ThomasPowers

Well the best answer is *EXPERIENCE* you will learn where each alloy likes to be worked: is it soft under the hammer? Does it burn or cottage cheese? Expect to pay for the tutoring steel gives you... Experience will also allow you to factor in working in the shade, sun, after dark, under bright lights. Getting started is often more important than worrying about fine details before you can profit from them.

Anything on the container that might help? With MSDS requirements in the USA most stuff has a how to get aho;d of us number...

WHAT HE SAID! Ambient light can shift the "temperature" by up to 1000 degF! I warn my knife smithing students that if they work while the sun is going down they will end up working the steel too cold as it still looks the same temp but the ambient has shifted.

So a good brand in good shape; a bit light but will make a good travel anvil; should be marked in pounds. A happy price would probably be around US$150 but it may go higher as the small anvils tend to higher prices per pound as more people can see themselves using and moving one that size. Location makes a big difference too. If I needed an anvil badly and was in an anvil poor area I might go to US$3 a pound and not be really upset. If it's not an auction I would call them and lock in your interest NOW. I usually don't travel to auctions as they have been a waste of time for me generally.

What did the maker of that stuff tell you when you contacted them?

To your eyes yes. BTW blacksmithing has over 2000 years of tradition---which part are you interested in? Working bloomery iron in a ground forge using a couple of goat skins for bellows probably has the longest block in that tradition...

What country are you in?? The answer may be different if you are in Australia or South Africa than if you are in Germany! From the picture it looks like a good one.

The face is the soul of the anvil, that one is half souled, Frankly i wouldn't pay US$100 for it unless I really needed a winter welding projectl then I migh go 100 depending on size... I know that old anvils were often faced using multiple slabs of steel; and so failure of an individal piece is not unknown; but I would think an HB would be a single slabber.

Anvils take a beating when they go from being *the* tool to being a welding fixture. I have one from a copper mine that when the weldors got a hold of it suffered air arc gouging---inbetween a beautiful flat face. Finally got it repaired, (Trenton, Gunter anvil repair method) it's my shop backup anvil---the larger fisher is my main shop anvil.

I try to remember this poem when we get to these junctures: from _In the Neolithic Age_ by R. Kipling: Here's my wisdom for your use, as I learned it when the moose And the reindeer roamed where Paris roars to-night:— "There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, "And—every—single—one—of—them—is—right!"

They used to weld up the main drive shafts of large navel ships out of many lengths of real wrought iron so I guess such welding can be done with strength. I have seen a number of examples of "mission critical" forge welds that were considered not only "ok" but "good"---remember the old film about forge welding and testing of anchor chain? And people even today recycling that chain that has been used and abused for 80+ years? As far a pokers, I have seen forge welded ones from the 1920's that are still in use.

As I recall the standard size bar used in making blister steel was 1" sq and a dozen feet long---I'll check when I get a chance to go though "Steelmaking before Bessemer; vol 1 Blister steel" (sitting on my shelf but my wife's in town and I'm not going to waste time looking it up!"

I have flexible exhaust pipe from the days it was still legal for cars.

Yup "Practical Blacksmithing" from 1889, 1890, 1891 has a bunch of examples where they do somthing different for Wrought Iron to deal with it's pecularities---especially its anisotropy. (which is why bi-directional rolled plate came along too)

Well, I wanted to marry someone who had a love of their craft; but I didn't want it to be the *same* craft. They would understand why a person my want a dozen postvises; but not hog the best one for *their* project...They could watch the kids while i attended Quad-State and I would watch them while they went to Wool Gathering.

ahh to me 1917 *is* modern for smithing...917 is getting towards early, 17 is early and going into BC not a surprise. .. I'd define "modern" as: use of mild steel instead of wrought iron, use of electrically powered tools like the powerhammer, blower, grinder, etc. Availability of "modern" methods of welding. So 1917 counts. A lot of us use equipment that dates to around then and even earlier!

I've worked forges with single action bellows that were smaller than that blower! Take a look at *old* bellows instead of just 100-150 year old recent ones. I built my own with the plans based on what I could scrounge. Based roughly on Theophilius "Divers Arts" and like him I was using charcoal as the fuel. I still use one I built about 15 years ago for less than a dollar with my Y1K forge (along with a fancier one I bought leather for after the design proved in They tell me I will have a bellows thrall so I'm going to drag it to the Albq renfaire and work on some viking cooking tools from WI...) Now the big double lunged bellows can be a joy to use if made and set up correctly; but there is well over 1000 years of smithing with bellows before they showed up... Also give a thought to the oriental box bellows. Not much room needed and can do quite well...

Cut the face off and make a hammer, knife, hardy tooling, etc.

really need marking info as there were over a hundred makers in england that made similar anvils. Mousehole is the heavy hitter here in the states; but there are a lot of others...

Perhaps a bronze sledge?

At our last association meeting we repaired a cracked postvise leg forge weld. Since it was still together we did not scarf it but we did forge out a strip of WI and wrapped it in a spiral around the original weld area and welded everything up tight---like a gun barrel weld but we wanted it to weld to the center rod... Also an example of strengthing a forge weld by adding extra material---something not mentioned above. Most pokers would not suffer in use from having a bit of a knob at that point...

We hit 30 this summer; knew it was going to work when my wife to be told me I should buy the 165# PW anvil I was looking at. We've been looking out for each other ever since.

I had a pigeon get into the "clean" shop and make a mess trying to make a nest in a piece of 10" dial 10' long spirial seamed duct I had in the rafters. I ran it off as I dislike bird poop on my tools! Hardest thing I have to deal with are humming birds that fly in the 10'x10' roll up doors but then try to exit through the skylights and can't

A lot of heavy objects on a farm just turn out to be weights used to give tractor pulled tooling a bit more bite or to hold the tractory down---seen several anvils used for this.

So Ausfire, you tapering to a point or just tapering? If it's for the poking end tapering to a point is most likely if it's for the handle end it could be most anything. The devil is in the details! If it's for the poking end I don't see why you'd go round after tapering---but that would make a better handle; gentler on the hand.