BarryC

Very nice hawk Butch! When you use a ballpein hammer or something that has been heat treated in some way do you anneal it before you start beating on it or just start beating on it?

Thanks for all the ideas! Mark, I especially like the threaded J bolt. I think I have an eye bolt the size of the pritchel hole and 1/4" plate I can use to make my version!

thanks mb! Looks like you just cut off one leg of the vise grip. Simple and easy. I like it!

Can you guys show me some pics of what types of clamps you are using to hold pieces down on your anvils? I would like to make a few tools that require splitting, and/or punching holes in and my wife doesn't want to be anywhere near a hot piece of steel while I have a hammer in my hands. I did try making a hold down from a piece of mild steel that goes into the hardy and you tap down to make it hold but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Thanks in advance for the pics!

I use an ammo can. Mine holds about 3 gallons of quenchant with room left for to slosh around when quenching a blade.

It will likely be a litte more readable on a smooth clean surface like a knife blank. Maybe you could hit your test piece on a belt sander a little and make it readable. I etch my knives and have to hit it a time or two with on the belt to clean up the etch and sharpen the image. Just a thought.

Thanks njanvilman! Thats exaclty what I was wondering. I did start with a piece of 220 under a block yesterday and got most of the face down to bare metal. There are a few pits on the face, a couple being deep. But over all I'm happy with this as my first anvil!

Any idea what the 3 designates??

Hello, I just picked up this anvil and have a question about it. This is a Fisher as noted in one of the pics. On the other side of the bottom is the number 3. I found several posts where you add a 0 to the number and have the weight but that can't be right for this anvil. It weighs a lot more than 30 pounds. Any idea what the 3 means and maybe any other info you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I added a square for size reference in the pics. The rebound is good but I think the face needs to a little attention. I plan to forge knives on it.