ThomasPowers

Keep them cool as you go along! (If you are driving a car down a long steep hill, do you brake as you go along or let the speed build up till you get to the bottom and then try to deal with it.) Or for propane forges: make Ti tongs, heat doesn't travel down the reins as well and they don't accidentally harden in a quench.

Having a good sized ABC fire extinguisher prominantly displayed has let me get away with a terrible lot of stuff before---they see the extinguisher and think "He is taking proper precautions". Making friends on the local fire department is worth *gold* if not platinum!

"The Complete Bladesmith" James Hrisoulas MANDATORY (with The Master Bladesmith and the Pattern Welded Blade as follow ups---same author.) If he liked Weyger's book he might like Wayne Goddard's "The $50 Knife shop"

I'd go with "bondiness" myself. I saw folks in Spain making inlay pieces for decorating woodwork that were much similar just not using the exterior pipe to hold sections of coloured woods in place and not using an epoxy matrix. Hmm it's a bit like doing mosaic damascus using a can, various nickel shapes and powdered steel for the matrix...

Si' soy Americano pero trabajo en Mexico!

Tell her it was a decent deal just for that anvil in that good of condition, the several hundred dollars of other stuff was just gravy!

Also to manipulate shaker grates on coal stoves. I have one about 8' long for an industrial boiler

Basic training to smith is a whole lot simpler than training to train others to smith; just how to look at a beginner and suggest a different hammer weight or handle length or anvil height or different body mechanics so they don't do long term injury to their body---is not something a couple of days will cover. In general you want someone who has made and LEARNED from all the mistakes and can deal with scouts to boot. (My scout troop experiences were a blast; sometimes literally. My scoutmaster was an EMT and now runs a wilderness school; but we were the "rough" troop in town. Didn't produce many Eagles but did a lot of camping and first aid...)

Looks more like clinkers to me than coal. But I like the clinkers! Thanks for posting the recipe! My wife once made several pounds of marzipan coal for a feast for the SCA shire of Smithkeep (Fort Smith AR, USA) that came out like some of the bituminous coal I have used. She started with raw almonds and I guess a lot of folks were spooked by it as we had a large amount of leftovers to nibble by the fire that winter.

Well if I had any idea where you were at I might be able to suggest folks to talk to about fixing it as I have had anvils worked on at anvil repair workshops both in Ohio, USA and New Mexico USA; both were associated with the local ABANA affiliates. As I don't know even what country you are in all I can suggest is to research the Robb Gunter method of anvil repair. As a pro welder you can probably bring it back to near mint condition without messing it up---if you do it correctly!

Looks like he has a good supply of water close by...very nicely done can't wait to see your pieces if you keep up the fit and finish! BTW I built a sheet metal fence for my brake drum forge with a slight gap where the ends would meet and a mousehole across from it right above the level of the brake drum. To use I just dropped in in the drum---spring fit to the inner sides--- and then could pile the fuel high and still stick long pieces in the hot of the fire. It was my main billet welder for several years.

Waiting on the OED, upset came from german IIRC; so latin and greek not that big a help.

Faster/harder you hammer the hotter the work stays; also you can pre-warm the anvil, also you can learn not to place the piece on the anvil but slightly over it so the hammer pushes it into contact does the work and then it lifts up out of contact. How are you judging heat? Are you working in a shaded area?. A punch shiould have a flat bottom to shear out the metal. A drift can be pointed as it's designed to pust the metal aside. The only tools like the one you showed I know of is an eye punch for making faces NOT for making holes. The "film" is called scale and is an iron oxide. It is caused by exposure to oxygen at elevated temperatures so: too much air in the fire, or too much time out of the fire. The water on the anvil technique is to help remove the scale from the piece it has no effect on preventing scale formation. Vacs generally produce WAY TOO MUCH AIR which tends to scale up your work as well as to burn it up. (and are generally very noisy!) Figure a way to waste air till you get a reasonable amount in the forge and look for a quieter more efficient electric blower. (For coke I recomend an electric blower over a hand crank or bellows) Holding tongs between you legs works better if you use a rein clip and practice of course. There are a large number of different hold downs made for anvils to use whan you don't have help---traditionally you would expect 3-5 people in a blacksmiths shop and so holding and striking jobs were much simplier than doing things on your own. Rivets: not enough details: what are you trying to rivet?----did you trim your rivets to the correct height first? Making a rivet header for your anvil's hardy hole might help only time I use my postvise for rivetting is when I hold a rivet set in it. And Finally get to a couple of meetings of your local blacksmithing group and learn directly! (To put it another way "I didn't want to spend $20 in gas and half a day's time so I spent hundreds of dollars in time, fuel and steel learning to do it wrong instead---look how much I saved!")

Anybody got the complete OED?

Emmet Studebaker Tipp City Ohio and Isaac Doss Berryville---anvil on his tombstone (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12600840); Arkansas; I met both of them when they were in their 80's and 90's and still smithing some.

MOB Mid Ohio Blacksmiths had a Do not set self on fire T shirt

"There is only *1* right way to do something in blacksmithing and that is----ANY WAY THAT WORKS!"

My favorite tongs for hand use tend to be the lightest and springiest so "more mass" in a set slides them toward the not used as much end. (Or for using with a power hammer) For large work welding on a "handle" works well.

Both Trenton and Arm and Hammer used cast steel bases in their later years arc welded to the top sections. So a forged anvil with a cast base...

HB

Columbians have the back end of the screwbox open. Neatest trick I've heard was to braze a cap on the back end and drill and tap it for a zerk and then grease it pushing the crud *out* of the screwbox! Alignment is fine for a smithing vise---remember the faces of the jaws will only be parallel at a single point of opening as the moving jaw swings an arc . Now make some spacers to keep it from twisting in use/abuse.

Not specific to this site but; "Hit it where it's hot not where it's not" And the instruction I got when taking my first billet welding course: "Don't look at it *hit* *it*!"

check the price first, ILL is the usual method to read expensive sources.

Grind Ductile; do not try to forge! Have you been hitting it with a brass or lead hammer?

Yes that one is lovely!