MLMartin

Ahhhh thank you for the reminder

I would definitely say NO to welding until you have used it a long time. Also make sure to read up on the ROB GUNTER method for welding up anvils. If you use the wrong hard facing rod there is a high chance all the welding will crack off and make the anvil worse. Many hard facing rods are stainless steel they will not match the steel the anvil is made of. They will make it worse. Post some pictures. Treat the old girl nice. It is pretty hard to find anvils that small these days and some times they are worth more money than one that is 150lb

Hello There are still some guilds in GA Here is a great one I was part of for a long time http://www.alexbealer.org/index.php They meet the 17 of this month. Here is a second guild that is also in Ga http://www.ocmulgeeblacksmiths.org/index.shtml They had there monthly meeting the first Saturday of the month. I would guess they will have one next month just like always. And as for class I highly recommend traveling to John C Campbell folk school. They have many blacksmithing class's, pretty much every week and weekend. They are located just across the GA NC border. I believe a good beginners class there will do better for anyone than just messing around by yourself for a month or two while just starting out. Here is a link there https://www.folkschool.org/ And if you are really serious about taking college class's I attend The American College of the Building Arts. My major is blacksmithing. http://www.buildingartscollege.us/ Ill be back in Ga for the holidays. If your not to far away send me a message. Maybe I can have you out to my shop Good luck

I am speaking of the small oblong shape on the end, not the rod itself. The poster said it was AL

I use a KA75 every day at school. Ours is bolted right to the ground. It is vary handy for tooling. BUT the tooling needs to be made for the KA75. Much of the commercial tooling with wooden handles is way to tall. I make most of our tooling by welding little steel handles onto bits of tool steel. For instance the hot cutter i use under the hammer is only 2" tall. Having a regular hot cut that you would use at the anvil with a striker may be 6" tall. Short tools allow for a longer stroke of the hammer head, longer stroke equals harder hit. I would say the hammer is good for bar up to about 1 1/4 or maybe 1 1/2 but that's certainly its max. Great for tooling, pretty lousy are heavy drawing of stock If you already had something like a Little Giant 25 or 50 I think the KA75 would be a great second hammer, the little giant for general drawing down and the KA for tooling. If you have no hammer at all maybe something like a self contained air hammer would be better. I have used the sahinler hammer. It hits very hard and has a pretty long stroke. I would guess the say mark is just a good.

its that cast Aluminum or cast Lead, sure looks like Lead in the picture

I think your pretty far off with the 700, just looked at his site and it says 260

It is likely that it would cost far more to melt down scraps just to make a new bar or two than to just buy new material. This has been talked about many times on this site and it is generally agreed that it cant be done cheaply. The time and materials cost to do this would far over shadow buying brand new good steel

Often satanite is used as a ridgedizer for ceramic wool or to build up damaged areas of the forge. Then ITC 100 its used in a very thin coat over the top of the satanite. ITC is better at reflecting heat back into the forge than the satanite, thats why its used as a thin top coating

Take a look at www.alexbealer.org and www.ocmulgeeblacksmiths.org Both are good groups of folks that get together once a month at a members shop and put on nice demonstrations

It that blue vise forged? It almost looks like cast iron in the photo.

Power hammers are wonderful and I am surprised to find that some professional shops don't have one, but they can't do everything. I work with a good striker everyday. There is nothing like having some one that can move from tool to tool, help support work to be welded, strike at a 45 degree angle and actually think and look at work from another angle. I takes time to learn to strike well and more time for a smith and striker to work well together. But when both smith and striker are working well it is a great thing. I think both Striker and Power hammer are vary important in a large shop.

Maybe some one has a picture. The smiths at Colonial Williams Burg have a few adjustable wrenches. On there wrenches the Inside jaw is movable instead of the outside jaw on this one. The inside jaw has a large eye that fits over the main shank of the wrench and there is a wedged key in the back of the eye. The key has two little finger nails that turn up and keep the key from falling out when it is not wedged tight. I like the idea, new and old. But it dose make my smile the more history I learn the more I learn there is nothing new on the world

hummmm sorry about the small pictures

Ahhhh the goold old Red Green Show, what ever became of it?

Hello everyone I wanted to share the table my Sweet Heart and myself built last semester in school. The table design was from Steve Lopez out of the book Architectural Ironwork by Dona Z Meilach. The design was assigned by our school professor. The table is roughly 4' feet long by 18" inch deep, and 32" tall. It has a glass top. We coated the metal with black guilders past. All of the bending and shaping was done by hand. It was a enjoyable project and the fist curved design we had done. Mackenzie

A un-moveable anvil is a lovely thing. I spent a year or so with a anvil on a wobbly light stand. After using the same anvil on a vary heavy stand it was like night and day. I realized a great deal of my energy was wasted with the wobble and jump. If its practical where you forge having a long stump sunk into the dirt a foot or two is great, or having the stand bolted to the floor. Then again I have a striker with a 9 lb sledge often and she can make many a anvil and stand walk around.

The new stump looks nice and heavy. I do have one suggestion though that you move the anvil closer to the side of the stump. I find that I end up leaning over badly by the end of the day to reach the anvil when its not close enough to me. I really enjoy some of the steel three legged stands because i can just have the ends of my toes directly under the anvil and I often keep my thigh right up against the back square horn.

I would just love a Beverly. My Sweetheat and myself are starting to make more and more leaf work on our forged work. But sadly Im sure I dont have the money. College life is hard on the poor

I'm sure that will be just fine as well. The in the fire weld was mostly for fun, as it was a weld I had never tried before. My Teacher at the time suggested it to me. It turned out well, but it was really kinda pointless in the end any way because the screw on the vice is half way shot to begin with. On that same note I have been hoping to make some butt welds with rod to plate soon. I see it discussed often in industrial books. I will attempt to butt weld some 1in sq bar in the middle of 3in by 3in by 1in plate. Will be attempting to replicate some older hardy tools Ive seen. Should be fun and challenging

I had a vise that was missing the leg, only had a stump about 4 inch long. I split the stump open like a V. Forged a new leg with a chisel point to fit said V. heated both parts in a coal forge and with a helper bracing the vice end I held on to the foot and hammered it into the V welding it right in the fire. Then I removed it from the forge and cleaned up the weld on the anvil with a striker.

Mr Powers that's a good point. I tend to forget that there is some stuff that is pretty carbon rich. Just yesterday I was grinding a small spot of wrought and it showed many branching sparks. I pretty rarely find wrought that has carbon, but once every few months I come across a piece that does.

I second Mr Power. What is it made of? If its wrought Iron I don't think any tempering would matter as I don't think it would get hard. If its one of the later forge steel vices it could have been hardened by mistake. I think the later Colombians were forged steel. How about posting a picture, I think some one here will be able to give a good guess of what it is.

Did you do much hammering on the steel below a bright red heat? If you hammer on steel much after it has cooled you can caused stress. I have had a tool of two break from hammer to cold. It can be tempting to just hammer those few more times after it has gone to a black heat.

Glad the idea worked out! Ill have to try it some times looks like a winner.