ThomasPowers

Actually "primitive" would have 5 or six folks around the forge it's only *modern* when we want to do it alone!

I've been smelting for over 15 years now and have never used a crucible. We use a short stack Scandinavian bloomery made from clay, sand and straw. Do you mean melting rather than smelting?

Where is "All of the above" got 5 anvils around the forge and they pretty much are pointing everywhere but up and down and sometimes they get tilted that way too. The preferred orientation is the one that works best for YOU and what YOU do and how YOU do it.

Yes, please give us more details!---Unless we know if it's cast iron, cast steel or steel over wrought iron (or cast iron) it's pretty hard to make suggestions---sort of like asking us how to fix your vehicle's engine without telling us if it's diesel or gas...

Anytime I can pick up a bull pin for $2 or less I get them, Spud wrenches too as they make nice bickerns.

I think you are confusing solid fuel forges with propane forges. Solid fuel forges are *open*. Propane forges are contained. Note that propane forges do NOT need heavy walls; I've seen a professional smith just wire a length of kaowool into a cylinder and shove a burner into that when he needed a large forge for a single job. Solid fuel forges are open so you can build the fire up and place large items on them for heating. Think of how you would heat the center of a 3' long 1" dia bar in your proposed forge---or a piece of a gate you need to tweak. Just because it's free doesn't mean it won't cost you more to try to convert it for use!

I'd stack the brick on the flat and skip the cement just put a good rim around the edge so they don't fall off. less cracking issues, less weight.

I use structural steel bull pins as drifts. They seem to last fairly well even with student's pounding on them.

For the traditional brine quench you were supposed to mix salt in the water till it would float an egg.

I bought quite a bit of smithing stuff at the school auctions when Columbus OH closed down their program around 10-15 years ago

I left six years ago and I was averaging a name brand anvil in great shape for under US$1 a pound every year at that time. Which was substantially under the going rate even then---my best buy was the 515# Fisher in mint condition for $350 found inside city limits! (Actualy through asking around at the South High Fleamarket---the one at the drive in.)

Well the one my friends made from a forklift tine; they cut off the top section with a couple of inches of the horizontal section and then had it welded to a RR fish plate allowing the holes in the plate to let you anchor it. Any chunk of good sized plate will work though.

Actually the vikings didn't use torches much, annealing in a small charcoal forge with a bellows is pretty easy though; it's the method I use at LH events.

A firm rather than sharp blow is what is needed. At least one demonstator welds billets using a hammer handle rather than a hammer to demonstrate this.

You would be much happier using chunk/lump charcoal as a forge fuel than damp wood... Have you read all the start up information already posted on this site? E-mail deprives all the other new folks of the benefit of the information and means the provider is spending their time on only 1 person. please keep it in the forum! If you live near central NM I would be happy to welcome you to the local ABANA affiliate, SWABA, and have you stop by my smithy during open forging sometime. Posting your general location might get you other such invites

From "Anvils in America" page 110 "This is conjecture on my part; but sometime around 1930 the Peter Wright changed to a true two piece anvil. That is they are without a face plate. I have recorded only 1 of these anvils and it was a farrier's model....Peter Wright did a wonderfull job of blending the face plate weld with the body and it is even hard to find the edge of the plate in many of the older ones." Does yours have the word England stamped in it? (as of about 1910) The pictures sure seem to indicate a plate to my eye---moreso than on my PW. Why so against it having one? Great anvil either way.

My bad that second picture the left back foot looks like a farrier's clip on the horn but looking at it carefully it's an optical. Sorry! Thomas

Trenton's were made in Columbus OH. I notice it's a farrier's version is the face wide enough for what you want to do? Anvils are not scarce in central OH. I used to buy one or two a year *cheap* when I lived in Columbus.

GiFerro, you need to be careful it doesn't melt. Do you have a gas forge of a solid fuel forge? If a gas forge make a little tray of stainless steel with the edges bent up so if the copper melts it's in the tray and can be easily removed. If a solid fuel forge (coal, coke, charcoal,...) You may want to insert a 5cm stainless pipe with one end crimped over into the fuel stack to make an oven to place the copper in for heating. Watch it as the stainless will degrade over time and need replacing before a hole is burnt in it. Expect to melt your piece several times before getting the right temperature *known* to your eye. Working in a very dark area can help as the top temp for copper is a very low glow usually only see-able in a dark room.

Why go to Japan when inlay of armour was highly developed in places like Milan in the Renaissance!

The steel face on the vulcan is generally thin so NEVER let anyone talk you into making it thinner by grinding or milling it "clean". It's a quiet anvil so good for in city and suburbia forging. One of the more common anvils for school shops back when schools had shops...

Roof FIRST you can always string a flood light out there and forge after dark...

*Just Look at the RUST* better ship that out here to *DRY* *NM* *immediately*; you can even let it sit in my shop till the humidity goes down in Atlanta... (it's dry If I can control my drooling)

Days when you are "off" are days to clean the shop! Much less frustration and when you get it together again you have a shop that's esier to work in.

We had 4 of my anvils out to my class Sunday at the college and did a lot of heavy work on the one on the tripod stand and found that it definitely flexed under the sledge more than the solid wood stands.