caotropheus

Where I live, anvils are extremely expensive...even more expensive when you're married (One of my fears is that something happens to me and my wife is going to sell my tools for the price I told her they cost me! :unsure: ) !... I am also in the process of assembling together one anvil and I was lucky enough to find at the scrap yard a chisel from an hydraulic breaker. Top impact steel, I doubt this steel is inferior to the steel used for highest quality anvils. My setup will be similar to this one '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> and eventually, I will find a way, somehow, to improvise a horn or several diameter shafts to use as a horn. For a year I use one 50 kg block of steel I found at the scrap yard but my skill remains lousy, just like in the first day I started forging. I wish I would have a real anvil... But these people do not seem to be bothered to use an anvil that is nothing more then a chunk of steel that looks just like mine

Rockcrusher Nice setup you have over there. I like the stand you built for it. I wish I could get something similar. What is the chisel diameter and how bad is the ring of your current setup? I am also improvising an anvil from an hydraulic breaker chisel like this one. Same story, got the chisel broken from the scrap, bottom piece 120 kg, butt piece (upper piece, secured inside the breaker) 50 kg. Chisel diameter 144 mm and it rings like a bell when hammered. I took the "bottom piece", 77 cm long and cut a flat face with a chop saw. Very hard steel, took about 10 hours to cut. Not to destroy the chop saw, cut the chisel for 10 to 20 seconds, let the saw cool down for a couple of minutes. The steel was never too hot to the touch, I could always handle the steel with my bare hands. Now, I am improvising a stand to hold the chisel upright and I am improvising a horn to attach to the stand.

I want to experiment to make an hollow handle for the machete. I do not have any 5160 rod, but I have a 4140 rod. Since I do not like so much seams for hollow handles, I will just drill a bit of the 4140 rod to make the handle. If needed I will make adjustments of the hollow handle in the forge...

How did you heat treat those tools?

Would any one of you Gentleman consider 4140 steel to make a machete? I have a bit of 4140 rod and I was considering making a machete out of it... Thanks

Stormcrow, Could you please provide us with dimensions of these pieces?

I would try electrolysis as well. Lots of information on the net and on Youtube.

I do not know if your vice is seized by corrosion, just saw these videos and I think they may eventually help you

These guys use a similar setup to what you show us here, but the anvils seems to be solidly cast into planet Earth!

I had to add some bits to the bottom to secure the vice even better You can notice that the bottom plate sits over a bit of rebar that is stuck into the concrete to avoid the stand to move and at the same time to allow the stand to be easily removed.

And how does it look with the vice on?

Greetings. I recently made a new stand for my old post vice (post #35) http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/32659-where-is-your-vise-mounted/page-2 The jaws where misaligned in all directions you looked. The centre of the front jaw closed 15 mm to the side of centre of the rear jaw! I started making lots of plans on how to straighten the vice. I disassembled the vice and had a brilliant idea: What if I replace the bolt that connects the front jaw to the rear jaw? Twenty minutes return trip to the hardware shop, bought a 5/8 inch bolt and nut and voilà. Now the vice's jaws are perfectly align. The old bolt was not round and straight but grooved by excessive/abusive wear and use by previous owners and the front jaw was a bit loose in relation to the rear jaw. I couldn't even tight further the old bolt. Good luck with the repair

Greetings. I recently made a new stand for my old post vice (post #35) http://www.iforgeiron.com/topic/32659-where-is-your-vise-mounted/page-2 The jaws where misaligned in all directions you looked. The centre of the front jaw closed 15 mm to the side of centre of the rear jaw! I started making lots of plans on how to straighten the vice. I disassembled the vice and had a brilliant idea: What if I replace the bolt that connects the front jaw to the rear jaw? Twenty minutes return trip to the hardware shop, bought a 5/8 inch bolt and nut and voilà. Now the vice's jaws are perfectly align. The old bolt was not round and straight but grooved by excessive/abusive wear and use by previous owners and the front jaw was a bit loose in relation to the rear jaw. I couldn't even tight further the old bolt. Good luck with the repair

I needed a way to remove the vice from the working place and store it indoors for the Winter. This is the solution I came up with I just remove two nuts and bolts, and I store vice + stand.

The main problem I see is exactly the dust and grime that will settle in the living quarters, no matter how good extraction systems are. I suppose that living quarters have to be almost air tight insulated from the working area. You guys will have to clean thoroughly your working area every day after work. Would I go forward with such nice project, of course I would!

How is the rebound and how is the ring?

This is a very inspiring piece of cutlery...Simple in design, straight to the point in function, I like it, a lot...

I am a newbie in blacksmithing and I may be saying a lot of non-sense, but to draw needles, couldn't you just improvise a stake anvil, made out of mild steel rod. You can pre-heat it with a torch, work on it and if the surface gets irregular, repair it. It is very inexpensive. You can also use a hammer head standing or even a pickaxe mounted on a solid piece of pipe. Look at this example of a very simple anvil to forge nails http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQMkWHrt-i0

Gentleman, this is amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlFcbGxzF74

Guys, thank you very much for your replies. Hope that soon I will have pictures of my brand new "best think I could get to use as an anvil" held upright in a four legged support I will build. Luckily, chisel length is exactly my working height for an anvil.

Gentleman, Thank you very much for your answers. I think I will try to find a fabrication shop with some sort of cold cut resources, I want to keep the original hardness of the steel. Two updates: The good news is that rebound with a steel bearing is above 90%; the bad news is that I tried to cut the surface of the steel with an hack saw and It would skid the surface, the saw just polished the surface...

Well not an ordinary chisel but the chisel from an excavator's hydraulic breaker. Got it at the scrap yard 50$. The biggest piece weighs 120 kg and the smallest piece weighs 50 kg. Ruler is 1 meter long and chisel's diameter is 145 mm. I would like to take the longest piece hold it upright in a support and use it as an anvil. The problem is how am I going to cut a flat face in it? Please experts, help me.

Greetings Made this the lazy way! Cut out the shape out of an harrow disk, forge the handle and forge the cutting edge. Sand it a bit, harden in oil, temper in the oven at 200ºC draw to blue the back of the blade. Made the handle out of micarta, epoxy resin + women Lycra spandex tights. To my surprise, after polishing the blade, lots of pitting in the original material despite it looked smooth and showed no signs of corrosion in first place. Dimensions blade 33 cm Total length 49 cm thickness 4 mm So far resisted all the abuse I have thrown at it...

nice blade, you forgot to mention what steels did you use... I would like to see the finished product.