ThomasPowers

I've seen quite a few wooden forges with an ash or clay filled firebox, some over 100 years old by now. I've also built a number of forges with no welding used at all. Many things can be drilled and bolted rather than welded. Take an empty 55 gallon drum, stand on end and layer up about 4" of dirt mixed with wood ashes and a bit of water. Push wok down into the muck, DONE, no welding needed. Find old metal lab stool or bar stool frame. Remove seat, drop wok in hole: Done no welding needed. Take 3 1/2" steel pieces, round or square. Forge flats on the ends and bend slightly. drill and bolt one end to wok, the other ends are feet. DONE, no welding needed. ETC, USW, ... Seems what you need is to free up your thinking as you seem to only "see" methods involving a welder. I have a welder but it takes a major effort to get it to electricity and so I find other ways to accomplish my goals and use the welder only when necessary. (It plugs into the stove plug in our kitchen and my wife is not amused! I tend to build up projects for it until she is off on a trip and then I have a veritable orgy of welding, cleaning up before she gets back. She did notice that I moved a welding table outside the kitchen window though...) May I commend to your attention "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" Weygers as the author commonly designs for what he has or can find rather than goes out and buys everything---he once built a forge from a paint can and a piece of irrigation pipe---the pipe acting as the blower through the chimney effect.

"A very good deal".

I have a cast anvil stand; never checked it for the maker, it's a bit short for me and too heavy to drag around for teaching gigs for the shorter students so it's tucked in a corner...Have to dig it out and move it into the forge extension.

Well depends on your definition of "fine". Weeks of clear clouldless skies, low humidities, (hit 3% one time), and temps above 38 C. We did have a thunder storm in town so they are at about 2" (5cm) of precipitation for the year so far. It missed us so we are still around 1" (2.54cm). Massive fires, just one of them has burned 465 sq miles (1204 sq kilometers) We're at 1463 meters elevation, down in the valley! We can see 3048 m from our front door. ---so about normal for New Mexico, USA Got back from Wales in early May; a *big* weather and altitude change for us! Good luck with your forging and may all your neighbors be ecstatically happy that a smith is in their midst!

A cold sixpack of soda around lunch time will often break the ice. The more advanced technique of a cold sixpack of beer right around quitting time on a hot summer Friday got me a *lot* of welding done at the little neighborhood welding shop near me back in Ohio. There was enough staff that I didn't worry about being a party to over consumption; they just considered it a friendly thing from a neighbor and acted in kind.

Well I'd like to see the screw better as *everything* on a postvise is fairly easily and cheaply reparable save for the screw and screwbox. Unfortunately most folks selling one never post the *1* picture most needed to evaluate the vise. Like most things *location* is important---why many of us put our general location in our profile. Don't know where *you* are at but that price is a decent price most places I've lived and I typically look for vises missing mounting parts as they drop the price and are so simple to make. Can you make a meandering trip to get it stopping at fleamarkets, junk stores, etc and loading up on rusty iron on the way? (I remember a fellow telling me "you can't buy these for less than XYZ" who was a bit nonplussed when I showed him the two I had picked up on the way over for about half of XYZ apiece...) Also does that seller have any other smithing tools? A hardy or hammer or two thrown in can really make that price *shine*!

I can document that style anvil in use from Roman times through today---say over 2000 years, the London pattern anvil dates back a bit over 200 years so what *should* an anvil look like?

I actually like one that you can set partially open for some tasks---like using charcoal or an electric blower where you may need to waste excess air. So mine swivels side to side, not nearly a s "nice" as yours but it's worked for 25 years so far. I'd suggest forging a counterweight into a rose or dragon head to show off your forging on your forge a bit more over your very nice welding... I never consider a forge "done" until it's given, sold or scrapped---always thinking up new tweaks or design additions. (Probably why we tend to build our own---having someone do it for us would probably result in mayhem after the umpity-ump design change request...)

Useful looking hammers; very "industrial"; but could you say "favored by *some* bladesmiths" I know more professional bladesmiths who don't use that type than who do.

We get our coal as fines and store it in a bucket of water before use. The wet coal seems to hold together better as it's coking up to make chunks for forging with. I coke in my forge on an ongoing basis: start wood fire => add coke from previous fire => add wet coal around the perimeter and over the top as the coke fire gets established.

More info please! Only time I've seen forced air used on a wood stove was when we were burning sawdust at the wood shop and would pack it full and then light the 'face" and turn the blower on it. If this is to dissipate heat from around the stove; fairly quiet systems are on the market I'd back engineer one of those.

With the ledges on the feet and more graceful outline I'd guess it was a Peter Wright. As for the weight stamping there is a quite easy method of determining that---WEIGH IT! May have to use a feed store scale; or one at a scrap yard; but once you have the weight the numbers will be fairly easy to figure out...

Frank do you want a set? You would probably get more mileage out of them that I will.

Frank; do you have a set of the brazing tongs?

water, you used to soak cotton shop aprons in a borax/water solution for fire resistance; washing them removes it but it's cheap and easy to redo and they can be thrown directly in the washer as borax is sold as a laundry detergent booster!

I have a set of brazing tongs, they are the heaviest tongs on my rack and I use them to demonstrate that the size of stock a set of tongs holds is only loosely correlated to the size of the tongs.

I stack dull bandsaw blades alternated with pallet strapping and make pattern welded steel billets from them. I have stacked sharp BSB pieces to make a tang saw for slotting materials for a tang, especially guards

My next shop now has dual mode floors 20x30 concrete and 20x30 dirt. I notice a definite difference working on the dirt floor with my feet and back much happier. OTOH I worked 20 years on a concrete floor and survived and it is much easier to move equipment around on.

Nice execution and the aging is a nice touch too!

Of course you could line it with a more insulative material: kaowool or soft fire brick---but if you go to all that trouble you might as well just build one---it can be done with just a hacksaw and a hand drill and a file...

Join the local group! Fastest way to get started by far! And asking is generally far safer a method; while many a time the answer will be *no*; when it is yes you will often be given far more steel than you could use in *years*.

Is it a finished wood floor? If not you could mop it with a borax solution to improve fire resistance. My last shop had a concrete floor with 70 years of old oil and grease build up on it and I never had a problem, though I put it out numerous times.

Get any old Farm Shop textbook and they will go into detail on how to lace flat belts. (As well as basic blacksmithing, riveting, welding, brazing, soldering, etc; generally) Farm Shop Practice for example...

I would not be ashamed of paying $2 a pound for that anvil! Condition, Make, Size all very good!

1: every thing insulates---some things just insulate very badly! 2: when coking coal you are driving off the volatiles and you WANT the volatiles to leave the area---unless you are doing this on an industrial scale in which case pollution control laws require you to capture and process the volatiles (and sell the byproducts!) 3: once the coal is coked---especially in a forge vs an industrial set up it is a better insulator---more porosity, it may even float on water! Some smiths pre-coke coal for their use later in a different forge.