ThomasPowers

Vulcans are anvils that do well for folks who need to be discrete with their smithing. They are a quiet anvils and so instead of the bright far ranging *TING* of other types of anvils in use you get a more muted "thwap". Fishers also have this coveted property and are much better made and of course other anvils can be quieted down through proper mounting techniques and other tweaks. I would suspect that Vulcans are much rarer in the UK than here in the USA

Way too much air! Charcoal needs only a light breeze to get it blazingly hot! Works well with bellows; to use a blow drier you need to waste probably 90% of the output.

Sounds like too much air to me. especially if they are using charcoal. As it stands this post reads like "Why won't my car start?"

Now when the weather was really nasty and I was suffering forge withdrawl; I made a 1 fire brick forge that I could safely use in my basement for hours at a time. Did the 40 nails for my mastermyre chest, lots of hot forged silver penannulars, etc.

There was a recent long thread on preheating anvils; reading it would save an hour or two of typing. Back when I lived in Ohio I would block the wind from my anvil and put down a sheet of plywood to stand on and preheat the anvil, hammers and tongs and did not have that much of a problem---and anvil that's 80 degreesF in 40 degree weather is not much different than one at 70 in 70 degreeF weather. Layers were important as I would shed clothing as I worked up some heat. I might start with a sweater and a jacket but end up in my jeans and flannel shirt. A gas forge makes a good salamander for an unheated shed but REMEMBER the CO *will* get you if you don't VENTILATE!

How small a small forge? Just to heat the end of a 3/8" bar is a very different forge than a forge to heat 3/8" steel bent into a helix. Anyway my small forge can run at non-welding heat for about 12 hours. It HUGELY depends on how good a burner you have. I have a burner from Stephen Gensheimer that radically reduced gas consumption in my teaching forge compared to my previous burner.

Sometimes you can also find meteorite swarf being sold---the cuttings from sawing and drilling meteorite for making jewelry from it. Ni content but much cheaper as it is a "waste" item.

How big a load are you trying to do? Fumes that are trouble in large amounts may be ignorable in small amounts. Have you talked with a local University's Metallurgy or Material Science Department? They may have a source for pure nickel and if interested in your project contribute some. Wikipedia: "Limonite type laterites (or oxide type) are highly enriched in iron due to very strong leaching of magnesium and silica. They consist largely of goethite and contain 1-2% nickel incorporated in goethite" I wonder if there is any uptake of nickel in the bloom when refining Limonite nickel ores? Goethite was a common iron ore used in the bloomery process...

I believe that is the Philadelphia one; but as mentioned it's a 3 hour drive away. Remind me again around Christmas and I'll look up the New Orleans one. While the majority of the decorative ironwork displayed on balconies in New Orleans is cast iron there are some forged examples. (which should survive hurricanes better...)

I would have thought that Norway would have L6 in the scrap stream from timber operations---as mentioned saw blades, especially large bandsaw blades used to saw logs often are L6 or similar. Scandanavia was a major source of Nickel historically, The Flåt Mine was once the largest nickel mine in Europe. (In Aust-Agder Norway) While the differentiation makes for more precise discussions on them I would point out that Damascus Steel has been used to refer to both Wootz and Pattern welded for longer than "The United States of America" has been used to refer to us colonials over here on this side of the pond. Language does tend to get more precise *or* more imprecise over time. We often will argue little details on the naming of sword types where original documents would just say "and he grabbed his sword and smote him!"

Better than mild and not as good as high alloy (S-7, H13, etc) I make tent stakes from RR spikes and my pastor wants to make some large nails for Easter...

American Colonial period, doesn't cover anything of the Italian colonization of Ethiopia... "Antique Iron, Survey of American and English Forms 15th through 19th Centuries" by Herbert, Peter and Nancy Schiffer I also have a book on Philadelphia ironwork and a small one on the ironwork of New Orleans; but they are at my other house and so I can't cite them exactly.

RR spikes, even the ones marked HC, are pretty low in carbon for a hardy. The sort of "&" shaped Rail Clips have almost double the carbon content of a spike as does most automotive leaf and coil springs and I would suggest using one of them instead. The highest carbon RR spikes are at the lowest, 30 points, value for medium carbon steel AT THE MAX!

Well actually I want them to KNOW the law they are enforcing. Had an experience where for for multiple years I was told I was breaking code restoring my front porch to what it looked like 80 years ago. However all the inspectors never could tell me what part of the code I was breaking and the values I had to meet....sold the house before I ever had that cleared up.

You can feel bad fairly fast especially with prior exposure; but generally you just feel very sick, vomiting, etc and then recover. However: it can cause pneumonia and it's pneumonia that is the killer.

Cast Iron is NOT an anvil it's an ASO "anvil shaped object" and will cost way more than getting a big hunk of steel at a scrapyard. My local scrapyard charges me 20 cents US a pound. Look at the cost of the ASO and figure out how big a scrap piece you could buy! Note that through out history *most* anvils did not have a horn or a hardy hole---take a look at traditional japanese sword smithing anvils (National Geographic "Living Treasures of Japan" has a nice scene in it). Just a nice rectangular solid anvil and they do fairly decent smithing on it most folks agree. So go right over that-away to the scrap yard and tell them that the fellow in the red hat with the horns sent you!

Good DEAL: yes or no depending on LOCATION Worth: DEPENDS ON LOCATION Here in the USA I would say it should go for between US$1 to US$3 a pound and I would NOT advise anyone to spend the upper limit! Weight stamped is: 3 x 28 + 18 = 102 pounds I'd give 3 quantloos for it.

Do you want Roman, Viking, Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, English Colonial, 1900's, ??? I have a number of books I use for historical cooking items to make dating from a range of times. Early American Wrought Iron, Sonn; has 750 pages of stuff and will cover most of this sort of questions; However to me "older" is pre 1000 AD and a much harder area to research Southwest Colonial Ironwork, Turley; suits my current locale The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi, 1570, has several pages of engravings of cooking implements but is mainly a book on cooking Can you narrow it down before I spend an hour typing in names?

Since you don't mention a location I assume that shipping is free?

0x112 + 3x28 + 22 = 84 + 22 = 106 pounds however these old anvils are often off by a couple of pounds between marked weight and actual weight. Anvils don't get considered "old" until you get before 1800 and then they are still usable rather than "collectable"

I've seen lots of cast iron bases but never a cast steel one, are you sure about the material?

Anvils usually don't wait around long; so waiting to get one may not be the best thing. Unfortunately there is so much to know before getting one: Types, good brands, how to check for delamination, which anvils should ring and which anvils shouldn't, why an anvil with a flat face and sharp corners may be worthless compared to one showing wear---or may be worth twice as much! You might research the "ball bearing test" a simple test that can tell a lot about how good an anvil is. A picture of the face of the anvil and any writings on the side(s) posted here can give you a quick note on what it is and how good a shape it's in. If no writing is visible on the side a picture of the underside of the base of the anvil can help. Many people turn down perfectly usable anvils because of damage. Far more important that the face is thick and smooth than if the anvil has a heel or horn! For almost 2000 years anvils didn't have much in the way of horns---Japanese swords are still forged on hornless anvils to this day. The london pattern anvil design is about 200 years old. Now as is typical on a blacksmithing site I'm going to contradict a previous poster: there are several people I would buy a HF anvil for as a gift---but only because the law won't allow me to shoot them!

I feel it quite likely that if someone had tried to introduce the gasoline engine for the first time nowadays it would never be allowed due to the dangers of gasoline!

since he already has Weyger's; I second Eddie's suggestion.

Pick an unfinished project and do the next step. Repeat till one takes off in your hands/mind and you gallop to completion.