ThomasPowers

CO is a particular danger for "smokeless fires", (propane, NG, charcoal). With a coal fire you generally *know* you should *NOT* be breathing that junk; but with the invisible fumes you don't have that "warning". Also gas forges can re-run the exhaust if you are not careful which sets CO production on turbo overdrive++ I see a lot of posts like "I have a window open in my Garage so I should be able to run my propane forge inside it, right?" To which my general answer is: "I have two ten foot by ten foot roll up doors along opposite ends of my smithy along the general wind directions in my valley. Also the smithy gables are open and there is a one foot by 30 foot vent along the peak of the roofline and even with that if the wind is slight and you stand down wind of the forge you can breath CO in." (I've gotten a CO headache at a ABANA Affiliate meeting before!)

Nice lines! (and it may lead to you getting some rather odd commissions...) Hmm, what about taking it to a glass blower and having them blow a "liner" for it?

On the Other Hand: I once bought several tons or wrought iron plate from the old Ohio Penitentiary's water tower. The demolition company mangled the pieces terribly so we were reduced to trying to cut out flat sections surround by nasty cold folded or torn bits (and every time they destroyed more of it they wanted me to pay *more* for it!) Anyway I had a couple of tons piled in my back yard when I had a bout of pneumonia and was upright in a chair for a month---couldn't lay down even to sleep. So along toward the end of my time off work the city came around and told me I had to get rid of my scrap pile *IMMEDIATELY* and I got to move it into the garage piece by piece (largest was 180 pounds IIRC) by myself when I could barely walk... So "get it all" may *not* be the best thing sometimes depending on *your* situation.

As VA does have some humidity you can treat the sides of your hammer with wax or a car wax or one of the cloths made for guns. The working ends will keep themselves clean if you *use* it* on a regular basis. Most of the time I am happy with the patina that used tools have---once I have removed any loose rust---and simply wax or oil them.

Usually you can recognize it before it gets into the forge; but sometimes old stuff can be quite rusty but still have traces of galvanization! And yes high lead paint was commonly used on old ironwork too and should be avoided. And then there are things like cadmium plating that is worse for you than zinc! The basic rule is to NOT forge *any* plated material and thus not have to worry about what it *might* be.

It will be hard to make a smooth hollow ground bevel with a stone grinder---even dressing it every pass! "Step by Step Knifemaking" has a jig in it intended to help doing it that way that you may want to look at. (But even then it's mainly designed for straight hollow grinds (I can think of modifications that would allow it to be used for curves...) I would suggest getting the appropriate contact wheel for your belt grinder, it's a 2x72" one designed for steel and not wood right? and learn how to grind a smooth path with it. WATCH THAT YOU DON'T GRIND YOUR HANDS!!!!!!!!! A lot of movie stuff is etched with ferric chloride as to them it's a *prop* not a venerated item. (remember that scene in the first Conan movie where it shows then carefully chiseling the ornate sword guard? It was lost wax cast in reality...) Also remember that if you are a real LoTR fan the movie stuff is just another person's "take" on what was written in the books and not carved in stone (or steel!) Your vision has just as much "truth" in it as their's---as long as it doesn't contradict anything specified in the books...

Yes that chip on the side seems to show the thickness left of the face. Is the face soft? It's possible that that anvil's been through a fire and is annealed and might be rehardenable. I'd look the face over carefully and see if moderate cleanup could leave at least one section smooth and not worry about getting it all down to clean at the expense of total face thickness.

Many of the old higher grade tools used a socket that was forged from the same piece of steel as the shaft---if there is not joint then it can't come apart. The real old ones had wrought iron sockets forge welded to the high C "working end". You will really need to investigate manufacturing procedures if you will be doing a *lot* of them and see if the profit margin can sustain buying ferrules or outsourcing heat treating or finishing... Personally my small shop would be more of a "it's $5 a piece for 10 and $10 a piece for 100" as I would have to tool up to make lots of them efficiently.

Real pretty; but several times as heavy as the ones they actually used. The faces on the handle are a very nice touch!

Hmm; we have so many books; but some of the ones I would make an effort for are: The Knight and the Blast furnace, The Celtic Sword, my volumes of Points of interest, Steelmaking before Bessemer, Geschmiedetes Eisen---1939 edition, Wrought Iron and its Decorative Use---1929 edition, Googerty's 1914 edition, Mechanics Exercises,Iron and Brass implements of the English House, Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera, Solid Phase Welding, Metalworking techniques for Craftsmen, ASM handbooks Really I have 2 complete bookcases that I would toss out the window if I had the chance. Making digital copy of your photo's and an inventory is a good idea; but please send them to someone in a different part of the country! Any massive destructive event might get a close friend but mush less likely to take out a relative 2000 miles away...

my suggestion also, small bars will bend/scale away fairly fast---that would make a *great* summertime grate though!

Yet almost everyone who has worked in the field has a story of reputable companies doing just that and many major corporations make it a practice of *testing* every piece as they come in and marking them with their code to be sure.

Ever seen an OSHA compliant chainsaw? It's a complete metal box with a chainsaw handle on one side...

The 152# Mousehole for $450 in the Albuquerque Craigslist is a better deal. What is the weight on that one?

Saw this about the stuff, a bit dated but possibly a warning: http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=41480

The tire hammers are well thought of. Not knowing where in the world you are at makes it hard to make specific suggestions based on local availability.

Note that Online Anvil Prices may not reflect what an anvil actually sells for. On craigslist locally someone was advertising a 152 pound Mousehole for $600 or about $4 a pound. Even for our anvil poor area I though that was high. It's been re-listed by the original poster at $450 or about $3 a pound for a drop of $150 *so* *far*. Folks who then try to price their anvils off of the original price may be quite disappointed unless they can find someone to soon part from their money... It's sort of the opposite to the e-bay situation where folks get all exited at how low something is priced at the beginning of a listing. The *selling* price is what's important not the "beginning price"

"It can be tough to make a forge weld in a propane forge. It just does not get quite hot enough" I and a friend have both melted steel in our propane forges, only 300+ degreesF hotter than forge welding at 2300 degF How is that "Not quite hot enough"? Now some propane forges do not get hot enough but definitely not *all*! You many note that most of the professional billet makers all use propane forges for welding up billets---including JPH. If a propane forge does not get hot enough there are ways to tweak some of them to get there---increased fuel pressure, decrease volume of the forge, increase insulation of the forge, increase IR reflectivity of the forge, etc. However if you plan to do a lot of forge welding it is probably best to build a forge that is optimized for it!

Perhaps it's from a commercial shop that had mandatory safety inspections. Or perhaps the owner or a friend has scars from when a spring broke previously.

If it's your first one you will soon be kicking yourself that you didn't get it operational months ago! I tell beginning smiths that a good post vise is much more important than a london pattern anvil!

bituminous coal is the standard blacksmith coal; *but* we're blacksmiths so we tend to use whatever we can find local and cheap---everything from peat to propane. The folks who use anthracite say it is harder to light and of course you don't get a cave fire with it. (well it has a "pot" for a firepot rather than the fairly flat disk of the rotors I have seen; so either way it's better than just a flat disk!)

Copper makes for great ornamentation when combined with steel---like copper leaves soft soldered to a steel tree, copper grounding wire wound to cover a weld joint, etc. Yes it can be forged---see the beautiful copper bowl pics posted here recently. As to "would it be too soft when done" Yes, No, Maybe depending on what you need it to do. Old drill bits: how old? if they are HSS they are usually too much a pain to work in the forge. If there are *old* plain HC steel then they can be forged like HC steel. However unless they are really messed up their best use is usually resharpened and used as drill bits as there are a lot of jobs where having a "disposable bit" is nice---starting hole in heavily scaled or rusted pieces, jobs where you can't use a drill press and so side loading might occur, etc.

Funny I have now owned *4* powerhammers each cheaper than the cheapest new flypress---including the one I bought last year. What you need is a powerhammer; neither a treadle hammer or a flypress is appropriate for what you want to do. Instead of wasting time, effort and money on something that is not suited for your needs; start working to get something that is! Anvils are usually fairly stout if you only work in the sweet spot but large hammers and getting tired and accidental misses on the heels and horns is not suggested!

Jib Crane at the front of the shop? I've seen a number of smithies with them for good reason. And I agree better safe than expensive repair work later---says Thomas who gets an MRI on his lower back tomorrow...

That's really a *small* anvil; I wouldn't go wild on it unless you really need a *small* anvil. I think the 100# +/- 10# is a good small using/traveling anvil weight myself.