ThomasPowers

Glad you're ok. Last accident I had a fellow turned left across my path as I was going straight. But at least he owned up to it and to the cops too. After they hauled off my PU as totaled he gave me a ride to work---after we pried the fender off his tire. His insurance company very nicely paid full used price for my old pu. I live in a rural area too and sometimes have the full 2 miles of road trailing behind behind a hay baler---double yellow line all the way.

I'd suggest draw filing the bevel area to clean it up more too.

Actually a lot of folks welding weld without respirators---even when they should! Parkinson's and a bunch of other diseases have been correlated to welding fumes. Just because something won't kill you *today* is not a good reason to ignore it. Me I want to live a long time so my wife and I can be the scandal of the old folks home and a shock and shame for the great grand kids to be...

Yup you're right, fabb'd not cast! Brain Fart

I generally use new buffs as old ones are usually contaminated past resurrecting if they's gotten that bad and when I buff I'm going for *no* scratches---knives and jewelry

What about the "Mile long anvil" that was a cast item on display at QS and over 5000 pounds

I would like to point out to you that most people starting out get miniscule amounts of iron out of their first runs---they talk about axes and maybe get enough to make a fish hook or two. You can profit by all the others who have gone before and you may get lucky; but don't weigh your bloom before it's smelted!

From Wikipedia Botryoidal hematite A botryoidal texture or mineral habit is one in which the mineral has a globular external form resembling a bunch of grapes as derived from the Greek. This is a common form for many minerals particularly hematite where it is the classically recognized shape. It is also a common form of goethite, smithsonite, fluorite and malachite. This includes chrysocolla. Each sphere (grape) in a botryoidal mineral is smaller than that of a reniform mineral, and much smaller than that of a mamillary mineral. Botryoidal minerals form when many nearby nuclei, specks of sand, dust, or other particles, are present. Layers of mineral material are deposited radially around the nuclei. As more material is deposited, the spheres grow larger and eventually overlap with those that are nearby. These nearby spheres are then fused together to form the botryoidal cluster.

Not Cast that's a flaw in the original welding up of the real wrought iron! Definitely English as it's weight stamped in the CWT system. It also has the sharp feet and thick waist of an english anvil. The pritchel dates back to the 1820's and some earlier anvils had one retrofitted by drilling at a later date so might be a few years earlier than Bajajoaquin was suggesting but not many. Not a Peter Wright but one of the 200+ other anvil makers in England. The face has a working thickness left to it---PLEASE don't grind it thinner! (forging hot steel on it is a good way to clean rust and polish the face as scale is an abrasive.)

Housejack? (the large screw kind...)

Do you have a rack to hold them?

Most of the people I know do wheat by flattening roundstock twisted around each other

Our local Walmart carries them both "sainted" and "plain"

Yes but it's quite expensive. We once bought 100 mesh magnetite in 40# sacks that was sold as pollution control material and the shipping was more expensive than the "ore". You don't need chemically pure stuff to smelt.

Well hard to get the % iron from such a heterogeneous type; however if you want to see what high grade ore looks like look at the scale you produce forging steel---magnetite a nice clean high % ore without the rutile you can get in iron sand ores

I really wish I had a picture of this one as it just came together *right*! I generally mount my files in golfballs for a handle---drill a hole and drive them on till they are tight---and have been looking for a way to hang them near my large postvise. That 6.25" postvise is mounted to a utility pole that's the roof support for the forge shop. Well I was looking though the scrap pile recently and noticed that I had a bunch of garden rakes and one had a perfect curve in the tines to hold golf balls and the "tang" was composed of round stock doubled on itself and then swooping over to the ends of the rake part. So I ran a chisel in to make a little room where it's doubled over and 2 screws later the rake is mounted on the utility pole over the vise and holding 8 files---I spaced them every other slot so they can sit flat and not touch the one to the other side---even the farrier's rasps! Now to make one for all the other poles/vises! (The building for my "day job" is right next to a golf course so stray golf balls are fairly common.)

Looks like a limonite/goethite ore, roasting is a good idea; probably won't need flux if smelted in a small bloomery.

Anvil prices can differ by up to 50% depending on location---where I used to live they were considerably cheaper than where I live now. So do we assume you live in the expensive area or the cheap area. And is that Canadian dollars, Singapore Dollars, Australian Dollars? At most I would tell a person fairly desperate for an anvil that they should go up to $3 per pound if the anvil is in *mint* condition. Yes some anvils sell for more but I consider their buyers crazy myself. Personally I have filled my shop with great anvils with the top one being about US$1.50 a pound---of course I used to live where they were cheap; but I have still bought them at that price here where they are rare. If you paint the anvil nicely it won't degrade much in a long time of sitting outside---though that is location specific too---here in NM it could go centuries with little degradation, Along the seaside it would be more like decades... If your wife really wants a lawn ornament try to work a deal where you get paid a decent price and a trade in of a worn or damaged anvil so both people are happy. I once bought a 410# Trenton where part of the deal was I traded in a 125# PW as the owner of the Trenton still wanted an anvil but was tired of moving the large one around. (and I traded a screw and screwbox for a postvise and US$100 as boot)

Sounds as if it was like a noted maker said about the show on making japanese blades---the show was *great* if you watched it with the sound turned off. (With the sound on the hype and misinformation was pretty bad...)

The jaws are often faced with high carbon steel so weld them that way and get on with it! Many people also make jaw covers from angle iron to deal with this sort of thing without welding on the vise. Why not weld a solid piece on the leg and shoot forge the acorn too. *AND* think a bit and size the new leg so that this vise is *perfect* for you and what you want to do with it! So if you will do a lot of piling put it at filing height. If you will be doing a lot of hammering on it put it at good hammering height, etc.

And *really* watch the RPM! Old wheels can be weaker than when they were new too. A wheel explosion is NOT a pretty sight---especially on large high powered un guarded grinders! I'd give serious thought to what I wanted to accomplish with such a grinder and figure if there is a better way out there---like using grinding disks on an angle grinder

Get the staff to try it out too. If one of the fellows gets interested in what you are making you can really luck out with the "I thought you might like this so I tossed it over behind the shed" finds...

Rainy Raven: you pretty much have nailed that look down *hard*! Folks who claim that an "as hammered finish" isn't for *real* knives will certainly choke on their words with something like that!

I went the other way: I did a measured drawing of my PW using versacad and then printed it out at various scales till I got one I liked and glued it to a piece of lexan and cut it out and used it as a positive to cast it in silver and use it as a belt buckle. (used the sprues and vents as the supports for the crossbar and the nub that fits in the belt holes...) Sure glad I did it when silver was $5 an oz!

Yup I'd do a smaller line that matches the larger one too. And that $26 an hour is NOT your salary it covers the cost of your shop---rent, utilities, consumables, etc + your salary. if you are getting only your salary the first time you have a big ticket shop repair you are SOL! I tend to source my consumables on sale, scrap yards, yard sales and fleamarkets that helps keep them down but it's a hobby for me so I generally have time to find them. If you have to run out and buy something *now* good consumables are pricey!