ThomasPowers

While anvil envy (a term I coined many years ago on anvilfire and now on T shirts!) is endemic to blacksmiths; the anvil you have is already at the upper end for the typical professional shop in days of yore. Larger ones tended to be used in industry or for special uses. One of the great American smiths worked his whole career on an anvil about 1CWT smaller than the one you already have! If your current anvil is solidly mounted and has good rebound the differential moving up to a larger one will be fairly low. So if you have the money and room in the shop and want the bragging rights *get* *it*!

I have a massive anvil and like using it's broad horn and a straight peen sledge to draw larger pieces. It depends a lot on what you got and what you are trying to do. No power to my shop so all by hand!

I believe that is shown in "The Complete Modern Blacksmith", Weygers

It won't reduce the ammount of smoke, just channel where it goes.

Yes there are several anvil collectors in the USA; including people who specialize in a single brand---like Fishers and others who collect a wide range of makes; like a NM fellow who owns over 500 anvils. It's not a "deep" pool however.

Excellent on the weight! Real working swords tend to be much lighter than people imagine as heavy is slow and on the battlefield slow is *dead*!

Part of this gets down to "we all have a limited amount of time in life and so you gotta choose how you want to spend it". Some smiths want to make all their own tongs; me I've been smithing over 32 years and I prefer to buy $5 tongs and spend the time making things like historical recreation items and pattern welded blades. One is NOT better than another; just folks have made different choices. (We often want to think that *our* choices are superior to to other peoples' choices; but usually they are just "different") Now we do tend to dogpile on folks who seem to be making a choice without all the information; some of this is just due to them not posting all the information they have, some due to having made similar un-informed choices in our past; some we just worry about folks---I highly recommend *NOT* juggling running, flaming, chainsaws blindfolded---it tends to mess up the temper on the chains! HOWEVER we generally hold the right of the individual to go to "he double hockey sticks" in their own way. So extract good information; thank folks for their warm concern, think about stuff folk have posted and go your own way!

I always used whatever was in the local creek; fancy folks use fireclay

So what part of the forge did you make the knife out of?

Is that a 0 on the side if so it's a 35# hammer

I made a stake anvil Bick for use with my medieval anvil; which is muck like a cube with a spike on the bottom. I took a RR spike *driver* sledge and forged a shaft that riveted into the head and had a spike on the bottom. With a lathe you could anneal such a head and taper the ends and re-harden. What about a ski slope hardy tool? A squashed triangle of heavy stock with a hardy hole stem welded on it to use you place it on the anvil and heat the work piece and lay it bridging the anvil and the tool and hit where the work piece is not supported to make a large number of curves---especially good for large ones! Having each side of the tool a different angle increases your possibilities Perhaps if you would share what you are trying to do someone could make specific suggestions of how to go about it?

I directed a new student of mine here and he said he was going to run read all my posts...bwahahahahahahaha(was that my outside voice?) He did learn about the TPAAAT though.

There is some possibility that the folks in Central Asia were melting blooms to get crucible steel. Have you given any thought to running a bloomery?

And look at german zweihander use cases: pikes, 1 on 1, not generally seen in regular massed battles

Teeming: http://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;y00352&pos=2&action=zoom And yes it was a test to see how deep your research currently was. Traditionally in Sheffield, crucible steel was teemed producing fairly small ingots that then were worked to refine the grain. They went on doing this for an amazing number of years after the introduction of the Bessemer process and even more "modern" processes.

Usually in February and usuall quite close to where I'm working now; apx 36 miles instead of 150; shoot I even have a couple of extra bedrooms...

Craigslist is usually a good way to sell anvils as it serves the local area and anvils tend to be a pain to ship. Right now a lot of people near you will be going to Quad-State Blacksmiths Round-Up in Troy OH where there will be over 100 anvils for sale; really ,I know a fellow who bought 30 his first time there!

By air.... When I go it's more like a 1500 mile trip, luckily I have kids in AR and OH!

Yup it's from a quote in Heinlein's "Glory Road"; Paw Paw was the only one who recognized that right off the bat; so I try to wear them Friday at Q-S in his memory.

Since I can't be there is anyone else going to wear lederhosen and an aloha shirt on Friday in honour of RAH and Paw Paw Wilson?

actually most of us are blacksmiths and not ironmongers; shoot some of us are even bladesmiths! Anyway; Thank you for your Service and Welcome to the Dark Side; Bwahahahahahahahaha (The Emperor will be pleased!)

I hope all y'all have so much fun the UN has to step in to stop it and you find so many great deals your vehicle springs invert on the trip back home. I'm just going to stay here staring at the walls and eating my own cooking... Maybe next year...

How much does it weigh? Is the grip at a vibration node? How much distal taper does it have? These are often what makes the difference between a sword and a SLO. (I believe you have already gotten a good tang and refrained from putting in a sharp transition from the blade to the tang) There are bladesmiths in the UK who could have helped you with heat treat, I've even dug a trench forge in the garden before and used a lot of used fry oil to quench in, warmed of course!

Check army surplus? I see barrels around that size painted OD green at the scrapyard (central NM, sorry)

I think he will be teeming it as per the old days; and so casting ingots that will be heavily worked afterwards. With large enough pours he can make use of piping and crystallization to force impurities into areas to be removed and discarded.