ThomasPowers

cast resin and the pieces glued together

Yes; Ironwork is generally lumped into the general artistic styles; but as mentioned the time periods often don't apply as much to ironwork e.g. we probably have more gothic work being done right now than "post modernist" work Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Baroque, Gothic, Romanesque, etc I have a 1929 book on ironwork that does link some of the styles by centuries for medieval and renaissance work though

I like to roll up ice cubes in a bandanna and loosely tie it around my neck to help keep cool.

So photos of what the feet look like which is a MAJOR TELL on if it is an old English anvil won't help us tell if it's an old English Anvil? Sorry, I don't get that... A Photo of the base can tell if it's a HB or a Trenton A photo of the horn/cutting step/face which is distinctive of a Vulcan? This is like asking us what kind of car you have with no markings and telling us photos won't help!

Get the book!

Here in the USA such wagon tyres are often sought after by knifemakers as they tend to be a very low grade wrought iron. This works better fro making knife fittings as it shows a coarse pattern to it when etched that looks very good with "old" style knives. As to making them back then not too much as an effort as you would buy the flat stock and then heat it and roll it in a tyre bender and then forge weld the join.

Now for a really traditional far eastern stone anvil you need a nice jade boulder!

Broken fork lift tines---explain you want to make an anvil out of it and would be happy if they cut it in pieces (so it couldn't get reused---liability). Forklifts are found *everywhere* in the USA these days http://www.marco-borromei.com/fork.html One of a large number of ways to do it! (as I recall they ended up with a 100#+ anvil for US$25 and yes I am the Thomas mentioned---I still have the mate to that tine in my scrap pile---but I carried it out of the forest by myself---see I'm dumber that I appear on the net!

Rebar does not forge like the blade grade steels and so your practicing will teach you how to forge rebar *not* blade steels. When you go to forge blade steels you will find yourself destroying many a piece as your "instincts" are trained for a different material. (It will teach you the basics of hammering I'll admit; but so will any other steel....) If you need cheap blade worth steels automotive coil and leaf springs is often free and is a good steel for swords. (You want to get drops from a spring shop if you can so you avoid fatigue issues with old used springs and PLEASE avoid any piece you find on the road broken as the failure mode for a spring is that many micro cracks form and 1 propagates catastrophically leaving the others to laugh at you *after* you have spent hours working on a piece. Have you read the swords section at anvilfire? (under the armoury section in the drop down menu Sword Making for Gen X); oh yes there is an article on rebar there too under the 21st century link

Ball stake and work the edges down over it---helps to have a large range of ball stakes to get the one(s) that are just right...

I lived in Columbus OH for 15 years and it truely was "the happy hunting grounds" for blacksmithing stuff; I luckily bulked up and when I moved to the blacksmithing tool desert of NM I was sitting pretty. I've lived on the east coast too (NJ, VA, NY) and in AR and OK and so have an idea of those areas markets. I've never seen a place with more and cheaper anvils than OH; also postvises, etc... Ohio had a very nice mix of farming and industry both of which used anvils and both did pretty well meaning that stuff generally didn't get worn past usability but repaired or replaced. I still remember being at the fleamarket and being ready to pay US$25 for a nice complete 4" post vise and getting dragged away by a friend to tell me "Don't pay $25 for it or he will want $25 for all his postvises!" $20 was acceptable to both the dealer and my friend...

Big difference between NY and OH wrt Anvils

Ohio is one of the anvil rich states and I do not think that would bring $200 damaged as it is unless it's over 200 lbs!

Modifying your tools so they suit your way of working is an ancient blacksmith trait---that modification does not impact other uses of the anvil and so shouldn't impact the value of that anvil as a working piece. Unlike another anvil shown here where they put a hole right in the middle of the best spot to hammer!

Often there is a component of thinking that high level custom handwork has got to be cheaper than mass produced machine work: to these people I would say that mowing lawns and *buying* even a several thousand dollar blade will be cheaper than making one that good YOURSELF. We do it because we have to....

I don't consider rebar flexible: at the Spanish Army Museum they had a Toledo Rapier bent into a several pass spiral and embedded in a block of wood because if you took it out it would leap back to being straight. Try that with rebar and you get a nice spiral that stays there when "released". Selling a blade that may be used for sparring of a known bad material sets you up for liability---if it breaks and a piece kills someone are you willing to give up your house, car, tools and most of your income for the rest of your life---or perhaps even your freedom for a number of years to boot? Generally if you have to ask this sort of question you are still several years away from being able to make a decent sword---if you really work at it! Sort of a "I want to win formula 1 races---is learning to drive important?" type of question. HOWEVER you won't start any younger; so learn to forge high carbon steels, make a LOT of knives and then make a lot of big knives! Study steels and blademakers and what was done by people whose lives depended on their blades! Who knows in a decade of so *you* might be answering these sorts of questions *here*!

As I have been known to use most of the handle at times, even letting it slide through my hand while hammering it wouldn't suit me. However what about doing a nice rondel on the end of the handle---would make a good identifier!

It looks to me like you haven't planted the thick hedge or stand of bamboo between your shop and the house in the background as a sound attenuater better get it in soon so it has time to grow

Right in the middle of the sweet spot too

Start planning for Quad-State late September in Troy; Largest blacksmiths convention held every year EVERYTHING can be found there!

A lot of museums have *tons* of un-catalogued items down in there storage areas. I see regular articles published about people finding new items in stuff collected in the 1930's!

Yes. no, maybe depending on how he planned to do it. none of the makers I know use a central hardy hole.

Sorry not even close to the roughest I've seen---or used for that matter

And that brings to mind: has everyone talked with your local scrap guys, and given them a picture of typical blacksmithing tools with your phone number on it and that you buy such things? Also talk with the folks who drive around looking for scrap metal!

Brooks anvils are cast steel. In general I advise people to only mill as much off the face of their anvil as they are willing to mill off their own face. The hardened face is the life and soul of an anvil and is usually not that thick and so removing any of it is chopping decades of use off the anvil. In addition many machine shops don't realize that the face and the base may NOT BE PARALLEL and they cheerfully clamp down the anvil to the milling table and proceed to ruin it making the face parallel to the base---I've personally seen several anvils where they milled *through* the hardened face and into the soft body to make the face flat and parallel. IF you MUST mill the trick is to clamp the anvil upside down and mill the comparatively worthless base material to make *IT* parallel to the face and then flip it over and just kiss the face. Your description raises some questions as anvil hardy hole are designed to go all the way through and so are at the parts of the anvil that stick out. Sounds like someone mutilated the anvil for a specific job---their right to modify their tools! But it should sell for very little compared to an un-modified anvil