MLMartin

O also if you search for "restoring a colonial vise" there was a good paper by Peter Ross, the master of the smith shop in Colonial Williamsburg for a number of years. He shows nice photos of the steps to remake most of the parts of a vise. I have a fare interest in vises. I will also be making a mount for a colonial tennon mount vise soon, also re brazing in the female threads in the box as the previous owner striped them out. I will be sure to post photos when I repair my vise, it may be another month until I have time for mine though. Good luck

The shape of the vise box and the tennon mount bench plate are notations of a English vise from the colonial time period. Its a fine looking vise. If you search for "colonial vise" you should find some photos of complete vices. The tennons are weaker than the full wrap around vise mounts. I have seen these vices retrofitted with the more modern mounts if the vise was used for heavy work. If you go with the time period correct tennon mount it can be made stronger by cutting a slot into the wooden bench and inserting the back leg into a tight fitted slot in the bench top.

The vise was most likely made within the last 100 years at the oldest. I also believe that the screw and nut/box that is mounted in the vice is a replacement. I do not think any post vice was ever made with that type of screw. The screw on the vice may work but its a poor replacement for the original parts.

I think you are making a bad accusation about many smiths using there leg vise the wrong way. I have been in a larger number blacksmith shops and seen pictures of hundreds more. I have only seen a few examples were people let the vise hang and wobble about. I believe most professorial smiths would understand that the tools is set up wrong if they tried to use one that flopped around.

How about setting up the forge so you can change the depth of the tuyere. It may be helpful to run the forge for a day at one length then try a different measure the next. After a few weeks if you decide where is best for your forge then you could bolt it on more permanently.

same thing, two names

I would not use them to pic up items out of the forge, (coal or gas) Al heats up very quickly and it would be easy to over heat them and have them melt. Normal Al melts around 1200, so handling anything that is glowing red would be to hot for them. Picking up things around the shop that are at a black heat should be fine, but I would still be careful. They look nifty.

Know what? Your post dose not ask a question. This site is starting to become junked up with questions and statements that have no point.

From the picture there dose not appear to be any ledges on the feet. Normally all Peter Wright anvils will have these ledges. Its probably English but there were a great number of anvil makers in England. Shot blasting will remove the paint quickly, but its also pretty abrasive with most medias. So having some one sand blast it will help to remove any type of letters or marks that might be left. From a tool stand point abrasive blasting will work just fine and quickly clean the anvil. From a historical standpoint it is a bad practice to clean iron this way. So its really up to you.

The face has been removed by at least 75%. Like said above, just use it. There is not anything to do at this point but wait until whats left of the face is gone or destroyed. As long as your hitting red hot iron it will last for some time still.

Harbor freight use to see those anvils for 60$ new in the store a few years ago. Sounds like this fellow is trying to rip some one off.

That is a good looking shop, the "blue building materials" scattered on the ground gave me a good chuckle. Best of luck to you

Looks wonderful Mr Dillon, I am sad I have missed out on all the great work around your shop in the past year. I have been on the road from WI, VA and SC working since school ended.

Are you forging a bevel on the blade? If so and it is pretty uneven one side to another that would make it cool faster in one direction. I think it would have to be very off for that to bend the blade though. I do know that leaving it in the forge to cool can bend the blade as one side touching the bottom will stay hot much longer because the masonry floor will stay hot much longer than the air in the forge. I would think that the wood ash would be the best bet. I would simply press it back flat cold after you anneal it.

Try to find out exactly how it was "re-finished". It may have been destroyed, lots of people weld up old chipped anvils and do it wrong, or they just have the whole face milled/ground off until its flat again. A PW is a steel faced anvil with soft iron under the face. If it was milled down then the face may be to thin to be any good. Also "re-finishing" a anvil is generally the last resort to fix one that is pretty much trashed. The price is pretty high, what most people in the US would expect to pay for a anvil in great original condition. Not one that was repaired.

O I am not offended by odd uses of words. I may not always understand but that's just the way of this world. God gave us many languages and even in the same tong people will sound quite different. My shop is about 10 mi outside of Louisville, off middle ground rd, You can email me at Martinforgeworks@gmail.com Ill do my best to set aside some time for some folks to visit. M Martin

by the way Dave its time to update the blog. I bet a new cement floor will make the shop look different.

One of the ridgeds will work very well, I have dozens of pipe tools and maybe 4 sizes of cutters all the way up to 4". I have cut 4" and down by hand many times. 1.5" should not be to hard to cut, but it does take a fair amount of effort and will take you at least a day to cut 100 if your having to climb to each one and work by yourself. These tools are heavy. Personally I would recommend a good quality portable band saw. This would cost in the range of 300$ and maybe another 50$ for a hand full of blades. This would be way faster and should not be a problem to keep a clean cut at long as your steady handed. And a porta band is a very hand thing around the modern blacksmith shop.

Not a rubber boot, but this may work. Its hard to find rubber flanges for duct that large. A bulb seal could be crimped onto the hole cut in the roof and the duct would just pass through it. You would need to cut a very tight clean hole for this to work. http://www.mcmaster.com/#bulb-seals/=jwm094

Ill see about opening up my shop and letting you know when I am back in Louisville. My job here in SC is nearly finished, but I may have to drive to NY to install the balcony's I helped build. Hopefully they will just be shipped out but I am not positive yet. Looks like Ill be in Ga most of the winter though.

Most of the older historic churches have the best work in town. Sadly most of the Ironwork in Charleston is pretty beat up and badly preserved. Its pretty hard here to convince people that ironwork needs to be cleaned well and touched up every year. So most of it has thick flaking paint, but never the less there is some beautiful work here. The most technical and in my opinion best ironwork here is English work that was shipped over to the churches when they were built in the late 1700 to mid 1800s. Some work worth finding is Saint John's Lutheran Church, 5 Archdale St -Great front gates Saint Michale's Church, 84 Meeting St - Beautiful Alter rail inside the church, great condition Saint Philips Church, 142 Church St - Wonderful large gates There is lots of other good work around the historic side of town. These three are just my favorite work around town. I have lived here for the past four years, I was a student at The American College of the Building Arts. I installed an iron window grill in the 1800s city jail last year. Your welcome to come by and see that ironwork too. And there's a little bit of historical ironwork on the jail worth seeing. The 1800s Jail is our school building. The Jail is on 21 magazine street. Mackenzie

I am in my shop in Louisville Ga from time to time. I should be back there by the end of the month. Currently I am helping a friend in Charleston SC finish up a balcony job. My shop is a little bit in shambles because I have spent the last 6 months traveling and working for different smiths from WI, VA and now SC. I have only stopped by to drop off a little giant that needs rebuilding and other tools. But I hope to spend a few months there setting everything up and build a few rail sections and other sample pieces to have a better portfolio of what I can do and what I lured from the different smiths.

I have started turning the clinker triangle V up. It seems to push the air to the center and make for a smaller fire! About 50% of the time I dont need the large fire the big pot produces. But you are right, I keep it all the way up or down not the the one side or the other.

cute Sam, but if you engrave on the top you might find that the pictures become buggered up and filled with welding beebees. Maybe engrave all down the legs and on the underside of the table..... PS make sure to carve a fat Totoro some where

I bet the hardened steel plate with the nice hump next to the horn makes for lovely drawing out with a striker