VaughnT

Excellent work! That's one of the nicest re-builds I've seen, and you even painted it Steelers colors!!

The only thing I see wrong is the way the far edge dips down just past the hardy hole. Look at how wide it is at the yellow paint, and just as it passes the hardy, the line of the edge moves significantly. This could signify some serious radiusing on that edge for something they were regularly producing, or it could mean they had to grind back some major damage. Won't know until you get a look at the other side of the anvil. For a hundred bucks, though, I'd be hard-pressed to turn it down.

I'd love to see more of his work. That amount of skill, learned and earned over 70 years standing at the anvil, has got to be amazing! And, yes, his horn is pointing the right way!

That's some really impressive work! I dread drawing out long sections because I don't have a power hammer. It might be good for my health, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!! :D

George M., if you follow Sanderon Iron on youtube, you can see his power plant. I am so totally trying to figure a way to marry into that family! Is that wrong?

Thanks. I'll have to look it up next time I need a solid adhesive!

Don't weld it! Rail tracks are notoriously poor anvils when placed on a stand in their "normal" horizontal position. There just isn't enough mass under the face of the hammer. The quickest and easiest way to make a short section of track into a decent anvil is to stick it end-down into a bucket of cement. By turning the end into the anvil, you've placed what little mass the track has directly under the hammer's blow. The cement only adds to the mass, and gives you a solid stable base. This guy went a bit far, but look what it got him! That's a great track anvil. He incorporated a horn, a flat face, a slightly curved or tapered face, and a hot cut. And then in inlet the whole thing into the stump! Lots of work, no doubt, but that's one incredibly useful piece of equipment and speaks volumes about the skills of the craftsman that made it.

Very nice woodwork! The only thing I would do if you're going to be able to roll it in and out of the garage is to coat the bottom with Thompson's Water Seal. A good paint wouldn't hurt if you have that handy, though. Anything you can do to keep water from sitting under the stump will keep the stump going longer.

"although still a little large" You say that like it's a bad thing! ;) I just picked up a large Fisher (300# roundabouts), and I'm already looking for a bigger one!

Perrin, I honestly don't know what to say to that. You obviously need to run with your idea and disregard anything anyone on this board has to say. Learn by doing, not by watching those that have gone before you. My little brother was the same way when he was growing up.... much to his consternation. I wish you the best in your travels.

PPtP, don't feel bad. Apparently he hasn't jumped on it, so it's fair game! If I was closer, I'd sure think about grabbing it!

Two or three feet high? That's not a fire pit, that's a burn barrel!!! How are you going to work longer stock? Even if you wanted a very large bonfire, a 2' high wall is just plain silly! Did you even watch those videos I posted? Did you see a 2' high wall around their fire? Have you ever seen a 2' high wall around the campsite fire pits at the national parks? 2 courses of brick, about 6", is all you need. The bricks closest to the fire can be protected from the heat by a wall of dirt (just like you see in the videos!) that you knock back down when you want to have a family event!

Glycol antifreeze. Put the stump in a large trashcan and dump a gallon of antifreeze in there. The wood will wick it up. I don't know why it works, but it does prevent insects. Of course, this doesn't mean you can let the wood sit on wet ground without worries. The wood will rot unless you keep it dry. If you're going to bury a portion of it, you want some gravel around it to help with drainage. I like to wrap subterranean wood with weed-barrier cloth from the garden center and then put at least 4" of gravel underneath it and on the sides so that water doesn't sit against the wood.

Now I'm envisioning a ball/socket joint, but one where the pintle is able to rotate in the pillar. I'm really having a hard time visualizing how the one hinge would have to track, though. Being able to revolve seems like it would work in conjunction with the flexibility of the ball-n-socket hinges.

It's cool, Perrin. You need to get a sheet of paper and draw out what you want the forge to look like. It doesn't have to be fancy, but you need to get your ideas out where you can see them. How tall? Long? Wide? Where's the fire going to sit on the table top? Your mom wants a firepit, right? Well, why can't you make a simple ring of bricks mortared together (so you learn something about laying brick nice and neat) thats' about 4' in diameter, two courses tall. Then you would have a forge and a fire pit. You mom gets a nice backyard fire pit and you get a place to heat iron. Here's a video of an African smith working at his "I do this for a living" forge. See how the air is being pumped through that short wall at the back of the pile of charcoal? All you'd have to do is leave a small gap in the lower course of bricks so the air from a blow-dryer could get through. Nothing fancy. Nothing expensive. Here's a video of a viking style of forge. Note how complicated it is! The air is piped underground to the bottom of a small hole that's filled with coal or charcoal or peat or whatever it is they are burning. What produces the air is irrelevant. You can use a hair dryer and a length of steel pipe, or a half-dozen soup cans end-to-end. Europeans were creating great works of art with forges like this.

All that research you've done and you still ask about disconnecting and moving a blower? Perrin, you're over-thinking this. I know it can be a bit intimidating when you don't have the prior experience to go by, but building a block structure is relatively easy. Side-blast forge designs have been around for eons and they work very well. Combining the two isn't difficult. Making the whole thing attractive so your Mom's happy adds a layer to it, but even that's not difficult. You can always give the blocks a good coat of stucco and a few decorative tiles for effect. Have you drawn a blue-print or rough sketch for what you want? Any dimensions in mind? Dry-staked blocks, in my opinion, look ugly. Properly mortaring said blocks together isn't difficult, but it means you'll have to read up a bit on the basics of masonry. Remember, though, that Stonehenge and the like were built by people that could read and didn't have the internet. If they could do something that grand, surely you can build a forge.

Yep, the groove is what holds the ends of the barrel in place. The teeth are basically nothing more than what you'd see on a buck saw, with the rearmost tooth acting as a planer or router to give you the a clean cut. Here's a great video from back in the day. You can see one being used at 11:40 if you don't want to wade through the beginning. Lots of ingenuity shown, though, so the whole video is worth watching

What's the deal on this epoxy? Is it available in the states? Looks like you did a great job with the repair, and I'm confident that anvil will last you another few generations. Good job, hoss.

Excellent craftsmanship! Those burners look like something from the Jetsons!! With attention to detail like that, I'm curious to see more of your work. Definitely agree that two burners in such a small forge is a bit much. Good work, definitely. I'll have to get you to build me a few burners if I ever decide to go with a propane forge.

Any decent hardware store should have bare handles. Find one that's got the grain aligned well, just like you would for an axe. I prefer to sand any new handles until I get rid of the finish the factory puts on them. It's too slippery and will cause you to want to grip too tightly when your hand gets sweaty. After removing that stuff, I soak the handle overnight in a mixture of 1 part Boiled Linseed Oil and 2 parts Thinner (Lacquer Thinner, Acetone, or Mineral Spirits). The thinner makes the BLO just that, a whole lot more runny, and it can soak deep into the pores of the wood. This minimizes the wood's shrinking or expanding with humidity and gives you a good grippy surface.

And if you spent even ten minutes searching the web, you'd see just how easy it is to connect a blower...... and then disconnect it. This isn't rocket science.

The edges look reasonably good. The top looks very flat! The overall condition looks (according to one picture) very good, and the size just isn't seen that often. My "new" Fisher measures 29" OAL, 14" OAH and has a Top Plate that's 5.25" wide. She weighs in the 300# range. Edited to remove anything even remotely speculative or humorous.

If you're having a hard time working on that anvil's surface, you have two choices. 1. You take a few classes from professional smiths that have been in the game for awhile. You'll be surprised at what you can learn. 2. You rebuild the face of the anvil and hope that the gnarly face was/is the cause of the problems. Having worked on an anvil that was sway-backed and a bit gnarly, I totally sympathize with you. And I would urge you to fix the anvil. For me, there's nothing worse than a tool that looks beaten and abused, and that negative vibe ( I believe ) has an impact on my work.

Well, what happened? No after-action report has been filed, and I'm feeling a bit verklempt!

That's sharp. I like the look, is the stone dry-stacked?