ThomasPowers

One angle looks to still be intact, a 120 degree swage?

I'd look into draw filing that blank before going to abrasives! Lots of work to be don *before* heat treat!

Note that the "Knives" annuals are not the magazine as they come out only once a year! The real titles are "Knives 2009", "Knives 2008", "Knives 2007", "Knives 2006",...,"Knives 1981" I took Knives magazine starting with issue 2 but dropped it after they started doing a lot of production knife articles and have not looked at it lately. The Knives Annuals are a great 1 stop what's going on in the knife world resource.

Actually the terms bronze and brass are so terminally muddled commercially these days that they are not used for specifics and are often lumped into "copper based alloys" You can find brasses with tin and bronzes with zinc and weird admixtures like silicon bronze or Be Bronze You pretty much have to get a spec to see what you actually have and even then mix-ups in the storeroom have happened!

Both are great brands, (A&H was made in Columbus OH, Fisher in NJ) Fisher's are quiet anvils without a lot of ring and so are a joy to use indoors or in thickly settled neighborhoods. A&H should ring like a bell and should be muted in use---unless at a demo where the ring will bring in folks from far away---wear earplugs!. Both of them are on the small end of things so please don't abuse them with heavy hammers and large stock.

A good source for oddball weapons is "Stone's Glossary" and for what is going on out in the blade world are the "Knives" annuals.

The serial number would be on the front of the foot underneath the horn and they often suffer from rusting there.

How did you temper after quenching them? Also normalizing *after* quenching would remove the heat treat for the edge. Are you using the jargon correctly? Generally you: Normalize x [1-3], Harden(heat & quench) and then Temper x [1-3]

The mounting holes and "clunky look" are indicative of a Fisher anvil, doe it have a loud ring or more of a thwap sound when you hammer on it? Fishers are a GREAT ANVIL and particularly good for working indoors or in thickly settled areas.

The lams in a large transformer are a pretty pure iron with just a bit of silicon added---probably much purer than wrought iron!

Well sorry to burst your bubble but it is a pretty common design out in the larger world. Try to make things better than other folks and ignore trying to be *first*. I was at the knifemaker's guildshow once and met a fellow who was big on being the first one to do a certain thing who was disappointed to find out that there was an example from the renaissance in a museum and published in the "Arms and Armour Annual, Vol 1".

What does the *bottom* look like? HB's have a slight rim that follows the edge---on old ones this can be worn nearly flat. It's very indicative of an HB if there is signs of this "hourglass" rim.

As much as we have in our drinking water out here?

We once had a guest preacher at church that was a bit more "Hell-Fire and Brimstone" that is usual for us. During his sermon he said that when we were tempted to do something we should turn our heads and sniff because we'd probably smell a whiff of sulfur smoke from the devil standing behind us. My wife burst out laughing because as she later told us that this had happened to her several times; but it was always *me* standing behind her and smelling like coal smoke...

Remember that part of that edge is high carbon steel and part of it is cast iron unless you are really good as a welder and use all the right pre and post heats and rods you are more likely to do more damage than to repair it.

Too hot! the barely perceptibly red is in a dark room with NO lights; out side that will be hundreds of degrees hotter---even "in the shade"!

There was a big to-do about "native crafts" after WWI as a part of the rise in nationalism in the 20's and 30's. A side effect was that many things soon to be lost were well documented even if some of them had a slant to the reporting. Thanks for the links! (and I agree that these were undercranked)

It looks like a cast iron anvil with a steel face----like a Vulcan and if so will *not* ring in use, rust or no rust. The face may be quite thin so don't remove any of it!

The indentation on the bottom following the edge of the anvil is a HB marker!

Forging is changing the cross section of a piece of metal by force---either by hammer, drop forge, etc. No steel blades are "cold forged"! They are often stock removal---done while cold--but not "forged". As was mentioned you need to know the alloy to do a proper heat treat. If you don't know what alloy it is you need to take a piece(s) of it and experiment in heat treating to see if it is an alloy you can heat treat to the specs you want. Note this will generally take quite a bit of time and equipment; enough so that you could have probably mowed lawns and bout a *good* sword to start with. If you want to learn; start by making knives either by forging or stock removal.

Just something some owner has carved in the side. It's a good idea to mark your anvils for ownership---I've had a 200#'r stolen before. I mark mine on the bottom though less chance of a their removing the mark...

I've taught freely for the last 25+ years; *never* had problems with someone doing me out of business. I have had folks send business my way and have sent business their way when they would be better suited for it.

LOTS of different steels are used for mower blades, some good for knifemaking, some not very good. You need to test each one! I have a student who works on grounds for a local university. He was thinking he was in hog heaven with all the commercial lawn mower blades he got when they were thrown out. Unfortunately they wouldn't harden even in brine! OTOH I've seen good blades made from some lawn mower blades before.

What does farming have to do with it? My best anvil deals were made in the city---Columbus Ohio. Old factories, (glass making and sugar refining for example), even old car repair places used to have smithies---even old hospitals; I once talked with a fellow who had been an orthopedic smith in WWII. You can be really surprised where anvils can crop up---there was one out in the desert by an old cable tool drilling rig hear at NM Tech University, (now on loan to the Fine Arts Metals department)

Do you already have the skills? Blacksmithing, welding, design, selling, accounting, managing others? Do you already have the equipment? Welders, powerhammers, forges, etc? Do you have a location where it is legal to run a smithing business? Do you have health insurance coverage? Many small businesses are one accident away from total bankruptcy! First thing I tell folks wanting to go into smithing is that they should go to college and take all the art and business administration courses they can! Also got to tech school and get a firm foundation in welding. If you don't know how to work the tax system you are throwing money away! Remember you should not start a business without about a 2 years supply of money! So my suggestion at your current state? Do you have any skills that you could use working for a going blacksmithing concern? Work a couple of years for someone learning the trade and the ins and outs and building up equipment before going on your own.