ThomasPowers

Making the legs different lengths will produce more tones

No difference it's the max tempering temp and cycles that can make a difference, no way to "freeze" a steel at a temper.

First of all is their enough face thickness not to worry about losing some of it? If so a belt sander should do it and you do NOT want to grind all the way through every dent! Just clean it up a bit. The old large anvils tended to have softer faces due to auto tempering and slower quenches and so often show more dings.

They achieve temper when they hit tempering temperature in the oven. Very different from hardening where they generally must be quenched to harden---except for "air hardening steels" that actually "quench" in air! Also tempering temps are generally below 1000 deg F and hardening temps above 1500 deg F Both hardening and tempering are methods used in Heat Treating of steel which can include things like normalization or annealing as well.

Welding table adjunct is a great idea---just be sure to put the ground connection on the top piece!

One is faster than the other.

Used as walking sticks and canes if I recall correctly.

I've been making cowboy hats out of pennies---ones old enough to be real copper based; but they are a cheap source of planchets! Make nice earrings for the ladies. Got one slightly larger than a beer lid and heavier too that I use as a fob on my key ring---the pocket keeps it polished and I can show it off most anytime---it was a gift to me from Dave Hammer at Quad-State one year. Nice thing about making these hats---they are hard to mess up as most any problem in the making can be found on somebody's head somewhere out there!

Now you can do the rabbit in the moon and tanuki (note *no* RoboGeisha!!!)

Here in the USA; few people have actually seen originals and so base their work on what they have seen in movies or on badly made replicas by others. So I have seen 10kg "battle axes" that people claim were *real* *accurate* ones.

Light and *fast* the hallmark of a good medieval impact weapon! Was the "iron" wrought iron or just mild steel?

I was using a set of dividers to lay out feet on a trivet lately. Very handy for some jobs and a lot easier to work on hot surfaces than a measuring tape.

Put your stump on it and play "spin the anvil"... Really if you don't have a use for it you need to decide to store it, sell it; or scrap it!

Clinker breaker is the term you are looking for...

In a hand crank forge that size? I salute you!

If I ever get a chance to drive to Alaska I know what will be in the trunk!

Ah yes the mess---if you use a wire wheel do it out on the driveway away from the house and shop and preferably on a day with a nice breeze and work from the upwind side. DON'T FORGET SAFETY GOGGLES!

Look up the ball bearing test online. That is a "ringing anvil" and so unless mounted so it doesn't ring it should. Ringing it will likely tell you if that crack is a problem as internal cracks dull the ring of an anvil substantially. If they won't let you test the anvil---walk away with a smile! Old style anvils were forge welded up from a bunch of different pieces so that crack may be the line where they welded the horn on---OTOH not all forge welds were good ones and it could be that the horn's weld is failing. Not that much of a problem as anvils were pretty hornless for centuries if not millennia *except* that broken anvils should sell CHEAP! My last heelless anvil went for about 33 cents a pound with a fair horn and a great face, with the heel it would have been more like $2 a pound...

People used to say I was shy and quiet; till I got into smithing and started hunting tools and learned that shy and quiet had a substantial monetary penalty associated with it. I strongly suggest you get a bunch of cheap business cards---like vista print offers, with your name phone number/e-mail address and "Anvils and blacksmithing stuff Wanted!" I've gone on and had a bunch made up using their "fire" background---makes them more noticeable and helps jog people's memory about what I'm into. Harder to lose such a card than a random slip of paper with crude pencil or pen writing on it. Actually I have found the search to be fun and I get to talk with a LOT of interesting folks---5 generation smiths, Orthopedic Blacksmiths, tool room smiths. They are getting on in years and their stories need to be listened to and preserved! (The Orthopedic Blacksmith told me that once a Wave or WAC fell and broke her pelvis and he was called in to make a custom splint for it. Remember this was back in the WWII days of things...they chose him to make it as he was a "married man" and not one of the single guys doing that job at the hospital. He was the envy of all the rest of the guys in the shop; but never told them he never got to see the lady as she was behind a screen and he would tell the Dr's what measurements he needed and they would take them and report them back...) (Or Isaac Doss an old smith in NW Arkansas telling me about taking his wares around by horse and wagon when what is now an interstate was a dirt road...)

Frosty I seem to remember you using a "soft *faced* hammer" on a great white birch and getting it rather mangled... I try to learn from the experience of others and keep that in mind as I have to start cutting our winter's wood soon; first fire in the wood stove is probably Friday night...

Edr; how many pounds per billet?

Word of mouth---have you talked with *everyone* you meet? I bring up I'm looking for anvils in checkout lines and at church during coffee hour. Have you posted a notice at a local feed store or coop or supermarket board? Remembering that anvils were a common part of any industries maintenance department have you kept an eye open for an old business going out of business. Especially boat related businesses out there I would guess; but I have known of complete smithing set ups in: a sugar refinery, a glass pane manufacturer, an auto repair shop, a hospital---talked with the fellow who was an orthopedic smith in it during WWII!, prisons, insane asylums, farms, etc. Often the anvil is the last piece of equipment to go and often when they shut down smithing the smith brought it home with him. two generations down the line it's often a nuisance and folks are happy that someone will *use* it. Funny thing: Cities had a lot more anvils in them than the countryside ever did! Develop your eye; I found a 125# PW once because I noticed a old postvise leaning against a falling down barn---I was doing a test drive of a car we were buying and my wife wouldn't let me stop; but we went back after buying it and I bought the 5" postvise and the PW from the owner---He was in his late 80's and was overjoyed at the unexpected windfall---I paid what he asked as he needed the money more than I needed to brag about another cheap anvil---and it was still a good deal by today's standards! Leave a card with antique dealers, sometimes they will trip over an anvil; but don't want the hassle of moving it. I've been called with good deals that way before. Leave a card at used machinery dealers; as mentioned old factories often have anvils hiding and a guy that moves modern machine tools usually has no use for one or wants the bother of trying to sell it on. I've left a card with the local scrappers who travel around collecting steel to sell to the scrapyards, out here they generally speak Spanish and I've learned the terms for what I want and tell them I will pay twice as much as the scrapyard will! leave a card at the scrapyard---bring them a dozen doughnuts and explain what you are hunting for. You may not be able to wander the piles but having them hunting for you is almost as good! (I usually explain that I offer a finders fee often in chilled brown or green bottles paid out at quitting time on a hot summer Friday...but I'm not upset to kick in an extra $25 to the guys in the yard if I'm buying smithing tools at SCRAP RATE!) uhhh this is sort of what I mean by beating the bushes.... Quiero comprar un yunque---

The first year they went big time with them a friend gathered 350 after the election in Columbus OH; then after they had so much trouble with the mowers they started having contests on the radio as to who could bring in the most after the election and the pickings were much slimmer. This year I found 25 thrown out in a dumpster out back of the local political party's office after a by election and then found a complete un-opened box of them at the scrap yard; so I'm covered for a long while. They are easiest to store if you use a cold cut in the hardy hole and nick and break them at the corners giving you straight pieces that can be bundled and stacked. However that restricts the lengths available. Other things we have done with them: Take a section and bend it double and then heat starting about 4" from the bend and twist to about 4" from the open end and then bend the open end legs out and taper them and bend them into a marshmallow toasting fork---if you separate the folded end where it's untwisted it makes a nice handle Make basket S hooks from then: 4 pieces about 4-6" long, forge weld the ends and enough back to be able to forge a hook out of them. Twist tight, hot of course, reheat and untwist to make the basket and then forge the hooks to make sure they are in opposition. Make quite long baskets: take 4 pieces over a foot long and weld and twist as above and then with careful heating---the propane forge is great for this!---untwist to get a long slim basket that I used as handles for my camping pots. Forge one end into a hook and the other flat and drill for 2 rivets. (Old revere ware pots have a great stem on the side when you remove the old handle to rivet such a basket handle on; I pick them up whenever I can for a couple of bucks apiece!) Note that for long baskets even the propane forge may not get it all done in one heat. With care you can unwind it in sections and still get a nice even basket. Tweaking a wire with a screwdriver does sometimes help as does rolling it hot on the anvil and plannishing lightly a section that untwisted too large compared to the rest. You can also make a spatula with such a basket handle or an ornamental toasting fork---add two short lengths to one end before forge welding that you can then bend out and back around for the tines. I wax or season my cooking tools Hey they were *throwing* *away* perfectly good steel; I'm too cheap to let that happen! Note some of the smaller signs use galvanized wire with a spot welded cross bar now. I recycle these at the scrap yard. And sometimes if you are lucky they will call you up and ask if they can put signs in your yard!

My main shop anvil has a very broad horn, 515# Fisher, I like to use it for drawing by facing the horn with the billet at 90 deg across it and then I have a straight peen sledge with a very blunt peen---looks like a 25mm radius on it---and a short handle for using 1 handed. It's only 3-4 kg and it does take some build up of muscles to be effective with it one handed---the short handle helps! But with the horn on one side and the sledge peen on the other drawing is very much faster. I make sure to flip the billet over every time I put it in the forge to even out the drawing as the two curves are not quite equal. Anyway a lot less troublesome than holding the tongs between your legs; though that method can be quite good at telling you when you miss a blow or the metal is cooling off...

What do you have access to? A wire wheel on an angle grinder will do great; but requires you wear ppe for flung wires and dust. If you have a electrolysis set up you could use that or A belt sander---all you really need to clear off is the faces and the top's of the horns. Or you could soak it totally immersed in vinegar and after a week or so hose it off under as much pressure as you can manage. Or you can just start using it and hammering red hot metal on it will gradually clean off the crud. Me I wire brush when I have to of course I have a 9" industrial angle grinder that does an excellent barbell impression when I use it.