GunsmithnMaker

Please rescue that anvil. I feel the same way about cannons and artillery pieces that sit in parks. Why waste a perfectly good piece of iron or steel?

When I saw this I couldn't believe it. If you need it I suppose this guy has what you're looking for. Blacksmith's Shop I really like the big hammer, and the anvil, and the ............Blacksmith equipment - $20K (Wakefield NH)

I'd say there is little doubt that it is an anvil vice after seeing MLMartin's link. I guess you'd have to determine what it's worth after a close inspection. Is it worth anything as an anvil? What does the lack of vice jaws and other parts mean for the value? What is it made of? These would be my questions after I was close enough to take a good look. If you can answer thesae questions for yourself and you decide to get it we want a good 4 view photo set.

Enjoy your anvil. I only knew one grandfather and I didn't get to know him that well. I remember a few things about him, and as one of many grandchildren I got two small items they had owned. One I used to like playing with as a little boy when visiting my grandparents is a small telephone bank, and the other is a set of bronze book ends with an indian head on them. I would have loved to have spent time with my grandfather fishing, which is what he usually did. Before I ever came along he retired from farming and was living in an apartment building. The last place they lived was a very small house not far from where I live now. It was full from floor to ceiling, so I suppose my grandparent's other favorite thing to do was go to the auctions which used to be held every week. Come to think of it my grandma used to like to go to BINGO every week as well. Pretty good for two old folks that I doubt collected a dime of Social Security in their lives. (Before their time.) My point is that you have a solid reminder that you can use every day or anytime you feel like it to connect you with your grandfather, and never doubt with what he told you about this being a family treasure. Use it well and in good health.

I'm only going to say that it must be a "where you live" type of thing. That would be a good deal here in Vermont. Back to the ladle though, I wanted to buy 2 small ladles last fall from a guy selling a lot of tools from a former plumbing/custom shop that he had owned, but he had 3 and he wouldn't let them go for less than $50.00. I wanted just the 2 ladles and one casting pot and I offered him the same money for that group, but he would only sell the ladles together and he wanted $30.00 for just the small casting pot. No sale.

I've got to say that really doesn't surprise me much. There are quite a few people out there who expect new prices for their used modern tools, so if something might be a true antique it should be worth a lot more right? That ladle sure has a lot of rust, so it must be old and maybe even made by a blacksmith. I'm amazed, but usually not shocked, that people still believe the economy doesn't have any bearing on the price of something like this. I guess this would be a good example: Used Butcher Knife Craig's List has a little higher price point than ebay, but you don't usually have to pay shipping, insurance, and a premium for a box. I've seen these for free at yard sales, and for $20.00 or less in a little better condition than the one this guy is trying to sell. Most of them good American made steel.

Hear that! I was up getting my wife out of the driveway with my Kubota tractor this morning and just kept going until there was room for more snow. Then.....I don't have the forge together yet either. :unsure:

Ric, Was the magnetite specially prepared or did you just got to the local river and mine it yourself? As a hobby I do some gold panning from time to time and magnetite is plentiful wherever you should find gold. I've thought about ways I could use this material and if it can be smelted to form iron I'd like to give it a try. Your website notes that you will have a DVD out this year. How close are you to shipping?

Dan, Do you check Craig's List? This 136# anvil was posted on the 31st, and again on the 2nd. Unknown 136 lb Anvil North Bay, NY I guess 70 miles may be pretty far from you, but I had to travel a bit to get my anvil. The price may be negotiable at this point.

An update on my progress. It's going slowly but I have the flange attached to the brake rotor and I can show you what I was thinking of before I did this test fit. Now, I am thinking of cutting the 24" pipe you see in the first 2 pictures into 2 pieces and having the ash drop and the air intake from the one piece of pipe without the added thread on the ends. You can see that my quick base won't work out so I have to make a base, or find something that will work. A 55 gallon drum is just too much as I want this to be easy to move. I don't have a hydraulic pipe bender to make a ring or two to attach legs to and have the best of all worlds. On to the pictures. I hope documenting this process will give others ideas on how to make similar forges and show where missteps can lead to new ideas, creativity, or a return to basic design.

Here's my 120# Hay Budden. I couldn't find my little jewelry anvil (ASO) and I'm not sure what that weighs.

It would help if you gave us an area of the country that you're in. (Mandatory content ) I would offer him what you can afford and make him counter offer. If you tell him that you are going to actually use them he may accept a lower offer and ask for something that they have helped you make in return for a premium price. Since you said he was going to junk them anyway find out what scrap prices are in your area and offer that. Good Luck.

I take it you mean old wooden barrels. The price on those will vary according to where you live. I have metal barrels that I picked up for nothing. They are being thrown away at a manufacturing business near me and they said to take what I needed. There are also lots of barrels being sold in the area for $20.00. Plastic and metal barrels as well as 250 gallon tugs are being sold all over my area, but if you're looking for good wooden barrels they're hard to find in good shape at a low price.

Don't forget the junk/salvage yards, the metal pickers, and farms. I plan on checking every yard sale I can get to this year. I'll probably watch the auctions just in case as well. Like Thomas said, ask everyone you know and you might turn over those sweet deals.

You are correct Thomas, I was refering to hardy tools. I should save my posts for a time of day when I am more awake. If I can still remember them then.

I haven't had any time to work with it yet but it seemed to be working alright by pulling on the shaft to the main gear. I can't tell if there is extra play in the mechanism because I'm not used to the way it works. I don't expect old gears to mesh perfectly or to be as tight as new precision gears so until I have a chance to look things over I hope the way it's working is normal. I suppose if it isn't working the way it should my only choice would be to have parts fabricated or do it myself. Maybe I can find the parts on ebay or from someone who has one with a broken pot.

I think this is the right area to talk about hardies. What's a hardy without a hardy hole and that takes an anvil. I don't see many hardies around even when I do see an anvil. Unless I'm watching a blacksmithing demo or a working smith most of the time I'm looking at hot metal, an anvil, and a hammer. Which hardies do you use on a regular basis? What would you say would be the essential hardies to have for general blacksmithing? Are most of your hardies made or bought? Thanks for the input. :)

If you don't keep after them to get the process moving and keep it front and center you will be a very long forgotten part of the landscape before that bridge is. If Illinois is anything like Vermont someone from out of state will see it and have to preserve it. If I can remember I will get pictures of the RR bridge called the needle eye on the road that I basically live on. It should be dismantled as the railroad is long gone, but the State retains it's right of way. Even though an organization that likes to think that people use the "railtrail" for recreation says they maintain it that is a joke. I've used it to hunt on a few times, but very few people use it just to see the local trees and flowers. More people use it to shortcut through town and in the winter it is part of the snowmobile trails. Every year there are injuries and there have been fatalities due to the design of this bridge/underpass. There are also trespass issues with people trying to access the "railtrail" at the most logical points to get on the trail. All in all this "railtrail" is a total failure that continues to ensnare people in legalities, spend money that no one can afford to spend in taxes, and keep land away from people who would like to put it to good use. Rant over. Keep an eye on them.

This sounds interesting to me as well. Not because I would ever make a London Pattern anvil or even try to reface one myself per se, but because I'd like to know how the whole process is accomplished. Are there any books or other scholarly materials that deal with the subject of how anvils are, or were made? I also wonder, since we've had threads here about what an anvil is, and using pieces of steel and RR materials as anvils, can anyone point to something they think defines a "modern" anvil. Shape, necessary accessories (hardies), and weight also seem to be mandatory issues.

I have got to make more friends who own scrap yards. Then again, I don't know if anything we have here in Vermont qualifies as a scrap yard. We have automotive junk yards that sometimes have stuff in the back of the pickups, and we have All Metals Recycling that is where you take metals to sell it. I hear they are going to stop buying and charge a reclaiming fee soon. I guess they'll be out of business shortly afterwards unless the State and towns decided to start prosecuting for "Junk". That's not a joke. My town has the ordinance already.

T Ritter, I think at this point I would need to know what kind of damage you would prefer to repair. I posted an Anvil Top that I found on Craig's List in the Providence R.I. area. If you are looking for one with a bad top instead I'd have to look around locally and I live in Vermont. The shipping from either place would probably be prohibitive. It's up to you just what you'd like to pay and which type of repair you want to try to work on, but I don't think my New England area broken anvils would interest you. Of course this is assuming that I could even find a broken anvil. It's hard enough to find good anvils when I'm looking. :lol:

I noticed that when I looked at these pictures too. It's not noticeable when you are just looking at the forge so I'm not sure if it goes all the way through or it is somehow cast that way. That's why I'd like to clean this forge up a little before lighting a fire. I'd also like to replace the drilled pipe cap with a better ash dump I've seen one replicated that's sold on ebay.

The anvil is an essential tool to build a civilization. From a rock to a piece of metal to a London pattern anvil and even to the anvil of a power hammer. Nothing that can be imagined would have ever been made without it. What was the rock called that made the flint chips that became the arrow head?

I picked this up last night so I had to wait to post here until I could get some pictures of it today. I knew you'd like to see the whole setup in good light. As you can tell the original handle is broken, but the seller gave me a piece of wood I could use to craft a new one. The tongs vary in condition and some are stamped ATHA Made In USA. The rest all look handmade. This is a pretty good start to a small scale or portable forge with original equipment. If it ever gets warm around here again I may have a chance to make repairs and start using it. We'll see how my homemade forge compares, and I already have my son interested in learning how to make knives on his own. Maybe he can earn his merit badge for Boy Scouts with one of our forges. P.S. I thought I added this to the It Followed Me Home thread. ?? Thanks for moving it.

Well, I bought this forge from the person I bought my Hay Budden anvil from. He asked me if I'd be interested in it when I bought the anvil and I tried to research it, but there is no set price on these things as you know. I made an offer and he accepted so when I got the money I contacted him and picked it up last night. I can see that it will need cleaning, adjustments, and a little repair to be perfect, but that's half the fun of owning an original. Does anyone have a picture of what these look like when 100% complete? When it gets over 20* F around here I might be able to start on a restoration and cleaning.