ThomasPowers

Vulcans are a cast iron anvil with a comparatively thin steel face on it as such they do not react to punishment as well as a traditionally made anvil will. So even if they "look large" that face is thinner than a much smaller anvil made in the traditional way and so should be downgraded in weight of hammer used on it. Historically there are several factors: In earlier times using real wrought iron it was worked at white heat and so being very soft you didn't need as heavy a hammer to work it and less force was generated on the anvil as deformation used more of it. Remember too that a smith could very well reforge a small anvil back into shape. As to how long between doing so---how good is the smith and strikers, what are they making? How much of it? Out of what?---harder alloys will degrade the tooling faster. Also anvils were a "consumable" if you look in 19th century blacksmithing journals you will find adds to send in your anvil and get it refaced and trued back up. Ads will also make claims that their anvils won't sag under heavy work like "others' anvils" will. Finally if you visit the Roman museum in Bath England you will see a lovely example of an anvil from that time---a steel cube where the face has mushroomed making it a gentle curve now. Very usable still.

"working the crowd" is a demo skill just like being able to draw out a fine even taper. Asking about tools will sometimes pay off; I ask if they would like to learn to use them or have any they would be willing to sell to someone who will put them to good use. When I get tired and crabby with idiots I know it's time to take a break. Having your patter already to hand wioll allow you to answer a lot of common comments eg: "Do you shoe Horses" "Only if they get too close---shoo shoo" or "Horses are bigger than I am and dumber than I am and that's just too scary for me to deal with!"

What about a differential temper with the face ending up the hardest point?

RedHot, I've apprenticed under a swordmaker and visited swordmaking shops in 5 countries and never came across a long anvil being used for swordmaking. Where have you done so? Largest flat face I have seen in use was used by a 5th generation blacksmith to true up plowpoints after "resharpening".

The problem with experience vs theory is that folks often ascribe what happens when they do something to a completely erroneous explanation. So what they experience is real; what they say caused it can be very off indeed! (exp "crystalization" causing parts failures; especially common as parts with larger crystals are more likely to fail than finer ones...and so folks invert the cause and the effect)

Bigger anvils were often for "professional" or industrial shops and so were seen as tools to be modified to help do the job. I've seen several with odd machining to hold specialized jigs. Not a new thing as we all know of the various designs like a chainmaker's anvil, or coachbuilder's anvil which is the same sort of thing but done in the "factory" producing the anvils.

Anvils do make a difference both in size and in rebound. My demo anvil is a 93# Arm and Hammer, (not vulcan!), and I sure can tell the difference between how tired I get doing the same exact projects on it and on my shop anvil a 500# Fisher. If you don't have experience on various anvils it's really hard to say that the one you are using is the best one for you. I've read quite a few amazed wows from folks switching from a HF ASO to a HB, PW, Trenton, A&H, etc...

Unfortunately the press numbers are not necessarily correlated with force generated with all brands of flypress; my Hopkins #2 H frame stands about 7' tall with a 42" torus on top. Generates way more than 2 tons of force; of course it's about 60 years old now too.

Dang you take a long weekend from the net and this sort of thing happened. Any one in contact who can ask Deb what we can do to help? Thomas

Build your charcoal fire as usual and start adding the coke to it after it gets going good. Remember that coke needs a constant air flow or it will go out on it's own----even during a short work period at the anvil in some cases!

Was this a london pattern anvil or just a block of steel or RR track? If a London Pattern anvil it may have been a Farrier's model with a very narrow face. Did it have a clip on it or a large swelled horn? I traded off a 190# Hay-Budden Swell Horned Farrier's anvil in Ohio about 20 years ago.

You can use copper or brass rod or even go fancy! I know a lot of folk who use brazing rod. Been knifemaking about 29 years now and have never used a flypress for riviting---a hammer seems to work fine for me. Some delicate materials folks don't even swage the ends of the rivets but coat them with epoxy and gently push them in place.

Well my guess is that they are doing their layering very clean and even and so they can use a foredom or similar tool to carve the structure. I don't think there is really much manipulation of the material involved just topographic relief carving.

It's a vulcan, it's not a farrier's anvil, (wrong shape, no clip), and a good price would depend totally on where you are at; but 175 euros is way too much. OTOH 175 Dinar would be a great buy on that anvil!

That MEN article is way overkill I'd suggest you build a more portable variety unless you *know* you are going to be in the same place for life! Remember that when working on a sword you only need to heat as much as you can hammer before it gets cold. Heating any more than that is doing damage to the material---scale losses, decarburization and grain growth for example. So even making a large sword you don't need that big a forge. The only time you do need a sword length forge is during heat treat and a simple trench forge dug in the back yard can do for that. Remember you will probably want to work on knives for a while before going to swords so start out building a knife forge.

Too Much; I've know one fellow have his anvil fail in cold weather and that's one too many for me. Hard to forge on an anvil that cold too---one good hammer smack and it's time to reheat the piece. Do yourself a favour and preheat the anvil till at least warm to the touch!

Case hardening a file would be a trifle like gilding a lily! Already very high carbon; adding more won't get you much if anything!

I recently was working 2.5" square stock down using a 100# LG and a 500# Chambersburg That's really heavy stock and I would have profited by having a chain hoist to help hold it while working on it.

I'd be worried about damage to the heat tape during forging use.

Definitely do a differential temper and if you plan to use it a lot don't make it too heavy! Edge would be based on how you plan to use it: Heavy chopping---secondary bevel, light slicing longer bevel fading into the sides. Then uise it and figure out what you want to change on the *next* one!

MVisser: Rudyard Kipling of course see "Cold Iron" at this site for the complete poem: http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/kipling_ind.html

We did our smelts as part of an annual campout and so only ran once or twice and then tore it down till next year when we rebuilt it.

Hog is much stronger fertilizer, usually you have to "cool it down" to keep from burning up things---like chicken manure. However in a forge you are wanting the cellulose content *not* the nitrogen content and so you don't want the "hotter" fertilizers but the more grassy ones...

I disagree---he wants to do it *right* and that's a beautiful thing itself! So helping him is much better than telling him it's OK IMNSHO. What steel did you make it from? (blades can lighten up by as much as 50% in the stock removal phase so you are not too far from the "sweet spot")

What he said! Landlords can be quite irate about folks making their properties toxic waste dumps and if you own it freehold it really lowers the re-sale value---often to a negative number!