ThomasPowers

Be traditional! wipe everything down with linseed oil for tools that will not be used often. Handles as well as heads!

Ductile will be stronger than gray cast iron.

Generally old swage blocks are not marked by the maker and even if you can match it up to one in an old catalog it's quite possible that the engraving in the catalog was reused from a different one. It's only the modern ones that we tag with things like a Yeater swageblock or a salt fork swageblock so we can differentiate when we talk about them. How to use it? You use it with or without top swages when you need the forms it has. I don't use mine much as I have made or found swages for my anvil that are the forms I use most often---but it's a lifesaver when you need a form for a quick one off project. You are very lucky to find that one---now chain it to something immovable before it walks off too! I had my first anvil stolen 200# from my back yard in OKC about 28 years ago and I'm still mad about that!

I don't think the blowers for most of the yard displays are rated for a very long life making them more expensive if you have to replace them regularly.

Generally I don't buy a vise with a worn screw; but for most folks they won't wear one out in their lifetime.

I like old cold chisels and star drills as stock for new chisels and punches---and knives. I try to buy finishing stuff getting a good knotted wire wheel for a buck sure beats the store prices! Lets see today I picked up a Al clipboard with Al cover handy not to have your sketches collect forge welding flux and immolate! Rags, gas tanks for bells & dishing forms, old hatchets to re-work, spud wrenches to make into bics; old adjustable wrenches to make into twisting wrenches, old calipers to transfer distances onto hot steel, old carpenter's squares to make hook rules for hot steel out of, trashed socket chisels to make arrow/spearheads from, Files for knives and filing---look for a file card too!, Misc unplated or coated scrap metal at a rate cheaper than buying it new. Ballpeens to forge into tomahawks and handled punches, aloe plant to have handy to the forge..., old beer keg for quench tank, Shelves for the shop, lights for the shop, cheap solvents, cheap paint, deer antlers for knife handles, silver, babbit, lead, copper, old revereware pots you can replace the handles with basket handles for camp cooking.....if you look long enough you can find most anything including sharkskin for knife handles and human bones---laboratory skeleton parts. Oh yes a plastic squid to lurk in the bottom of your quench tank *very* *important*. (You are supposed to age your own disreputable hat rather than cheating by buying one already well on it's way) Thomas

I have the console for one of our test systems in my office. A notable pen absconder went to the stationary supply and bought an entire box of pens and put it by the console so he would always have a pen to hand and never steal one of mine!

May I suggest that instead of you asking everyone else to do the work for you; you make use of the search function to find the many postings already available on them.

yup I once traded a bucket of ballpeen hammers to another smith who couldn't find any where he was at. Of course some of the dealers at the fleamarket get miffed when they find out that I will generally buy any ballpeen hammer head at a dollar or less but won't go a penny higher. They seem to think that as I must have a use for them they can jack the price up not realizing that once you have enough of them you can afford to wait till a cheap one turns up. One of my favorite hammer buys was an old hammer of interesting shape that the dealer had re-handled and wanted a pretty penny because it "had a new handle". He had done such a bad job putting the handle in that I pulled it out and handed it back to him and asked "how much for just the head"?

If you have students sharing a forge and anvil; try to have them work from opposite sides of the anvil so they are not in each other's way when hot steel is traveling.

You can see the bolt holes for the missing jaw insert in one of the pictures

Straight peen or cross peen, with nice wide curve peens: ( not > ; starting out 2 pounds is generally a good weight. I strongly suggest getting used cheap hammers and learning how to handle them yourself.

I pick them up at the fleamarket when I can get them for US$1; boy I love rust!

Note that LP and Natural Gas will require different hole sizes.

A 5 gallon pail of coal will usually last me 1-2 days of foging depending on if I'm welding or just doing little work. Can you get a foot switch for your blower so it's only on when you have steel in the forge---makes a big difference! Also new folks tend to use too much air wasting a lot of fuel doing so.

What dos the bottom look like HB has a very different indent than Trenton!

Well the caplet depression means it's NOT an HB! Unfortunately I'm headed out of town after work and can't get to Anvils in America till Sunday most likely

You really want a larger anvil even if it's just a piece of fork lift tine. Makes forging so much easier. Generally you want a 50:1 anvil weight to hammer weight so you're off by a factor of 10---the wrong way!

Trenton or Arm and Hammer---can you see the powerhammer marks on the bottom side of the heel? Arm and Hammer typically didn't dress the underside of the heel....

Iron tannates do protect from rust a bit but won't provide much protection under severe duty conditions

Look for a motor rated for continuous duty and with windings not open to the air as shop air tends to be hard on motors. TEFC, Totally Enclosed, Fan-Cooled, would be nice.

EDM would work a treat and only be a couple of times more expensive than getting one made by a pro...

Leg vise is likely to be a columbian due to: no faceting on the legs and shape of the terminus of the screwbox---I'm assuming it's open on the end... However folks usually don't care much about post vise makes

May be a trenton as they did serial numbers on left foot when facing horn IIRC.

Ask your gas company what is supplied in water column units. This is really between you and them after all.