MLMartin

You might want to talk your friend into re making the toggle arms. Rebar is pretty random stuff. One piece of rebar may be made of a totally different alloy than the next. I have had the stuff shatter like hardened tool steel when bending it and other stuff that will bend back and forth over and over like its 1010. I would use a steel that you have a good knowledge of its property's.

A few of the smiths there will take custom orders that they will make in there privet home shops on there off days. The item would not be forged in the Anderson Shop, but it would be hand made by the smiths that work in the shop. I would be glad to put you in contact with some of them if you like. They are all stand up people.

Clintons right, the tenon style mount most likely puts it near 1800 or earlier

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 repainted 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 am a student at The American College of the Building Arts. I will just be installing an iron window grill in the 1800s city jail that week. 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. Feel free to ask my any questions and ill try to point you in the right direction about this wonderful city. Mackenzie

I believe you have a German vise. The mounting plate style and the high cheek plate on the side are typical of a German vise. English vises normally have much smaller side plates, have a different style mounting plate, have longer legs below the screw, and lastly they would have little ears just above the screw and box.

The person welding with no welding helmet and his glass's sitting on top of his hat it putting himself in a lot of danger. I can see that he tilts his hat brim in front of the weld puddle but its still a vary stupid thing to do. It also gives a poor example to other people of how to weld.

Looks wonderful, I am sad that I'm broke and could not afford to drive out there.

Its definitely not possible for most people, but I have seen a really SLICK way of doing this! I watched one shop that owned a water jet cutter stack bars in the machine propped up on the diamond and they slit many holes with the water jet. The holes were vary vary thin and perfectly cut. After all the holes were cut they heated the bars in a forge and drifted them in the normal fashion over the anvil and a bolster block. Because the holes were already cut the slitter and drift they used to do the final shaping left vary little distortion to the bar! I though it was a wonderful use of new technology. Sadly I do not have a water jet cutter so I am limited to day dreams on this one. I guess if some one had a project that required a great number of these holes cut it is possible that they could have all the holes marked out and pre-cut by a company. Sorry I am not more help but at least this is a fun idea!

Inherited....... That anvil looks like its only a day old if that. Beautiful condition. It is certainly modern, being cast metal, probably steel. I would be surprised if it was more than 50 years old at best. The hardy hole that comes out the side of the anvil is often seen in France and the shape looks like a French anvil. But other places may also use a pattern vary similar. Sorry I cant give any more information.

Yes many people are use to the hardy hole right next to the horn, but many are not. Just because the anvils I use are called Euro anvils does not mean they are the standard for European anvils. Most older anvils where ever they come from around the world had the hardy hole on the other side of the the anvil away from the horn. Yes there are a few that have it there but not the majority. The hardy right on the horn generally seems to be a modern addition. And I have seen that the Nimba anvil has the pritchal hole right on the horn, Sigh..... I think its a poor place to put it, but with anything you buy made by someone ells you always compromise. I use the hardy hole way more than the pritchal so I would just have to get use to it being on the horn, or maybe there is the potability of contacting Nimba and having the pritchal drill behind the hardy instead of in the horn. Regardless of all this these are just my opinions after using a number of different anvils for the past 8 years. Some people may only want to point out good things about new anvils but I think its silly not the discus things that some people see as problems and may help some one chose one anvil over another. I did not intend to make people mad but I guess that's pretty much imposable if you type anything on the internet. Good luck with the new anvils fellows!

Do you use tools in the hardy hole much? If you do I would definitely recommend against any anvil that has the hardy hole butted right up to the horn. Being so close to the horn it can be vary unpleasant to have large hardy tools that hang over the horn.

Look at the NIMBA centurion, 260lb.If I was buying new I would love to have that one. I use a "Euro" anvil at school every day, it has side shelf and upsetting block like the TFS. While I do use both of those features on the anvil I find more time than not they are in the way. I would prefer to just have a hardy tool for the shelf and just set a block of steel on a stump for a upsetting block. Think about the centurion http://www.nimbaanvils.com/

you should ask for a high quality photo before you make your drive, what many people call good used condition means to a blacksmith totally destroyed and only good for scrap

I have watched Richard Guthrie use a 3/16" or 1/4" round iron rod to burn the hole down the handle. I think he used 2 rods and was heating one up while burning with the other. As soon as the one used for burning the hole cooled he swapped it out with the one in the fire. Ive been told this was pretty common thing to do by the Indians that bought these pipe axes. Also you see a huge number of antiques that are bashed all the bits. Even if they were bought for smoking, at some point in there life people actually used them as hatchet/axes. Many of the bowls are crushed on old ones

" I don’t have a problem fixing broken tools, just getting hit by them as they get ejected from the hammer because they failed. Following logic that says that’s the way we do it because that’s the way it’s always been done and it can’t be improved on. If that kind of thought was adhered to in the past we would still be cutting our meat with stone tools and you boys would be hammering bronze out over a frigging stone, instead using a power hammer run by……ELECTRICTY. " I did not say you should abuse tools until they break and hurt yourself. Yes tools break but that's only because people make them wrong or they use the tool past its working life. It is not historically correct that every smith just used a tool until it broke and hurt themselves. If you think people in the past were just dumb and chose to hurt themselves frequently because they did not know any better then you are vary wrong. Yes many people have injured themselves because they did not take the time to make a tool right, or they did not inspect there tool for cracks or damage or they did not through a tool away after its usable life. I know it can be pretty hard to determine how long a tool will last but it is possible to a reasonable point. No tool last forever, they will all ware out in time and need replacing. I am sure in the past there were many people that broke there spring dies just like many people have broken them today. But there are also many people that have carefully made there tools and used them effectively and then discarded them when they show sines of failure because they took the time to closely inspect them. Welded tools can last a long time, I have used many mild steel spring tools with a welded tool steel dies. After reading your post a second time I see that you are making your dies then heat treating them, and lastly welding the spring on. You may have longer lasting tools if you make sure to first pre heat the dies then weld on the spring, and lastly heat treat the dies. Trying to weld things onto already heat treated parts is not always the best option.

If you believe that your idea for a spring tool is better than all the more plain spring tools out there then you should build one and test it out next to a regular spring die. Find out which works better. I am not going to say that your idea wont work, but I don't think its going to be a revolution that puts all other spring tools to shame. Industrial smiths have been making vary simple spring, or clap dies to use with power hammers for a vary long time. I would guess they have been used sense at least the 1600s. The reason these tools have not changed much in the last 400 or more years is because they work well. Your right about there being a lot of stress right were the dies transition to the spring. But this is normally pretty simple to deal with. Very good dies that are going to see extensive use are forged from one piece of steel and the die to spring transition is a nice even taper.

Are you starting with annealed copper and just forging the nails cold?

forge the wheel from silicon bronze B) Like my friend would say "it looks purdy "

What is the size of the spring. Length, Wire Diameter, and Diameter of Rings.?

A new spring will also most likely cost less than 100 shipped to your door. Pretty cheep for something that is so important for a expensive piece of equipment. If he was talking about making a new leaf spring for something like a leg vise I would say make one by hand no problem. A bad failure is much less likely to hert the tool or yourself under that condition. A compression spring that is worked under power by a 1 to 5 horse motor that is right next to your face is much more dangerous if it fails.

I think that idea is pretty bad. Springs ware out. After so many years they start to micro crack and will eventually break. Just like any tool they have a life span. Just take some good measurements of the spring and estimate the size before it was worn out and buy a brand new spring. Do not wast time with old shot springs, trying to reshape them is just asking for things to break and damage the hammer or yourself. BUY A NEW SPRING if the old one is worn out.

ooops auto correct strikes again. Well I have to keep limber some how......

I second the white out. Works well for some parts. Never knew about it until a month ago and a friend showed me. Make sure to place the white out on the metal when its cold and let it dry for a few minuets before you heat the bar.

If you want to be able to get some heavy striking in look at finding a block of steel something like 4" square or larger that is a 12" long or longer. Stand it on end and it will be able to take a huge amount of hammering and give rebound of a anvil 3 or 4 times its size. I have a 6" square by 12" tall block of steel standing on end and mounted to a stump. I don't think twice about having a striker with a 16 pound hammer work over it all day long. The block is only 120 pounds, and I would never consider having a striker on a London style anvil that size. But a solid brick of steel can take anything a man could ever swing.

That is not a Vulcan, wrong shape. I have seen many many anvils in the US, but I do not recognize this anvil. Makes me wonder if its some modern cast iron anvil.