MLMartin

I watched the video. Tall thin stump, just asking to fall over

Are you going to tell me you don't have a small enough hammer now!

I can load up my little 50lb hammer in a trailer and pull it to your shop if your in need.

Looks like it will be a fun project. I am trying to talk a potential client into some small silicon bronze ornaments for a job right now.

Having the zinc anywhere near heat while cooking is a bad idea. The zinc needs to be removed.

You can remove the zinc with some simple chemicals.  I believe if you soak the chain in vinegar for a day or two it will remove the zinc. Maybe also place the chain in something like a tumbler after the vinegar to help knock off any remaining zinc.Then wash the chain a few times.

Some chain can be bought un-coated. Also chain can be bought in stainless steel. This would be safer for food

Looks like a great short hammer head! Now its time to forge a  6 - 7 pound one for striking and have Royce strike for you next time. My arm hurts just thinking about forging a hammer by hand again.

If you have a nice blower housing and impeller why not look into mounting a 1/4 horse electric motor. Who wants to crank all day

Thank you for posting. Looks good.

I am very sure you will find some people in life are friendly and some people are not.  This is pretty much standard across all Jobs, Hobby's, Races, and Religions.

So some smiths will be happy to bring people into there shop and teach, and some will not.

Look Up        ABANA     Artist Blacksmith Association of North America. This organization will have listed all the guilds across America. Most of the guilds are happy to have new people show up to a monthly meeting.

If you are not in America try and find a blacksmith association in your country and look into attending a meeting!

Many people on this web site have posted there General location, (Do not put down an exact address!) I have met a few fellows around my town and have them over to my shop form time to time. I met them both on this site.

I would pass on that anvil. 

If you are a trained welder and like to weld and grind a lot it could be fixed up with the Rob Gunter welding repair method. The weld repair would be expensive and time consuming. So unless the anvil is FREE I would not bother trying to save it.

Rail road spikes are great!  errrr Great for rail road spikes. And not go for anything ells. I would forge a draw knife out of some type of steel with more carbon. 

It sounds like there may be by a chunk of the steel face missing from the horn side of the anvil.

By the way it is generally frowned at to ever cut directly on to the anvil surface. I do not know where the idea of the step being a cutting table came from. But I can assure you that most good smiths that needed to use a quality anvil for there job would not cut directly into any part of the face. A piece of scrap iron should be set on the anvil and the finish cutting be done into that.

You can probably get more money than scrap if you list it for sale some where all the local blacksmiths will see it. I would happily buy 2 or 3 inch mild steel for twice scrap price. People with big power hammers like to buy steel cheeper than new to feed there hammers.

Your second vise screw box is cast iron. I have seen many this shape. All of the cast iron boxes I have seen are one piece cast (box, threads, shoulder all one piece). It is posable that the threads were stripped and some one bored out the box clean, then braised in new threads. But very unlikely. I think it is a safe bet that the entire box is cast iron.

Has anyone ever seen brazed threads in a cast iron box?

It is cast, not forged. Looks like the cheep cast iron anvils coming out of Mexico. Maybe it is steel? I believe anvils like that were made at the end of the work day with what ever remaining material was in the crucible after all the other items were cast. I second Macbruce, grind the parting line flat and use the anvil.

I have picked up a cast iron anvil like this for 20$ and gave it to family, my brother uses it from time to time in his shop to hammer on metal trinkets he needs to bend.

Before it goes to the scrap yard I would remove the large fly wheel on top and unbolt the feet/base underneath. Machine people always want good fly wheels, and the feet are ready to bolt on to a nice thick wood top and make a great shop table.

scrap the rest 

Rhett if you and Royce come over again maybe we will have a tongs forging day! I am happy to see your forge put to work.

If you really need tongs in a soon I would just buy commercially made ones. There are a hand full of company's that forge very nice ones. Grant Sarver us to make wonderful tongs in very fancy presses.

Sadly after he passed and his company was bought by some one ells the quality dropped a great deal. 

Many blower housing are very thin. I think you may crack the blower. I would suggest some type of bolt on mount. Does the blower have feet with bolt holes? if so bolt it to a steel plate then weld on some brackets to the steel plate that hold your motor.

Yes many of the heads had top and bottom dies held with keys just like modern power hammers.

The few helve hammer heads I have seen were cast but now that I think about it I would not know if they were cast iron, or cast steel?

Maybe next time I am at that part I will sneak down and spark test the big hammer in the river bead haha maybe

For general welding in a ornamental blacksmith shop a MIG welder if by far the most popular type of welder in the USA. You generally need to clean off rust, paint or any other type of coating on steel before MIG welding.

For welding rusty painted trailers, or industrial junk back together in the yard or field a stick welder is the best choice.

I do not believe the shape affects the fire in any way other than the shape of the fire! Many people use round pots for coal and many people burn coke in square pots. Fire pot depth is important for the type of fuel. More people tend to use a deeper pots for coal than coke. A shallow pot with coal will produce a oxidizing fire. I am sure you could build a tear drop shaped pot and have a funny shaped fire and it would still be just fine. Shape is just shape.

Some are cast iron. There are a few around GA in parks laying in rivers that have clearly snapped in two and look very much like cast iron. Everything ells from the forge is long gone and cleaned up. Only some stone foundation and the big hammer head that fell into the river is left.

Your right that the hornless style was produced along side the English pattern for as long as anvils were made. But if you look at examples from the 19th century they normally have a much narrower wast and the top is longer and thinner. The hardy hole is normally set farther into the face for 19th century anvils, not right on the edge. Also you can see a slight swell on the bottom in between the feet were the 5th foot is just being phased out. On anvils from the 19th century there is generally a nice half round between the bottom feet and no trace at all of the 5th foot.

I believe it is more likely late 1700s 

The lower ring is electrically welded together. 

Not a fisher, it is clearly forged, the sharp corner feet and thick waist would probably date it to colonial period english make

Royce I think its time for a welding lesson. snicker snicker.  I am sure you will enjoy the new pot compared to the old style you were using.