philip in china

The join between face and base is exactly where it has been cut off! You might want to leave a small step and a "cutting shelf" at the end of your plate. I use my step all the time.

Enough has been said on glasses but I will just add my bit! My eyesight isn't good so I wear gas permeable contact lenses almost all the time. When in the shop I rest my eyes from these and wear prescription bifocal safety glasses. My current pair is, I think, about 4 years old. They are covered with marks where various particles have hit the glass and welded to it. That would ALL have been on my eyelids or worse in my eyes! I also always wear steel toe capped boots. I ensure all my students do the same. The tools are heavy, the materials we use are heavy and so is the fuel if you are burning coal I rarely use gloves- really only when arc welding or grinding. Some guys don't use them with a bench grinder as they could get "dragged into" the wheel. I suppose that that is true but I still use them as a wheel or a wire brush can cause such nasty injuries to the hands. One important safety item is to take your brain with you into the shop and keep it switched on at all times. I also stop working when I make a second silly mistake. Tiredness causes lots of accidents and is often indicated by trivial mistakes. BTW leaf springs don't explode. If you clamp a piece and try to straighten it by hitting it cold then expect the hammer to arc round and hit you on the head. There was a lot about it on a different site where a guy, who claimed to be the greatest sword maker on the planet, was doing more or less that. He was making what sounded like over sized machetes out of springs. It is a good source of good steel. I use it a lot.

If you go to "Show me your anvil" thread and to my posting on 1 April there should be a link to a photo of my travelling anvil which is a baby sized Rhino. It is on an angle iron stand and has one of my RR hardies mounted. I had 3 Rhinos at a time when I had a total of 5 good quality anvils in the shop. I gave away the mid sized one as I had 3 anvils all virtually the same size. That one was an excellent anvil. I kept the big one and the little one. Now I find I use those 2 Rhinos to the exclusion of my other ones. The very big one (abot 340 pounds) is great for almost everything. I also use the small one for any intricate jobs. Also being on a lower stand my smaller students tend to use the baby one. They are hard and the machining is true- certainly a lot straighter than any of my work requires! They are hard and very resistant to dings which is needed given that students are using them. I think that that may be due to them being made from alloy steel. I think the nickel, manganese or chromium or something makes them resistant to chipping. Anyway mine are still unchipped despite a couple of years of abuse! The wide face is good and I particularly like the tapered heel. It is a sort of a compromise between a London pattern and a double bick. There is a step which I use quite a lot. Many more experienced smiths possibly don't need the step but I find it very useful. There are plenty of new anvils on the market. I advise you to look around before buying. The main thing to do is to have a go with any specimens you can find. Also when people are telling you how good or bad a product is just ask how many of them they have actually used!

Provided the anvil is bigger than the face of your hammer what more do you need? -Actually quite a lot for some functions but just hammering on steel you don't need a big area. The more steel under the hammer the better so I would put it on end.

For small orders of tools steels try www.incandescent-iron.com

Wrong again. The link does work. Somebody on chat was talking about travelling anvils. One link is to a photo of my travelling anvil. It also has my railroad hardie in the hardie hole. I was going to cut the hardie down so the work being cut wasn't so high- but it works as it is and it will be a very long time before that is worn and sharpened away to nothing! It cuts very well. BTW the travelling anvil is the baby sized Rhino Anvil and works well. Obviously a 120 pound anvil is missing mass but what it does it does well and it is as hard as a mother in law's heart It gets wickedly abused by students here but shows scarcely a mark!

I think I just failed to attach a picture. photos.zip

We do cheap, good and fast. Choose which 2 you want. "Yes we can"! (I just forget who said that one)! If I can't fix it with a hammer and an anvil, you've got an electrical problem. Teachers- men amongst boys and boys amongst men. A friend in need is a ******* nuisance. The longer the barrel, the closer the bird. Never, never let your gun pointed be at anyone. All the phasant ever bred, won't atone for 1 man dead.

Possibly more accurate to say most old anvils were not cast. I don't know the figures but would think that virtually all new anvils now are cast. Casting technology has come on so much in recent years that the difference between castings and forgings seems to be little enough- see the separate thread on cast and forged Hofi hammers.

That side shelf and the sheer size remind me a bit of an aircraft carrier.

Interesting. That statue of the smith also appears in Dujiangyan where I used to live. They are probably mass produced. It makes my back ache just to look at him. There are some very good anvils produced in China. You just have to know where to find them.

Years ago I was joining some forum. It wasn't possible to use my own name as it would not allow that. So I signed in as @Philip in China@ on the grounds that: 1. My name is Philip 2. I live in China. So now on every site I join I log in under the same name.

An acquaintance of mine, with whom I work, will soon be returning to Las Vegas. He wants to build a dome home and will need some parts forging.

Just look at my avatar. It is obviously mine having that design on it.

Anybody anywhere near Las Vegas?

What would be your choice, to broaden things a bit, if somebody else were to pay? I genuinely don't know the answer to that one! Any new anvil from anywhere in the world.......

Regarding oil soaking into the floor it is an excellent preservative but it takes a long time for enough to get on and into the blocks. It is also, of course, very slippery. If laying timbers below the actual floor surface one very good thing to use as a treatment is old used sump oil. It is free so can be used in large quantities. Just get your timbers and stand them in the oil with the grain running up and it will soak right through over time. Also brush it on the edges to increase penetration. Remember rot needs water. Water and oild don't mix. So oiled wood is dry wood.

You don't say where you are. In UK I would buy a Brooks. They are first class and discounts are usually available from the colossal prices on their list. Even if that isn't an option certainly look at www.anvils.co.uk for ideas from their catalogue. On continental Europe you would have lots to choose from. One good choice would be a Hofi. There is a separate thread on those. Any of the german ones would be good or even a Euroanvil For new, in the states, you have plenty of choice. I think I would get one of the slightly used, effectively new, Rhinos. See www.incandescent-iron.com for details. I think Rhino do a discount for ABANA members but whether that would apply to used anvils I don't know. Of course you could go to the event and wait until the end and make him an offer! In a choice between loading a 300+ pound anvil back onto a truck or offering a further discount I know what I would do if I were the seller.

I had a very heavy chain, in a rubber cover, which I wasn't using. So wrapped it around my 280lb Brooks. It just fitted. It has killed the ring dead in its tracks.

I have never bothered as my shop is so noisy I always wear ear defenders. I have always wondered how does a magnet deaden ringing? Does it have to be a big, strong magnet?

For $75 why are you even asking? Grab it before somebody else does.

I see you refer to a "shop" anvil. To me that means you do not mean a portable or travelling anvil. One real expert on here is Uri Hofi. He produces the Hofi anvil and, I believe, makes only 1 size- that is 125Kg- about 275 pounds. Do you think there might be a reason why he chose that size? It also happens to be the size of my Brooks which I love dearly. Enough inertia so you aren't wasting effort moving the anvil with every hammer blow. Yet small enough so you can move it conveniently single handed. Big enough to handle almost any job unless you want to work on anchors or other huge projects. Remember you can do small work on a big anvil but not the other way round!

Being able to make stuff that was needed immediately in the 2008 earthquake was great. Tent pegs to go into concrete, crowbars to lift debris and keys to switch on fire hydrants so people could get water. A less important but very satisfying job here is being able to fix tools, barrows etc. for people who could never afford to have them fixed properly. Also redressing and regrinding tools.

I once had to do a reduced size model of something. So I measured it in inches and produced to the same dimensions but using centimetres. It works well as a method.

They are also cheap to buy. Time has a value. I actually buy American made rivets and import them to China! Here the locals have a lot of grille doors that fold away. These are held together by large numbers of rivets, So when I see one being scrapped I am on it like a vulture!