ThomasPowers

Beth, you did notice that the first picture had a woman tending the forge! Wide range of times in those pictures too. I was wondering about the music in the forge as I would think the percussion would drown out the string section...

Find an old hoe and bend the neck a bit and get a speaker magnet and a plastic bag.

It does look a bit like the bottom have of a jackhammer bit repointer. What I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be a good place to actually work on the face of the anvil and so I think they intended all the work to be done in the inserts and or that sloped region.

Needs slots on the sides of the firepan if you will be working long pieces. The missing top doesn't concern me as you can fab a cover for it *iff* the blower works well. If the blower doesn't work well then I don't care how pretty or complete it may be! A blower that's hard to turn and won't freewheel any makes using it a constant chore. Far better to have too big a blower than too small too! What kind of words are you looking for?

A cautionary tale: I once had an old phone company van---1968---that had a pickup rear end in in my mechanic said and I used it for hauling a lot of stuff. Once I was moving a LG for a friend in it. Had laid it down and "rolled it in" on the circular stuff on the top---*gently* so as to not damage anything. Anyway I closed the back doors and started down the steep gravel road on the mountain---AR had gravel state highways back then---probably still does. I was taking it easy and slow when a farmer pulled right out in front of my van in granny gears. I stood on the brakes and was skidding along fine behind him but he was starting to speed up a bit---perhaps he had looked in the rear view mirror and saw the old van with dust a-flying from the wheels. But things were looking fairly good and my heart was was thinking about slowing down when I noticed that my seat was pushing me forward onto the steering wheel. Not only had the van lost traction and started skidding the LG had "rolled/skid" forward in the van and was just nudging the driver's seat. Nearly a brown pants moment and when I got the van stopped I went back and tied off the LG as best I could (van still had all the equipment mount points) I like to think I have smartened up over the years---or at least killed off all the slow and stupid brain cells and now I know that my driving is only 1/2 of the situation---other folks driving is the other 1/2. (when I took my large screwpress home in my small PU, I noticed that *nobody* got near my truck or cut in front of me even though I was going slow across town. I guess that 7' tall piece of cast iron in that small PU gave them the stink eye so to speak...)

Yes, here's an example in use

Nope not used that way but look at all the integral bolsters on commercial knives of yesteryear. being able to mount the swages to make them as part of the anvil sped things up in commercial practice.

Suggestion---go with a RR *rail* the ties release toxic smoke if you try to forge on them...

I own a blacker powerhammer anvil (and used to own a hammer as well) The original anvil is not anything like the ones I have seen. The Blacker anvil has one cut out on one side to allow the edges of the hammer and the anvil to align exactly and has two large, (mine are 1.5" sq) hardy holes at opposing ends of the face. Stewart; how do you figure it's a Blacker as it's totally different from the one you posted as "here is a picture of hammer and anvil together"?

(and then she hit you...) Dangerous living; I've met your wife!

It's an industrial anvil where they used specialty inserts for a specific job. Especially common in the Sheffield knifemaking shops as I recall.

I really like the first "bush swords". The second set of pictures I'm not so hot with as the kissaki detracts from it for me as that shape is extremely rare in real japanese blades and most noted in the "Cold steel" knives. The cleavers and the chef's knife looks great too.

Go with the chinese box blower then and save a couple of hundred in the bank for when a good tool turns up cheap! I built a large double lunged bellows that I ended up liking better than my great hand crank blower which I liked better than the electric blower I stated with. Unfortunately it takes up most of the pickup bed of my small pickup making it hard to travel with so my hand crank is what's generally used now.

Don't know if you are working out in the sun; but in my shaded shop orange is way too cool for forge welding a more lemon yellow is what I look for.

Wow some folks out there are *barking* *mad*! I bought an anvil just missing the heel for $40 (and it's a "rere brand", Powell), I'd say that missing horn and heel that one was worth about $25 at most particularly in that area. Vulcan is pretty much the bottom of the "real anvil" list in terms of quality and they have it priced like it was top of the line. I don't think I would buy a Vulcan even if I had to pay US$100 more for a HB the same weight and condition. (except of course if I had to have a quiet anvil---and even then I would go with the HB and mount it so it was silent!) That is not a "colonial anvil" wrong look to it. Go with an HB!

I like the one about "It will be $10 for one" "How much for 50 of them?" "$20 a piece!" As I don't like production work they tend to get more expensive the more you want.

Location Flint Hills---in what country?

Well the only answer to your question is "Yes, Definitely!" They can be pretty much any size or shape as long as it works for you! Do you use a lot of flux or a little? We don't know. Do you flux at low temps or at high temps or both? We don't know. Do you like to stay far away from the hot end of the metal or are you comfortable being right up close? We don't know. Will you be fluxing billets or typical blacksmith welds? We don't know. shoot we use a bent piece of scrap sheet metal in my forge as the flux spoons seem to disappear over time and the scrap piece is kept in the flux tin. So I suggest you make one and use it and then make another with your design improvements and then make a pretty one....

My brake drum forge ran about US$25 total including blower and anvil and basic tools---all scrounged, bought at fleamarket and scrapyard. The only fancy 'tool" used was a 1/4" electric drill. I could of course sourced everything at the most expensive places to buy them but I chose not to. I was not in enough of a hurry that I was willing to spend $$$ over time. (BTW our local Re-Store run by Habitat for Humanity has all the plumbing fittings for a couple of dollars rather than the large cost of large fittings at a plumbing supply place.) The anvil was a broken off knuckle from a RR car coupler and was sourced for free as was the brake drum from the side of the road. The blower was an old cast aluminum "handy-vac" cheap at the fleamarket as it was missing the bag---$3 as I recall. It was a universal motor and so can be regulated with a simple rheostat also found at the fleamarket though an old sewing machine foot control works fine too. The fun part was I bough a ribbed radiator hose to connect the vac to the forge (at the fleamarket) and it "sang" a note as the air went through it that could be tuned with the airflow...

That is not an apprentice. That is a student. They are treated differently as the focus is different. 1/4"sq stock for an S hook, a drive hook and perhaps a nail or two leaving time to rest between tasks is a fairly ambitious goal probably achievable only by trading heats with the student---you show them what to do and then next heat they attempt it and then the following heat you clean it up, etc. I assume a parent will be there the whole time and that appropriate PPE is available. I once worked a den of cub scouts though making weenie roasters at a den meeting and they had a great time---we did twisted 1/8" wire ones---made from election sign frames: Take a length and heat the middle and double it back on itself. Then heat a length and place one end in the vise sideways and let them twist it with appropriate tongs. (leaving a length untwisted at the bend to open up as the handle and a couple of inches at the open end to bend and taper for the tines. I use paraffin wax as a finish and they ended the day "testing them out".

New people so often believe everything we tell them---why several believe I have a corporeal existence and am *not* a cyborg!

but wasting seasonings as a lot of folks would drop them when they "talked"

The starting price of an auction has pretty much nothing to do with the ending price so talking about how low the starting price is is a waste pf pixels.

Yup several types of customers: one you tell them the price for exactly what they want and you never hear from them again and the other---a much smaller group---ask if they can pick them up the next day cash in hand? (and the ones that show up but without the payment and want to know why they can't walk off with several thousand dollars worth of work...)

The "correct way" is the one that works in your situation. In general the spring is mounted to fit into the mounting bracket just under the screwbox with the extended part resting on the lower section of the side of the moving leg of the vise. I have seen them done in a variety of ways due to special circumstances---including one post vise that used a coil spring! Making a spring for a leg vise is a common task and they can be made from mild steel as long as they are designed to not exceed the set point of the steel. (spring steel can bend farther without taking a set but can also break if not handled correctly. As new smiths are often not familiar with proper forging and heat treat processes using a mild steel bar can get a working vise a lot faster and with less frustration. You can also take a mild steel spring off and re-spring it cold if it's not quite to proper form.)