Rob N.

Thanks, guys. The gentleman seems pretty genuine and we have an agreement in place, so I'm not really concerned. I'm calling him tonight to firm up pick plans. I'll post some more pix once acquired. This has been a long search for me and to get a great anvil such as this is very exciting.

Well, I'm going this weekend to look at and buy it so I hope it's not gone :)

Hello everyone, I found an anvil not too far away from me on Craigslist. The seller says it's a 159lb Peter Wright Anvil. Attached are a few pictures he sent me. I don't know much about anvils, but to my untrained eyes it looks in good condition and the price is right (for me). Thanks in advance for any advice/comments.

Thanks, so much.

That was my thought, too. Maybe, I wasn't getting the steel hot enough. I definitely am going to try to get down to Quad state this year. Thanks again.

Thanks for the replies. The reason I am asking about the treadle hammer is I have around 60 rail clips. These are very curved as well as, at least for me, thick (3/4"), It took me, on my makeshift anvil of a 4 x 6 x10 inch block of mild steel, a good two hours to just get the thing straight. I know that's got some poor skill involved with it, too. I have heard both good and bad regarding the treadle hammer in terms of drawing out, of which is my biggest need at the moment. I'm assuming, as usual, it's a relative thing, that with the proper dies, I think I could do the straightening of the curve as well as the drawing out much faster with a treadle hammer than my current pace. I know it's not ideal (power hammer) for my most pressing need, but in anyone's opinion here, would it be worth it? BTW, I am buying the Tire Hammer plans from Clay Spencer, but given the present state of my finances, I don't see being able to get that build done anytime soon. Again, thanks for the advice.

I guess if I wanted to build a tire hammer, I could just take the hammer and anvil from the treadle hammer and start from scratch for the tire hammer build. Of course I'd lose the treadle hammer, but I'd be gaining a power hammer :)

As I do when in need of some expert advice, I'm going to the experts :) I have got the plans for both the Bob Warner Inline treadle hammer and Clay Spencer's Inline hammer (from Abana). From a cursory perusal, it seems that Bob's is more doable for guy of my ability in fabrication and tooling. But my question is, does anyone see a big difference between the two THs? Is one without question the better hammer? Because if there is no real big difference in performance, I'm definitely leaning towards Bob's, with two changes. Both the hammer and the anvil are going to be solid pieces as opposed to lead or sand filled. It just makes sense to have these as solid for performance reasons. A second question is do you think it would be difficult to make either of these hammers into a power hammer? Has it been done (asked the novice)? I'm just thinking of down the road if I may want to do that, because I would hate to have to buy new steel for the hammer and anvil. As usual, thanks in advance for any replies and advice. Rob

Can someone give me the address (email or snail) to get a set of Clay Spencer's Inline Treadle Hammer plans? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the advice, Rich. No, I don't have too much experience smithing. However, as I said to Matt, I have the parts (all free), I have the desire, all me, and I have the drive. I have stuff to build a smaller HT furnace and will, because as you inferred, I will be working with smaller pieces that obviously do not need a large HT furnace. However, I love fabricating, so I definitely will make the larger one, too. Thomas, in your opinion, should I put two layers of kaowool instead of one? As I told Matt, I am concerned about efficiency, obviously. He makes great points in that maybe the refractory and the Plistix may be overkill. I've got enough kaowool for two layers, so cost isn't an issue. Thanks in advance.

Thanks. Like, Jesus, I'll just have the ends tack welded for easy unassembly. The flue, I'm guessing is just a mild steel? I suppose Stainless would be ideal, but hey I have it and it's free. Thanks again.

Thanks, Matt for the reply. I wasn't sure if I was over doing it with the two inches of kaowool, cast-o-lite and plistix or not. Sounds like, for a HT forge, I would have been. Thanks for setting me straight. As far as building a smaller one, that has definitely crossed my mind, however, I have this thing and I at least want to build it. I'll think of it as planning for the future. I have something else that might make a very good smaller HT forge for smaller pieces. In regards to the internal supports, I've spoken via email with Mr. Hernandez and he stated that he put rebar welded to the top of the HT forge to hold his pieces. That was an option for me, too. I do, however, still have the 4" inch pipe that ran down the middle of the tank. I was thinking of cutting that down to size and using that as the internal support (i.e. putting the blade to be heat treated in the pipe for nice even heating). The pipe would be suspended with either rebar or some other steel. As for the burner, I was thinking of using the same T-Rex that Mr. Hernandez uses.

Ok, so I'm making a heat treat forge, based on Jesus Hernandez's hot water tank HT forge. I had access to an old 50 gallon gas water tank, so I started to rip that bad boy apart to get to the tank. The tank is a lot bigger than I thought. After cutting the long 4 inch pipe out of the belly of the beast, I have an approximately 40 inch by 17.75 inch steel tube. I am planning on reusing the ends of the tank as I know they'll fit I was also planning on lining the tank with two inches of Kaowool and a coating of either Plistix alone or a castable (such as cast-o-lite) with the plistix on top. I plan on having my forge vertical as opposed to horizontal like Jesus' forge. Why? Because when I get better at this smithing gig, I do want to make bigger blades, and from what I've read, taking a 30+ inch blade at 1500 degrees out of a horizontal forge to the quench is tricky indeed. The steel bending, etc...Or is that overblown? Anyhow, my question to the experts here is where would be a good place to set my burner inlets? Can I get a way with just one? Or, given the size of the forge, should I have at least two burners? In my novice estimation, I'm figuring I need at least two, so the question again is where to put them? Thanks in advance.

Well, the original leads were taking me nowhere, Thomas. I do appreciate you directing me in the right direction. Now, onto those tines. I have read in the past that they are already hardened, so heat treating isn't an issue. I've been reading around the net and it seems, as Dragons Lair alludes to above, that just edge welding the 4140 onto the 1020 may not be an ideal, or even near ideal, situation. So, other than forge welding, is there a way too weld the 4140 onto the 1020 and making a nice solid connection? One site I came across mentioned something along the lines of "really deep vee-ing of the base". What does this mean and how hard is this to do? Another suggestion was to " create the face surface from multiple levels of hardfacing". I'm not a welder, but is this simply using welding to harden the face? These suggestions were not to me, but rather from an old thread on another site. Thanks in advance to all replies.

Many thanks to the Master Curmudgeon, Mr. Powers. So, I called a craigslist ad, that led me to a forklift reseller, which led me to a forklift repair shop, which led me to another forklift reseller. This very nice gentleman had an old pair that he was about to scrap. I offered him what I thought was a good amount (above scrap price) and he said, no that I could just have them both Needless to say, a nice find. Thanks, again, Thomas.