ThomasPowers

In general my experience is that in modern manufacturing they will use the absolute cheapest methods and materials that will be marginally acceptable in the marketplace. Cast steel would thus lag cast iron save for where it was absolutely necessary! Much more common is to replace iron castings with lighter fabbed steel items to evade the casting costs. Talk with tool users; many of them will extol the old massive cast iron beasts over modern "flimsey" versions.

Looks to be in good condition: has the proper dies, has a jackshaft for using a modern motor, has the older type of bail. Good Luck! (I'm always amused by folks posting the starting price on an auction as "something is cheap" as it's the ending price that counts! I've bought two Champions so far one for $700 in working condition in 1990 and one for $600 in fair condition in 2010; both were found by asking around.)

Look at your waste oil supply: what's in it and do you want to be breathing it?

Meteorite was not unknown as a knife material through history---look at the iron in King Tut's tomb and all the old keris were welded up with meteorite for the high Ni layers. OTOH meteorite tends to be LOUSY STEEL; it's not well refined and often has to be worked quite a bit with good steel to make an acceptable material to use. Of course when you do work it at high temps you lose the Widmanstätten pattern. Finally if you think about it a while *all* steel on earth is ultimately derived from meteors

Much less likely than dropforged with a flash along the seam. Casting steel is *expensive* not to mention that cast steel is not the best grain structure for items that need steel over iron. (old time stuff some of the new cast steels are quite good).

How many horse power is that drill? You are converting power into metal deformation so if you want to compare what's available... My take---might work for repousee; but it's not a triphammer---shoot even a jackhammer doesn't make a good triphammer!

I don't know if Texas has an ABANA affiliate near you; but I will mention that the NM ABANA affiliate will have it's yearly conference in Las Cruces NM in February---a bit of a drive but conferences are light on the ground over the winter months! Thomas President SouthWest Artist Blacksmith Association, the ABANA Affiliate for NM

Many knifemakers don't want to risk the possibility of spring damage by using used automotive springs. HOWEVER a shop that makes springs can generally sell you the drops of KNOWN alloy, unused spring stock for scrap rate or slightly more. (One place would charge me a dollar a pound for beautiful stuff though---$10 would make a LOT of knives!) Also some shops that do conversion work on vehicles will junk brand new springs when they put on the conversion pack---Had a student who worked at a place that built EMT vehicles that would take brand new trucks and junk the springs with less than 10 miles on the odometer! If you can't get 1095 have you looked into W1 or W2?

I have a champion with the original low motor mount---cast iron bolted to the base of the frame. I'd worry about the motor/hammer pumping my sheetmetal roof and annoying the neighbors---I've noticed that the postvise bolted to one of the uprights---a stout utility pole buried 5' in the ground and 10 ' above the ground---can make an appreciable amount of noise.

When I lived in central OH and had a detached 1920's garage for a shop anything less than say 200 pounds was stored in the basement of the house and I would have to carry it out to the shop when needed. (2 break ins, nothing stolen though!) Out here I want to have a semi secure place for my tools; thus the sheetmetal walls and the roll up doors. Roll up doors were cheap, don't take up overhead space---important where chimneys may need to be installed in the interior of the shop and give me a lot of ventilation. As for pictures; picture this----4 stout utility poles set 5' into the earth and concrete poured around them on a 20x15' rectangle and that rectangle set 15' in front of the "old shop building"(also 20x30'). to the tops (10') of the utility poles are bolted 2 metal trusses going the 20' way that have a shallow peak and on the end of the old shop building angle iron has been bolted to the frame going up to mirror the truss shape and with angle iron bolted on top of that to make a 3rd mock truss. (Unfortunately the trusses were not the same rise and run as the old building) Now c shaped metal purlins have been run along the 30' length from the front of the structure until they tie into the old shop: 3 per each wall and 4 per each side of the roof. Next 3' wide sheets of blue propanel metal sheet are applied normal to the purlins save for where 2 pieces of fiberglass were placed on the roof over the "non forge" area for skylights. Not pretty but has "blacksmith vigor"! The soil out here is rated for direct casting of concrete on and it looks like the dirt is what will be the floor for the foreseeable future. Once I get the 2 roll up doors across the front of the structure I can move tools and equipment out there and expect it to stay there! I still hope to get a nice I beam to run across the tops of the outer poles to provide a lift point at the front of the shop and perhaps a lighter one for the second set of utility poles for lighter work. I'm also interested in putting a jib crane up inside (and outside for that matter!) Re brick floors: Back in the early 1980's I laid a side yard in bricks laid in sand over black plastic and I know we didn't have any problems with heave over several years of use. (Free bricks from local construction that would dump their leftovers illegally near to my place.) Using concrete on a brick floor would probably not be a good idea.

Shoot well worth the detour---maybe he'll have something else that's more in line---hammers, tongs, big pile of WI wagon tyres...and don't forget to leave your name and address. I bought a triphammer from an old farrier who "wasn't interested in selling it" till 3 days later he called and said "My wife has said I done been kicked in the head one too many times and I'm retired---come and get the hammer!"

No, forging hammers generally have more of a "free weight" blow. Screwpresses are more of an opposed force system (think of a hydraulic press, all you generally need is to deal with the weight of the system.)

Looks like a bad attempt to weld up the edge a bit closer to the horn than the break out part. Looks ready for failure. Sure isn't a $3 a pound anvil to me!

cast iron "splashes" at high forging heat.

Check for the presence of boron in the weld area. as borax is a commonly used flux nowadays that was not used then! Hmm I wonder if cosmic ray damage would be "healed" by dislocation climb at elevated temperatures and if so could you examine slag inclusions to see how much had built up---but now we're discussing things that may cost more than the piece does!

JDB; does that site make allowances for bending hot rather than cold?

Having melted mild steel with a propane forge I have to ask---how much hotter do you need?

Wow, some real "ranch anvils" there---ridge backed from working shoes cold on the edges and used till there was nothing left to use! Anvils came in all quality grades back in the day---just look at the 1900's Sears&Roebuck catalog re-prints; they are selling everything from re-branded HB's to cast iron ASO's However the cheap ones tend to wear out and go to the WW scrap drives while the good ones keep on going to show up nowadays what is called "an artifact of preservation" Also if you read the ads from 100+ years ago you will also see some anvil manufacturers offing anvil repair services where they will re-face old anvils, forge welding a new face on and re-heat treating. Only work for wrought iron anvils.

Except that real anvils don't necessarily ring!

Ah extrapolating from *one* to *all* is generally not a good idea. I would suggest you read up on corrosion of wrought iron in general. (Galvanic action is an important process!) Other things that can help "pit" is laying on a smokehouse floor on coarse salt from the flitches, condensation over long period of times, the quality of the wrought iron, large slag chunks can break up and fall out leaving a pit, smelting of wrought iron using coke rather than charcoal, (sulfur increases rusting). If you have a local university stop by the Materials Science department and ask for some coaching from their corrosion expert. If you are near central NM I can refer you to a great guy at NM Tech!

Except that those sizes are manufacturer specific---I have an old US made number two that is twice as big as one of the recently imported from India number 5's....(it is an H frame with a 42" flywheel) Giving numbers without the manufacturer is like giving dimensions without saying if they are english or metric.

As mentioned the old books on smithing advise you to round off the edges of a new anvil, a sharp edge can leave marks and cold shuts in your work. If you need a sharp edge I'd advise you to make a hardy tool with one, (in fact make it so you can rotate it and have access to other edges too, perhaps: sharp, 1/8"r, 1/4"r, 1/2"r....) I'd certainly advise you to use it a year before making any possibly damaging changes to it!

I'd buy that one at that price! Of course last Saturday I fitted a prosthetic hardy hole to my anvils that's missing the heel. Hmm I could weld them together and have a double long face with a horn and a heel!

What's the bottom look like?

It *is* cast; but it's cast STEEL not cast Iron. And yes there is another way if it's not weight stamped----calculate the volume and multiply by the density of steel. (weighing on a bathroom scale is easier...)