ThomasPowers

Well since you don't want to work with a decent sword steel, cheaply and easily available I must suggest Tamahagane as being the best material for you to work with. Do expect to ruin several thousand dollars worth learning the basics and expect that you will be several years slower in learning than if you progressed from basics to complexities.

Instead of playing 20,000 questions would be so kind as to help by describing your set up in detail? You haven't even mentioned whether it's a box bellows or twin single action or a double lunged bellows, the size of the stock you are trying to weld, etc... And yes a side blown set up is period correct. Would this be the North American Frontier or one of the others in the world? Moxon's Mechanick Exercises published in 1703 might have some useful information in it if you find a copy that has the blacksmithing section as many are published with just the printing section...my full copy was printed by the Astragal press

It's a good point: you are talking about selling something off that's permanent to buy something that is transitory. In general those are bad deals; much better to sell of transitory stuff and buy permanent stuff! Or in other words: 50 years from now your grand kids can be using that postvise but any coal you buy will probably be gone before the end of the year.

US$2-3/#

"as reliable as an anvil" sounds like a nice turn of phrase to add into our speech patterns...

Are you able to swear in both languages? When we had a German car I always found that swearing in German helped...likewise in Italian for our Fiat.

Also a good book is mentioned; probably have to ILL it from the library.

You mean as bait for scrappers? You can't see the trap part under the snow...

I was working as an apprentice to a swordmaker when he and his wife introduced me to the lady that became mine, 30 years in August and counting, I took her to the Knifemaker's guild show in Kansas City before I proposed to make sure she was OK with the "knife making world". Within the first hour she was hunting me down to drag me across the floor to see specific blades she thought were very nicely done---she was right too! Well worth the extra effort to find and *keep* a "keeper!

Not knowing how *you* work or what *you* plan to do it's hard to address *your* situation. For me this would be like selling your running shoes to pay for a marathon entry. I had 3 students working last night and we never had forge or anvil contention but we did have vise contention! I hardly ever upset in a postvise but I do do quite a bit of hammering on it bending pieces or truing up pieces---last night it was used to straighten twisted stock, align the eye on the end of a tripod leg, bend right angles in sliding tent pole jam hook, twisting, close up the end of a piece doubled back on itself, hold 3/8" stock while I was hammering it into a tight spiral, hold stock while wire brushing. So about 1/2 the jobs had impact involved and a cheap bench vise like HF sells probably would not have lasted the night! Now if you have access to a large old chipping vise it might make a reasonable substitution but be a lot heavier to travel with! I wonder you have not made a spring for your vise as that can be done even cold! (though it helps to have a post vise to do it...) It usually takes me under an hour to do a spring an mounting bracket using a modified columbian version: Ubolt, un-equal flanged angle iron, piece of strap for the spring. I source all of this at the scrapyard so about US$1 and getting un plated U bolts I can forge them to fit the vise leg---being careful not to mess up the screw threads. It's the sort of stuff I keep my eyes open for so I have it to hand when I need it. How hard is it to replace your vise? If two years later you find you really need one and they are only 3 times what you sold it for I think you would not be happy! Funny thing the vise we were using last night is also a 4" Iron City! (and I showed the fellow making a jam hook that the person who made the one he was copying owned a 4.5" vise as one of the measurements with right angle bends at both ends was 4.5" so the maker could just heat the stock, put it in the vise and hammer the right angle bends in one go---good production design!

Or help out a beginning smith

The worst one on my wall of shame is missing everything above the waist. Postman believes it is a PW and it has the weight stamps indicating that it was a complete anvil once. It shows evidence of work being done on it after it separated so it was still used without the top half!

I have been known to lower one of the doors 1/2 way if the wind starts blowing anvils over in the shop----but I keep the downwind door open and of course the gables and roof ridge vent. (not much of a joke as we do get a lot of high winds, (defined as anything over 50 mph) through here at times and *not* correlated with storms save for dust storms...

If the hole is quite small the original handle may have been made from 1/4" rod stock bent around through the eye and twisted to make a nice handle.

Ventilation is King for propane forges---a propane forge that produces almost no carbon monoxide in normal use will produce EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS if it runs the exhaust back through the burners. I tend to err on the massive overkill side of venting my forging area with two 10'x10' roll up doors, roof vents and open gables and have not had a CO headache in years!

And the specialness of cold rolled disappears the first time you get to forging temp. When buying "mild steel" you used to get 1018 or 1020 if you bought CR and A-36 if you bought hot rolled but now they are producing A-36 both ways. You of course can buy any alloy either way if you are willing to pay. Now as to wood---have you asked the oldest craftsman you can find what they used to use locally. Those 90+ guys might be happy to take a sit down and talk about the old days. I've learned a LOT that way and ran across some very good tips on finding equipment.

I once heard that "a standard issue Marine could break an anvil with a rubber mallet" The rest of the saying dealt with intelligence and I've forgotten it as my Grandfather was a marine...

Interestingly enough we actually know how and where that Urban Legend started and have watched it spread to be spouted as fact by people all over; please don't spread it! The real reason is that after the ACW the south was in a deep economic decline and anvils that lost their horns due to "normal" wear and tear were not replaced or sent off for repair but remained in use. As is easily seen you can make horseshoes on a cube anvil with no horn.

Generally my wife will be splitting 3/4" thick scrap wood less than 6" long as kindling to start the wood stove; perhaps some 2x4 scraps so a petite version might work. If not then it can go on the wall and she can go back to the large version. I'm going to forge the bevel all the way across and put the small eye in right next to the head. Probably turn the handle from a piece of hickory I have from cutting down a sledge for one handed use... I prefer the hatchet myself.

My first set of wedding rings came out of $100 of scrap silver I bought at a pawn shop---back when it was US$5 a troy oz. I later replaced hers with a gold version of the ones were were wearing. I'm on my 4th silver ring---we still have the others they just wore out---tongs are rough on the silver especially when you plannish out the band thinning it when your hands put on muscle and need a bit more room in the ring. I'm slowing down though my current ring has been on almost a decade now and is still going strong. Bought it at the Frankfurt Germany fleamarket. So 4 rings in 30 years this August. Same wife though

Rhinoplasty---emphasis on Rhino

Leaf spring is not a bad froe material---NORMALIZED; the place you had it lifted more might be able to help you with some springs off a new vehicle being lifted. I'd at least save the Bronco springs to make shop tooling from---good to hear it got used like a Bronco should be! Never liked all the 4WD vehicles that never got dirty I'd see in the parking lot at work.... Bout time I made my wife a kindling froe---I might even make it from a RR spike! (Thomas is using a RR spike for something----Inform the Media!!!!) She's been using a full sized one made from leaf spring that she had when we married going on 30 years ago this summer...

Well I'd say that at least one side would profit from having flat faces...

New baby---boy is life going to change! One thing we did is to split up taking care of our daughters to give the other spouse a free weekend; we are both crafty folk, my wife is a spinster and I'm a smith---a steel wool couple. So once the kids were weaned I'd watch them so my wife could take a weekend off at a fiber conference and then she'd watch them so I could take time off to go to a smithing conference. *EVERYONE* needs some time for themselves now and then! Even earlier I'd take them for some time every day to let my wife focus on something she wanted to do---even though I was the breadwinner and she was a stay at home mother. Of course we're expecting grandchild #7 this fall

Note too that angle iron can make nice jaw covers trimming it so you fold down the ends to hold it in place.