ThomasPowers

I've seen them fairly large---150# or so. If one had one of the Q&D testers and could get a readout and buy one that was a good alloy it might make a fine anvil---just a lot of work cleaning it up and heat treating it.

Supposed to be good for high Ni/high Cr alloy welding but it gives off fluorine gas when it's used and so is extremely toxic! Generally used in small amounts added to a standard flux like borax so as to need as little of it as possible.

Which pipe is sized to hold a can of water to cool off some of those tools in? I generally use a tin can from the kitchen but have haggled the top off a coke can in emergencies.

http://www.nuernberger-hausbuecher.de/75-Amb-2-317-52-r I was wondering about taking a RR fish plate and flipping it upside down and seating it on a stump (rout out a square and then do a pass or two to let the raised ridges fit down and the surface be flat.) and then drilling the stump with round holes under the Sq holes in the fish plate and then burning them square to make a sort of armoured hardy tool holder.

Do the jaws align when it's closed? If not tweaking it before you paint it is best. What condition is the screw/screwbox in? I often soak mine for a week in diesel to get rid of the hardened crud in the screw/screwbox, clean it several times and then put it back in place and grease it. Also store with the jaws closed to protect the screw. If it's stiff to open you may want to pull the pivot and the moving jaw and clean inside the cheeks and oil that joint as well. I don't paint mine as they get rough duty and we have little rain---especially in the shop!

One of the hausbuch pictures shows a hardy mounted into the stump next to the anvil. You remember my post about building a stake anvil from a RR spike driving sledge head?

Wow a RenFair anvil that actually passes for a renaissance anvil! I'm *impressed*! (I was looking through the hausbuchs lately and spoted several that were very close to that one!) Looks like most of the face is gone---will you be repairing or just using it judiciously?

I've see a few ground flat even a couple with a pritchel drilled into it. The local implement auction usually has a pallet of them every spring and fall

We get a lot of this type of anvil down here as they are being cast in the foundries just over the Mexican border to finish the ladle at the end of the day. They are using real anvils for making the molds and then casting whatever is in the mold and then selling them with minimal fettling and the seam right down the middle of the face and horn. Been to several auctions where the auctioneer claims they are originals and expect to start seeing some cleaned up and aged and false stamped. Tell tales are the lack of handling holes, the lack of depressions on the base and the seam still showing under the horn and heel. Some of them *might* be a decent alloy if they were heat treated but you have no clue what it is when you buy it!

So have you stopped by the local Uni and discussed this with the Mat Sci department? Or perhaps even civil engineering? they ought to be able to give a good guess at how a concrete bound shaft will work under the impact loads of a hammer.

22 x 9 x 1.25 is 70 pounds each in steel. The problem is that's it's more than just mass---otherwise we could make an very large dirt anvil and be done with it---or use a ton of feathers. It's also how that mass reacts and transmits the impact force of the hammer---most of us have probably used a cast iron ASO at some point. It's very little difference in weight than a HB of the same size; *but* how they react to hitting it with a hammer is vastly different! The HB will ping that hammer back into your face while the ASO is like hitting soft tar. So it's good that you are trying to think out of the box but you have to take *ALL* the factors in account and not just one. And you are certainly not the first one to go down this path. You might find it easier to find the work of other peoples and use it as a springboard rather than re-inventing the wheel de novo et deja vu Most of the suggestions do not transfer energy efficiently and some like concrete do not stand up to repeated strikes with the interface between the concrete and the shell gradually powdering and so losing efficiency of energy transport So stop thinking so much about mass and do think about the energy in the system! Off for the weekend

Or you can sometimes luck into something. A friend was able to buy scrap from his employer at scrap rate and turned up a bunch of 6.75" diameter chunks of medium carbon steel. I bought 4 and then sold 2 for twice as much giving me mine for free---so I gave one away to a friend. The other is the anvil for my treadle hammer project---got a 1" plate for the base too!

Forge welding depends on three things: Cleanliness, Temperature and Pressure. Max any of these out and you can get "solid phase welding": Vacuum welding, Forge welding and Galling are examples where one of the three is maximized. So get all three a good as you can and you can get a good weld without pushing one to the max. Note that different alloys weld best at different temps so a plain high carbon steel welds at a lower temp than a very mild steel. And I don't think "grain structure" has anything to do with it---unless you really mean the different phases iron can be at different temperatures. If this topic interests you may I commend "Solid Phase Welding of Metals" by Tylecote; you should be able to ILL it at your local public library. Unfortunately I'm not taking it on my vacation as I hope instead to pick up a copy of John Percy's "Metallurgy: The Art Of Extracting Metals From Their Ores, And Adapting Them To Various Purposes Of Manufacture" whilst in the UK.

A very well know modern powerhammer maker welds up his anvils from vertical slabs---see http://www.ironkisshammers.com/ A heck of a better way to go than to spend money on goop! (probably cheaper too!)

Go talk with your Uncle about what you can do that he can use/sell for you! Top mason ought to be able to get you some ornamental work for sure!

Shelf is very handy for things like forks where you need thin access to an anvil face. They were one of the defining features to a "Coach Builder's Anvil" due to all the clips they used to have to make to interface with the wooden parts of the coach.

I'd think our smiths in South America, South Africa and Australia might argue your "down south" designation! Putting your *general* location in your profile can help people with location specific queries. A coal forge can be built for under US$10 including the blower and it sounds like you already have the skills and equipment to do so. I use the axle cover from a banjo rear end as a forgepot; bought two used as jackstands for $3 and have used the first one for 25 years so far so I'm set for life! I've built bellows for next to nothing too and a well made properly set up double chambered bellows was much nicer to use than a hand crank blower which in turn was nicer than the electric blower I started with 31+ years ago. Find a HVAC company and see if they have an exhaust assist fan from a scrapped house furnace you can get for little or no money. I tell folks that if you are spending a lot of money to get *started* blacksmithing---you are doing it wrong! Assuming you are in the USA go ILL "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Weygers at your local public library---it's full of ways to do it on the cheap and examples of the high quality stuff you can make from those ways.

If the doing is what you are interested in then running your own shop may not be the way to go. As proprietor you will have to be involved in sales, inventory, all the bureaucratic paper work, etc. You may find that you spend more time *not* doing stuff than if you did it as a hobby. I would suggest finding a firm doing what you are interested in and learning the business---making bids, inventory control, selling work, expect to spend some time doing so and then branch out on your own. I suggest to knifemakers that they do get a degree and use a good paying job to provide the capital needed for equipment for their later business---having a proper shop can more than double your income from doing it with only a hammer and anvil.

Trimming your toenails must be murder! Looks great, have you tried it out yet? I've found a good shear is so much faster and *quieter* than a lot of ways of cutting stuff.

Well the fellow I knew that was selling swords in the multi thousand dollar range back in the 1970's and '80's did all his grinding just with his hands and a Bader belt grinder---optically perfect grinds; *years* of experience. Couple of examples http://www.shirepost.com/FlutedSwordDagger.html http://www.shirepost.com/SkySwordDagger.html

Nice to know we're appreciating every year!

Going for Frosty the Lucky Lefty?

Some high authenticity places would prefer you to use modern safety glasses than to possibly mislead people that some sort of variation on them was actually available at the time in question. My reply when questioned about my glasses is: The Medieval version of safety glasses was an eyepatch or a boy to lead you around after you lost both eyes!

If your stack is not pulling the smoke into it it's designed wrong---fix that before thinking of adding a blower to the system. As a typical blower can put out many times more air than the typical forge needs diverting some of it isn't a problem.

Around 20+ years ago I was at an auction and a battered PW with a crack at the hardy hole all the way to the side brought over US$1 a pound way more than it was worth back then in OH. I stayed as there was some hardy tools---same guy bought them "for the anvil" though they all had stems *larger* than the hardy hole and you couldn't use them anyway as the heel was cracked. I talked to him and he just wanted them for sitting next to his fireplace. He paid about 3 times what each hardy was worth and twice as much as he should have on the anvil.