MLMartin

where is your forge or shop? a thick section of insulation over the walls will cut down the noise greatly!

There are few smith in Charleston the city, there are plenty of smith in the USA, I don't know where I will end up after school. I do have a nice sweetheart and she keeps me worm, that's the only thing I actually worry about at the end of the day. Theirs always a job some where.

If you weld on a new steel plate it will be just as soft as the current steel anvil that's not tempered correctly. I think you will only make the anvil worse.

Next time heat up the anvil then quench it under about 500 or more gallons of fast falling water. Have a huge tank up in the air and maybe a 4 or 5 inch pipe coming off the bottom, have all the water run out of that as fast as possible, the falling water will help to keep away the steam air pocket that kept your anvil soft last time you tried to harden it. Like some one said before a friend at the fire department taped into a hydrant may be a big help.

If you just weld on a new steel plate it will still be soft because it will take a huge amount of heat to weld that new steel plate on, then you will have to same trouble of trying to quench/harden it in water.

How did you try to harden the anvil? is it the 110 pound one from harbor freight, some friends of mine have hardened them with good results, but you'll need a huge heat source and in the range of 500 gallons of water to quench it, maybe more. just dropping it in a 55 gallon barrel is not near enough water.

thank you all!
please dont hesitate to write any info that you have about the two colleges..

i undrstand that the colleges give me a basic training and after that i will need to be a journeyman for several years.

so,do you know at wich place there is more master blacksmiths ,whom i can work with- charlston or england? where will it be easier for me to find one?

thanks

I like the attitude. Just a few thoughts from a oldun. Before ya was born I was a avionics tech. Went to work in the real world. Found guys with electrical enginnering degrees who couldn't read color code on a resistor. Went into welding back in the 60s. was in a shop in FL in the 70s. they hired a VoTech grad. Came in his first day with his new bucket and new tools. Was told to help me deburr a couple of boxes of flamecut parts. Picked up his bucket and said "I am a trained profesional I don't do that. Told him I was welding when he was born. 20yrs later I run into him again. 600 miles away. He puffed up his chest and said now I am a CNC operator. Took him to the shop I worked for
Asked him if he could program the Fadal VMC or run it. He asked who runs it. Charlie usually runs it or I do. Running that thing was Open the door, remove part, install new part, close door, push start. 14 mins later do it again. I have swept floors and cleaned stock racks with 20+yrs expereance. Just saying if ya come to my shop I don't
care where ya been or who taught ya. I'll give a project and a time to do it. It's pass fail. I get 10 calls a month
" DUH YA HIREING" "NO" show up with your tools ready and able to show my what ya can do. I guess what i an trying to point out is Schooling is great.But expereance is king, Wish I had more.
Ken.

Mr Dillon is absolutely correct. In a school setting the only way you will learn anything is if its important to you! No one can make you learn and if your lazy then any school is just a wast of time. I do my best to take every opportunity to learn. And like said most shops wont stop and spend a day to teach some one really specific things. I have had the pleasure of working for Mr Dillon for a few summers and definitely see the benefit of learning on the job, but not everything should be learned on the job.

My school sends its students out to work at professional shops every summer for apprenticeships, so there is some real world training. But its still vary important for the first years of any skilled job to be closely scrutinized and instructed by a highly skilled teacher.

My opinion is that for any skilled profession you should be professionally trained for a time then move on into the job field and expect to learn much more in the coming years. By no means when I leave this school will I be ready to run a full time shop or be a master blacksmith, and anyone that thinks 4 years of any school will make them a master as anything is just foolish. What I do plan to get out of school is a great foundation. I think of it as everything I learn in my 4 years of school as the same as many peoples first 8 years of petering around as the shop lacky or grunt. I think that many people will tell you that getting a job in a field that in truth you may know vary little about is not the best way to learn, you may find yourself just sweeping the floors and cleaning machines because you don't know how to do anything ells. But to enter a shop with a good background of classical forging knowledge, that is a start for moving up the latter.

These are just my ideas & thoughts, If you like them Huzzaa! If you disagree..... Ill have to send my attack birch out! haha

Best of luck to anyone on what ever path they chose and works best for them!

Where are you Raz? I am Mackenzie, I am a student at the American College of the Building Arts. My school is always glad to give a tour to anyone. There are also many open house events during the year. If you come in for a visit I'm sure you'll meet me around the shops. The blacksmiths are going to have a smelt just after the new year. January 3rd i think. We will have a few of the smiths from Williamsburg come down to lead the smelt. Also our current Professor was a long time Smith from Williamsburg, Richard Gunthere. He is an extraordinary smith, he specializes in historical reproductions from 1700 to late 1800 English hardware. I have been vary surprised many times when I will come to him with a photograph of a random piece and he can tell me right off the bat that it was most likely made in Pennsylvania, in BLANK shop at Blank time. Furthermore he can quickly track down some examples and references to the piece in question. He really knows his work, were it came from, who made it, and the most important, how to make it!

I am in my third year at the school, this school year out main focus is railing and panels curved in one plain. Next year, my last year, we will move on to railing and panels curved in two planes.

The Hammer looks great, glad that you decided to pic it up! cant wait to see it in action

that's one of those new fangled quick chance dies, practicably change themselves they do

hahaha I love it

Found a shot of the rail I built the first time around, over a decade ago. Yep, thats a 50lb. LG in the background, the big hammer sydrome hadn't taken full effect yet!

Im glad yall like the hammer, I believe she would be interested in making a few hammers to sell. I will certainly let her know that there is interest. shes on this forum some times.

tree cutting, I thought he was just hugging the tree like hippies do

got to have a ruler! its come in handy for me a lot this year, i acutely carry it every day!




and the sides are not milled, the head and handle are both handmade with good old hand tools, I don't think she used any power tools to make this one. Just hammer, anvil, forge, punch, drift, vise, and a file

Just though everyone would like to see my new hammer. It is about 4.75 in long by .875 It is made from W1 with a nice long hickory handle. Im not posative about the weight but the little black ruller in the pictures is 6in for referance, probaly about half a pound

I think its just wonderful, seems to have a vary hard face and pein, and its nicely weighted towards the face.

I just love a filing finish and decoration.

Best of all my Sweetheart made this for me a day ago!
You can see her touchmark under the pein

Hey! whos the flunky in the background with the bandsaw?

Your vary close to Campbell Folk school, I know its kinda pricey but if you want to start off great you and your brother should go there and take a beginners blacksmith class. A great way to start a new craft is with a expert for a few days. you'll get to see the real potential of forge work with some of the great teachers there.

definitely looks cast iron, the cast pasting line is a dead give away under the horn. also the pitting on the sides and bottom is pitting from the casting, not rust pitting

quick and simple adjustment would be to drill two holes in each foot pad, then you could slip a little 2by4 block or a 4by4 block under each foot and screw them in place. if ya decide you want it lower you simply unscrew the wood blocks. I would definitely give it a try, i find knuckle height way to low for me, you don't want to bend over all day, your back will have a fit, and you'll never hit vary hard if youre leaned way over!

Nifty, I like it. Ive been pretty happy with my three legged metal stand for my anvil. Mines red tooooo. the first color i reached for in the shop.

Glad to see you've lured to weld, Great skill.

I have been really happy to see all your post over the last year or so. I remember seeing you in Eddy Rainys shop some time ago with Olcmolgee Guild. I wish you the best with your family and hope to see a great deal more work and learning from you!

Mackenzie Martin

If yall like those Russian anvils a lot, I maybe be able to sell off a hand full that are at the school I attend, they just sit around and collect dust, and occasionally we use then to upset things. I'm in Charleston NC. let my know if yall are interested and ill see if they can be sold!

Any idea what fork lift tine usually is? or just a guess. I don't really need to repair this anvil, i just want to for fun, some times a few hours of grindings and welding is relaxing to me. I have a large disk of plate that 1 in and maybe 22 in round, was going to be some type of sprocket, the stuff blunted my good center punch so it is definitely hard, but im afraid of spending a lot of time on something then it cracking up because i used something with to much carbon or some exotic alloy

Thanks guys, im going to go with the speedy metals, ill just cut it to size myself, thats a great price!

Hello everyone, ive been looking diligently on line for a source of a large steel plate of water hardening tools steel or a med carbon tools steel. I would love to find something like 1045 or 1050 or W1. any type of medium carbon tools steel. But heres the kicker, i need it at least 1in by 6in by 1foot. I cant seem to find anything near that big. Anyone have any info in finding some. I hope to use this to repair an old anvil that needs a new tail

thanks for any help