zampilot

If the file skates, it's hardened. Do you mean to temper the blade so it'll take a sharp edge vs annealing (softening) ? But I'm a wild-guessing newbie so I may be fit for slaughter!

Winter is anywhere from 2 weeks to two months away, the snowy cold stuff. I would like to continue my heat and beat over the winter weather using a charcoal or propane forge, outside. I'm curious about the potential for damage to my anvil and post vise, they will be very cold temperature-wise. I realize back in the olden days when something needed to be done, it was "to Hades with the weather". I can line up the propane forge to heat the anvil somewhat. Any experiences from those of you in Northern Climes that forge outdoors ? A trip to Mexico is not in the cards!

I dont start a fire under the barrel, it's in the barrel. But if you mean the first attempt with the pipes, no I'm not counting the wood for the fire under the barrel, which was also scrap, and the barrel wasnt full anyway. I won't be trying that one again.

I sorted through and burned the uncharred wood a second time. Final tally is one full 55 gal drum of pine scrap various shapes and sizes yielded one full 30 gal metal trash can of useable charcoal. Now to re-locate that mouse living in my forge.

781, I used the barrel as found with one hole in the side, two in the lid, your advice works great, it took two burns sorting thcharcoal from the un-charred but I do have about 50-60% yield. Now to look for local discard bins at contruction sites.

781, I'm adjusting as I type.....the pipes were actually clogged with pine tar- like substance, and very crispy pine tar-like substance. Took them off, stood the barrel on end, re-lit through the hole the pipes ran out ofin the lower side, I'm letting it burn for a while before plugging the two holes in the lid. Of course there is always room for CM#3, hope it doesnt take as many attempts as WD40 (the true cologne).

Drat.....although I kinda expected it, about 1/4 of the wood charred. Made about a 1/2 gallon of pine tar in the meantime. I bet my fire wasnt wide enough or long lasting enough by a couple hours and the cement block stand was what I had on hand, it limited the coverage of flame-to-barrel. I'll try agin in a couple weeks, using a stand built of pipe instead of the block.

Well, we'll see what's in the drum tomorrow. Filled it with pine 2x4 scrap, it gassed at about 45 minutes and continued for about 2 1/2 hours, I kept the fire fed for about 2 hours with same scrap pine. It worked as supposed to I guess.....The mouse family living in my Lively style forge has been displaced, rather than burned out.

"Not in the worst condition, but still needs a bit of a tidy-up!" Yer killin' me, go get the other one too!

Anvil A has no pritchel hole? Must have been in the service of The Crown for quite a while, nice one!

I bought a Majestic 2 burner a month ago and fired it up within 15 minutes. It heats very quickly, a RR spike to white hot in about 3-4 minutes with both burners going. Have not had the time to mess with it for serious work yet. I bought it for winter use, outside, I figure I'll put my anvil a few inches in front of it so it captures some heat instead of being air temp when pounding.

Lots of cash but it's a brand new quality anvil. No sudden stops please!

That's a confusing ad....who's selling it?

Wow!! Wow and wow again, very sweet..........and I've been looking all over the place to buy one.....maybe in a few years I can attempt it! Nice work, and my wife has not seen it........she doesnt have the $$ to hire you!

I saw a beat up 50 lb anvil today, marked with a '50' between the feet under the horn and a six-pointed star with a circle inside on the anvil's waist. I thought it might be a Star brand but they used a five point star. Idea's?

I have one that I leave outside under a tarp. I sprayed it down with penetrating oil then I rubbed it with marine-grade bearing grease and it seems to prevent rust. I'll rub the table and horn with a rag dampened with a degreaser before using it, doesnt seem to affect whatever I pound on the table, and I spray it again after use. Nuttin' like a pretty anvil!

It looks like something made in Mordor for an Orc master to use. Ask JRRR Tolkien!

Very nice work and creativity, but wouldnt an oak stump work just as well?.......Good job!

What type of steel would be best used for a good ringing quality dinner triangle chuckwagon whatchamacallit?

For sentimental reasons I'd love to find a Wilkinson 'round here. My first razor blades were Wilkinson's, bought for me by my Dad, a while ago.

It works fine so far but I have not 'used' it much except screwing around seeing what it'll do on some scrap steel. The refractory material is the key, one could shape it anyway they want using almost anything as a frame. A .50 cal or 40mm ammo can comes to mind!!

Start off at what you need to get out of it. If you paid $300 @ 2 lb, cleaned the crap off of it, sell it for $350 or more, that's reasonable. If you think you can get more, great! As with anything else, if you think it's worth what you paid for it and you are happy to sell for whatever, all is good.

I used to do a fair amount of parkerizing. Temp was always under 210 degrees, around 195 worked best for the solution I was using, from Brownells.

It's a 140 lb'r, plus or minus a couple.

Yeah I know, wishful thinking. The old days are certainly the old days now.