ThomasPowers

B'kilt: First stop right there and think!---most of the world forges on things that do not look anything like a London pattern anvil---why do you have to have one? Next start looking for anvils that are not anvils. I've done good work on a broken train car knuckle---it had a flat place and a curved place, didn't dent and was FREE! Neotribal knifemakers have popularized using a chunk of large square stock set in a bucket of concrete as their anvils---I've seen a $900 knife that was made on one of those!. If you are near a coast line I *KNOW* that there are some hefty pieces of steel around there somewhere! Honest Bob demo's at SOFA meetings using a section of metal shaft about 1 foot in diameter by 6" wide---his stump is carved to hold it on the flat or on the curve so he can draw faster with it. Even A36 will work with hot steel and have the advantage that you can simply grind off your learning mistakes leaving a clean surface. (some folks are now selling these "bladesmith's anvils" of heat treated alloy steels now!) If you are into the "romance" of the anvil; well the london pattern as we know it didn't show up till about the last 100 years of the prime smithing period. Japanese swords were made on an anvil that looks like a retangular chunk of steel---much like sawyers anvils look like. (any logging done in the past out that way?) Shoot I know a fellow who started forging using a granite cobblestone as an anvil So start thinking out of the london pattern box---it's the *practice* and *skills* that makes one a smith not the tools! (I once did a pattern welding demo using a claw hammer and a piece of rr rail the forge being a sheetmetal firepot welded up to hold charcoal from old bonfires; didn't have any problems welding up a damascus billet!)

I've melted a small terra cotta pot in my forge trying to use it as an enamelling kiln. I'd look at cheap stainless steep pots over pottery!

Yes blacksmithing is so much more expensive; why I built a complete beginner's out fit, forge, blower anvil and basic tools for under US$25! Sure to blow the budget! It wasn't a bad set up either I used it as my billet welding forge for several years. Also 15 minutes at the anvil can save you an hour at the grinder and is a lot more fun. So get over to the public library and ILL "The Complete Bladesmith" by Hrisoulas or dig out Tim Lively's neo tribal knife forging video on how to forge great blades using minimal "modern" tooling. If you are basing your work on what shows up in places like You-Tube you are probably shooting yourself in the foot! Though we did ridicule one fellow who posted such a bad "this is how you make knives" video that it got removed---very unsafe and generally wrong! (as a new person how will you separate the wheat from the chaff at places like that?)

Anything after 1600 is *modern*; as my primary focus is pre Y1K we usually go with 1: nothing, 2: Beeswax applied and then heated to soak in and then burnished/buffed 3: one of the drying oils like linseed oil, walnut oil, etc. (note using the old versions maye require extra work to get them to polymerize, sunlight helps!). Now for bone/ivory sifted wood ashes applied with a little water and then shoeshined with a strip of woolen cloth can get you a finish folks will swear is buffed with a powered buffer (Theophilus mentions this in Divers Arts written circa 1120 AD.)

Nice hefty horizontal mill? They were giving one away on craigslist out here over last weekend!

I would not be surprised if both were in common usage in various locations as I believe the term predated the codificatrion of spelling. Some people do get all excited I've been dinged for using colour, honour, etc before; both standard spellings of the words in certain locations. (and I had to drag out the OED to show an english grad student that fewmets was a word and so he could not take off for me using it in a paper!)

I've always had sterling wedding rings and when my hands get bigger I take them off and slip them onto a tapered drift pin and plannish them larger as they wear out we replace them. It's the *thought* that counts...

Brand???? every smith I know has made their own; often out of coil spring. Also look into slitting and drifting if you need to make a large hole like the eye for a hammer head. If you have a treadle or triphammer short punches with wire handles work good. (and you can use high alloy tool steel like S7 or H13 that work great but tend to be expensive by the pound...) If you will be holding it in your hand, tall punches help keep your hand from getting burned from IR. I have made some S1 punches that I have two sets of tongs that will hold an indent on them very securely. May I suggest *ANY* basic blacksmithing book as a source on instructions on how to punch holes. If your local library doesn't have any books on blacksmithing ask them to ILL some!

Way too beat up for that top dollar price WHERE IT'S AT: LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION! Price can vary by a factor of 2 depending on location with the midwest being the low point. If you can go to Quad-State in September you could have your pick of a bunch of better anvils for that same price!

Shoot I once judged a sword made from a leaf spring a fellow had shot off a truck with his tank...Hofi makes drifts from the tungsten tank penetrators found in the israeli desert; you should have access to good stuff too... Even if you can't get forge time you can spend some off hours reading up on things! Welcome and THANKS!

A.G.Russell once was tired of folks telling him how sharp their pocket knives were and flattened an Al beer can, bent it double and flattened it again and then honed it till it would shave. It just wouldn't hold an edge long enough to be useful. I have a lovey cut on my leg where the flashing from an end of an abrasively cut A36 piece laid me open like a razor; but I couldn't peel an apple with it. You can put an edge on an inferior knife; but is it worth the effort! I've seen belt grinders used to put the edge on 40" sword blades without problems with the temper and I've seen a lot of chisels detempered on a grindstone; skill is often more important than having fancy tools! (And a belt grinder can grind wood, non-ferrous metals, plastics etc where a grindstone won't!)

Kendrick that lathe is absolutely worth messing with or absolutely *not* worth messing with depending on the type of stuff you do and if a lathe could help. For knifemaking it would be a great help to make fittings. For general ornamental iron work it might not be. Asking us this question without giving details is pretty futile.

Bob; do you own that brand? ("Rocking H") If you don't you may not want to use something that someone else owns!

Yes and *everyone* knows that the civil was was 1641-1651 or was that the one 1936-1939? (though I hold out for that little to do between Stephen and Maude in the 12th century...) As for historical dress---anything not modern must be historical right? Might be interesting to show up at a "celtic" event wearing a poodle skirt; but I'd worry about their sense of humour....(though there is nothing like smithing in a tunic and bare feet to keep you light and lively and concentrating on where the hot steel or scale is going!)

Case Orange is getting to a good temp to forge at!

Totally depends on the coal. Coal I used to buy in OH I never used water on. Coal I get out here in NM I keep in a bucket full of water. It does seem to help it coke better. I don't know about slower or less smoke but it does aggregate into coke chunks better when it's wet.

A medium to high carbon steel; there is even one smith who has his anvils cast from a high alloy steel---H-13! Remember when looking at prices to factor in the heat treat cost---if you are going to pay for good steel you should go ahead and have it hardened!

I don't think it is a trap; it lets you compare anvils that are of the same relative merit but differ in weight. If you have 2 anvils of the same "value" and same price then the one that weighs more is most likely the better deal!

I finished my first maille shirt in 1981 so I have a couple of years in the craft myself.

So what did spark testing your pickaxe head indicate on the carbon content? I was trimming the mushrooming of the head of a hot cut over the weekend and it must have be 100 point as it was positively fizzing with bursty sparks---my contribution to the 4th of July fireworks! Bentiron1946; I picked up some old long sledge heads, one was an old spike driver and the other may have been a drilling hammer, that I plan to make stakes from by heat shrinking/riveting /welding steel shafts through the eyes and make medieval armouring stakes.

The older anvils generally had the face made up of several high carbon pieces forge welded on side by side. Yours had a weld failure but just for one plate.

uhhh; those limited-oxygen atmospheres for thousands of years were all direct method and not retort though. Retort takes less skill and produces a very clean out put. Direct method takes more skill and watching but is easier to manage for large ammounts of wood

Gotta watch the large bearing races as many of them are case hardened mild steel. Patrick was a metallurgist for Timkin and can probably still quote chaper and vers on what they used if he wanders by..

Once you get the billet welding down (and have a harem of powerhammers like Pep does) then making pattern welded stuff becomes fun! I've made a pattern welded pizza cutter and am working on a pattern welded spangen helm. Some of my hammers have pattern welded wedges---gotta do something with the ends of a billet that get trimmed off! My favorite whimsy is Billy Merritt's (sp?) pattern welded railroad spike.

Putting a 55 gallon drum over a vise will probably *increase* the rusting as it will hold/increase condensation on it.