ThomasPowers

Almost all the plumbing is not where it will get hot enough that the galvanization is an issue. Only the floor flange and last nipple may have issues in a typical set up. (anything below the bottom of the forge floor should be OK.) Yes chemical removal of the galvanization should be sufficient.

Did you read the test instructions over at Anvilfire? If using a controlled test you don't get a proper rebound then that anvil is *not* suitable for smithing.

Frosty; haven't you seen that australian pair of steel toed flip flops?. Made me think about making some duck bills for my sandals...

Fishers have a thick tool steel plate that the body of the anvil is cast onto. Sometimes you can see the transition on the sides of the anvil; but as many ASOs were cast to appear as if they have a steel plate you have to be careful. The ball bearing test is explained in detail over at anvilfire on their 21st century page under Anvils, Testing Rebound with examples of previous tests. My main shop anvil is a 515#'r from a blacker hammer and I wouldn't sell it even for 10 times what I paid for it!

Like he said you would have to check for the presence of a tool steel plate. If it has the plate you can run the ball bearing test to make sure it hadn't been through a fire and if good then Fishers are a great anvil. My main shop anvil is a Fisher---515# which is why I was a bit surprised by the quality of the casting on that one. (I also live in NM where we see re-casts of old anvils coming in from Mexico on a regular basis)

Looks almost like it was a casting made from a Fisher. All the fishers I have seen have a higher level of finish than that does and the defects look like those you get casting a cast.

Wow that last one! Colonial, pre 1820's at least. 200 pounds---large for that time/place with a nice pike and under US$1 a pound I'd probably try to buy that one if I was close!

I made some of those about 10 years ago; but generally I cut off the hammer head poll, makes them lighter and for an axe I don't care if it's "balanced". Nice project for when you don't want to light up the forge but are willing to grind! It was my forge kindling hatchet until I forged a hatchet by bending double a farrier's rasp and forge welding it into a light camp hatchet.

I went out at lunch and looked over an anvil Cast iron with a definite steel face on it (not a casting to look like a plate added to it). By a maker I hadn't heard of ROCO with 100 cast proud---weight in pounds. Format rather like a Vulcan. In mint looking shape save that the face was bowed, looks to me to have happened during manufacture. Face is too thin to flatten it too. Fellow wanted $50 for it and I passed and a friend of mine bought it to replace his HF ASO Anybody else ever run into one of these? I had thought that the Fisher/Vulcan technique had been long gone.

At one of the IronMasters Conferences I met an industrial archeologist whose area of interest was the early nail making machines and how the technology progressed until we got the modern wire nails. Also the Sagus Ironworks ibe if America's first had a major business in making nail rod and had a very early use of a rolling and slitting mill---cutting edge at the time!

You need to fill it enough to provide a deep (but not very wide) fire for the project you are working on: 1" sq stock will need a lot more than 1/4" sq stock. You wanrt to be able to shove the stock in a neutral part of the fire. How it's being blown will make a difference too!. To light I usually throw a bit of kindling in the forge, get that burning and then add charcoal and air.

Are you using one of the high tech punch lubes to help squirt the material up? What does your pre-form look like>

I vote for Zerubbabel; keep him differentiated from every other "new kid"...

How long can coal be stored? Several hundred million years if stored properly. Coal usually "goes bad"by having bad stiff get mixed into it---gravel, dirt, dust, etc. If you have a sealed storage facility the problem is usually only the degradation and failure of the holder---picking chunks of plastic out of your coal cause the garbage can rotted isn't a lot of fun. Sealed as cats seem to like to poop in your coal; such an amusing smell when used...

Lead anchors? Most cranes I have seen are pretty much inside the fireplace and will reach quite warm temps---least ways if they build fires like I do!

Massive Barrel manufacturer in Lebanon MO, I hear they give tours

This fuller uses 5/8" spring stock forging a full spring fuller from it would be possible but a lot more time. One "grace note" to it is that instead of having the swing arm just bolted to the upright it has a die spring mounted on the bolt and also the piece of stock for the swing arm extends past the mounting point leaving a place so that I can bump it with the hammer to leave the swing arm up making it easy to place the workpiece in and then the arm travels down easily under the first hammer blow. It also extends slightly beyond the bottom piece too so I can just lift it up with the stock from that end as well. Guillotine fullers work well too but most I have seen you have to lift the die to get the work in and it gets hot fast. There is also the trouble of getting oddly shaped pieces in---say you want to fuller a spot on a ring. Easy on a swing arm Hard on a guillotine. Of course in the best of all possible worlds you would have both and use the one that's best for the job on hand! I mainly use mine for blade/tang junctions and chili peppers...

I'm trying to remember how we did it when repairing a 400#'r with air arch gouging and crush injuries. One method was to build a kaowool surround and use a weed burner for preheat and then remove that when up to temp and weld in place and then replace the insulation for postheat/cooldown

I ran into Tremont when I had a 100+ year old house and took old house journal and then was called in to consult for a group that were using their product as rivets on a viking boat construction project---they needed to anneal them softer for riveting and were having an issue doing so. (needed more hot mass to slow cooling down. I heated them in groups and left them in the gas forge at the end of the day to cool overnight) Anyone remember the WSJ article on a buggy whip manufacturer that was running 3 shifts trying to cover the demand that harness racing was creating? (Buggy Whip companies were one of the standard examples on businesses that were out of business when outmoded by technological change.) I do think that focusing on smithing would be a good idea as most of use probably have different religious and political beliefs and I'm sure that someone here would think that the local electrical co-op down here is doing a great job...

Please note that most shop floors are not level and flat so be prepared to shim after doing all this work. Also the stump may shift when drying if you started with green wood. If your stump is stable where you will be using it I would just level the top or even just rout out the anvil base shape into it's top level and flat. Or my method for outside or dirt floored shops---pick up the stump and slam it back down till the top is level. My old shop has a nice level concrete floor but when I take the anvils over to Tech to teach they need to be shimmed on the concrete floor over there.

sand bag over the non-working end, inner tube strips wrapped tight around it. cast in concrete, etc...

If anything annealing promotes grain growth it's normalization that draws grain size down. Now I personally would not do step 3 an anneal right before a normalize??? I would also not continuously restart the triple normalization count. Perhaps if the first one came out helical I'd restart the count but after that the tweaks should be quite minor. Also the industrial standard is to draw temper 1 hour per inch of thickness, 2 hours for something less than 1/4" is a bit much. In fact it's generally the cycle that does the work so cycling it up and down another time would probably do more than to let it sit at temp longer. I draw temper 3 times without much of a sitting period. What testing will you do? After all it doesn't matter how you do heat treat as long as you get the RESULTS you want.

Mike next time I re-gauge a regulator I'm going to have it set up for 1-11! Just don't take up the drums as there is too high of a turn over rate! Good Point too. If you stick a piece of 2.5" sq stock in your forge it sucks a heck of a lot more heat out than a piece of 1/4" sq. When I teach the beginners with their 1/4" pieces use the aspirated forge and the advanced class with their larger stock use the blown forge.

Tremont nail makes cut nails and has a lively business selling them on the historical restoration market. You can see their adds in the Old House Journal and other of that ilk. http://www.tremontnail.com/ (Their building was damaged in the war of 1812 and by several fires afterwards and is still going!)

All the anvils in my Harem are over the age of consent! Save for the little one SP made for me, it takes a higher stump too.... IIRC from AiA the early trenton's were made elsewhere and Trenton sold them under their name before they set up their own anvil manufacturing factory in Columbus. Interesting to think that Ohio had 3 separate makers of anvils back in the day: Arm and Hammer (NOT VULCAN!), Colombian and Trenton.