philip in china

My very best wishes to you. I hope you will have many years of smithing ahead. You know a man once got off teh train at Trondheim and asked a boy how long it had been raining, the boy answered "How should I know? I'm only 14."

Dis you post details of the vice to Glenn's new thread on the subject?

If you are determined to do it it can be done. Try using a TC masonry bit (yes a masonry bit) and lubricate with water. Just as you start saying philip in china on IFI doesn't know what he is talking about, it will suddenly start to cut and will go through very quickly.

Waiting for the chorus of "You can't do that"- well I have, several times. Not on anvils but on steel a good deal harder designed to resist drilling!

An interesting point about getting a casting done in a good alloy. In the city where my wife was born and raised there is a factory that makes railway lines. I have got a very nice 280 pound brooks anvil here. Would it be possible to use the brooks to make a mould and then get it poured using the same mix that they use for railway line? For that matter I suppose I could slightly customise the design by, for example, adding an upsetting block and a shelf. Am I missing something or should this be possible?

Anvil schmanvil. None of you pay what I had to pay to get a decent anvil out here. Let me tell you boys it was worth every penny and all my gratitude goes to garry at anvils.co.uk for all his efforts. If you buy a decent anvil when you are 20 you should get 50 years of pleasure out of it. That is comparable with only 1 thing I can think of but this is a family site so don't ban me Glenn, you don't know what I meant!

"I love old things" makes the dating question even easier. Anything 10-15 years older than you will snatch your hand off. Just make sure she can afford to keep you in the style to which you want to become accustomed.

Re the anvil don't do a thing to it. If you want to use it as an anvil then maybe just smooth off the deeper marks with a belt sander but otherwise get on with some work on it.

I agree with Thomas. Get some work done on it. It will harden. What have you got to lose? The spots you use most should harden first.

Neal, I heard Sherman dropped anvils down wells or into rivers. I always joke with Sean that after a days work he puts the anvil down a well because that is where he is accustomed to finding them. (He is from the rebel states).

One day when I have his son Ethan to look after I am going to teach him all the verses to Marching through Georgia.

Get it and use it. You need to experiment with it as it is not a standard specification so any batch can (and will) be different from another batch. I have made chisels, crowbars, punches, drifts and other tools from it. Don't forget that it also goes well in concrete. Any concrete you lay will be much better for some steel in it even if it is not specified. Also if you are ever using concrete to provide weight to make a base stable don't forget it will be much heavier with steel inside the concrete. My welding bench is supported by, amongst other things, a steel pipe leg whic is embedded in the concrete floor. This leg is filled with concrete and guess what runs up the centre of the concrete? Also if you ever have to floor anchor anything such as a tool or a sculpture one quick, easy and cheap way is to cast a block of concrete on which to stand it. Before you pour, however, you make a matrix of rebar and weld some threaded bar to it so that the threads stick out above the floor. That will anchor pretty well anything. (You aren't supposed to weld to rebar actually but for most purposes the point doesn't matter as you can build in greater strength than the item you are securing). If you are thinking of extending the shop or taking out a wall remember you can cast your own concrete beams if you have a supply of rebar.

So go and get that stuff hauled home. You will find a use for it if you have a bit of imagination. As you probably guessed I use tons (literally) of the stuff as I get it free as well.

Is this one of the HF type Chinese anvils? Here I have several of them. They are close to useless except as a table on which to work- but then you know that already. I have spent a lot of time on this question and my honest advice is to fabricate a cover for it. This can be done quite simply by getting a suitably wide piece of heavy structural channel and welding a piece of pipe underneath so that the pipe engages on the horn (so called ) of the anvil. Then make a small peg to go through the hardie hole. I forged one out of a circular drop and an offcut of rebar. A peg or bolt or whatever goes through the base of the peg to secure it in place. It looks dreadful, performs badly but works. I have a 2*2*0 Brooks which I use for my work and I actually have a cover of this type on there which is padlocked in place to prevent the locals from abusing my anvil when I am not there.

As for doing anything more- frankly they are just not worth the effort.

I was married for 20 years. Wore a wedding ring and never had any money for tools etc. Got divorced, stopped wearing the ring. Had money for tools again. A while later got married again. Wore a wedding ring and had no money for tools again. There seems to be a direct connection although I can't figure out how it works.

Keep a hand forged nail in your coin purse and that purse will never be empty

No. ;-) :-)

Our old blacksmith in town here is aged 81. He uses clay. He just goes out and picks up a pile of it off the ground and goes and clays his forge! Nothing special. He can also light a fire in seconds using straw etc. etc. Maybe when I have been smithing that long I will be able to as well. But I would be aged about 110.

What really sickens me is that you got an excellent stand with it as well! Don't even dream of doing anything to that anvil other than wire brushing it! Here it is very humid so I would run to a coat of engineers blue but wouldn't do any more than that.

(Well maybe take the ball off the top before you start hammering).

What are the most important tools in your shop? I would start the list with:
Forge
Anvil
Hardie
Hammers
Tongs
Vice

I couldn't work without those. A fairly simple list. I think next would be:
Drill press
Bench grinder
Angle grinder
Welder
Power saw

Then I can manage without but use a lot:
Hammer drill for mounting stuff to masonry
Oxy Acet.

I think general hand tools such as screwdrivers, wrenches, hacksaw etc. go without saying.

Reviving this thread my favourite boots have external toecaps but these are getting difficult to find.

Electrical list:
Hard wire the buzz box into the wall so the 220 cable isn't rubbing against the edge of the welding bench.
Improve the level of lighting in the welding area

Forge
Add some sort of a hood to guide the smoke better into the chimney.
Install a sky hook so long work can be supported.

General
Install the hoist.
Install the drill press vice which I have now owned for 10 months and is still in its box.
Fix the holes in the tiled floor with some cement.
Lock away all those loose tools that kids find so fascinating.
Build the bench for woodwork.
Demolish the "bench" that is falling to pieces and has a 70 pound vice on it. (Ouch).
Sharpen the chain on my saw.

I know when my late father was an army medic one part of his training involved how to make medical supplies from almost nothing. One trick was to put a filter of grass, sticks etc. over the drains to the kitchen and thus retain the grease. This was then turned into soap but I forget where they gleaned the alkali to do it. It was certainly from some waste product. Could have been ash.

I don't know about making soap. I smash my ash up fairly fine and mix it in with the local clay. The soil here is very heavy and the ash helps to break it up.

Yesteryear, could you tell us about your 1,243 pound anvil?

Thank you. I know where I can get a treadle ready made

I saw that. Does anybody have any tips on actually constructing the thing? What are the mistakes to avoid? The old water etc. powered ones seem to be a very simple machine. Can I just copy something like that?

Which proves my earlier point.

At your age you think you are super human. As a blacksmith you will become very strong but PLEASE take care of yourself. We have winches, hoists, pallet trucks, forklifts etc. for picking up heavy stuff. If you strain your back it might never recover so please use correct lifting equipment or get someone to help you. Also heed the warnings of those with more experience. Wear steel toes, safety glasses and all the other modern devices to protect yourself. This includes hearing protection. I am nearly deaf largely due to my own stupidity and it is no fun.

Thanks for that. I had pictured mine as having teeth of course but it gives me a design to ry to follow. Not just sure how that spring works.