VaughnT

Overall length times the overall height, then subtract 110. There was a thread on IFI not too long ago that said this is a good formula for approximating the weight of the anvil. I haven't tried it yet, though. 24" OAL isn't a bad size for general stuff in a small hobby smithy. It doesn't take much of an anvil to make hooks and such.

Making a replica of that type of door is rather easy, actually. At least, the wood part of it is. What types of woodworking tools do you have? How is the opening for the door designed? Is this going in a stick-frame residence, or a cement-block framed industrial building? Do you have the heavy duty hinges? The door in the OP splits in the middle, if the hinge straps are an indication, and that would mean you could use lighter hinges than if it was a single door. But that also complicates the build a bit. Still, I'd make a template of the opening in the wall. Build a framework with 1" stock that fits the opening in the wall. To this framework, I'd attach a sheet of 5/8" exterior grade marine plywood. Use a quality adhesive to join the two (maybe gorilla glue). I'd use a router to run beads down the length of the plywood, creating those "joints" like in the OP and giving the impression of multiple boards joined together. On the inside, I'd use plywood, again, but I'd route the beads to look like 8" wide planks (depends on door height, I'd want a full width at the top of the arch and at the bottom of the door). Again, this is as much for visual appeal as anything. The problem with plywood is that the outside ply have the grain running the length of the sheet and you would want the door to appear to have horizontal planks on this side. That means you'll have a very real seam between two sheet of plywood somewhere on the door, approximately 4' up from the floor. If you use solid wood for the inside, it would look more realistic, but you also have a lot more problems with warpage over the years. Cupping and twisting, seams opening up, etc, will be a constant battle. When all's said and done, I'd use a piece of thin iron to go around the perimeter of the door, hiding the edges of the wood so you couldn't see that it was plywood.

That floor jack as a scale, I wouldn't put the anvil over 50lbs - maybe 65lbs if the jack is larger than mine. Still, the anvil looks to be in good shape, and the cutter could be useful. I'd certainly entertain the idea of buying it if I needed a small anvil. If the condition is very good, it might be worth a lot of money. Everything would depends on how well you clean it up and present it.

If you like bowls, figure out how you can use mass-produced metal bowls as a pre-form. You might spend an hour hammering the bowl over a stump to give it that hand-hammered look, but at least you won't have had to start from scratch. It might sound like cheating, but is it? If you buy a large stainless steel salad bowl from the supermarket down the road, and then spend an hour hammering it over a stump, how have you done something different than a larger shop that can afford to have their bowls cut out with a plasma cutter or the like? All you're doing is repurposing an existing product, just like folks do with railroad spikes or a dozen other mass-produced items. Drill a 1.5" hole in the bottom of the bowl.... boom... instant high-dollar undermounted sink! Caterers use a lot of stainless pots in a lot of shapes and sizes. What you can do with them, though, is up to the imagination.

Glad I could help, Steve! :) A coupla bottom fullers would help draw metal faster, but you seemed to be doing pretty good without them. Any idea was the tup was originally? Does it have a hardened face?

A door with a full grill of metal straps covering it doesn't necessarily mean that it was armored for defense. Again, it all depends on the who/what/where/when. The door pictured could be the entry to the castle treasury or the king's private chambers, and a lot of folks would expect such a door to be heavily armored. But, you have to consider the level of threat to that particular room as well as to the building as a whole. To get to the king's quarters, for example, you would have to breach a dozen layers of security, including the main wall, the keep's doors, the different stories in the keep, etc. What are the odds of a successful attack on a door so far inside the perimeter? If you are gambling that the odds are significantly in your favor, and they generally would be, then a light, decorative armor for show might make more sense. A good lock and crossbar on the other side might be all you really need to sleep peacefully at night. It's a lot like the beautiful steelwork folks put on their doors today. Yea, that iron grill will stop a thief from busting through your all-glass front door in the middle of the night, but you aren't really under a significant threat of that happening. The grill is more decoration, tradition and display of wealth. As for woods used, it's dependent on what's there. Folks back then weren't dumb and knew all about the properties of the various woods in their locale. Importing woods for decorative doors wasn't nearly as common as it is today, obviously, and I would expect a door like that to have been made from whatever common woods were available in the area and were suited for the task. Assuming that's a door somewhere in Great Britain, I would assume it was a variety of oak.

One of the little things that I had good luck with back in the day was a wrought iron key fob. Oddly enough, people (especially hippies) loved the wood-grain texture and wanted a little bit to show their friends, so buying a $5 key fob was an easy decision for them. The hard part was finding wrought iron with a really gnarly grain. The better quality stuff just didn't sell because it didn't have that sexy visual. If you use a strong acid to etch the WI, drop in a penny or two. The copper will bond with the WI and give you a very neat effect.

It's always difficult to tell what their motivation might have been, and when that motivation changed from protection to simply decoration and/or tradition. A lot of it also had to do with how much money the person had (iron was expensive stuff) and the purpose the door served. Interior doors didn't need armoring like main entrances because getting a battering ram into position was impossible. Or, it might simply have been for show because there was no real threat of attack, but you didn't want to look "unprepared" when hosting a dinner party - vanity is not a modern invention. Two-ply doors did form a type of plywood, obviously, but that's not necessarily indicative of their desire to "armor" up. More expensive than single-ply doors due to construction/material costs, the crossing of the grain also helped to prevent warping. Even in modern homes, solid wood doors like to warp because one side is exposed to the elements while the other side is kept warm and dry by the home's a/c. The question, then, is which came first; was it the desire for a door that was more resistant to attack from people, or from the weather? Was it coincidental that folks noticed their plywood doors were stronger doors warped less as the seasons changed? The long strap hinges did help support the door's many individual boards, but decorative hinges like your example shows are more a display of wealth and breeding. The excess metal wasn't cheap, and the labor needed to make the decorative elements only adds to the cost when compared to a simple strap. They make the door stronger, sure, but, again, you have to look at the larger picture to determine the motivation and needs of the original owner. Just guessing, but I would deduce that the door pictured is a secondary door in a low-threat environment, and that whoever commissioned it wasn't lacking for money.

Couldn't resist. Stole your pic for the new background on my desktop PC. Now I can see a Fisher even when I'm not in the shop. :D

Gorgeous! I absolutely love Fisher anvils, and the way you developed that photo really showcases their wonderful lines. Congratulations on a wonderful acquisition.

Sounds like you need localized heat so you can bend and wrap the metal in situ rather than going back and forth to your forge. I really don't see a way around that if I'm picturing the build correctly. I'm sure the hobby auto shop guys would be more than happy to help, though, as it sounds like something fun for them, too. Thank you for serving!

The frame's certainly stout! I would add gussets to the top corners, but leave the bottom corners as-is. My thinking is that the rectangular bottom frame is going to be crazy hard to get to sit flat and stable on any floor (hence why you don't see those originals using that design) and you might want to replace it. Can't wait to see it finished and running. I've always wanted a pedal stone like that....

You couldn't ask for a better anvil! That girl looks almost new, and the soft curves of the face make it almost perfect. Very lucky fellow! Were I you, I'd run down to the local store and get a few lottery tickets. People dream of a find like that and live their whole lives without realizing it. Congratulations. Put her to work and enjoy the ring!

Danguite, that vise has had the screw and screwbox replaced at some point. No big deal if it works, though. You need to get on back to that scrap yard and finish saving the rest of that blacksmith shop. Chances like that don't come around often, and you never know what might be lurking in the pile! I would have spent all day transferring goods from one truck bed to the other!! DSW, wonderful set up. My table's about 1.5" thick, too, and it sure makes it a dream to work on.

"Shortages in wartime..." I love pointing out to people just how much benefit there has been because of the needs of war. Accurate time pieces, vulcanized rubber, jet propulsion... it's a crazy long list of things that are keystones to modern society. Reminds me of that old saying, "Everybody always says that war's not the answer, but they never tell you what the question was!" :) I like thinking outside the box, and building a bike with minimal technology would be a wonderful project. Heck, even if you built one like they had to build them back when they were first invented would be a cool thing to try. I wonder how much those bikes weighed? Did the makers roll their own tubes, brazing the seams? If I recall correctly, the pedal-housing juncture on a lot of the early designs was cast iron.

Charles, you're 100% correct that there are other ways of getting what we get from oil. The problem with them, and the reason we went to oil and synthesizing during WW2, was that you can't produce enough of it, fast enough. I had this discussion just the other day with a marijuana supporter. While cotton does produce fibers and oils that we can use to produce XYZ, think about how many acres it would take to produce a significant amount. Then compute how many acres you would need to produce a consistent stream so that you don't have dry spells that slow or stop manufacturing down the line. Tabulating that, what is the net damage to the local ecosystems caused by the monocultures that are crop fields, and the harvesting/processing of the crop? Hint: it's far worse than oil production. Wool does rock, though! I just wish there were more wool ranchers so the price would come down a bit!

Sounds like you have a solid working plan. The raised air inlet in the fire pot allows the clinker to form around it more than jamming it up. I've not used one, yet, but I'm keen too.

Yea, if your anvil is moving, you're not getting the most benefit from the hammer blow. If it moves when you strike on the horn, it's moving when you strike on the face, too. The anvil shouldn't be able to move, period. Either there's some slop between the anvil and stump, or between the stump and the ground. Fix that problem and you'll see the performance increase. As for moving thick stock with a hand hammer, make sure you have let the heat soak into the metal so that it's thoroughly warmed all the way through. And use as big a hammer as you can. In this case, a 5lb hammer wouldn't be amiss if you have one. Other than that, it's all about sweating through the hours, wearing your elbow out and wishing you had a power hammer.

Buried for decades, but otherwise hardly worked on. Truly your lucky day!

Age/Ancestry are hard to tell on post vises. Some of them have the name stamped or cast in place, but who can say what's under all that paint. I can tell you that you've got a mighty fine piece of equipment, though! The serrations on the jaws are almost new and I don't see any signs of abuse. You are missing the wedge, but that's an easy project for a smith and it'll be fun to say that you made it.

Very well done! That's a solid design and should work wonderfully for several decades.

Hard to beat free! Good job.

Considering my welding skills, fancy welding is definitely out of the equation. If it can't be done with 1/8" 7018, it can't be done in my "shop". I can probably fab a clip or two that can be welded to the seat and upright. I'll dig through the scrap pile and see what I have handy! Standby for a frankenstein stool!!

I think DSW nailed it with his 'rant'. The question isn't can you build a bike without using fossil fuels, but rather how far back in the chain you want the fossil fuels to disappear from the equation. I can cut a 2x4 without burning fossil fuels by switching from a circular saw to a hand saw. In that instance, fossil fuels are now one step removed from the equation. But that hand saw had to be made somehow, and there were fossil fuels used to do it. I have personally used stone tools to cut through wood, but I had to drive to a location that had naturally-occurring stone that could be knapped into a saw/hand ax. If I lived somewhere that had a decent stone just lying around, that would be cool. Most folks don't live near such an outcrop, though.

Definitely non-structural, unless you count my fat butt sitting on it. I'm making a shop stool and want a little bit of flex between the seat and the support so it doesn't stress the joint. The seat is pressed sheet metal with some serious corrosion, so it could rip when you lean over to grab something. It would take a few repetitions, but metal fatigue isn't something I really wanted to deal with. So, I thought I'd weld some heavier sheet to the underside of the seat, then attach the spring to it. The spring would be an intermediary between the actual seat and the main body. Pictures just as soon as I figure out what I'm going to do. Hope to get something roughed in today, but keep getting stuck on the spring part.