VaughnT

I think the biggest problem with the TPAAAT is "breaking the seal", so to speak. Once you get that first anvil, even if it's not your 'ideal' anvil, it seems like the rest of the anvils come out of the woodwork. My job is mobile and I'm out in the country for most of my day. Tried the TPAAAT at every opportunity with no hits. Even when I saw the worn out anvil just sitting there turning to rust, the owner didn't want to part with it. Then I busted the seal and got a smaller-than-I-wanted anvil from the one buddy of mine that I would never have guessed would have an anvil. Just goes to show that asking everybody is important. After that, I picked up a gigantic Fisher and a tiny Paragon in no time at all. Ya just got to get that first anvil under your belt and make sure you have enough money in the bank account to snatch up the other anvils that will soon follow!

I like them both. The "budget" version has merit because we need to sell to the market, not what we wish the market could be.

Just got this email from Grizzly: Thank you for your patience while we researched the information you request regarding the G8150 Anvil. The anvil is all cast iron. The Rockwell Hardness test is approx 40 to 44 RC. You are more than welcome to place an order through our website, www.grizzly.com, or by calling our order desk at 1-800-523-4777. Operators are available Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time. Alternatively, you can reply to this email to provide your complete billing and shipping addresses, and a complete list of the items you wish to order. I will be happy to set up the order and provide you with instructions for calling with payment information. If we may be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us. You are a valued customer, and we look forward to serving your future woodworking and metalworking needs. Sincerely, Craig C. Technical Service Grizzly Industrial, Inc. EN #600154 ETC#C

There's nothing you need to do to get that anvil ready for work; the face looks fairly flat and the edges have a nice radius. You might take a wire brush to it to knock off any loose rust, but other than that I would leave it be for at least a year. Give yourself time to get familiar with it and learn how to forge iron. Besides, now that you have your first anvil, more will pop up all over the place and you'll soon find yourself with something bigger and more complete.

Perfectly serviceable! I'd strap it down tight to a heavy stand and get to working iron on it.

Here's a few pics of the set I built last week. I welded the pins to the inside of the angle iron, and to the very outer edge, so that they would go from 0" to as wide as whatever vise I had them in. Works great so far. With a socket dropped on.....

Beautifully done. That mirror polish takes them to the next level!

Spectacular work, sir. Love the look of the carpenter's hammer, but those other ones aren't too shabby, either!!

That's beautiful work! Separating the two pieces with the 1" stock to get a full penetration weld is exactly what I was trying to describe when I recommended welding a forklift tine to the face. The only difference would have been to use a thinner separator. Can't wait to see it finished and getting a workout!

Sounds like a lot of the places I've been to here in the States! If charcoal is big business there, you might want to give serious consideration to using it for your forge. Great works have been done with charcoal, so don't think that you're setting yourself up for problems. Everything that coal does, charcoal does the same and is "cleaner" so you don't have to worry about getting metallurgical-grade. And you can make a sweet charcoal forge for minimal investment with local materials. A cast-iron firepot is nice, but certainly not necessary. Just my thoughts. I'll look forward to following along on your adventure.

Ooooh! That's sure to look very nice. Can't wait to see it.

The handle absolutely DOES NOT need a steel wedge to be a working hammer. Whoever told you that was just being silly. I have plenty of hammers and axes that do not have any steel wedges in them, and not a single one has ever come loose. The key is properly wedging with a wooden wedge that's wide enough at the top to really spread the handle. Also, I've seen a lot of axe hangers re-use an old handle that's rather chewed up by cross-wedging by using a wooden wedge like you used the steel wedge. The cruciform created by the opposed wedges was very sexy, imo, and is something that's different enough to catch the eye without looking untoward. Using odd woods that take a stain differently than the handle does will really make the wedges pop out at you, and this is a good thing.

I have a set of adjustable forks similar to that, though I welded my 1/2" stock to the inside of the angle iron. I can go from 0" to 5-1/2" by adjusting them in the jaws. I used 1/2" stock for them so I can slip just about any socket on one of them (as long as it takes a 1/2" drive) to make a quick and repeatable curve.

The holes around the perimeter are for bolting on a wind shield or hood, don't cover them as they are very handy for holding a tong rack even if you don't want/need a hood. The holes in the bottom are for mounting various types of blowers and gearing depending on the model forge that pan was going to be made into. I wouldn't bother plugging them as the clay isn't going to run out when you pack it in. The clay should be wetted just enough to hold a shape, but not runny wet. The more water you use, the more cracking you'll have as the clay dries out. Not a big problem, but... Don't know how I missed that ring in the first picture. I'd bring the clay up to just shy of the top of that ring so you don't have to worry about clinkers sticking to the clay, or the clay getting broken as you mess around in the fire. One thing's sure, you're going to have a dandy of a forge once you get it all painted and such! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a lil' jealous!! :D

What do the locals in Afghanistan burn in their forges? Charcoal? Dung? The listed firepot is very good stuff, and you're right to splurge on good tools from the outset. Buy once, cry once!

Well, it looks to me like it's intentionally designed to be both an anvil and a swage block. The one flat side opposite the 5th foot is perfect for an anvil face, and the depressions are easy to get to by rotating the whole block. The flat on the "back" of the anvil would be a great place for the customer to add depressions as they needed them. Overall, looks like a great general-purpose tool that any frontier smith would like to have. Never seen one like it, but it certainly looks like something out of the 1800's. Value? Hard to say without any kind of history to go with it, but I will say that it's certainly rare enough to be worth something to a collector. If you're keen to sell it, take some better pics and get in touch with Matchless Antiques on ebay. They might give you a few shillings for it.

Mounting a short length horizontally (like it would lay in use) increases the inefficiency of the rail as an anvil. There's a reason that you see the professional smiths always recommending that the rail be mounted vertically. Of course, what's the sense of listening to professional metal workers that have done this stuff for decades?! Similarly, mounting any anvil so that it wobbles and jumps around on the stand increases its inefficiency. Anybody that says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about. Of the three examples that you've shown, the one on the left is the best because it gives you the most mass/weight directly under the hammer's blow. This mass will translate into efficiency. While a london-patter anvil is nice in that it combines a lot of shapes that you can use to bend and fuller metal, that rail can be ground similarly or you can use vise-mounted tooling to accomplish what the job requires. I like the hardy holes in the other stump shown and would certainly entertain the idea of duplicating such a feature were I using a rail for an anvil Of course, if you have a friend that works for the railroad, you have a potential goldmine, and getting a section of rail would be the last thing I'd ask him for. Trains have a lot of really big chunks of iron on them, and that's what I'd be going for. The knuckle that connects the trains makes a great anvil and swage block. And a section of train axle is the absolute cat's meow for a post anvil such as we're discussing. I'd certainly love to have a section of train axle in my little smithy, and I have a slew of "proper" anvils already in there! Inquire as to what he might be able to get for you. Put the rail section at the bottom of the list, though. He might just surprise you with what he comes up with!

Very old. I'll offer $50 even with such bad pictures. I'd certainly be interested in adding her to the stable, but the photos aren't clear. Definitely older than some might think.

Spectacular work, hoss. That's easily the most beautiful mount I've ever seen on a vise!

Sure, but add in the cost of shipping from Europe?!?! Looking at the website, I'm not impressed. The dimensions are given, but the specifics are a bit lacking. God is in the details.

For working, it's a great hammer, and I'd be proud to have it in my shop. However, in this instance, you want to showcase your abilities. As such, I would polish the faces to a mirror shine and replace the handle. Driving that metal wedge in and splintering the end of the wood really detracts from an otherwise solid build. I would pick a bit of wood that had a nicer grain and some stain/polish to make it pop. This is for show so you gotsta dress to impress, as they say. Of course, you know your audience better than I. Maybe this is the quality of work they routinely see and expect? Do they have a classification for tools or working pieces?

ND, cast iron anvils like you can buy from Grizzly are just that - solid chunks of cast iron. The fisher anvil, however, is a chunk of cast iron with a tool steel plate welded onto the top. That makes it a spectacular anvil. In olden days, anvils were made of lesser-quality metal for the majority of their body because the lesser quality of metal was easier to make, thus cheaper, and would stand up to the use it was under. Only the top surface saw any real "abuse", so only the top surface needed to be the more expensive, but durable, quality steel. You will see anvils that have the face plate broken off in places, but this is the result either of a manufacturing defect or serious abuse. This happens across the spectrum, on anvils that have both wrought iron bodies and cast iron bodies. Of course, back then the anvil was seen simply as another rather easily replaced tool. Break an anvil, go to the store and get another. If folks then had known what a mint condition anvil was going for today.... In the case of Fisher Norris anvils, the tool steel face plate covers the entire top, including the top of the horn. Were you to buy a Trenton, Peter Wright, or Hay Budden, you're buying an anvil that has a wrought iron body and a tool steel face welded on. The wrought iron is a very durable material. If you were to find a Paragon or Soderfors anvil, you're buying a solid chunk of Cast Tool Steel. This was only possible in the later years due to advancements in metallurgy and manufacturing. Great anvils if you can get one.

I've never seen a "mousehole" anvil with such prominent parting lines from the mold. You would have thought they'd dress the face a bit better!

Beautiful!

You made your own leaf spring? That's neat! I like the design you've come up with. It looks very clean and serviceable. I'm wondering if you can backfill the tank with lead shot (like you can buy for reloading shotgun shells) now that you have a solid piece of shaft going straight to the floor?