Bentiron1946

Nice looking old shop. http://www.transueblacksmith.org/Home_Page.php

You got to be careful of that fence with all them Claymores as pickets, wouldn't want to be a bit tipsy and fall on that one. Talk about falling on your sword!!

Light off the forge, get the steel hot and start forging, give that old boy a work out, it'll make it feel loved again. It still looks like a working anvil to me. Treat it with respect and in another fifty years you can pass it on to your grandson.

Probably is the same hammer then, thought it looked familiar.

Arizona, not so good on anvils. We had copper mining but not a lot of industry, lots of ranches though, still not a lot of anvils to be had except for those brought in from outside since the resurgence in blacksmithing in the sixties and seventies. The copper mines have sold off most of their meager supply of smithing equipment with the advent of open pit mining, no need for a blacksmith shop to repoint drill bits, fabricate other iron parts but unions kept the shops open for a long time past real usefulness. Now we have a goodly number of farriers but they use a different style of anvil than a typical blacksmith does. More anvils now than fifty years ago.

Hemp seed and chickens, that's a good one, I guess you tried it? Must be fun to get them chickens buzzed.

Some where in older posts there is a similar hammer, I think it is a factory built machine. It will take a lot of searching to come up with that post but it was in Northern California unless this is that same hammer.

Get that bottle off of there, what do you want to do, leave a ring on your anvil? Wait, it probably already has a ring! Nice looking anvil and it will still be in great shape when that kid of yours is and old man of 99.

Back in 1965 I met a sculptor in OKC that had made a sculpture of a warrior using the metal actions of rifles, pistols, bayonets that were not suitable for sale from an arms importer and yes, it did weight nearly a thousand pounds. The only non metallic on the whole thing was the black bear skull he used for the head. It was a very dynamic piece.

It's most likely OK so long as it's not cracked. I have a 3# hammer with a broad head on it marked 1943(NOS) at one of those surplus stores on Central Ave on the way east out of Albuquerque, NM @$2 each. I may have ruined the collectability of the hammer as I put a high shine on the faces so it wouldn't mar the metal. I also threw the original handle away, it was totally round, didn't fit the hand at all well. It's nice to find a brand new sixty-seven year old hammer covered in cosmolene sitting in Albuquerque for $2, such a deal.

sorry for taking over a year to look at this again, just forgot I guess...You FORGOT! Nice looking set of chisels, almost good enough for wood or timber framing. It was sure strange to see a set of Japanese ice chisels for nearly $600, man are we in the wrong business if that what they are getting for them, wow!, that a hand full of money. Keep up the quality work, you sure done good!

Sam, I'm sorry to read here of your brother's passing but he now rests with God. God's blessing on you and your whole family in this time of sorrow, be healed in heart and soul. Jerry and Eva.

Frank, Get it right, Santa Fe is NOT the tag end of the Rocky Mountains, it is the PROUD beginning of the Rocky Mountains. I remember that from my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Pipes at Salazar Elementary School. We had this geologist come in and talk about the mountains and he used that phrase "tag end" and Mrs. Pipes corrected him and he said "Yes, ma'am" and went on with his talk.
I get very claustrophobic when I get back East with all them trees and no mountains and no sight lines to nothing. When I visit my cousins and all you can see is corn all I want to do is head back to the West. It's a wonder they can live like that, a day without a mountain is like a day without sunshine.

There was a fellow out here that used to a lot of odd jobs, everything from diesel mechanic to sculpture and his place was four 24' units and two 20' units arranged in a "U" with the 24' stacked on the sides and the 20' units stacked on the end with a 3' catwalk all around with 3' doors cut into the top containers to access them for storage. He then had a crane that traversed the whole of the open space and over that he had scrounged some arched steel trusses and covered them with corrugated tin sheeting for some sun protection. The bottom containers were where he kept his tools that he needed access to every day and his office with A/C. Nice set up, he could pull a big diesel engine or build a big steel sculpture and then load it up on a truck to haul away for the client. When the city inspectors caught site of it they condemned it after it had been up and running after nearly twenty years, reason, no stamped structural drawings and no stamped electrical drawings, didn't care about the plumbing at all, not a skilled trade.

Almost any thing can serve as an anvil, large rocks, my son's head(his mother is always saying his is hard as iron) but cut offs of say 4"x4" or 4"dia. steel should work well for and anvil just so long as you have about 50 to 75 pounds of weight to go with it, use the end of it and you will have suitable mass under the hammer for good forging. And don't buy a new piece of steel as it will cost more than a good used anvil.

Interesting to think of all that anchor chain sitting up forward, whenever we would weigh anchor it always amazed me at how much of it there was that went below decks, lot of tonnage there. Nice design problem for the naval architects to solve to keep the ship in trim.

Sorry to hear about your brother. My wife and I are praying for him and hoping for the best of all possible outcomes for him. Praying you and your family's strength for the long haul in this time of family crisis, it's tough on all of you. May God grant you peace and strength during this time. Amen, Jerry and Eva

It's a good thing I gimped up or the wife would have me out there making those treble clef chimes for all her musical friends as Christmas gifts, she still may have me make them out of brass or copper as pins though. Nice work all around, you done good!

I bought a double wide belt from Gates Rubber, they come in 2, 3 & 4 wide for 2, 3 & 4 grove pulleys, this way you don't need to worry about one single belt stretching just a wee bit longer than the other. Also I have seen them using the new belts that are on autos now that run all of the stuff on the front of the car, nice long wide belts, not like back in the 50s, 60s, & 70s when you had a one belt for the water pump,one for the fan, one for the generator and if you were rich enough one for the A/C, now it's just one long wide belt.

Regular fire brick, cat liter and builders sand, there are lots of things to use as refractory material, dirt if nothing else. I can understand your frustration though, I have some rather bad health issues so I sold off most all of my smithing equipment since there was no use just sitting and staring at it right. Well, I do hope you find another outlet for your energies, go with God.

Since I'm making copper jewelry now I took a couple of these and made miniature forming stake out of them. On one I pretty much just left the head as it was except for polishing it up and on the other one I just ground it into a tighter radius and polished it the hardened them up hopefully with a water quench. They are nice little tools, I just clamp them in my vise and hammer my copper over them.

Ya, think your mother would still have you? In October here in the US there is perhaps going to be a series on forging metals on the PBS network.

Nice looking corn! That's good looking silk for sure. You done good.

Congratulations on the new family member and blessing on the fellow smith that sold it to you for such a good price. Now you need to turn out the work to match the anvil you have. If I had the brains of a chicken I'd sell my big Fissher anvil and quite dreaming of ever getting back on it but I'm still above dirt.

My first melting furnace back in 1969 was made from the cheapest cat litter there was at the time, straight Bentonite clay, I think it was a $1.25 for a 25# bag. I mixed it up in a couple of 5 gallon buckets with mason's sand and let it set for a week and then rolled it into balls and rammed them into another 5 gallon bucket with a sheet metal form in it. I let this set for a week then built a wood fire in let it cook slowly, then patched the cracks with more clay/sand mix, let it set and then fired it off with my burner and melted 5 pounds of brass, success, I had my first pour! My next melting furnace was made from an old gas fired water heater tank and I lined it with standard fire brick held in place with Bentonite clay, yes, it works for a mortar too, then I made a wash out of it and painted the inside of the furnace with it and made a rammed lid of clay and sand.