philip in china

Don't get too hung up on the absence of an upsetting block. On an anvil of a given weight I would sooner have the mass in the anvil rather than an upsetting block. Of course if the block is an extra to the size of the anvil then get the one with the block! I just have a couple of half moons cut out of 20mm plate. These are nailed to the tree stump I use as a stand. They serve two purposes. 1 they hold the anvil in place on the stump. 2 They act as an upsetting plate for upsetting small lengths. If you are upsetting longer bars then put an upsetting plate on the floor.

Would she cover travel expenses?

I think that Vaughans catalogue is really useful and has some great ideas in it often not stuff to buy but to make yourself! Just be careful it is Vaughans. Watch that second A. I have a British made Vaughan and wouldn't swop it for anything ... excet possibly a bigger Vaughan! Some bigger anvils are slightly softer than their smaller cousuns. This might be due to difficulties in getting a very fast quench on an anvil as big as that although I was also told that the slightly softer nature was because a really big unit tends to be used by teams of strikers and so a bit softer is better. I don't know if that is true but it seems to make sense. If you can afford it I think the best plan for a beginner is to get a new, high quality anvil as big as you are going to need. I would almost say work out what is the biggest one you ever think you will need and then get one size bigger!

When in UK I had a Land Rover. They are all different and heavily customised. So we always look at each other's vehicles. I was looking at one on the road where I worked. I noted his tow hitch was the same as mine, then that he had the same aluminiumn plate on the wings. It was fully 5 minutes before I realised that I was looking at my own vehicle. I had driven in rather than taking the train.

That has made me feel much better. I don't suppose there is much ris............. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh glug glug glug

Dombey and Son has a very good description of a Victorian smith making rivets in competition with a machine. There is a mention of smithing in Moby D*** (I have censored that as this is a family forum).

I see it is 10 days since I updated you. We are still here. Things are about the same except that we now have several million tons of water in a quake lake just above the town. This is concentrating our minds wonderfully on such subjects as will it rain? Will the lake burst? Will we all be killed and if so how? At 5'7" tall it will quickly be over my head if it does come. Maybe the idea of sleeping on the ground floor to avoid quake damage should be reexamined..... I will keep you all posted.

Buy a goat. Will eat the grass and eventually provide luncheon. Also goat dung can power your forge.

I would leave it. Just do any superficial work and leave it as it is. there is plenty of space on a 200 pound anvil and, as you said, you are not (yet) primarily a blacksmith so why worry? If you have enough space to do what you want then do it! Did you get that rather dishy looking stand with the anvil? If so it was an even better buy!

Vaughans make and supply them. Vaughans (Hope Works) for their new catalogue. It is worth a look even if you aren't looking for anything in particular.

I use it a lot. If you are making tools to dig with or chisels for rock just remember that the pattern on it is designed to stick inside concrete so it will stick in earth or rock. When I want something a bit better on a small tool I forge the whole length until the pattern has been smoothed out. But remember here I have a lot of time and free or very cheap fuel. Sometimes free rebar can be quite an expensive choice! It is a lot of fun though and is great to teach with as it is so cheap. I actually get it upto 1" free.

Get the anvil. You can use a shop vac, hair drier, son with bellows, wife's mother's mouth etc. etc. to blow with but you will be struggling without an anvil. I just use a locally bought blower that hooks up to the mains for my forge. Cheap and electricity is such a cheap slave.

Wood shavings or paper work fine for me. Just don't give it too much air at first. Also sometimes I put a piece of cardboard or thin plywood over the tuyere and light on top of that, give it a bit of blast and once the fire is big enough to have burnt through the card or ply it is big enough to use the blast that it starts to get. Bigger the hole the bigger the blast. Once your kindling is burning just put small coal on it. You will soon get good. We all had to learn.

So who is Sabre and why is he banned?

I just use a dimmer switch on my blower on the brick forge. It works fine. I don't have one on the latest of the portable ones so if I want to reduce the blast I just open up the ash dump- gets rid of ash and splits the flow. If you want a good picture of an air gate look at Vaughans new on line catalogue. It is very well illustrated. Vaughans (Hope Works) - For all your Blacksmith and Foundry needs. and follow the link to the catalogue.

Still here! Going to try the forge today again now the chimney has gone. Tent stakes to be forged. It could be a lot worse for us.

Come on Uri. When will the testing be over and the anvils be ready for release? I would have mailed you but can't see how to do it on the all new system for IFI.

If it is rebounding it is steel. We have several cast iron anvils here and believe me you would never confuse the two materials. If it is rebounding and better than the old one - so what? Get on and see what you can do on it. That is what matters! If the thing is made out of toffee who cares provided you get good results.

On the vices you do need a leg vice if you are going to hammer on it. I use my vice almost as much as my anvil. A shop vice or two, or three are useful things to have but you should not hammer on them- as in blacksmiths level of hammering. They will disintegrate faster than you would believe if you do.

Yes I am here. See my posting on the blacksmithin' forum.

................ have been greatly exaggerated. The chimney on the forge was cracked by the main shake. It was a 7.9 within 100 miles of here so I think my motto still stands. An aftershock took it down completely. The forge still works and has made emergency tools and boiled rain water. In town we lost a complete hospital and a couple of schools. Pretty well no survivors from any of those. We need the hospital! Death toll here is huge. The Chinese army are working day and night to help. They really have been marvellous. There has not been any looting at all that I have seen. That compares well with the gangs operating after Katrina! My beloved judo mat we ripped up to provide beds for people and the canvas cover is now a tent over a soccer goal. It is further supported by my hog roast uprights and the squat stands from the weights room. (All Rustmart products). We now get a few hours power a day so I can post. Would have done earlier but couldn't get the all new site to work and when time is at a premium one cannot waste it on machines that hang. Your kind thoughts and messages really have been a support to me and to Sean the other smith here.