting an equivalent bond that you would expect from stick welding. The base metal acts as a heat sink, that is why preheating aids penetration. You are moving faster with MIG than stick, so there is less arc preheat, and therefor less penetration. Iron is a lousy conductor of heat, that is why you can hold one end of a bar and forge the other. Don't try that trick with aluminum or copper. (Thawed hamburgers cook faster than frozen. The middle never gets hot before the outside is burnt. Same principle. That is also why you need a soaking heat to forge large stock without cracking.) Little 120V/20A input welders can only run .023" solid wire. Good only for joining sheet metal, say 1/8" max single pass weld. The equivalent V/A output of 1/16" stick rod. (Can you weld (slightly) heavier metal in multiple passes? Yes. You can dig a swimming pool with a folding shovel, too.) Switching from 75/25 Argon/CO2 mix to straight CO2 and .030" wire will give you a hotter, uglier weld. Now you have gone from MIG to MAG welding, 'coz CO2 is an Active gas. And cheap, too. But they are dumb, cheap machines with limited duty cycle, and can only do short arc, and some flux core. Don't believe the salesman hype, they are meant for autobody and muffler work. They do OK for that. Move up to a quality 240V/30-50A input unit, and in addition to .023" you can run .035" or .045" solid wire. And the wire selection is now huge: standard mild, CroMo, hard-facing, the list goes on. Now you can run the equivalent V/A of 3/32", 1/8" or even larger stick rod. Join 1/4" plate in a single pass, 1" plate in multiple passes. With different gas mixes and programmable computer chips, you can go beyond short arc MIG and run RMD, pulse spray or true spray arc, which is SCREAMING hot, to join heavy plate in a single pass. Industrial 480V/100A and bigger machines can run 1/8" wire and join 1" plate in a single pass, but you have to wear a moon suit and shade 14 fiberglass hood (the plastic ones melt), so lets not go there.

Just remember that these were hand stamped. Every number stamp set I ever bought has nine stamps: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. You turn the 6 over to get a 9. I have seen anvils with upside down letters, and even whole logos upside down. So it is not beyond belief that someone turned a six upside down and made it a nine, and it got by the inspector. If so, to me that would make it special, if not especially collectible. Or, it could just be a zero with a scratch in it.

You can't weld what you can't see. Auto-darkening lenses are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even a cheap import is better than a fixed shade for casual use. You typically MIG weld 12-24" from your nose. If you can't read the fine print at that distance, get corrective lenses. Cheater lenses are made to fit standard 2x4 openings, prescription safety glasses help, but bifocals never let you hold your head right, and contact lenses can cause eye burns. Wear your safety glasses, always! Even under the face shield! (A hard hat is a helmet. It protects your skull from falling objects. They make welders face shields that attach to them for construction site welders. Those are the only real "welding helmets". Rant over.) If you need more light before you strike an arc, get a 500W to 1000W work light or two, and hang 'em where it will shine on your work, but not in your eyes or at the back of your head. Even with a fixed shade lens, you can get plenty of light by working in sunlight. Block any drafts or breezes that might disperse your coverage gas. If you can, weld in the flat position, where gravity is your friend. Pros use chains, cranes and powered weld positioners to move the work whenever possible. Race car builders build the frame in a big rotisserie. Another way to ensure a good bond is preheat, minimum 70F, 200F is better, maximum 500F for preheat and interpass temps. Thicker metal, more heat. Cold starts and restarts are the biggest cause of test failures. Even a wimpy 120V welder can do a more respectable job if you preheat the metal. For autobody work and other sheet metal, a heat gun is fine. For plate, a propane or acetylene torch with a rosebud tip. Anvil repair, weed burner or campfire. Post heating and slow cooling can reduce weld cracking and warpage. So can "skip" welding, working by jumping around to spread the heat load, the same way you tighten lug nuts on a wheel rim. The way to tell if your welds are any good is the same way the pros do: test them. All you need is a big vise, and/or an anvil, and a big hammer. Anybody here have access to that kind of exotic hardware? Get some scraps of whatever you are welding, run a 1" bead with the same joint profile and settings and position, put it in a vise, or on the anvil, and beat on it with a big hammer. Try to stress it at 90 degrees to the weld. Ideally, the base metal should fail and tear out before the weld does. Be warned: cast iron or leaded steel will tear out every time, some metals just are not weldable with MIG. If the weld cracks down the middle, or separates from the base metal, then you know you have a problem. Tiny bubbles trapped in the weld bead are known as porosity, kind of a swiss cheese effect. Paint, grease, rust, dirt or moisture can cause it, but lack of shielding gas coverage is the usual culprit on clean metal.

Not unless you are overheating the iron. If the wax smokes and burns, its way too hot. 200 degrees is plenty to set a beeswax finish on anything but cookware.

I found that heating the mild to non-magnetic and quenching in SuperQuench drastically improved the ring, even if just the corners are done on big triangles. Downside, the salt has to be cleaned completely before finish is applied.

"Across the street" at anvilfire.com, Jock Dempsey has a pretty good photo gallery of world anvils, http://anvilfire.com/anvils/index.php swage blocks, http://www.swageblocks.com/ cones, etc. http://www.swageblocks.com/cone_gallery.htm Here is another http://www.blackiron.us/anvil-types.html Even Postman could not list all of the known makers, resellers and marks, it would read like a phone book. There is a great photo guide to blacksmith tools with explanation here in the section strangely enough marked "Tools"

Having measured a few old anvils, (mine and others) it is rare for the top and bottom to be parallel, the front and back feet to be the same width, etc. A standard warning to those who wish to have the top of their old anvil machined, is to have the base trued to the top before starting. It is almost like they were handmade. Wait, they were.

Now that just made me smile. Thanks for sharing.

Could not find them with a quick web search, either. No web presence, I guess. I think that this is just a sideline off of their day jobs in a foundry. The blacksmith market is kinda limited. They used to show up at tailgate row in Madison, maybe someone else knows if they go to Quad State, etc.

Wow, that's a pretty big forge if you can generate electricity from it too. Where did you find your electrostatic precipitators for your flue gases? Ebay? OK, enough of the smartXXX, John. What we get left in a forge is bottom ash and clinker, and is mostly inert. Mercury, sulfur and other reactive particles literally go up in smoke, and power plants have to trap them. Disposal is the problem. A smith would have to work hard to generate enough fly ash in a lifetime to be a problem. Every smith working in America today would probably not burn as much coal in a year as one power plant does in a day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_ash On the other hand, finding the piles of clinker and bottom ash are the best indicators of archeological sites for old furnaces and forges.

Copper can be TIG welded, or silver soldered. Hammer out a deep bowl or urn shape, and add the legs, lid, etc? Turned sectional rings to assemble the insulator shape? That sort of work may be easier to do than a single large casting or turning.

Dug up an old page from an ABANA chapter newsletter. Yes, I still use file cabinets, Luddite that I am.

Dropped the monikers online years ago. I was the Terrible Troll before there was an internet. When my wife refers to my son and myself as Troll Junior and Troll Senior, she gets some funny looks. But it is shorter than calling us a couple of "No neck, knuckle dragging, caber tossing Neanderthals who intimidate others easily." Then they meet us. We are just regular guys. Well, 58 Regular is our suit size. The first guys you think of when you are moving big stuff. Actual quote. "Honey, get us a couple of 2x4s to go under the wood stove. John can carry the front, and the other four guys can get the other end." John McPherson, Proprietor, Trollworks Forge. A subsidiary of Celtic Moon farm.

"btw, if you put on a high Viz jacket you can do just about anything without people raising an eyebrow." You got that right. About a dozen years ago, someone stole a HUGE back-up generator off the pad from one one the bank data processing computer buildings downtown. This site had just been mothballed due to a merger, so somebody knew somebody. Just brought in a crane and a flatbed on a weekend, and no-one driving down the four lane road paid any attention to what was going on in plain sight. Police no longer respond in person to "property crimes" in our state. Burglary of empty homes and vehicles is a misdemeanor, not a felony , unless guns are stolen. They take your report over the phone or internet, and give you a case number so you can file for insurance. Fingerprinting is for felonies only. I had to look at the police blotter in the paper to find out that my welder and tools from my truck were just part of a string that night in my neighborhood. My dog barking and waking me up was the only thing that kept them from taking everything. IF you have model/serial numbers AND engrave your ID on the items, AND it happens to turn up on a routine gun check of a pawn shop, you might get it back. No onus on the pawn shop or junkyard to verify where anyone got anything, just an ID check. The same guys show up with crap to sell every week, but the cops can't follow them or trace them, because that would be "profiling" or "harassment."

Green-Mengle (sp?)casts them, as well as the full size floor cones that they fit into. They also cast swage blocks. The 4" cone sells for $70 at Blacksmiths Depot. I use mine for all sorts of things, most recently wine bottle holders.

Bridle irons, eh. Makes sense now. Insetting timbers into masonry leads to rot. The stand off would help prevent that.

OK, I have to ask. What is a bridle iron used for, and why would you need them by the hundred? And thanks again for posting this originally, and again as a complete pdf file. That is why I love this forum, the free sharing of knowledge.

The South East Regional Blacksmith Association (SERBA)Conference, odd # years in Madison, Georgia, always had an anvil shoot conducted by the auctioneer, Col. Tim Ryan. That was THE reason for the ABANA divorce from the chapters in 2001. I was there, it was the subject of much discussion and a special T-shirt to commemorate the event. One of the prior year events was filmed as part of the Forge & Anvil TV series. And yes, it really is as fun to be at as it looks on TV. :) The special anvils are regularly X-rayed to check for flaws, and there is an armor plate blast barricade between the crowd and the explosion. Trajectory is pretty much straight up and down, so there is minimal risk to the crowd behind the safety ropes. This is NOT an amateur event by "a bunch of liquored up good ol' boys", however it might be portrayed. Now called the Southern Blacksmith Association, May 19-21 this year. http://sbaconference.com/

Let me echo what has been said above, you are now a micro-industry, think like a business man. Time is money. Your time is what you sell. Buy from an industrial supply house and have it shipped to your door whenever possible, not drive out to a big box or hardware store. You just add a $35 dollar an hour delivery charge to the item, your lost time. All of the suppliers have sales, watch for the items on your wish list. I would add Wholesale Tool Co to the list of suppliers, and note that old tools sometimes use Whitworth taps and dies. Really old tools were made before there was a standard, and have to be re-drilled and re-tapped as often as not. The only import drill sets that I have been remotely happy with are the cobalt sets. The rest either snap off or dull on mild steel. One was so soft that it actually unwound the spiral flutes rather than break! Working on old tractors, I have broken off left handed drill bits trying to get broken bolts out, then broken off EZ-outs trying to get the left handed drills out, and finally used a diamond bit in a dremel to clear out the mess. Plus, I think my language stripped the bark off of nearby trees. :blink:

Some of you may know that I spent 20+ years in the real estate brokerage/appraisal business. This may be a stretch, but here is how I see the tool market from my unique perspective. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong; I'm married, and used to it. Anything has at least three identifiable values: present market value, reproduction cost, and replacement cost. Let's take post vises and anvils, since they seem to get talked about the most. Present market value is the best price you, the educated seller, can get for it from educated buyers after offering it for sale for a reasonable time. Offering may take the form of an ad, or an auction, or a sign in the yard. The more folks that see your offering, the better the chance that someone just has to have it. Notice this has nothing to do with distress sales, limited market exposure, or lazy-uncaring-unknowing sellers or other buyers, that is where the bargains come from. Big farm, estate, & Ebay auctions set the top of the market. There is nothing that stops you from reselling that $50 dollar deal you got on Craigslist for $250 on Ebay, except its value in use to you. Case in point: I bought a vise at a tractor show maybe 10 years ago, before the guy had even unloaded it from the trailer. Paid the asking price and made the guy sign a receipt with the handshake, and had the guy hold it for me 'til the end of the day. This was much to the amusement of the other blacksmiths with me, who assured me there would be tons at half of what I just got ripped off for. We saw a few more complete and partial vises for sale that, but none as cheap. There were several dozen anvils, some almost pristine. The asking prices on everything had gone way up since the year before. He was mad as a wet hen when I picked it up, because he got 10 more offers on it, and I got stopped 3 times on the way out with it on my shoulder by folks wanting to buy it. The other sellers and I knew what they were going for on Ebay and at antique stores, the other blacksmiths and my seller did not. Know your market. This year there were 3 complete, shiny vises, none less than $100. Anvils were scarce, and crappy too. Reproduction cost is what it would cost to make another one just like it. Darn few of us would have the skills and machinery to make a 300 pound wrought iron anvil with a forge-welded tool steel face, and could not afford to sell them for $2/lb if we did. Grant could probably give us a SWAG on what that would entail. Making a simple 4" post vise with a power hammer or refacing an old anvil has been done as a conference demo, or labor of love, but not as a business. New anvils and post vises are made today, and if you think that vintage stuff is overpriced, check out what the new US and European stuff is going for. I don't count ASO's in this area. Replacement cost is what it would take to get something with the same utility in use, not it's identical twin. This is where the fixer-upper and home-made vise and anvils projects come from. Do they have the same utility? Yes. Do they look the same? Hardly ever. Collector value? Nil.