Still Learnin'

My deepest condolences to Glenn and the entire Conner family. I was so sorry to hear of your loss. You are in my thoughts and prayers. Joe Hehner Resurrection Forge

Please remember Yancey (Yance on here) as his mom passed away Saturday after a short illness. The funeral was today at 2:00 PM in Mt. Airy NC. My condolences and prayers go out to him and his family.

Flop, what ya got there is a Southern Crescent anvil. They were made by the Southern Skein and Foundry Co. in Chattanooga TN. I can't tell ya much more. I knew a fella had one and he loved his. From what I understand they were made similar to the Fishern Norris process whereby a piece of tool steel is incorporated on to a piece of cast during the casting process. Not sure of the whole process myself but they make for a very hard anvil at the price of a cast one. They are quieter than a tool steel or wrought anvil too. Nice find !

Caotropheus, it appears there may be a virus in your external pic. It tried to say my pc was infected and I got out ASAP. The flypress looks like a good find though.

Ok, I've been dreading the "posing" and uploading but I finally did it. In order of size, my 3 anvils are a 70# NC farrier's anvil. The next largest is a 112# Fisher from 1914. It's my favorite and my "Go To" anvil. Last but not least is an unknown make anvil. Some say it's an early English anvil and others think it's a Mousehole. It's been repaired in the past and there was a chunk missing off the face of the heel when I bought it. I since then have hardfaced it with hardalloy 118 on the face after repairing the missing piece. I don't think it originally had a pritchel hole but there was a hole already there. It was either the pritchel hole or a previous repair attempt. The reason I think this is because there are studs on the bottom of the heel going into the anvil. Previous repair attempt ??? IDK The unique thing about this anvil though is it doesn't have a table. Just a large 5"x12-1/2" face. Oh, almost forgot, it's got the hundredweight markings on it. 1-2-10 = 178# I think since the repair it may be 180# now. Joe

If you are going to weld, arftist has done a thorough job of explaining the process. I'd like to add one thing though. In my experience with cast iron I've found that peening the weld lightly after welding and prior to post-heat is extremely important. It lets the molecules reach a state of rest, or so I've been told. My dad has welding countless castings and he would always peen the weld, as well as pre and post heat. If you don't have any nickel rod, you can use stainless rods. If however, as you stated before, are going to braze... I would do the steps you already indicated and just use good old common 1/8" flux coated brazing rod. Drill before throwing the heat to it though because those cracks DO tend to propogate !!! Maybe migrate is a better word. Besides, after you weld cast iron, you couldn't drill it for the world. I don't know the explanation but it makes it like tool steel. I wish you the best in this endeavor. Joe

Cody, I apologize if I came across like you didn't know what you were doing. Thomas is right, you are correct in your steps. I am just slightly anal when it comes to terminology. Hope you understand. I like the looks of your two hatchet heads. I've yet to try one. I think I'm just too tight... errr, frugal and can't stand to forge something that is still serviceable. Maybe one day I'll just "accidentally" drop it in the fire. Then I'll HAVE to forge it !!! I've often wondered if anyone's ever made one with the rasp side "in" ? Would you then still need a wedge ? LOL Again, nice job and keep up the good work !!! Joe

Hey Cody, glad to hear you've been busy at the forge. I don't , no let me rephrase that, I know I'm not the best one to answer your question but seeing as how it's been a day or two with no reply I'll give it a shot. Just my two cents but from what I can gather on your post you seem to have the common misconception of tempering. Tempering is NOT hardening. Tempering is the act of drawing hardness out of an object. When you forge something you rearrange the molecular structure of it and those molecules are often in a state of stress. In essence, forging makes the metal brittle. Tempering simply allows the objects molecules to "relax" as it were. I'm no materials engineer and hopefully one of the bladesmiths on here will see your post and reply as to what type steel farrier's rasps consist of. I wouldn't think you'd have to put the back edge in water though if you were just using an o/a torch though as long as you confine the heat to the edge. There is a fine line between tempering and burning though, so be careful !!! I personally don't think a farrier's rasp has enough carbon content to worry about spot heat treating though. One question I have though, I know some guys who forge rasps into axes and they weld a piece of high carbon for the cutting edge. Is that what you are doing or just using the rasp itself ? That would be the only variable IMHO as to the heat treat. If it's just the rasp I would simply wrap it in foil and put it in the toaster oven at high setting for an hour. Then shut it off and leave it to cool overnight. Polish it, stick a handle in it and last but not least, POST pics for all to see !!! BTW: I find toaster ovens all day long at Goodwill that will go to 500* deg. f for $5 or so. No need to spend money on a GOOD toaster at Wally World when a crappy dirty one will work like a charm. Hope this helped, it's confused the heck outta me !!! Keep your eyes peeled for ads for machine shops closing, etc. I got a nice Blue M heat treat oven at a machine shop sale for $25 !!! It's small and it's analog but it works and it was cheap !!! Joe

Daniel, there is a really good site called searchtempest. You can search C/L within a radius as small as 25 miles up to any distance away from where you want the search to begin. You can even include ebay and amazon listings. All of the suggestions are excellent and you can indeed find anvils or at least ASO's at scrap yards and as gunsmithnmaker said, farms are an excellent source. Almost every farm at one time in the past had to do their own repairs to a certain extent. Many many anvils and forges are just lying around rusting because they are out of sight and out of mind. Even funnier than that is when they are in plain sight but the farmer has gotten so accustomed to seeing it that he basically forgets it as a part of the background. You could also put a post up on C/L for an anvil. Most metal pickers don't pay for their scrap. They only offer to clean up an area of scrap or respond to an offer for free scrap metal. Good luck finding one and welcome to IFI. Stay persistent... they will appear. Joe

Nice job Ian. I like the look and totally appreciate the concept !

Ian... that is an excellent solution to a common problem. Archimedes would be proud !!! BTW, my pastor is from South Africa. He does the best baboon impression ! lol

That is a superb anvil, RR track or not but at $13/lb I think I could get more bang for my buck elsewhere. No disrespect to the buyer but $13/lb sounds downright criminal. I'm with Joshua though... what's under it is very (as they say in the hills) purty !!! Honestly though, I'd be proud to have any of their anvils in my shop ! :D

I'd venture a week's wages that those in front would be more than happy to let you play on through ! :o

That is a good job Rory. I personally like the "no pickets" look but that's just me and my "form follows function" mentality. If it ain't broke, don't fix it sorta thing. I'm a minimalist and part of it is because I'm lazy but also because less is more sometimes. You did a good job giving the customer what they want though and that's the important thing. I think we all at some point or maybe at alot of times, have to give the customer what they want even if it's horrid. Money and sense of style don't always go together !!! lol

Thanks for all the replies. Brian, no, it doesn't have Pexto on it... at least not that you can tell anymore. I did see a site where it was listed as a standard raising hammer with weight varying from 2-8 lbs !!! I can't imagine swinging an 8 lb. hammer one handed for more than a few licks but there are some beasts out there. I once heard a nationally recognized smith who was constantly being bombarded by a youth who kept questioning his use of a 2500 gr/ 5 1/2 lb dinging hammer. To paraphrase the youth, he kept saying something along the lines of, "all you older smiths like to use large hammers", to which the older accomplished smith answered, "maybe us older guys know a thing or two you don't". I thought that was pretty funny and the older smith did have a lifetime of experience and knows Hoffi and pretty much anybody who is anybody in the smithing world. Of course, this same smith said that it's ok to question the technique and the "why" someone does something in particular. He said even if Francis Whitaker did something a certain way didn't necessarily make it right and that's true to a large extent. You can do something a 100,000 times in a row but there might be an easier, more efficient, safer way right around the next corner. You only need to look at something differently or allow advice and constructive criticism. Alas, I've gotten off subject... lol One of the many aspects that come along with age... hahaha :P

I bought this hammer awhile back and the handle was loose. I replaced it with a similar sized handle. It seems the hammer is not meant for swinging but perhaps for striking ??? I've been told that perhaps it's a planishing hammer. A blacksmith friend of mine has one but his is mushroomed on the smaller radius from being used under a 25# LG. Any ideas on this ? As you can tell (hopefully) from the pic, each face has a different radius. The head is a little over 7" long and I would guess it weighs in excess of 3 lbs. Not exactly a well balanced hand hammer but then again... I am still learnin'. :lol:

Nice to meet you too Ironsmith. Thanks for the guild invite. I actually belong to a guild in NC but it's not far at all. We meet in Tryon,usually the 3rd Saturday of every month unless a holiday falls on it. Here is the link, hopefully I did this right... lol http://www.thefcbg.org/Home_Page.php Unfortunately if I were to show up they wouldn't recognize me as I haven't been to a meeting for quite some time but that's my fault. I don't know what part of the Upstate you are in but I'd love to check out your shop if you have one. Hopefully we will have a chance to meet soon. Happy smithing to you.

Thank you Mark. It was a pleasure chatting with you tonight. Until next time...

Hey ya'll... I've been in chat a few times and just wanted to "formally" introduce myself. I'm between jobs and finally (at the urging of my wife) decided to open my shop for business. I'm a Christian and wanted to honor God, so I named my business "Resurrection Forge" and our motto is "We bring your ideas to life". I used to be the lead ornamental iron man at a shop in NC and "things" happened and now here I am ! I try to see the good in the bad though and I'm taking this as a new route to retirement. lol I am working on my second million as I gave up on the first. ;^) I love the iforgeiron site and hopefully soon I will have my own website. I'm speaking it and so it MUST happen ! I posted an online ad for blacksmithing and the second day got an email but the guy never followed up on it. The third day I got a call from a gentleman and he wasn't even that close. I was honest and upfront with him and even suggested he find someone closer. I hate to turn down work but I didn't want to mislead this gentleman, however he was very surprised at my honesty and insisted it wasn't that far. It wasn't a smithing job but it was a welding fab and it was a PAYING job !!! <grin> He even wants me to do some more work (welding) and really wants to see some blacksmithing however he only needs the welding at present. Hey, I'm happy. I make my own hours and until the BIG JOB calls, this is where I'm gonna be. Oh, almost forgot to mention... the neighbor across the street runs a scrapyard and the biggest scrapyard in the area is only 10 minutes away !!! I guess I should also mention I applied there for their welder position. woohooo !!! I almost hope I don't get the job though as I'm fairly sure I might be fired for scrounging on the clock !!! hahaha I do welding (GMAW,SMAW,GTAW,FCAW,gas) but I need a foot pedal for my dialarc, so no GTAW at present. I do ornamental work, bladesmithing, furniture and the usual RR spike stuff. I'm a bonafide C/L addict and have found some killer deals on there. Got a South Bend 16 with taper attachment, 2-3 jaw chucks, 1-4 jaw chuck and 1-scroll plate plus lathe tooling, Burke Millrite vertical mill with motorized cross feed and an indexing table plus collets and tooling, Montgomery Ward's AC welder, 60 gal air comp, oxy/acet torch, ENCO 7"x12" horiz/vert bandsaw with 3 extra blades and a 5hp three phase motor to run the mill and lathe. He even threw in an old machinist handbook and buckets of tooling, hold downs and mics, calipers, drill bits, live centers, dead centers, end mills, center drills and all kinds of other stuff as well as a condensed school of instruction. We went to Tampa to pick up a motorhome and I checked C/L before heading down. That's where I saw this guy's ad for a machine shop for $2000 !!! I promptly phoned a buddy of mine and asked to borrow his 6 ton equipment trailer. I rented a forklift on the way down and it was waiting for me as I pulled up to the guys shop. I would've got his welding table too but I couldn't fit anything else on the truck and trailer !!! I honestly can't tell you how relieved I was to finally pull up to my shop with all of that stuff after a 12 hr ride alone (wife brought the motorhome back a day later as it needed tires on it but I had to get back for work) and after passing what seemed like a thousand cops and DOT's from FL to GA and finally SC. I think I was legal but I didn't wanna push it. I had the whole mess tarped and that lasted all of about 300 miles. I finally cut off the remnants and wished for the best. I even tagged my truck with 15000# commercial tags before I left... just in case but it was all good. Keep a watch out on C/L, ya never know when a deal might show. I'd tell ya about the Wilton square wheel grinder for $80 or the FREE mankel gas forge from C/L but I have gone on long enough. Happy hunting everybody and if ya see me in chat please feel free to say, "Hey". Joe Hehner aka Still Learnin' Resurrection Forge

It is a decent vise and can even be made into a pseudo leg vise by putting an 1-1/16"(if I remember correctly) piece of CRRD into the bottom hole. Cole also manufactured the infamous Cole drill which is highly sought after. I used to have the vise but hard times forced the sale in years past. I still have the drill though. The neat thing about the vise is you can detach it from the ASO mount and use it as a very large pipe wrench by putting the CRRD in the end. I sometimes wish I hadn't sold it but truth be told I seldom used it. Good buy for $35 though !!!