philip in china

My Vaughans here in China is a 2:2:0 so 280 pounds. It is about as good as they get. Glad you are pleased with yours. The only problem is that with sterling being so strong at present they are not cheap but in my experience I have rarely regretted investment in quality. It is usually the low grade stuff that ends up being expensive!

BTW I forgot there are Vaughans and Vaughns. The ones in my post are as good as they come. The others are made in India I believe so make sure you got to the right place!

You need to speak to Gary Cattell at anvils.co.uk I am now shooting myself in the foot but he has at least one very big anvil which is a cancelled order. He offered it to me at a price you would not believe. I really want it but can't house it for some time yet. He is a great guy and his anvils are the best I have ever used anywhere. He is also an expert at shipping and can arrange for you to get either a VAT free sale or if that is not possible due to the technicalities can get you the forms so you can reclaim the VAT once you have shipped.

He still has nightmares about the stuff he shipped to me out here but absolutely would not give up until I had the goods here and was hammering away. It cost him time and trouble such that he probably ended up making a loss on that sale! (BTW no I am not on commission).

Have you got a quote from 7 seas worldwide? They do containers and part container loads. Again I have used them and they come highly recommended. Try 0800 21 66 98 (free phone) in UK or their website. An extra quote would be free and can never hurt.

Good luck when you do move. If you get upset about not paying tax to UK government any longer let me know. Donations in used notes can be sent, via me, to Gordon Brown.

PM me if you feel the urge.

My coal fired forge is made out of bricks- but nothing expensive believe me. Very cheap in fact the only thing I actually paid for was the blower which is the type used to inflate childrens' bouncy castles! I control the speed with a dimmer switch for an electric light which also cost me nothing. The pipework is off the scrap pile. The forge runs on high quality coal cos that is easiest but would run on charcoal if ever I got a free source of that.

Main thing is meet other smiths and tell them what you are trying to do. Most of them will have a few bits of something to get you started. You can soon build up a forge and a smithy if you have a creative mind. If you can look at something and think how you could use it. You need that sort of lateral thinking to be a good smith anyway. Most of my time is spent doing jobs that every other tradesman has already said are impossible.

I think it is important to support the manufacturers of the country where you earn your living. (Grin).

This is a very sensible question. The answer is on the site but let me share a few thoughts with you.

An anvil is a piece of material (steel) on which you beat hot metal. The earliest anvils would have been a rock!

It is not:
A perfectly flat, level, true etc. edge as a reference although if it is these are all bonuses.
Something on which to beat cold metal (or you will mark the anvil).
A bench on which to weld, grind etc. etc.

It should ideally be:
Made of good quality steel or lower quality metal with a steel face.
As heavy as you need for the work you are doing. A person resizing gold wedding rings uses a smaller anvil than somebody making anchors.
ANchored to something (see articles on anvil bases) such as a stand or a tree stump to stop it dancing around when you strike on it.

It does not need to be a professionally made anvil although that is usually best. It can be:
A piece of railway line,
An offcut of heavy structural steel such as an I beam,
An offcut of heavy steel plate
Any other big piece of steel such as a caterpillar wheel, a large pulley, a hatch from an old tank (I used to work in Kuwait remember).

My advice to you is to go out and find a big bit of steel. Take it home and get some iron hot. Hammer it and see how you enjoy the fun. If by the summer you are still enjoying it then get yourself some sort of incusoform anvil. New is easiest and dearest but used is a lot more fun. Somebody here will have one for sale that is for certain.

One final point. DO NOT BUY A CAST IRON CHINESE MADE ANVIL. THEY ARE USELESS AND DANGEROUS. YOU WOULD BE WASTING YOUR MONEY. "A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE EASILY PARTED." I make no apology for the capitals.

Of course if you, or anybody else on the site, wants a 150 pound or a neat small 50 pound cast iron anvil they are still here. Anybody who wants one or both can have them simply by collecting them. They are free of charge and less than a year old.

Part of my plan for the place actually is to equip a smithy for them. I can show them some basics on tool making, steel hardening etc. and then leave them to it. I have a Chinese type anvil I can leave and will either construct a brick forge like my own or leave them the portable one. If this ever gets done I shall post some pictures of course.

Ted, Thank you for the time and thought you put into your response.
Solid fuel will be used. High grade hard smithing coal to be precise.
Portable rather than my current masonry forge. I have access to a truck so it does not need to be small but that would be an advantage.
Currently I have the 2" water pipe T piece to use for the airway and a 220 volt electric blower. Plenty of scrap angle, etc.
A bit of funding which would cover buying some new plate for the tray ad probably a pot to mate to the flange on the water pipe.

part of the project is to make hand pumping of water easier so I am just going to replace the current pump handles (about the size of a pencil) with a piece of rebar with a pipe handle. I could do it at my fixed shop but want to get the locals involved. We might end up setting up a shop for the village if it all goes well.

I am trying to source an anvil to use in Bulgaria. If I have to buy a new one I shall probably source it from this place:Pr

Accountant by training and qualification. Now teach Business Studies and coach judo. Hope to be opening a business school in Chengdu, Sichuan, fairly soon. Blacksmithing is all really low tech- agricultural and construction tools made and fixed for the locals.

Thank you everybody. I just need to get down to the scrap pile and see what there is. What would be an ideal depth for the firepot? I shall be forging maybe upto 3/4" bar (for water pump handles). Probably no forge welding involved as a ring forged in the end should be adequate.

I need to make a portable forge. None of you has seen any of my work but portable is rarely used as a term to describe it. (It is a cruel slander that someone was crushed to death when trying to use one of my letter openers.)

I have got the T shaped pipe for the blower, ash dump and firepot. The firepot end has a round flange which will be ideal. I have also got a suitable electric blower.

Could anybody give me a bit of advice please on plans etc. I shall be forging handles for water pumps in a nearby village where we are going to do a clean drinking water project.

Hope there will be a video for those of us unable to attend.

I get plenty of free big rebar here (1" plus) . Junk yard rules apply so sometimes I have to experiment to get the heat treatment just right but that is no big deal. It makes good hot or cold sets.

I would certainly heat treat. You are not going to have your hot steel on there long enough for it to be altering the nature of the set unless you are doing huge amounts of repetitive high temperature work. Even if this is likely to be the case make the tool big with a wide edge and you will reduce the effect.

I have a piece of angle welded as a V onto a piece of plate. I use it in the drill press when drilling round section but also can put it under pipe and then earth to the plate. One of the most useful little bits of kit in the shop.

m brothers- just my quirky sense of humour. Of course I took no offence.

Our blacksmithing group here owes Jock a huge debt of gratitude for all his excellent advice. He is a mensch as far as I am concerned and I want everybody to know that. As are loads of the guys who use this site more than AF. I use both because being in China I have loads of spare time to look at both.

If you look at some of the sites which are frequented by... well I probably can't use the word- but it rhymes with Sri Lanka... you will see them squabbling amongst themselves like a bunch of chorus girls. I am a blacksmith and I, for one, don't start talking tough over the internet. Both sites are doing a great job and I am hugely grateful to them both for what they do.

So come on! Let's have a moritorium on carping about each other. Go out and get something red hot and hammer it.

There is still my offer of a free anvil for those who agree with me. That is a genuine offer. No BS.

Kevin, that is actually rather important. Bandwidth costs money. If you are putting out a lot of images, it's money. And if you are a popular site, you don't want your images linked from here to China. Everytime that image is loaded it's more money. It is sometimes necessary to stop hot linking. Bandwidth now a days isn't free, and images aren't small. If you use PNGs for images it will greatly cut down on bandwidth usage. But i do agree that instead of an image, it was a rant is a bit over the top. Just let is say error rather then go on about it.

There is a 150 pound one. It is cast. 1" hardy hole. No prirchel but one could be drilled easily enough. It is less that a year old.

I am in China. Would Mono Sodium Glutomate work in place of salt? That is what everybody here uses in food.

Re the use of sawdust am I getting this right? The idea is that the sawdust actually burns and thereby leaves small empty pockets or pockets containing charcoal which due to it's lack of mass increases the thermal insulation properties of the monolith. Please let me know if I am wrong! I am looking for a good insulator for round my cupola.

Jnr, Are we back to the bigger the better (within obvious limits)? I suppose if a motor is not working hard it will work better. (I know I do).

Not sure if they can follow a drawing but I could find out easily enough! I will let the site know. Nothing will happen now for a few weeks though as Chinese new year is upon us so the whole place just closes. Maybe I should wait until my wife is out here. She can translate but that puts her in a position of too much power.

What do you have in your workshop? That makes a lot of difference to what sort of floor you need.

I believe in working out what is needed and then adding quite a bit more on top. Nobody I ever knew was sorry for putting down a cement floor 2" thicker than needed but plenty were sorry for going too thin and having to rip it all up again!

Why not try just working a little in there and seeing what you need and where you want things?

As some of you know I have the shop in China and am building one at my house in Bulgaria. If I can make a swage block or two that I like here I will get them copied in something lightweight like resin and take the resin blocks to Bulgaria and get them cast there as well.

I am making it in cement because for the mark 1 it is easy to get some offcuts of pipe, angle etc. and cast the cement round them. My woodworking skills are best described as rudimentary!

I am trying to make a swage block. If I make a pattern in cement I can then get it cast. Does anybody have designs or photos of a good swage block please so I can copy them?