ThomasPowers

Here in the South West part of America we get a lot of newly cast anvils from Mexico that were cast from molds taken from antique anvils with no heat treat and of any alloy they had in the ladle when they finish a different run! They are easy to tell as the casting seam goes straight through the face, horn and body which of course Trentons, Hay Buddens, etc *NEVER* had. I expect to see ones that have been fettled, stamped and aged start showing up soon---the ballbearing test will become very important at the local auction!

I made a deal with the local scrappers when I lived in Columbus. I told them that anything I left in front of the shop doors was fair game for them and if they took anything in my scrap pile they were fair game for *me*---no season, no limits! We got along well and sometimes they would stop by and howdy or I would flag them down to get some stuff that didn't make it to in front of the doors yet. Out here in the country my shop is getting crowded as I'm not putting anything out in the expansion until it can be locked up tight and I can throw in a couple of rattlesnakes with their rattles cut off before I leave on trips...

Yes proper methods/rods for welding up damaged anvils has been covered about once a week for *years* here! I suggest you search on the topic and get ready for a lot of reading. I prefer Rob Gunter's method and have seen it used and how the results have held up for over a dozen years. Several ways folks go wrong: no preheat! Wrong alloy!---most hardfacing alloys are NOT what you want but folks seem to use them without checking them out first. And a big one---milling the face down; especially doing so without milling the base parallel to the face *FIRST*!

Dampness of the charcoal also seems to increase the amount of sparking or "forge fleas" as we call it.

I have run into a number of people to whom their way is THE ONLY WAY; EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING IT WRONG! This has lead me to tell my students that THERE IS ONLY *ONE* RIGHT WAY TO DO SOMETHING WHEN SMITHING---AND THAT IS: ANYWAY THAT WORKS! Hofi's attitude reminds me quite a lot of some of my German co-workers; you learn to ignore it a lot of the time. Actually I find it more annoying from other people; but converts are often stronger in their views.

I don't find your reasoning convincing: If post vises are such great tools how come there is only 1 company making new ones? I guess this means we will get rid of all our postvises now since they must not be that great! Manufacturing is not a sole indicator of worth. Probably the most common anvil sold in the USA is the HF 55# cast iron ASO. Is it the best? Would anyone switch out any of their old anvils for one of them since none of them are being made but the HF is? The most common brand of mechanical hammer here in the USA was not the *best* brand. However it was *cheap* and the manufacturer would sell them on time payments.

I'd guess that there were several thousand makers as pretty much every small foundry would have done some as requested and small foundries were *everywhere* 100+ years ago. Also very hard to date them as foundries tended to use the mold boards once made practically forever. Not unusual to see items with a patent date 50 years earlier than the date they were cast!

I have seen a lot of post vises with high prices because people researched and saw how much a *new* one costs and so they think that a used one should be just a bit under the price for a new one. They have no idea that an old used postvise is not a rare item and the used market is large and nowhere near as pricey as the new ones. Last QS I went to I counted over a dozen postvises for sale for $40.

Sounds like he might have a thin case hardened surface to it while heating so hot... Ti; gotta try that! Plain or alloy? (now to make some viking era strikers of Ti to go with my Ti penannular brooch...

ofafeather---are you placing your thumb on the top? I prefer to swing a powerhammer with a crane myself...

8-12 pound sledges for the "move @#$%^&" moments but even the smaller hammers can cause creep over several years---with an anvil that big I don't move it often and so creep becomes noticeable... When the shop extension gets finished off it will move out there onto a large chunk of wood set several feet into the floor and the 410# Trenton will be the "inside" anvil...

Those were probably the updated re-prints. Actually I have the ones from back in the late 70's and the new ones as well---you can recognize the old ones because they have big black fingerprints on the pages from standing over a forge with a book in one hand and a piece of stock in the other trying to figure things out!

I have a 515# anvil mounted on a large timber baulk. (18" wide by 8' long by thick enough to bring the 515# anvil to correct working height) I found that I had to "nail it down" to prevent it from moving when I was hammering. (all it took was 4 fence staples added along the side of the anvil, 2 per side.)

IR is "heat" radiation and so anything *HOT* is giving it off, the amount and so danger is proportional to the size and the temperature. As to skin well it's like having your arm exposed to a BBQ---if it's close and for a long time you are going to get a burn, not UV but just a hot item burn. I commonly forge in short sleeves and have never gotten an IR burn as I don't stick my bare skin close to hot metal and then leave it there!

while it's been damaged the face is very nice indeed and the horn is quite usable and the price is not bad either. Not horrific! Now if the face had delaminated and fallen off when the heel was broken and the horn had been torched a bunch *then* it would be horrific. As it stands I'd be happy to suggest that one to a starting smith! (looks rather mousehole-ish to me)

I regularly teach new folks on my equipment and cutting plates save a whole lot of death threats! Now what I prefer is to cut on a 2" thick slab mounted on a stump; but when I'm hauling 2 forges and 3-4 anvils and tools to teach the separate stump and slab usually stays home. I also like to chalk the "sweet spot" on the sides of the anvils as many of them don't seem to understand what will happen to them if I catch them using the sledge out on the thin heel *again*! "wasn't much info on the internet" There was information back in the newsgroup days back when rec.crafts.metalworking was all there is before the rfp for blacksmithing sub group. I managed to find two books back in the late 70's Weygers "Modern Blacksmith" and "Decorative and Sculptural Ironworkwork" I still have the copies I bought over 30 years ago...

No just the iron oxide forge scale. Oil Quench crud isn't cleaned off with vinegar. Degreaser and abrasion mostly are used for it.

Makes me happy I shipped so much of it to NM when I moved!

See the markings on that anvil standing proud of the side---it's cast. However you are right I should have said "that vintage of Brooks"

May I comment that having a place to put hot metal that is not the floor is a handy thing in itself? And "the drill chips crushing to dust in your fingers" is all the nails it's coffin needs!

Now Now; I too am a Thomas, and offer a retirement ranch and home for wayward anvils here in New Mexico, where they can spend their days in the company of other anvils resounding to the sound of the hammer on hot metal on them! I don't even charge for the service though donations are always welcome! For wayward anvils I can show them the wall of shame and hope to scare them back into good behavior!

What; nothing in "The Complete Bladesmith, The Master Bladesmith, The Pattern Welded Blade" all by James Hrisoulas gave good info on heat treating when you ILL'd it at your local library? Or to put it another way "proper" research is more than just using the internet. I've met quite a few people who seem to have a problem understanding that several hundred pages of a book written by a known authority on a subject cannot be substituted by a web page or two written by *anyone*! We get a lot of folk who are totally clueless putting up pages on "How to Do X" when they have done it maybe once (and poorly at that). When students tell me "But I saw 'it' on the net"; I generally tell them "Give me half an hour and I'll have a webpage up claiming that they are the love child of Elvis and an alien creature".(which may, in fact. be true for some of them...) So I strongly suggest you go to the local public library and if they don't have a copy of "The Complete Bladesmith"; go ask at the desk about Inter library Loan. Read the section on alloys and heat treating and I'd bet you will have a much better idea of the hows and whys involved. Where the internet excels is when you have a question about your reading/research and can get answers from a range of people with *experience*. I live in a small town in New Mexico; but with ILL I can get books from 90+ other libraries including several universities and it costs me US$1 per book! Its a great way to pre-view books I may want to buy or to get hold of books that can't be found for sale! (even on the internet...)

The terminal flare should *NOT* create back pressure. It's function is to drop the pressure to where the flame propagation speed just equals the gas speed at some point in it---why it's generally tapered so there is a range of pressure/speeds in it.

I thought that Brooks were not 2 part anvils but single unit cast steel? Old tools have always had the divide between "collectors" and "users"; however even a lot of the "users" decry "malicious" destruction of a rare item---but have no problem with restoration and *use*. I have a steeled WI hammer head I picked up out of the mud under a scrap pile in England that I estimate to be over 150 years old. I cleaned it up, stuck a handle in it and *use* it---but I don't let my students use it as clumsy hammering on a hard faced anvil would be abuse of booth tools! I have an 1828 William Foster anvil missing the heel and 90% of the face. I bought it to: 1 recycle the last bit of documented 1828 steel into a Fur Trade era knife and 2 to try to repair it in the traditional manner and then to *use* it. I don't have enough room in the shop to "collect" tools!

You moght look over some of the neo-tribal forges as I recall one with a closed top made from adobe used by a smith part of that group. He said it used less fuel. as I recall.