MLMartin

Ok I measured my shears today. They are 36 inch long and looks just like the two photos above. The blades are 8 inch long. I was reasonably able to cut 1/16 inch mild steel. I would not want to cut any thicker. Would probably work better to use this tool with two people, one person for power and the other to hold the piece being cut.

I have a set maybe 4 feet long, good working condition. I can maybe cut 1/16th mild steel, and it takes a lot of effort. A good Beverly B3 will cut 3/16 mild steel.

Ugggg yes a Beverly shear is so lovely. One day I will spend 1300 for one. I have never used the large bench mount sheers I have

Often a stem mount sheer would be used in a nice heavy thick wood table. The table would have holes to except many different tool shanks. Heavy shears were found in tin smith shops, blacksmith shops, silver and goldsmiths, book binding shops, coppers shops, and any other shop where a craftsman needed to cut stiff material. Using the stem in a firm mounted anvil should work just fine. Many tools that people find that are iron and steel are automatically dreamed "blacksmith" tools. When often they came from some other shop.

Mr Miller is stop on. Way to many of the same old questions over and over and over. Maybe some of the moderators could start condensing old threads or just deleting the junky ones I really like I Forge Iron but slogging through the repeat posts is very discouraging for people in the middle to advanced side of metalworking. I have many friends that are professional smiths that will not consider using IFI for this reason. Here's hoping IFI gets better all the time! Mackenzie

If you are really interested in forging metal I would simply set this one aside for now. You will spend a huge amount of time trying to fix it. If you are not a great welder then your attempt to fix would only end up with very poor results. I would recommend just looking for another one. And what you find does not have to be a London pattern anvil like you have now. A hard block of steel will work great. Something like a old fork lift fork would be good. Many people can find old brokn ones. Cut off a foot or two and mount it standing up. Something with a face like 2" by 4" would be great. Or bigger. Fork lift forks are very hard steel. There are many post on this web site about using block anvils Good luck

Ouch. I would ask for my money back. Robb Gunter anvil repair method has been used many times and most people are very happy with it. But to use this method you will end up spending another 300 hundred or more on welding rods and grinding The money spent to repair it would far exceed the value of and anvil

Did you remove all the scale from the steel? Scale the develops from heating steel is incredibly hard. You could grind the tool and reveal clean steel or you can pickle the steel in a light acid. Also if you do not know what grade steel you started with any type of heat treating can be a mystery

I do not have the articles for you but there has been a few post in this site about restoring such vices Here is a vice I restored '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> I know a few other people here have written about such repair methods

A cubic yard of concrete is a big waste for that hammer. Something 2' deep by 2' wide by 3' long would be more than enough. And unless you are very short you need to raise the hammer 5 to 8 inch off ground level. Stooping over at the hammer all day is very bad for your back

Huzzah ! I hope your warm and the drinks are frosty

I was just quoted the ABANA insurance plan. I was just looking for General Liability. They offered it fine but under the Exslusions was one who designs and installs there own work! I had to read it a few times to believe it. In a another place it clearly stated the same thing. Can not instal work you design. What a bunch of junk, what good is insurance to a ornamental smith if they can not instal there work. They quoted the premium at 910 $ I went with another company. Out of the 4 offers I was given they were all in the 900$ to 1400$ Range. Many company's would not offer me anything because I worked with metal or designed my own items. And I very clearly stated to all company's that my work was all cosmetic and not part of the building frame

I have never welded a gun barrel. But I have used a number of old iron tires for material to forge. Normally it is the worst stuff around. Falls apart, hot shorts, full of slag, just junky stuff. I would be nervous about using it for a gun. Might be safer to take the stuff and fold and forge weld it 3 or 4 times and try to refine the iron some.

Post a photo of the anvil. We can give better information when we see it. A good bright photo. Also look closely at the side of the anvil just under the face. You should be able to see a line running the whole face length. A peterwright at 70lbs would have a steel face approxamently 1/2" to 3/8" thick when it was brand new. Normally a line can be seen from the face to the body of the anvil. I do not know why every new person with a anvil thinks they need to mill or grind the face off but it is a very common mistake made by people. I have seen hundreds of anvils with there face mostly removed. Maybe it's time some one sets up shop with a few people and starts forge welding new faces on anvils

Hello Mr Budd great to see you on here. I think your work posted to Instagram is grand! I hope you share more work and progress photos with us. I have never learned about this steel grade, I will have to look it up. Sounds nice if it will stay bright longer. I do love filed bright iron M Martin

Looks like cast iron junk to me. Welcome fellow Ga smith

Most leg vices were made from wrought iron or something close to mild steel. You do not need a high alloy steel like a axle is likely to be. That would be a waste and likely to break if not heat treated right. Use mild steel or wrought iron. If you post a photo of the vise we might be able to make a good guess if it's wrought iron or mild steel. Do not use high carbon

One down side to a treadle hammer would be floor space lost. I have a treadle hammer and have been very please with it. I also have a small power hammer but I have a shop with 1800 sq feet. If I only had 100 sq feet I would probably get ride of the treadle hammer. I know a hand full of smiths that have small shops and must plan very carefully for equipment

A huge number of full time smiths do not make hammers. I have worked for a number of smiths that make just wonderful interior railing that range from 20,000 to 200'000 $. Fully forged and shaped every part of the rail. And most of them do not make any tongs ether. They will often buy any tool they need. They are no less of a artisan than some one who only makes tooling for resale. And never makes anything that is purely sculpture. You can make what ever you want while forging. I greatly look up to Michael Dillon, he has built many fabulous French railing and is heading full force into grand sculpture work. I don't know if he would be classified as a blacksmith, or a sculpter but he is definitely a top knotch Artisan. I dought he has ever made a hammer and it could not matter less

Maybe a wizard head on a rail road spike may be new but smiths have been carving heads and faces of all kinds on iron bars for hundreds of years. That's really not new ether.

This style of knife at the time was generally referred to as a trade knife or simply a common knife. It would be very normal to see this size and shape knife used in the kitchen, garden, general house work, or any workshop. Many of theses knives were traded to Native Americans for other goods. Certainly this style of knife would be used in fighting. But this general product was not produced in France and England for the purpose of scalping. It was produced as a general tool, this item only became a weapon when people desired to use it personally as such. Let me say it again, this style of knife was mass produced in France and England as a general tool. This knife style was not designed as a fighting weapon

When some one claims they have invented a new item or style just spend a little time digging through history books or over the internet. I think you will find most things have already been made before. Most historical items or styles are free to be made by anyone. If you can not find a previous example of a item or style then it may be possible the person has something truly new.

I wish the pictures were better. I wonder if it is truly a smelting operation happening or if the workers are re melting bloom iron to form steel. It certainly appears to be possible that it is a hearth steel furnace. Some times these sites are mis understood by archeologist and labeled wrong. I can't see any reason it also would not work for a bloomery. But it would be very ineffective compared to a Stack furnace of some type.

Bump for thread. I am trying to find insurance right now. "The Heartford" turned me down. Said they would not insure anyone that builds anything from metal. I have one offer for 1000$ a year Mesa underwriters specialty insurance 2,000,000 GL other than products/completed limit 2,000,000 products/completed operations aggregate limit 1,000,000 personal & advertising injury limit 1,000,000 each occurrence limit 100,000 damage to premises rented to you limit 5000 medical expenses limit 1000 deductible amount Waiting to here back from State Farm now I have to have 2,000,000 GL and 500,000 works comp and business auto liability 1,000,000 to secure a contract for a job that would most like become a repeat customer Having a hard time finding anything. The ABANA insurance is a joke, they will not insure anyone that installs metalwork they built Anyone find anything good lately? I would be bummed to turn down this job offer because I can't find insurance Thank you. Mackenzie

You have to post very high quality photos. Many angles, clear, bright. Sorry but your description of a crack means almost nothing on the internet. Some good photos will allow for good recommendations of repair options Also it's not possible that a steel ball would brounce back 100 present of the dropped high if only gravity was pulling it down. So your rebound test must be wrong Good luck with the anvil. I am sure you can find good information about it on this site